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Unfortunately what is true, and what is true in a particular classroom/school/district may be two different things. Some parents may be aware of schools in which specific practice programs are being implemented and tested with messaging that it is a foregone conclusion that these programs will succeed.

The performance of children in the practice programs may be compared with that of a control group. The control group may consist of children who were eligible for the practice program but declined to participate. The control group may consist of children identified as gifted, who may then be actively and systematically thwarted and dissuaded from achieving their goals*.

Therefore some schools may report that they've changed their culture to one in which the average student outperforms the gifted student due to practice-practice-practice, as evidenced by higher GPA*, higher rates of induction into national honor society*, and other elements which the school may control*. What may be lacking is corraborating outside evidence such as commensurately high performance on SAT/ACT/AP exams, and similar noteworthy involvement in other outside activities.

* How might children identified as gifted be actively and systematically thwarted from achieving their goals?
Teachers/schools/districts may thwart students identified as gifted by impacting GPA, withholding in-school opportunities, and being negative and discouraging during required college-planning sessions with an assigned guidance counselor. These incidents may encourage underachievement, and a fixed mindset.

* How may a school impact GPA?
A school may impact GPA through differentiated task demands which are not transparent or reported; They are secret, making it appear that students had disparate performance on identical tasks, with identical task demands. Specifically, students identified as gifted may receive tremendously more difficult and/or time consuming task demands with more constraints than what is assigned to "average" students in the practice group.

* How may a school impact induction into national honor society?
According to the NHS website, students with qualifying GPA are not automatically admitted; schools may engage in a selection process. Criteria may not be transparent, or may be nebulous.

* What other elements may a school control?
Other elements which a school may control include granting or withholding the nomination of a student for in-school leadership opportunities and scholarships, information placed on the permanent educational record of the student on a shared database, and the writing or withholding of a recommendation letter for a student, as well as the tone of a recommendation letter which may range from whole-hearted endorsement to lukewarm or even grudging acknowledgement of a student's accomplishments.

The roundup of practices described in this post may be an example of closing an achievement gap or excellence gap by capping growth of the students at the top, utilizing policies which lack transparency. Some may view this as a positive means of achieving equal outcomes for all, while others may find this to be a war on gifted. This article about tulips and poppies has been around for over a decade; the situation is prevalent. When gifted students face these or similar no-win circumstances, and changing schools may not be an option, what are some possible strategies to provide an antidote or counter-balance? Some families have found that maintaining a growth mindset, engaging in outside activities, participating in academic courses from colleges or other providers, and substantiating knowledge with SAT/ACT/AP exams may acknowledge developed gifts and talents, and work to minimize the message from a high school or district intent on stating that its average students outperform students identified as gifted.