Many schools carry out testing of their student body to identify children who are gifted or who are potentially gifted by testing their aptitude and cognitive abilities. Because they lack the curricula, resources and facilities to offer differentiated education for gifted children, some schools do not test their children. When a school makes the decision to move ahead and identify children for their Gifted and Talented Education programs, or when a family decides to have their child tested through a private educational professional, the question of which testing devices to use arises.
Parent Participation in the Identification Process
The parent plays a pivotal role in the identification of their child’s giftedness, and as such must be well informed to make the best decisions possible. In some schools, all of the students are tested at a given grade level. In other schools, only students who have been recommended by their teachers are tested. While teachers are the experts in a child’s overall education, there can be significant differences among schools in the criteria teachers use to make their determinations. A parent should always have the right to nominate their child for testing if the school does not include him or her.
Once the process begins, parents are usually asked to sign a form allowing the school to do the testing. These forms should illustrate all of the steps that will be taken from the testing itself to the placement in the appropriate programs, and how the placement will be re-evaluated as the years progress. There should also be provisions for students with documented disabilities for testing modifications if they are called for in the IEP.
Types of Tests
There are several cognitive ability tests used in schools and in private educational professionals’ offices. In general, these tests measure the child’s mathematical and verbal, and sometimes perceptual abilities. Many of these are pencil and paper thinking skills kinds of tests, while some are non-verbal for use with younger students who while they may have not developed sufficient verbal skills, they could also be gifted. An example would be the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test.
Many of the tests measure forms of cognitive strength and intelligence. The most common instruments are the Wechsler WISC, the Otis-Lennon OLSAT-8, and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales SB5. The Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes is a very popular instrument for testing the cognitive thinking abilities in children around five years old. One of the most powerful tests, however, is the Cognitive Abilities Test, Form 6, or CogAT, for assessing cognitive growth.
Some schools use achievement tests for identifying gifted students; however, these are generally not used alone as indicators of cognitive ability as they tend to measure what has been taught at the school, and not mental strength and intelligence.
As an important ingredient of parenting a bright child, parents should take the time to research each of these tests to determine which would be the best indicators of their child’s cognitive abilities for possible entry into a program for gifted learners.
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