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The First Symposium on Assessing Gifted Learners
August 7, 2005
In Conjunction with the World Council for Gifted Children, New Orleans, Louisiana
The symposium addressed:
- Appropriate use and interpretation of different IQ tests
- Strengths and weaknesses of various tests
- Performance of children in different ranges of giftedness on different instruments (i.e., gifted, highly gifted, exceptionally gifted, profoundly gifted);
- Which tests or parts of tests to use for which purposes
- Assessment of gifted children with learning disabilities
- Where do we go from here? Qualitative Assessment of the gifted
ABSTRACT OF SYMPOSIUM
Assessment of the gifted has never been more confusing than it is today. This symposium brings together experts who have been instrumental in the design, evaluation and study of various verbal and nonverbal tests. Research comparing the performance of gifted children on different instruments will be discussed, as well as strategies for qualitative assessment. This is an extraordinary opportunity for examiners, educators and program coordinators to learn about the best methods of identifying gifted students.
Introduction
Richard A. Boolootian, Ph.D.
Mirman School for Gifted Children
Los Angeles, California
Overview of Issues in Assessing Gifted Learners
Linda Kreger Silverman , Ph.D.
Director, Gifted Development Center
Denver, Colorado
Use of the WISC-IV in the Assessment of Giftedness
Dawn P. Flanagan, Ph.D.
St. John’s Universiy
Queens, New York
A Comparison of the Stanford-Binet 5 and the Stanford-Binet
Form L-M in the Assessment of Gifted Children
Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D.
Gifted Resource Center of New England
Providence, Rhode Island
Kathi Kearney
Noble VI School
Berwick, Maine
Research on the WISC-IV with 103 Gifted Children
Barbara Gilman
Gifted Development Center
Denver, Colorado
R. Frank Falk, Ph.D.
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
Utility of Nonverbal Measures with the Gifted
John Wasserman, Ph.D.
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
Qualitative Assessment of Gifted Children
Annemarie Roeper, Ed.D.
Roeper Consultation Service
El Cerrito, California
Symposium on Assessment
World Council for Gifted Children
ABSTRACTS
Opening Remarks
John Thomas West, M.A., M.Ed.
This symposium sets an academic cornerstone in the discussion about the assessment of gifted children. Globally informed understanding and usage of the newest assessment tools will assist the various members of the educational community—parents, teachers, counselors, administrators and psychologists. All will gain critical insight into the various instruments and methods available for identifying and supporting the individual strengths, weaknesses, and needs of gifted children across all cultures.
John Thomas West III is Headmaster of The Mirman School for Gifted Children in Los Angeles, California. He holds a B.A. in psychology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, an M.Ed. degree in Education from Loyola-Marymount University, and an M.A. in Folklore and Mythology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Previously, Mr. West spent 27 years teaching and in administration at Harvard and Harvard-Westlake schools in Los Angeles.
Introduction
Richard A. Boolootian, Ph.D.
As Admissions Director at The Mirman School for Gifted Children, it became apparent that there is much confusion about the interpretation of various IQ tests. This symposium was organized to bring together a group of dedicated experts who have been instrumental in the design, evaluation and study of various tools used in the assessment of giftedness. These experts will offer comparative research on the new tests, provide a research-based discussion of non-verbal measures and discuss qualitative assessment strategies for gifted children. This symposium is an extraordinary opportunity for program coordinators, examiners and educators internationally to learn more about the best methods for identifying gifted learners.
Richard A. Boolootian , Ph.D., Director of Community and External Affairs at The Mirman School for the Gifted, has over 48 years of experience in teaching, writing and research in gifted education. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has contributed 24 college textbooks and over 200 original research papers. He serves as an Associate Editor of the Gifted Education Communicator and as Interim Headquarters Director of the World Council for Gifted Children. In addition to his 23-year tenure as a science teacher at The Mirman School, he was appointed Admissions Director for 3 years. The difficulties encountered in determining admission criteria for a school for highly gifted students were what prompted him to sponsor this symposium.
Overview of Issues in Assessing Gifted Learners
Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.
Three new versions of the major intelligence scales were released in the Summer of 2003: the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, third edition (WPPSI-III), the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, fifth edition (SB-5), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, fourth edition (WISC-IV). Each of these instruments is a radical departure from previous versions. The perplexity is magnified by the fact that gifted children obtain dramatically different scores on different IQ tests, whereas average and developmentally delayed children usually obtain consistent scores on different instruments. In this session, we will examine the major issues that must be addressed in order to gain accurate estimates of the abilities of gifted children.
Linda Kreger Silverman , Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist. She directs the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, and its subsidiary, the Gifted Development Center (www.gifteddevelopment.com) in Denver, Colorado, which has assessed over 4,600 children in the last 26 years. She has contributed 300 publications, including the textbook, Counseling the Gifted and Talented, and Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner. She served on the Expert Panel for the fifth edition of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Her Ph.D. in learning disabilities and her 45 years of experience studying the gifted have led to expertise in the assessment of gifted children with learning disabilities.
Use of the WISC-IV in the Assessment of Giftedness
Dawn P. Flanagan, Ph.D.
This presentation will focus on the use of a new interpretive method in the identification of gifted children. This method is based on psychometrically sound principles and procedures and is grounded in the well-validated Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities. The abilities underlying the WISC-IV will be described—namely Crystallized Intelligence (Gc), Fluid Reasoning (Gf), Short-term Memory (Gsm), Visual Processing (Gv), and Speed of Processing (Gs)—including a review of how gifted children typically perform in these cognitive domains. In addition, research on the relation between the cognitive abilities underlying the WISC-IV and specific academic achievement will be presented as the foundation on which decisions regarding giftedness should be based.
Dawn P. Flanagan, Ph.D.,is Professor of Psychology at St. John's University in Queens, NY. In addition to her teaching responsibilities in the areas of intellectual assessment, psychoeducational assessment, learning disabilities, and professional issues in school psychology, she serves as an expert witness, learning disability consultant, and psychoeducational test/measurement consultant and trainer for organizations around the country. She is a widely published author of books and articles. Her latest books include Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment and Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and Issues (2 nd Edition). Dr. Flanagan is Fellow of APA and Diplomate of the American Board of Psychological Specialties.
A Comparison of the Stanford-Binet 5 and the Stanford-Binet Form L-M in the Assessment of Gifted Children
Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D.
Kathi Kearney
The Stanford-Binet is the oldest researched instrument in the assessment of intelligence. However, as concepts of intelligence have changed, instruments assessing intelligence have also changed. In this proposal, the effectiveness of the Stanford-Binet 5 in assessing giftedness will be assessed. Subjects who were part of the standardization sample, as well as new subjects, will be compared on overall and sub-area scores to means reported in the Technical Manual. Comparisons will be made to scores obtained on the older version of the test (SBL-M). In addition, alternate scoring versions using change sensitive scores and age equivalents based on the Rasch model will be examined.
Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D., Director of the Gifted Resource Center of New England (www.grcne.com), has been a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Providence, Rhode Island, for more than 25 years, specializing in evaluation and assessment, therapy and consultation with the gifted. Her book, Different Minds: Gifted Children with AD/HD, Asperger Syndrome, and Other Learning Deficits (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2004) was recently released. She has also written numerous articles and given many presentations in the field of giftedness, AD/HD and other learning issues. She conducted validation studies on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale 5 with profoundly gifted children and children with AD/HD and/or Asperger Syndrome.
Kathi Kearney, M.A., Ed., currently teaches gifted students at the Noble VI School in Berwick, Maine; she is also a Professional Associate with the Gifted Development Center. Founder of the Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children, she also served as an instructor in talented and gifted education at Iowa State University. She helped to found the Conceptual Foundations Division of the National Association for Gifted Children and is Past Chair of the Division. She has contributed many scholarly articles on assessment, giftedness, homeschooling, and rural and distance learning. She is an official trainer for the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SB-5), and recently she conducted validation studies of the SB-5.
Research on the WISC-IV with 103 Gifted Children
Barbara Gilman
R. Frank Falk, Ph.D.
The WISC-IV is structured differently from the WISC-III , requiring new testing choices and overall scoring options. Evaluation of 103 children at the Gifted Development Center shows that five of the six subtests that produced the lowest scores for the gifted group are required to obtain a Full Scale IQ score, whereas four optional subtests yield scores among the highest of the gifted group (Flanagan & Kaufman, 2004). Alternate subtest choice, and use of the General Ability Index (GAI) instead of the Full Scale IQ, can improve assessment when applied appropriately. The WISC-IV offers powerful assessment of abstract reasoning (within limits), in addition to strong diagnostic capability.
R. Frank Falk, Ph.D., is Acting Chair, Classical Studies, Anthropology and Archaeology and Professor of Sociology at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. He is also the Director of Research at The Institute for the Study of Advanced Development in Denver, Colorado. He specializes in qualitative and quantitative methodology with an interest in gifted and talented, and adult emotional development. He has authored or co-authored 9 books or monographs and 36 chapters and journal articles. He has conducted research on the performance of gifted children on different assessment instruments for the last 14 years and his most recent publications involve the measurement of overexcitabilities.
Barbara (“Bobbie”) Gilman , M.S., Director of Staff Development at the Gifted Development Center, assesses gifted children, plans program accommodations, and consults with parents worldwide. Her book, Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy That Works won the 2004 Legacy Book Award and 2003 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Silver Award. She has done comparative research on IQ tests and specializes in the development of profoundly gifted children. She conducted validation studies with gifted children for Riverside Publishing on the newest edition of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SB-5), and was involved in field testing items for the SB-5.
Utility of Nonverbal Measures with the Gifted
John D. Wassderman, Ph.D.
Nonverbal cognitive assessment holds promise in the identification of gifted students who may be disadvantaged by conventional language- and knowledge-loaded measures. In this presentation, leading group and individual ability tests with reduced language content are described, with their strengths and limitations enumerated. Analyses of test findings from an East coast gifted assessment program are reported for over 1500 primary school students tested in groups and over 500 students tested individually. Guidelines are suggested for appropriate use of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT), as well as nonverbal reasoning subtests of the WISC-IV.
John D. Wasserman, Ph.D., is an educator, practitioner, and researcher in psychology. After earning his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Miami, he completed a fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Louisiana State University and Tulane Medical Centers in New Orleans. He developed and directed a pediatric neuropsychology service at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, before spending 8 years in the test publishing industry, directing the development of psychological tests to measure cognitive, neuropsychological, social and emotional functioning—including the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (5 th edition). From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Wasserman directed the George Mason University Gifted Assessment Program in Fairfax, Virginia.
Qualitative Assessment of Gifted Children
Annemarie Roeper, Ed.D.
Gifted children are emotionally, as well as cognitively, different. The Annemarie Roeper Method of Qualitative Assessment is an alternative to IQ testing or it can be used in conjunction with IQ tests. It has been practiced successfully for over 20 years with thousands of children. It uses the evaluator as an instrument who relates to the child with no preconceived agenda. The purpose is to look into the Soul of the child. This method has been demonstrated on videotape through a grant from the Malone Foundation and will be available shortly. The accuracy of this method has been validated repeatedly by other measures.
Annemarie Roeper, Ed.D., is an educational consultant with more than 50 years of experience specializing in the psychological and educational needs of gifted children. In addition to hundreds of articles, she has published Educating Children for Life: The Modern LearningCommunity and My Life Experiences with Children. In 1941, she and her husband, George Roeper, founded the Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; they also co-founded the Roeper Review Journal. She developed the Annemarie Roeper Method of Qualitative Assessment and practitioners are now being certified throughout the United States in this methodology. She recently received a Malone Foundation grant to videotape the method.
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