Eric Chyn Can Gifted Education Help Higher-Ability Boys from Disadvantaged Backgrounds? Boys are less likely than girls to enter college, a gap that is often attributed to a lack of non-cognitive skills such as motivation and self-discipline. We study how being classified as gifted – determined by having an IQ score of 116 or higher – affects college entry rates of disadvantaged children in a large urban school district. For boys with IQ’s around the cutoff, gifted identification raises the college entry rate by 25-30 percentage points – enough to catch up with girls in the same IQ range. In contrast, we find small effects for girls. Looking at course-taking and grade outcomes in middle and high school, we find large effects of gifted status for boys that close most of the gaps with girls, but no detectable effects on standardized tests scores of either gender. Overall, we interpret the evidence as demonstrating that gifted services raise the non-cognitive skills of boys conditional on their cognitive skills, leading to gains in educational attainment.

UNION DAYS 2025 Please join us for a Union Days 2025 event at 4:30 p.m. in 281 Ives Hall for a fireside chat featuring: Matt Bruenig, president, People’s Policy Project To see all Union Days events, click here.