Gifted Identification Series Post #3: Why Did Schools Use a Cut-off IQ Score to Identify Gifted Students?

It’s been a while since I posted about gifted identification because I’ve been so wrapped up in trying to share all the things I learned from attending NAGC last November (and I’ve attended TWO MORE gifted conferences since then)! However, in my world as a Coordinator for Gifted Education, we are in gifted testing season right now, and I’m sure many other school divisions around the country are, too. So, it seems like a good time for me to get back to my gifted identification series. Please scroll back to read Posts 1 and 2 about gifted identification if you’d like to get up-to-speed.

In Blog Post #2 of the gifted identification series, I told the story of how the archaic practice of using an IQ cut-off score effectively cut me out of the gifted program in my high school. The IQ- intelligence quotient- cut-off score was infamous in gifted education virtually everywhere for most of time until probably the 1990’s when gifted researchers and educators began to rethink the reliance on timed IQ tests (fact: many school divisions all across the country STILL use IQ cut-off scores to identify gifted students). Using only an IQ score to identify students as gifted is an example of the “nature” or “entity” philosophy of giftedness- people are either born gifted, or they aren’t- and the belief that the use of one test score can tell us that. IQ scores have a rich history and do serve a purpose (mainly by giving educators an indication of students’ cognitive ability), but there are many more ways to find gifted students other than using one test score. So, why did schools ever use a cut-off score, then? Because in the past, most educators had an entity mindset about gifted. Plus, how easy was that? Give all the kids a test, and the ones who scored 130 or higher automatically got into the gifted program!  What’s so wrong about that? Let’s explore that question next time. In the meantime, you can read a one-pager from Davison Institute about IQ and the Bell Curve for fun!

What experiences do you have with using an IQ cut-off score with gifted identification? Please share so we can learn!