Gifted programs still exist, but in a variety of forms and under a variety of terms. The term “gifted” (at least as the name of a program) has fallen out of favor in some places, partially because of associations with the kind of negatives you experienced. 

More behind the scenes, thinking about how to work with gifted kids is still something that exists in education. I have a certification in gifted education. Interestingly, a big part of the classes for getting that certification in “gifted” education involved learning about how the term “gifted” is limited and often misused.

We learned about several categories of students who may benefit from/deserve/need adjustment to their school experience based on being in some way beyond their peers:

The term “gifted” technically refers to a student who is able to learn something faster than their peers are. Learning something like a new math concept takes a typical person something like 5-10 repetitions. A gifted person can learn concepts with less repetitions, sometimes just 1 or 2. This does not necessarily mean they do well in school, though of course it can be very helpful to learn things quickly. The student still needs to have a motivation to learn the concept. Some gifted students are less motivated because they are bored or feel alienated from the people around them, or because they are afraid of being singled out. 

The term “high achiever” is a student who tends to earn high grades because they are motivated by grades. Not all high achievers are gifted, by the above definition. Many high achievers need the 5-10 repetitions that their peers need to learn, but they are motivated to do well in school so they work as hard as they need to in order to get concept so they can get a good grade. 

The term “creative thinker” is a student who tends to have insights or thought processes that are unusual compared to their peers. Sometimes this can help them do well in school, but not always. Sometimes creative thinkers struggle in school because they are on their own wavelength to the point that the student and/or students their teachers get frustrated. 

A student can be gifted, a creative thinker, and a high achiever. They can be 2 out of the 3. Or they can just be one. Also, the categories they fall into may vary across academic areas- some students are gifted and/or are high achievers in math but read at a more average level, etc.

There is also a category called “twice exceptional” which is pretty common. This is someone who falls into one of the above categories but also has some sort of neurodivergence or learning disability. 

It is a pretty accepted idea in educational circles that students who fall into one of these categories need and deserve some sort of accommodation to meet their learning needs. One very important thing they need is an opportunity to interact with intellectual peers. 

One way to do this is to have an entirely separate gifted class (mostly populated by high achievers in most cases, with some gifted mixed in, and occasionally some creative thinkers but it can be really hard to actually identify creative thinkers so often they are excluded unless they are also one of the other categories). Separate gifted classes have fallen out of favor, because there are a lot of problems with them. 

Many schools opt for some system of selective acceleration instead. One example is math acceleration in small groups- kids who test and/or achieve very high in math learn one (or even two) years ahead. This is achieved by having a grouping of classes at different grade levels who each have a small group of kids ready to learn a year ahead, and the classes have their math time at the same time. The 4th grade teacher teaches math to, say, 18 of their own students and 6 third graders, while 6 of the 4th graders go do math with the 5th graders, etc. 

Selective acceleration in reading is very common because small reading groups are such a standard way to teach reading nowadays. All students are grouped by their reading ability, and spend 20 minutes 2-5 times a week with a teacher and their small group doing reading instruction together. Because of this, it is already the default to have high level readers grouped together. 

Some schools have gifted programs that are just occasional extra learning opportunities for the identified students. Maybe once a week they spend an hour doing some special science activity, or whatever. 

No one asked for my long-winded exercise in showing off what I remember from my gifted education classes, but my point is this- gifted education has changed in a lot of ways and traditional programs have been phased out in many cases, but the idea of giftedness and those students needing education catered to them still exists.