Recently, I received a note from the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented that really surprised me. According to TAGT, there are day care centers in some Texas districts, that rename themselves as preschools. These agencies then order the standardized tests used by districts for the purpose of screening and identifying gifted students.
Certain assessments, including standardized tests, have been recognized as serving districts well in the identification process of potential giftedness in students.When these assessments are used to “prep” students for gifted testing, the security/validity of the testing instruments has been jeopardized by these schools. This is even more disconcerting when you consider that district coordinators have few options when choosing standardized tests/instruments to use in the identification process for giftedness. It is totally inappropriate for districts to attempt to serve students in a gifted program when those students were unfairly advantaged through preliminary test preparation. Districts need to be aware of this practice and monitor their identification processes to insure that truly gifted students are the ones being identified.
STS offers products to identify and serve all students who demonstrate high potential and gifted capabilities.We hope that we can all work together to make sure that testing instruments are used appropriately.
Scholastic Testing Service, Inc.
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