Attendees will have the opportunity in this session to ask the presenter, a leading expert in the psychology of stigma among students from historically disadvantaged groups that results in racial and gender achievement gaps, about his research examining environmental influences on testing performance and learn how psychological factors can improve achievement and interest in school. This phenomenon, which he and his mentor, Claude Steele, have coined “stereotype threat,” has large implications for the identification of gifted students. Discussion centers on how these principles are relevant to gifted education and the continued quest to make identification practices and gifted programming equitable for individuals from diverse backgrounds.