Student Identification:
Exploring Guiding Principle 2
2. Instruments used for student assessment to determine eligibility for gifted education services must measure diverse abilities, talents, strengths, and needs in order to provide students an opportunity to demonstrate any strengths.
Increased understandings about intelligence have led to broader definitions of giftedness. However, there still exists an over-reliance in the identification process on instruments that measure narrow conceptions of giftedness. Certain populations of children, especially those from racial, cultural, and ethnic minority populations, from low SES environments, and those with disabilities or for whom English is a second language, are often overlooked in the gifted identification process. Issues of bias (racial, ethnic, economic, gender, or age) may limit nominations of potentially gifted students. Issues affecting the technical adequacy of instruments can result in bias against certain populations of gifted students; therefore a full range of procedures and instruments must be considered. Further, assessments of general aptitude provide only limited information for appropriate adaptations of instruction.
Data collection strategies should ensure that instructional planners are provided with information that will guide placement decisions. The data should also provide information for teachers to use in making subsequent instructional decisions. These data should reflect expanded conceptions of intelligence as well as state and district definitions of giftedness.
For more information, read the official NAGC position statement, "Using Tests to Identify Gifted Students."
Standards and Sample Outcomes
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2.0 MINIMUM STANDARD
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2.0 EXEMPLARY STANDARD
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Assessment instruments must measure the capabilities of students with provisions for the language in which the student is most fluent, when available.
- The selection and use of assessment instruments take into consideration the language in which the student is most fluent.
- Assessment instruments and procedures available in a child’s native language are used when available and appropriate. An interpreter is used if the administrator for the assessment is not fluent in the child’s language.
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Assessments should be provided in a language in which the student is most fluent, if available.
- Prior to formal assessment, test administrators assess second-language learners to determine the language in which the child is most fluent and then administer assessments in the appropriate language.
- Alternative assessment or performance-based assessment procedures conducted in the visual and performing arts are conducted in the language in which the student is most fluent or includes provisions for translation.
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2.1 MINIMUM STANDARD
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2.1 EXEMPLARY STANDARD
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Assessments must be culturally fair.
- Assessment instruments were normed on diverse populations from a variety of geographical locations.
- Assessment instruments and strategies conform to professional standards of practice.
- Alternative assessments used for measuring intellectual and academic aptitudes, as well as performances used in the visual and performing arts are consistent with the expression of giftedness indicative of a given culture.
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Assessment should be responsive to students' economic conditions, gender, developmental differences, handicapping conditions, and other factors that mitigate against fair assessment practices.
- Assessment instruments and strategies conform to professional standards of practice.
- The appropriateness of assessment instruments and strategies for different populations of students is evaluated prior to their selection. Strategies and instruments are selected which are not biased for or against any given population of students.
- Assessment procedures are consistent with the developmental nature of talent for any individual gifted learner.
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2.2 MINIMUM STANDARD
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2.2 EXEMPLARY STANDARD
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The purpose(s) of student assessments must be consistently articulated across all grade levels.
- Assessments are conducted to identify targeted student needs and to align those needs with optimal student placement in available services.
- The purpose of assessments conducted at one grade level is consistent with developmental needs and subsequent educational decision making at all other grade levels.
- Policies, written documentation, and informational meetings exist to articulate the purpose of assessment at various grade levels.
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Students identified in all designated areas of giftedness within a school district should be assessed consistently across grade levels.
- A systematic process is in place to ensure consideration for appropriate assessment of students in all grade levels in all designated areas of giftedness.
- Assessment procedures across all grade levels and areas of giftedness meet the same high standards of professional practice.
- Students are re-assessed as appropriate to assure that differentiated services are aligned with the students’ educational and developmental needs.
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2.3 MINIMUM STANDARD
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2.3 EXEMPLARY STANDARD
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Student assessments must be sensitive to the current stage of talent development.
- Assessment instruments are not limited by low ceilings of performance and norms that are not appropriate for the developmental level of the student.
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Student assessments should be sensitive to all stages of talent development.
- Assessment instruments and strategies take into consideration that talent development may not be fully realized, therefore, remaining as emerging rather than actualized talent.
- Assessment instruments and procedures acknowledge the difference between potential and current performance.
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