Assessment and Testing: What about the SB5, WISC-IV,
and Other Tests?
Kathi
March 20th & 21st, 2004
This conference will explore some of the issues surrounding assessment of gifted children. When is assessment appropriate? Who should assess gifted children? What instruments are most commonly used, and why? What is the impact of new assessment instruments and new revisions on the identification of gifted children? What information can be gained from a full evaluation, and how can this information most effectively be used in both the classroom and at home?
Opening
Statement
Few experiences are more fascinating to me than testing a
gifted child. From the first moments of
meeting the child, a picture of that child’s pattern of abilities and, perhaps,
relative weaknesses is becoming apparent.
Once we begin the IQ test, I am observing verbal abstract reasoning,
spatial reasoning, general knowledge, vision, audition, memory, motor skills,
processing speed, attention and a host of subtle cues that help to further
explain the scores the child earns. The
sessions are usually very engaging for these children; the inherent challenge
of the tests often eclipses what they experience at school. They are usually happy, frequently quite
humorous, and virtually always well-motivated to do their best. But for me, amidst the enjoyment of getting
to know them, the pieces of a puzzle are being put into place and the final
puzzle seems always to be unique from all of the others that I have watched
coalesce.
(B.J. Gilman, Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy That Works)
Welcome to our online conference about gifted assessment. In the next two days, we hope to shed light on many aspects of testing: to explain what can be learned through testing, to look at how tests can be used positively to document abilities and suggest accommodations in school, and to consider how newly revised and renormed tests are performing with the gifted population. What do these findings suggest about the ways these new instruments should be used with the gifted?
The
Microcosm: Testing the Gifted
We are unabashed supporters of testing, when it constitutes a part of clinical observation and is supplemented by consideration of a child’s developmental history. No single test or score, when considered in isolation from other observations, can ever be completely relied upon to document a child’s abilities. It may, but it also may not; without additional observations we have no gauge of whether our scores represent underestimates.
Those of us experienced in testing the gifted can usually make close estimates of the scores children will earn based on our knowledge of and initial conversations with them. Those qualities that we have learned to recognize as gifted, or highly or profoundly gifted, become recognizable. However, the tests offer us tools to further explore a child’s intellectual functioning and document it. They shortcut the process of observing the child’s responses to varied situations, over the course of days or months, into a few hours. Because they provide normative comparisons with age peers, we are able to tell how advanced, typical, or delayed a child’s abilities are.
IQ tests (often in conjunction with achievement tests) allow us to clarify the educational needs of children who are discrepant from the average and to provide information needed to create an appropriate educational program for them. Although the performance of average children is important in norming these tests, the tests are rarely used for average children experiencing no problems in school. They are used most with developmentally delayed children, those with learning disabilities or other deficits, and the gifted because typical educational programs are not working well for these children. Results from such tests help parents make child-rearing decisions and they provide excellent input about educational needs. They also provide documentation that what the parent thinks about the child’s abilities has been confirmed by a professional. Parents of the gifted are so often put in the difficult position of justifying why they believe their children are gifted that testing becomes essential to provide a factual basis for discussion with school personnel.
Because we work with gifted children, whose scores are high and sometimes very high, we frequently face criticism for scores that some find hard to believe. Equally low scores don’t generate the same degree of doubt because they are not viewed as desirable. Charges of inaccurate scoring, inappropriate test administration, and gullibility in the face of parents “shopping for scores,” are our constant companions. We would love to explain what safeguards we use to ensure accurate test results (please ask us), and to discuss some of the testing needs that are typical of the gifted. What we want most is to secure the same concern for gifted children with unique needs, based on their unusually high scores, as is accorded disabled children with similarly discrepant scores.
Tests vary in their content, their appropriateness with different populations, their usefulness as a basis for educational requests. A good tester will choose tests carefully to document the strengths of the child, explore any relative weaknesses, and demonstrate need for accommodations. Tests are less powerful when only one test is allowed to document giftedness. The abilities emphasized on the particular test may or may not correspond with the child’s strengths. Wisely planned admission requirements for a gifted program, school, or school district allow multiple assessments, and outside testing with qualified professionals, to enhance ability to identify gifted children.
The
Macrocosm: Testing in Society
In 1919, at the dawn of the mental testing movement in this country, the author of the original Stanford-Binet, Lewis Terman, made a very important statement. In his book, The Intelligence of School Children, he noted that “If the tests are not to be used, they
had better not be given.”
Today we are faced with a testing culture gone awry. Schoolchildren are required by both state and federal laws to be tested frequently, and in many contemporary classrooms, mere test prep has replaced true education. In the case of gifted children, both group and individual tests often are used to qualify them for gifted programs, but the information provided by the tests is never used to help provide appropriate interventions. Testing of children for gifted programs is also often used to exclude children from programs, rather than to include them. Inappropriate tests are also commonly used for the gifted – tests
with ceilings that are too low, and tests that test areas other than those designed to be served by a specific program, thus resulting in a mismatch between a child’s abilities and the program presented by the school. Perhaps even more worrisome, and certainly a trend that is ethically suspect, we are hearing more and more stories from the media of gifted children prevented by their schools from participating in regional classes for the gifted located in another school in the district, because the sending school will then “lose” the gifted child’s high achievement test scores, thus lowering the school’s entire test average under No Child Left Behind.
The Solution
The assessment of gifted children should always lead to a better understanding of the child, and appropriate recommendations and interventions, whether that assessment is an individual assessment of ability or achievement, or performance on a group instrument.
Otherwise, as Terman noted, the tests “had better not be given.” Proper assessment should never be merely a gatekeeping activity governing entrance into certain programs, nor should it be done primarily to satisfy politicians, as is the case with so much testing
in our schools today. Proper assessment of gifted children should yield information useful to the child, the family, and the school -- information that will assist in the optimal development of the individual.
One difference in both the individual and group assessment of gifted children is that, unlike other areas of special education (and, increasingly today, general education) a major purpose of the assessment of gifted children is to uncover patterns of strength, rather than deficits. (This is not to say that deficits may not be discovered during the assessment process, but it is usually not the primary focus of the assessment). This
contrasts widely with many of the other major uses of assessment in contemporary society.
Conference
Expectations
We expect some additional issues to arise during this conference, in addition to basic questions about when and why we should assess gifted children, the uses of assessment information, and specific issues related to the assessment process. We encourage you to ask questions about assessing twice-exceptional gifted children (gifted children with disabilities); gifted children from differing backgrounds; the use (and misuse) of group achievement and ability tests as well as individual tests; and the concept of out-of-
level testing and the upcoming changes in the SATs.
Finally, there are things that we can and can’t do in this conference. We CAN give you an overview of what to expect if you decide to go ahead with an individual assessment of your child. We CAN’T compromise test security in any way, which means we cannot discuss specific test content or individual test items. We CAN identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of various test instruments and testing approaches with the gifted. We CAN’T give individual advice or comment on test profiles of individual children. We also hope to share some of our own ideas and hopes for the future of assessment with the gifted.
Let the conference begin!