A Psychometrically Optimal Strategy for Identifying Students for Gifted Programs

• In Event: Identification of Gifted and Talented Populations

Abstract

The identification of students for gifted programs is often a balancing act of accuracy and cost. Administering identification assessments to all students misses the fewest students but requires the most time and money. To limit costs, some districts put relatively few students through the identification process, resulting in missed students, often those from traditionally disadvantaged groups. There are ways to increase system accuracy without increasing cost. This paper presents one such method, called Optimal Identification, that leverages existing, universally administered assessments to create a two-phase identification system that retains the sensitivity of universal consideration systems, but at a fraction of the cost. This procedure has applications and implications for any programs that base admission on non-universally administered criteria.

Authors

• Lindsay Ellis Lee, East Tennessee State University

• Scott Joseph Peters, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Matthew McBee, East Tennessee State University

• D. Betsy Mccoach, University of Connecticut

• Tamra Stambaugh, Whitworth University

• Kiana R. Johnson, University of Minnesota