The Council of Exceptional Children – The Association for the Gifted recently released a position statement advocating use of growth models for gifted students. Many factors play a role at every stage of the talent development process, and any number of things in a gifted student’s life can either enhance or deter the actualization of their potential. School psychologists should monitor the academic progress of students identified as gifted. School psychologists should advocate for any high ability student who demonstrates uncanny ability or potential to make a mark in an academic field, even if their IQ score falls below the school district’s cut-score there is no single right answer for what IQ threshold or percentage of students should be identified as gifted, and the numbers can change depending upon changing criteria of academic excellence and available resources. This is clearly an important, new opportunity for school psychologists to assume a key leadership role. A recent report by the National Science Board, " Preparing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators: Identifying and Developing Our Nation’s Human Capital", specifically recommends that educators need to identify all types of talents and nurture potential in all students, including high ability students. Gifted assessment should be multidimensional and multifaceted school psychologists can play a more central role in gifted identification by conducting a comprehensive assessment which includes measuring not only general ability, but also specific abilities, motivation, interest, task commitment, and psychosocial variables known to impact academic success. Gifted assessment should be a recurring phenomena, not a one-shot event some students not identified as gifted at an early age later develop the gifts and talents to make major contributions in innumerable fields, and some young students identified at an early age as gifted, for any number of reasons, fall off of a trajectory of academic excellence.
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