There are over one million high-potential Pre-K to 12 children who qualify for free or reduced lunch.
High achievers living in poverty are twice as likely as their affluent peers to drop out or not graduate on time (8% vs. 4%).
Gifted children with an unequal start: 28% of first graders in the top quartile live in low SES homes, while 72% live in high SES homes.
1st graders not in the top quartile from middle SES homes are twice as likely as low SES students to rise to the top quartile by 5th grade.
By fifth grade only 56% of low SES students maintain their high achieving status in reading compared to 69% of their more affluent peers.
In high school, 25% of low SES high-achievers fall out of the top academic quartile in math compared to 16% of high SES high-achievers.
Nationwide, 8.1% of white and 12.7% of Asian American children in public schools are considered gifted, compared with 4.5% of Hispanic and 3.5% of Black students, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent federal data.
U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights estimates that 6% of public school students are labeled gifted.
