The controversies involved in using an IQ test to select kids for gifted and talented programs:
Amir Diego Howard is one of the brightest third-graders at Sierra Vista, an elementary school surrounded by some of Reno’s poorest neighborhoods...Amir easily passed the first two requirements for entry — his teacher’s assessment and scoring in the 96th percentile of a national criteria reference test.
Yet he failed to score at the 133 IQ level on the Kaufman-Brief Intelligence Test — the third and final step in gaining admission. So Amir was barred admission...
Many minority students share Amir’s plight. Testing for G-T placement discriminates against English language learners plus children from bilingual homes or poor households, school officials from poorer schools said.
But if being able to read English at that level is necessary to succeed in the program, why is it discrimination?
“We could waive a test score or lower a test score for these students,” [Jo Garret, Washoe’s G-T curriculum coordinator] said. “The problem I see with this is that if you place an ESL student in a program that is highly English-language based, without any modifications, they will be frustrated and drop out of the program.”
She said the district needs modified testing and to change the program for such students to make it educationally appropriate.
Many states are modifying their G-T entrance requirements to be "non-language" oriented:
The district plans to draw more disadvantaged students into its improved middle school program that debuts next fall by allowing alternative ways of admission.
If a student does not meet the IQ test or CRT requirements, they can get into the middle school G-T program by scoring well on a standardized test of creativity or by showing documentation that they are highly proficient in science, math, geography, art, music or drama. Most middle schools will offer at least two new G-T classes under the new program.
“We are trying to be more inclusive and open it more to the kids who will benefit,” Garrett said. “In this way, we hope to pick up kids from a more diverse background that we have not served in the past”...
Other U.S. districts have gone to non-language tests for the gifted, including those that measure intelligence by determining patterns or comparing geometric shapes. These alternative tests are succeeding in diversifying the G-T population in the Anchorage School District in Alaska, its director said...
Anchorage also lowered its scores for admission on CRT tests from the 96th national percentile to the 90th. Students can also gain admittance to G-T learning by showing special talent or skill with a portfolio.
“We lowered the criteria for the Title I students to qualify,” Vanderploeg said. “We started in October and we have increased the number of minorities students in the program by 15 percent.”
Diversity is at the heart of the matter. And administrators are not ashamed to say that they are lowering standards just to get a more "diverse" G-T crowd in. But no one in the article answers the question - is it beneficial to admit more students with a "non-language" test if language skills are necessary to benefit from the G-T programs? Is this really a method of identifying students who will do well, given the chance, or is it a way for administrators to feel better about not having such a "white" group of gifted students?
The bottom line is, the students admitted under the new standards should be able to do the work and benefit from it. If that turns out to be the case, great. But if that doesn't happen, I hope states that modified their standards will admit it.
Posted by kswygert at May 24, 2004 01:34 PM