Response to Peters: Promising Practices and a Missing Piece

Abstract

Peters (2021) argues that gifted education has a severe problem regarding the underrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students as well as children from low-income families—and that the field has not achieved measurable success in improving equity. He supports his arguments by highlighting data showing that the focus has been on the wrong solution—namely finding some method of identification that will result in proportional representation. Peters purports that the underidentification of whole groups of students largely reflects disparities that exist in opportunities to learn by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, which result from institutional racism and poverty. We agree with Peters that gifted education specialists are responsible for making today’s gifted education services equitable, accessible, welcoming, and effective for all students, and we offer suggestions on how to enhance the effectiveness of those efforts and avoid pitfalls that derail good ideas.