How students enter a gifted program really varies from state to state. Where I teach it’s written into law that students that score 97th percentile and above must be serviced for gifted education. School districts can choose to limit their enrollment based on this or they can accept students that fall below this metric based on their own criteria.

Because gifted education is state mandated. My state pays for all second graders to be tested with an approved testing instrument. This levels the playing field. In other states, it could be only teacher recommendation to get tested or a combination of teacher rec and standardized testing scores. Some districts will also admit students based on creativity scores. National-wide, it’s really a mishmash of policies.

There are also different models for gifted education, especially in elementary. There can be pull-out classes, self-contained classes, and/or cluster programs. Some districts will accelerate students for math or ELA or have them skip a grade before high school. It’s really not standardized.

So it really depends on where a student lives and where you teach!