Barriers in Gifted Education: Working Together to Support Gifted Learners and Families

The mission of the Davidson Institute is to recognize, nurture and support profoundly intelligent young people and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference. 

Supporting profoundly gifted (PG) young people is a multifaceted endeavor. It often requires substantial advocacy to help others—parents, teachers, mentors, etc.—to understand the strengths, challenges, and needs of PG learners. 

However, even once a student’s needs and learning profile are understood, there are often still significant barriers to accessing opportunities to support the student’s intellectual, academic, talent, and social-emotional development. Consistently, these barriers to access are especially notable in the areas of initial identification and expenses tied to program costs.  

While the scope of the Davidson Institute’s work cannot address and break down every barrier to access, we are proud to work with others in the gifted and twice-exceptional communities to help establish more paths of access to both testing and programming.  

Gifted Identification as a Path to Accessing Services 

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a dramatic loss of access to identification services. Talent searches that used to be an option for accessible testing—in terms of cost and location—have closed or significantly changed their offerings. Private testers and clinicians typically have lengthy waitlists and high testing costs, which can make it difficult for families to access testing. 

Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development (CTD) has been working hard to fill the gaps left in the talent search community. Through their remote testing options, more students can access testing, and with those testing results, they can then access gifted services. 

In Fall of 2022, Davidson launched multiple eligibility opportunities in partnership with CTD by offering the Official Practice SAT to students in grades 6-10. Score results from this test allowed students to apply to the Davidson Institute’s Young Scholars Program, Davidson Summer Programs, and Explore, as well as Davidson Academy – Reno, and Davison Academy Online. In Fall of 2022, this partnership resulted in the testing of 83 students.  

Since those initial 83 students, this partnership has grown in order to serve even more students. In Spring of 2023, we began offering testing options for students in grades 3-5. We now offer proctored, practice PSAT 8/9, PreACT, SAT, and ACT testing options.

These testing sessions are Davidson-specific due to the live-proctoring, rigorously monitored online environment CTD has created specifically for this partnership. Testing is administered above-level, in accordance with Davidson Institute testing criteria.

As of Spring 2026, the Davidson Institute’s eligibility assessment opportunities have given test access to over 1,300 students.

Since the cost of remote testing through CTD ($100 as of the publication of this article) is lower than typical IQ testing, families have been able to afford to test multiple children with less expense and thus expand their support network.

IQ testing, on average, can cost anywhere from $800 to $2,000+, depending on the extent of the neuropsychological testing and the location of the tester. 

Because we often receive feedback that families with younger students cannot access testing, we’ve partnered with the Summit Center and a growing handful of other clinicians to locate low-cost testing opportunities for qualified students in grades K-2. The efforts of increasing testing opportunities for younger students are considerably more intensive, but so far, these collective efforts have resulted in the testing and identification of students who otherwise would not have had access to testing. Our Gifted Tester and Therapist List on our public website also helps families to find professionals in their area who may be able to administer the testing they need. 

When a child tests through the Davidson Institute’s eligibility assessment opportunities, the family receives important information about their child’s profile via the score reports and is then better positioned to support their child. They are better able to understand their child’s level of giftedness and support their growth. 

Navigating Program Cost and Access 

Families often come to the Davidson Institute looking for information about schools, programs, and organizations that can help them to support their PG child.  

While there are many programs that cater to gifted and high achieving learners, the costs of those programs are often prohibitive. Given the voracious learning style of many Young Scholars, families have a hard time affording all the programs and opportunities needed to appropriately support their child.  

Aside from interest and talent development, many PG students have other diagnoses that require the support of professionals, such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, mental health therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatric ophthalmologists, speech and language pathologists, executive functioning coaches, etc. These therapeutic interventions are costly.  

Many PG learners also need customizable school environments, which can easily become cost prohibitive. 

To ease some of the financial strain on families and to help them connect with services they need, we have partnered with a few organizations to help Davidson families more easily access the programming and resources they need. 

In addition to CTD, the Summit Center, and the aforementioned clinicians, we have established active, ongoing partnerships with a variety of organizations to provide free, discounted, or exclusive offerings to Young Scholar families. These offerings currently include college counseling services, academic classes, enrichment courses, summer programs, twice-exceptional (2e) supports, as well as parent supports.  

Two such organizations we’ve partnered with are: 

Fusion Global Academy – A school with customizable curriculum options along with online and in-person options; they have provided Davidson families with discounted tuition options.  

Mensa – This collaboration brings together two leading organizations in the gifted education space, combining Mensa’s broad national network with the Davidson Institute’s deep expertise in serving profoundly gifted students. Together, the organizations aim to increase awareness, strengthen resources, and create more opportunities for connection and support. As part of this collaboration, American Mensa will provide dedicated discount code waiving the $49 Prior Evidence Review fee, expedited application processing, and cross-promoted public youth programming opportunities. 

We continue to form and foster relations with other gifted and 2e organizations to support the families in our Young Scholars program. We are grateful to the wide range of organizations that offer discounted and exclusive offerings to Young Scholar families. A full list of our partnerships is available to Young Scholar families via the Davidson Member Community. 

Ongoing Outreach Efforts  

In order to serve more families, we must meet them where they live. To do this, we’ve been cultivating ongoing, working relationships with a variety of organizations to help families recognize their child’s giftedness and then access our programs for support. 

To further broaden awareness of profoundly gifted learners and the work Davidson does to support them, we also continue to engage with national media, newsletters, podcasts, and other public-facing platforms. These conversations help share practical information with parents, educators, and advocates while also connecting more families to resources, research, and programming that can support gifted and twice-exceptional learners.

In April 2023, we published the article “5 Signs Your Kid is ‘Highly Gifted’” with CNBC to raise awareness about the gifted profile. 

In March 2024, we had an article published in the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC) member newsletter Promise, sharing strategies for supporting a gifted child’s emotional regulation and motivation. 

In Spring 2024, we’ve been busy talking with parents and staff at different K-12 schools about how they can better understand and support the profiles and needs of their gifted and 2e learners. 

Other recent media and podcast appearances include a 2025 article in The Hill, a 2025 Exceptional Girls podcast appearance, a 2024 Vox article, and a 2023 Teach Your Kids podcast appearance.

We’ve talked with Pioneer Academics extensively about how we can partner to support gifted students. This has included speaking at their program fair the past few years. 

Through different conferences we’ve attended and presented at, we’ve been able to build additional relationships with organizations, helping us to broaden our reach and increase accessibility to gifted learners.  

Our newest public newsletter, Guiding Gifted, has over 8,000 subscribers and is being read across all 50 states and 92 countries. The e-News Update newsletter has 24,000 subscribers.  

Since 2022, we’ve also curated and maintained themed playlists on Spotify and YouTube so parents can more easily keep up with the gifted and 2e content and research that matters most to them. Similarly, we have curated book lists featured in our Bookshop.org storefront. Through these resources, parents, educators, and others supporting gifted and 2e learners are able to more easily keep up with the topics and resources that are most useful or interesting to them. Having regular and easy access to conversations about gifted and 2e learners and services is an important aspect of helping families connect with the programs and services that are right for them and their child. 

By continuing to put ourselves in conversation with others in the gifted community, we’re able to explore options for partnership and accessibility for our families—allowing us to stay true to our mission of recognizing, nurturing and supporting profoundly intelligent young people and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference. 

If you or your organization are interested in partnering with the Davidson Institute to help the families of PG and 2e learners to access testing or programming, please reach out to our Director of Outreach, Megan Cannella, mcannella@davidsongifted.org.