It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and it’s been a longer while since I posted in my Identification Series, so you may need to scroll back to see installments 1-3 from way back when! My last post on identification was about the use of ONE IQ test and a cut-off score. What’s the big deal of using just one test like an IQ/ability test to put students into a gifted program? Plenty, if you were a student like me who got a 128 on the test, but the cut-off to be identified gifted was 130! I mean, seriously, I missed the cut-off by two points! Is there really that much difference between a score of 128 and 130 (NO). Further, maybe that test wasn’t a true indicator of my ability. Maybe I didn’t do my best that test day because I forgot to eat breakfast (unlikely), or my boyfriend broke up with me the night before (much more likely), or I was nervous (extremely likely). Do you see the possible issues with relying on only one timed test to which a cut-off score is applied? Luckily, best practice in education now is to consider the standard error of measure with all standardized test scores, especially when making important programmatic decisions for students (a brief description of standard error of measurement can be found on the Virginia Department of Education website in relation to Virginia Standards of Learning Tests, and a brief explanation of why it’s important to take standard error of measure into account for high-stakes educational decision-making can be found on the Northwest Evaluation Association’s website). Hurray for that! Despite my deep-seated resentment of that 130 cut-off score, I do think it’s important to collect a nationally-normed and standardized ability test score on students going through gifted identification- but only as part of other pieces of data (if you’re wondering what a nationally-normed and standardized ability test is, hang tight… I’ll talk about that next week).
What are your experiences with standardized testing and gifted identification? Have any of you dealt with the dreaded single IQ/ability test and “cut-off” score?
Teaching for Talent 