In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education published “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform,” which documented widespread academic underachievement at every level, concluding:
“For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents.”
In 1996, education researchers Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley published a paper reviewing decades of evidence showing the achievement of students with high intellectual potential had markedly declined, building upon “A Nation at Risk” by arguing:
“Our nation’s brightest youngsters, those most likely to be headed for selective colleges, have suffered dramatic setbacks over the past two decades. This has grave implications for our country’s ability to compete economically with other industrialized nations.”
One of their key points was that the federal education K-12 budget allocated a mere 0.0002 percent for “gifted and talented education,” programs targeted at helping the most academically advanced students develop their talents.
Fast forward another two decades. In a paper just published in the journal Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, we document that this rate has not changed at all. In the 2015 federal education budget of $49.8 billion, gifted and talented education accounted for 0.0002 percent. In other words, for every $500,000 spent, only a single dollar was allocated for gifted education.
This consistent lack of investment in gifted kids for decades has created a deep divide between the educational, occupational, and leadership attainment of low-income and high-income students.
As researchers of gifted education, we believe this has significant implications not only for the well-being of these disadvantaged students, but also for societal innovation and even America’s GDP.
The Critical K-12 Years
A 2007 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation research study shows talented low-income students as a whole are not achieving their full potential.
Despite initially being academically talented, these students fall out of the high-achieving group during their K-12 school years. They rarely rise into the ranks of the highest achievers. Very few ever graduate from college or go on to graduate school.
