I'm curious how American schools determine if a student is "gifted." Since moving here, plus reading on reddit, there seems to be a lot of people who consider themselves gifted, but I wonder how high that bar actually is.
In my 30+ years, I’ve met maybe three people I’d consider truly "gifted". Even when I studied at a top five university globally, I just considered most people there "smart".
50 comments
“Gifted and talented”, usually shortened to GT, was the official name for the honors like program in my elementary and secondary schools. It seems to be a fairly common name in schools.
I don’t know, but it’s a bit odd that you seem to think schools should hew to your own highly subjective standard of what constitutes “gifted.” The real purpose is just to provide more advanced education to students who can do the work.
>In my 30+ years, I’ve met maybe three people I’d consider truly “gifted”. Even when I studied at a top five university globally, I just considered most people there “smart”.
You usually see it at a young age, if a student is performing far higher than their peers, they may get placed into a gifted-program.
As for Reddit, most people tend to think far too highly of themselves, myself probably included.
Edit: you could also see the “Gifted-Program” as pretty similar to students in Germany on the Arbitur-Track. It’s meant for the students who are best of the class, typically most, if not all, of their classes are AP, which is pretty similar to what Arbitur students deal with.
Edit 2: Another common thing among students who are genuinely intelligent, they tend to go either go to the very best public schools or end up going to prestigious boarding schools like Phillips Exeter or Deerfield, it’s probably the most ingrained thing we got from the UK where there is an expectation where much of the best and brightest tend to come from private schools.
The gifted and talented program in my elementary school was basically that every friday about 20 of the kids (including me) would go to a new classroom and start learning advanced math and sciences stuff (like grade 6-8). Not sure how big the school was, maybe 300 kids? And like 20 kids in my grade level qualified? This started in 3rd grade and went on through 5th grade
Was I gifted or just undiagnosed neurodivergent? IDK. I’m 46 and don’t care at this point and don’t really tell people what classes I took in school 30-40 years ago
Do they need harder classes to be challenged? Then they are in a category that needs attention and a name. “Gifted” is a common name for that.
Depends on whether you are talking about a middle schooler or a PhD candidate.
This is determined by your state or possibly local school district.
If you got 2+2, you definitely qualify…
It hleps if your god at math n stuff like smart poepel ofen our. If you tlak and right good u might be gided to.
There isn’t a universal test or anything for this.
School policy and initiatives are largely set at the local level. What one district provides to students with advanced abilities in academics varies from the neighboring district. What parents are willing and able to do also holds great influence.
I know doctors, scientists, attorneys, researchers, heads of business, etc. I don’t know if I would call any of them “gifted”. That term makes me think of like some child prodigy who masters the violin by age 6.
In my area, all students are tested in second grade for placement in the gifted program (but could possibly be moved into the program later if they qualify). These are the qualifications as stated on the school districts’ site
>Identification in academic areas will be made using multiple criteria. Students may qualify automatically with an extremely high aptitude or IQ score at 96th percentile or higher for their age group. If students do not qualify solely on aptitude, this process will be used for screening:
>Students who meet the criteria in two of the three dimensions are eligible for placement. All students currently in the program will continue to be served.
> In Dimension A – Reasoning Abilities Students must demonstrate high aptitude (93rd national age percentile or above) in one or more of these areas: verbal, nonverbal, quantitative and/or a composite of the three. Aptitude scores are available for use for 5 years.
> In Dimension B – Academic Achievement Students must demonstrate high achievement (94th national percentile and above or advanced status) in reading and/or math as measured by a nationally normed or South Carolina statewide assessment instruments. Achievement scores are available for use for 2 years.
> In Dimension C – Intellectual/Academic Performance Students must demonstrate a high degree of interest in and commitment to academic and/or intellectual pursuits, or demonstrate intellectual characteristics such as curiosity/inquiry, reflection, persistence/tenacity in the face of challenge and creative, productive thinking. Rising third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students may be eligible to take the Performance Task Test in March if they have already met the criteria in Dimension A or Dimension B. Beginning at the end of grade 5, students can meet the criteria in Dimension C with a 3.75 GPA on a 4.0 scale. This means that a student will make at least three A’s and one B in the four core content courses: ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
>Students must meet the criteria in two of these three dimensions to participate in the Gifted and Talented Program.
>Results of private testing will not be accepted for placing students in the Challenge program.
The whole gifted program in schools is super ineffective from what I’ve heard and it didn’t really include actual gifted students. But a gifted student in the most simplest terms is an over excelling student, usually in primary school. They’ll take these students and put them in a special class for accelerated learning a couple hours a day but from what I’ve heard from “gifted” students, they just played board games the whole time.
It is important to note: I am super petty towards the program for not getting in myself even though I was always the smartest in my class, but that isnt the worst way that the united states public education system screwed me over.
I would guess it’s easy to narrow down which kids have their shit together. From there I bet they narrow it down to the best behaved and the ones who have successful parents, and then they sprinkle in some smart black kids.
I don’t know how they do it now, but I was given IQ tests in 6th and 7th grades (1990 & 1991).
There are a large number of “gifted” type programs in the United States, and the criteria for entry will vary with each. There are state programs, district programs, school-specific programs, private programs- there is no single answer to your question.
One criterion that is used by multiple programs (though not all and it is not the only criterion used) is CogAT, the Cognitive Abilities Test: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_Abilities_Test
But as with all attempts to measure “intelligence,” the test’s approach has flaws.
Anyway, we’re all terribly sorry if you feel that you’ve been misled regarding the quality and/or quantity of “gifted” Americans. Will you be seeking a refund of your purchase?
My experience is it differs by school district and not all actually test for officially gifted. it’s just a term used for a certain percentage of their students. Ours eventually changed to accelerated and they made it so each grade had at least 15 kids in that specialized classroom. It basically just went at a faster rate and more in-depth. Last i checked another area school district still used the term gifted for their similar class.
At least in Pennsylvania public schools, you have to score at least 2 standard deviations above the average kid in an IQ test to be labeled gifted (I believe the cutoff was 130 IQ?).
In the same breath, I believe the criteria for an intellectual disability is at least 2 standard deviations below average IQ (70 IQ I think is the cutoff).
Its a dumb classification system, but I don’t know a better alternative
I was placed in the gifted and talented program in fifth grade. There was a test to get in. I remember vividly one of the questions was: “I have 56 cents, I what’s the least amount of coins I have” and supposedly the correct answer was 4. (Two quarters, a nickel and a penny.) But I argued that it was three. (A fifty cent piece, a nickel and a penny)… It wasn’t long after that that I was admitted.
I did it with nothing but ADD and crippling anxiety.
In my normal outer-suburban nearly-rural grade school, there were 3 kids in my grade that were in the “gifted program”. I’m not sure of the exact number of students in my class, but I’d assume it to be around 80-100 kids.
Idk, I was in gifted programs and ap classes in school and I feel like I’m nothing special. Honestly I could rant for a long time, but I really think anybody who’s even slightly above average gets stunted by the American school system because the “average” is ridiculously slow. We waste insane amounts of time repeating the most basic topics for the handful of kids who just don’t get it for some reason while half the class is bored out of their mind because it’s so easy and it kills their interest. It’s a shame.
The type of people who are extraordinarily capable at a young age, who you might meet three of over 30 years, they get identified early on and often times get pulled out of normal/public schools completely and end up in separate programs or take college classes very early.
Maybe I’m just biased and arrogant but I feel like for everyone else, including myself, who was in regular “gifted” programs through the public schools and not skipping grades, it’s just kind of like…. Woo-hoo, the lights are on up there. But it’s not that special. It shouldn’t be part of your personality 20 years later.
Exceptional ability in one particular area. Often more about performance.
What top five university?
In our district, testing for the gifted program is voluntary. If your IQ score is in the top 1% of the student population, you are transferred to a completely different educational program at a special campus. If your IQ score is in the top 5% of the student population, you’re eligible to be pulled out of class one day per week to participate in a part-time gifted program.
I teach in public schools. You don’t have to be gifted, just test in the higher percentiles, to qualify for the gifted program in my district.
I have taught one truly gifted child, back when I taught preschool.. He was reading chapter books at age 2.
> In my 30+ years, I’ve met maybe three people I’d consider truly “gifted”. Even when I studied at a top five university globally, I just considered most people there “smart”.
So did you, like, go around asking everyone at your university their IQ?
I dunno but I was a soc major. There was a case study we analyzed where teachers were given an aptitude test for their students at the beginning of the year, predicting the kids who’d have the best grades by the end of the year.
The study was on teachers, not the students. The scores for the test were assigned arbitrarily and at random to the students (because fuck them kids).
At the end of the year, the students with the highest scores of the meaningless test had the best grades. Why?
Because the teacher, believing the student had more potential, was more receptive to their questions, more patient with their answers, and overall friendlier to the student, inviting a more nurturing learning space wherein the student felt encouraged to succeed.
For the other kids, less patience, less friendliness (by degree, most teachers aren’t dicks, but we all have stories).
It was an implicit bias, that anyone is capable of. When you like someone, or see the (fabricated) good in them, you help them more than someone you may not have otherwise noticed.
I was in the gifted program in school. I don’t know the details of the criteria, but the regular academic work was really easy for me in elementary school (I’d picked up reading and basic math before I even started preschool, while my older sister was learning them, and then instantly became a voracious reader, and I loved figuring things out). I needed more advanced material, but definitely wasn’t physically or socially ready for a higher grade. I remember I was sent to the school psychologist for multiple sessions. He asked me a lot of questions and had me do different kinds of puzzles and stuff. Then after that I got to go the gifted and talented class every week and get some different projects and assignments, and I got more advanced spelling lists.
As an adult I am not particularly advanced or extraordinary; my learning started to plateau around mid-college. Anyway, there are many different kinds of intelligence, not all of which are reflected well in school performance. I don’t think you need to be one of those truly extraordinary people to be considered gifted as far as school programs go, though, just far enough ahead and an adept enough learner that staying on the standard schedule with kids your age is holding you back.
In Georgia the criteria for gifted classes include two ways:
1. Both of the following: 96% or higher IQ score (or on a subtest of the IQ test) + 90% or higher on a standardized test in either reading, math, or both.
Or
2. Combination of 3 of any of the following: a) 96% or higher IQ score (as above) or b) 90% or higher standardized academic test score in reading/math. Or c) exemplary motivation (usually indicated by classroom grades) Or d) high creativity score on standardized creativity test
Hope this helps.
I am in my 40s, so I don’t know how it is now. But in elementary school they gave us what amounted to an IQ test and I was placed in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Educated) program after that, which was not “honors” nor
“advanced placement” classes. They took us out of class one afternoon a week and gave us very open ended projects where we did more self-teaching and exploratory learning. I don’t know what the threshold was to be placed in it. There was a strong correlation between the smart kids who performed well academically and the group I was in, but there were a few surprises too. The kids who got good grades but weren’t placed in it were more the conscientious over-achievers, smart but sorta lacking originality.
My HS was a different school district and didn’t have that program. They did have “advanced placement” classes which anyone could sign up for and they were supposed to be college preparatory level and awarded you extra points so you could theoretically get higher than a 4.0. In middle school we had honors classes, which were harder than the regular ones and you’d get put into one based on performance.
For the record, I am a pretty average person and feel the bar is low for primary education here. Of course we have great higher education.
Idk what counts as gifted. I was in advanced courses all 4 years of high school and even got college credits before graduation. There was also a 12 year old in my senior year physics class who graduated the next year and became a doctor weeks after he could legally drink. This was public school.
Where I grew up we called the gifted program APP and I was admitted into it from second grade. You really did not have to be gifted at all to get into it, especially if you were admitted at a young age. It was basically a vocabulary test. The kids were smart, sure, but gifted would definitely be a stretch
I think the way it worked in my district (late 80s) was that the Kindergarten teachers would refer a student to the office if they felt that the student qualified as gifted. I vaguely remember getting pulled out of class one day to go to the office and answer (orally) all these weird questions (can’t remember specifically what the questions were). I apparently qualified, but my parents didn’t want to put me into the program for some reason. Even then, I was close friends with a lot of kids who ended up in the gifted program, even though we weren’t in the same class. (The way it worked in my elementary school was that there was a dedicated gifted teacher for each grade, and the students in the gifted program moved together from teacher to teacher at each grade level, so they were always in the same class together every year.)
My district ended up effectively blowing up the gifted program when I was in 5th grade, when they built two new elementary schools due to overcrowding, and reassigned many students from my school (including me) to the new schools. They only offered the gifted program at the original school, and said that any student who was reassigned to one of the new schools would have to provide their own transportation to the original school if they wanted to stay in the program, so a lot of the parents opted out.
Entirely depends on the state, the school district and the nature of the program. In my state if you scored two standard deviations or higher above average on an IQ test (so IQ of 130+) the law required you have an IEP (individualized education plan). In my district that put you into the gifted program. When I started, only kids with an IEP were in the program. In first grade there were just two of us. By third grade there were five. I guess the district decided it was a waste of money to run the program for so few kids so they started rotating in and out other kids who were recommended by teachers as above-average but didn’t qualify for an IEP. In middle school the program was two subjects that were taught at one step above honors level and some non-IEP kids could get into them permanently. I’m not sure what the criteria was. IEP kids did not have a choice and couldn’t just opt out. In high school it dropped down to one subject.
You have to perform better than your peers to such a degree that you need to be in more advanced courses (either more in depth, or a higher grade level than your age would dictate). It is what you would call “smart”, not the once in a generation intelligence you seem to want to ascribe to the term gifted.
Being marked gifted in school is not a sign of intelligence, it’s purely how well you are at taking notes and tests. I grew up before ADHD was a more widely accepted diagnosis, and mainly meant you were just “hyper”. I was in the Gifted and Talented program until I was in the 8th grade (13-14 years old). The only reason I was moved out was because my needs were no longer being met. I was going through a really bad depression because I had watched about 5 members of my family die in about the expanse of a year, and my teachers just didn’t care about me that much. I also was starting to show what I now know as typical signs of ADHD. Class work was fine, but anything I was expected to do at home mostly didn’t get done (even reading assignments, and I’ve always loved to read), I was extremely disorganized, and if I lost interest in an assignment I stopped caring. This caused me to shut down and not care about school. I almost didn’t graduate high school. I went to community college and did terribly. After being diagnosed a few years ago (still not medicated because American healthcare is dumb and expensive), I’ve taken steps to help myself function a little better. My work offers full tuition reimbursement and since I took them up on it I’ve been on the President’s list since I started. I graduate in December 2026 with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science. Again, gifted is not necessarily a sign of intelligence. I’ve always had issues with trying to quantify the intelligence of a student into a scale as a result of a traditional test.
As for your actual question, that varies *widely* by school/location.
But you seem like you have a very stunted view of what constitutes being “smart.” That combined with your seeming confidence that you’re even in a position to accurately judge who is/isn’t smart based on (I’m assuming) normal conversations and social interactions makes me think you’re grossly misjudging other people and/or yourself.
In my rural KY school, I’d say slightly above average. We had at least two different gifted programs though. STEM and EGAT. EGAT was for the artistically inclined kids. There may have been a third related to leadership skills but I don’t remember.
I think pretty much everyone I associated with was in at least one of the two. The people not in any of the programs were pretty much the bottom rung of the school. The troublemakers/bullies. Or kids that may have had bad home lives and were just permanently checked out. Poor kids. Not something you realize is really a thing until you get a little older.
It’s less “how high the bar is” and more “how well can you take this test” and also “are you well behaved”. I qualified for GT (gifted and talented) but thanks to untreated ADHD and Autism causing behavioral issues never made it in. Meanwhile a kid I nannied scored low on the creativity portion despite the fact I had seen her vivid and imaginative worlds, characters, and stories she would both write and draw. There are plenty of kids who would be considered gifted but for one reason or another don’t do the program, and to be quite honest after I’ve seen the downsides of “tracking” (splitting students up based on rough ability, like Gen ed and gifted tracks) I’m glad neither I nor the kid I nannied got in.
In states like Oklahoma, you just need to be able to spell your name.
In Massachusetts only: wicked smart.
It’s just the top 20% of students. So if you are in the upper percentile, you go in the gifted program. You don’t even need to be particularly smart. Just motivated to learn.
OP, you’re overly fixated on the term being used and what it means to you. That’s not what it means in this context. A “gifted student” in the US school system is one who would benefit from more challenging courses than the average student.
It’s like someone coming on here and insisting that we’re wrong for calling them “chips” instead of “crisps”. That’s not how the word is used in this context.
I dunno man.
Apparently, in the 4th grade, my teacher was like, “SluttyPidge is so bored and unmotivated in classes. They’re too easy for her. Why haven’t you had her tested for the Gifted program?”
I don’t really remember the test, but I remember thinking it was kind of silly.
The next thing I knew, I was in PEAK (the name for our program), and I pretty much did everything but actually skip a grade.
I dropped out of PEAK in high school because I didn’t want to give up any of my other activities (softball, band, FFA.) Taking all the AP (advanced placement) classes I could and was still pretty bored except for the AP English course.
Finally, in university, I hit a level of “Hey, I actually gotta work some to keep up.”
I also got my ADHD diagnosis in university.
Gifted is vague, and limited.
My kid excels in math. He tests in the 99th percentile in his grade across the state.
The specific test we use can be directly compared across grade levels and he scores in the 99th percentile compared to kids 3 grades above him across the state.
He’s in an advanced math program and his teacher just told us he’s the brightest kid in the class.
None of it matters. He’s good at math and sucky at other things- including problem solving when the first solution he tries doesn’t work. It’s not a few ticket to easy Street or success.
We’re proud of him for the person he is, not the fact that he happens to have freakishly good number sense.
We all have different skills and abilities and we’re all somewhere on a scale. Your question is flawed because the concept “how smart” has no meaning. There is no good test to describe “smartness” objectively. It’s all comparative
“Gifted” isn’t really defined federally, and each district has its own definition. That’s if they have any at all- gifted education isn’t guaranteed federally
I remember getting IQ tested in third grade. No idea what the cutoff was, but at 128 they let me in. At the time, there were no exceptions made for other ways of getting into the program, although I think it’s different now. Somehow I doubt they still have money for someone with an actual PhD to be testing kids in a soundproof booth anymore.
I know IQ is pretty BS, I feel bad for all the kids who could have benefitted from our TAG program who never got the chance because of test anxiety or whatever.
I got put in the gifted program in my elementary school (not sure what their metrics were) but after that I was put in honors classes at my middle school which were the top available, and then AP when in high school.
I don’t think I’m particularly gifted by the 2 standard deviations metric, but the only time the word has come up come up was when I was in elementary school and they put me in the accelerated classes. And that just put me on the path to be in the top available classes going forward 🤷🏻♀️