Identifying Gifted Learners
In the words of Feldhusen, Hoover, and Sayler (1990), "The ideal identification system has not been developed."
Some programs will base their identification entirely upon intelligence test scores, either accepting all students who score above a certain cutoff, or else selecting the top 3 to 5% regardless of particular scores.
Talent Search programs, that were established for seventh-grade students, began by using scores exclusively from what was known as the Scholastic Reasoning Test (SAT). Search programs also include the American College Test (ACT) for admission. At earlier grade levels, tests such as PLUS and Explore are used for acceptance to Talent Search programs.
Many identification programs take a more multidimensional approach. Where teachers may review IQ scores, achievement test scores, and grades to nominate students for a G/T program. Other multidimensional approaches will identify students who seem high in any one of a number of criteria, particularly the five components of the U.S. Department of Education definition: general intellectual ability, specific academic ability, creativity, leadership, or talent in the visual or performing arts.
Pfeiffer and Jarosewich (2003), and others including; Davis and Rimm 1980; Kolo 1999; Renzulli et al., 2001; Rimm, 1976, 1980 have developed checklists, inventories, and rating scales that evaluate various personality. motivational, creative, and intellectual characteristics of giftedness. Final decisions should be based on a combination of checklists or rating scores with other information and are applied mainly to the school wide screening for giftedness.