Identification

The major research questions related to gifted and talented student identification can be broadly categorized into two main themes: questions focused on proportional representation, or the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, disability, sex, or language proficiency demographics of the identified population; and questions focused on identification accuracy, or the “goodness” of particular identification procedures. Combination rules refer to the different ways in which multiple measures can be combined to come to an identification decision. Use of national norms refers to using student scores in the process of identifying students for services that are based on students’performance in comparison to a national sample of same-age or same-grade peers of similar demographic composition. Use of local norms refers to using student scores in the process of identifying students for services that are based on students’ performance as compared to a local peer group, such as the other same-grade students in a particular school building.