Equity paradox: Minority, low income students suffer most from cuts to Massachusetts gifted programs

Widespread concerns over equity in education have helped fuel a decline in opportunities for gifted minds across Massachusetts, advocates argue, leaving child prodigies and their parents frustrated and forced to turn to costly alternatives to satisfy their child's needs.  

In one instance, a public school program for high-performing fourth, fifth and sixth graders known as the Advanced Work Class was suspended in Boston during the pandemic, with Superintendent Brenda Cassellius citing "equity" concerns.

She told Boston's GBH News at the time, "There's a lot of work we have to do in the district to be antiracist and have policies where all of our students have a fair shot at an equitable and excellent education."

Even more recently, in Brookline, Massachusetts, a local high school weighed nixing advanced English courses in the name of equity, citing arguments that students of color were put at a disadvantage. Though the school ultimately decided against it, that same district previously eliminated its advanced social studies courses for ninth-graders, according to The Boston Globe.