Bait and Ditch: Gifted & Talented Failure Mode #1

Why schools "identify" gifted kids, then do nothing.

Welcome to Gifted & Talented Failure Modes, a series on what can – and does – go wrong on the path towards appropriate school-based education for high-capability learners.

Today, allow me to introduce a simple but infuriating gifted & talented failure mode: the “bait and ditch.”

Bait and ditch occurs when a family is notified their student has qualified for the gifted & talented program 🎉, but then nothing happens - for weeks, months, or even years.

This bait & ditch leaves parents (and possibly students) confused or angry. Initially, the school seemed proactive and caring. What changed? Was there a misunderstanding?

Why Identification Without Accommodation Happens

You might think there’s no point in “identifying” gifted students if you won’t do anything special for them, but that’s your outsider perspective speaking.

From the perspective of the school system or individual school, identification without providing accommodations may make total sense. And the GT “bait and ditch” is a predictable outcome of the incentives baked into some education systems overall.

Here in Texas, for instance, the “State Plan” for gifted education mandates continuous identification of potential GT students beginning in kindergarten. The State Plan also ties per capita supplemental funding to the number students who are identified as GT.

This creates a strong incentive for schools to identify students, especially when it can be done through an open-and-shut manner like a standardized screening test. The costs of identifying students outweigh the benefits for the school. The school can proclaim they have x% of gifted kids and gifted certified teachers.

The Weak Link in the GT Chain

However, Texas also allows for gifted and talented education to be provided in the general education classroom, through “differentiation” instead of “pull-out”/GT segregated grouping. Allowing differentiation in the gen ed classroom is the weakest, most opaque link in the gifted services chain - a de facto GT loophole.

It’s relatively easy for the system’s administrators to tell if gifted identification has happened, and to dole out the funding accordingly. They can also tell whether teachers have received any applicable gifted professional development.

But it’s hard or impossible for the system to tell if that “differentiation” is happening day-to-day in classrooms. Well-meaning teachers themselves may not even have a great grasp on how much meaningful “differentiation” they really do.

No one wakes up in the morning just wanting to confuse gifted kids and their families for fun, but it will reliably happen under such circumstances. Wherever you see bait and ditch happening, you can infer that the policies and incentives are simply unbalanced.

What Should a Parent Do?

If you’ve been GT baited and ditched, start by looking up your state’s gifted and talented education policies - these vary widely. Unfortunately, it’s possible that your student has not been denied services that are strictly owed to her.

On the other hand, where gifted services are required, you may get some traction in making a tactful observation (i.e. complaint) about the bait and ditch. Even if the school is not providing full and ideal gifted services, sympathetic individual teachers may make concessions like allowing your student to quietly read ahead or do harder math alone while the rest of the class works on other things.