The diagnostic accuracy of teachers' ratings of giftedness

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there is a significant relationship between teacher's ratings of characteristics of gifted children, ages seven to twelve years, and gifted intellectual ability as determined by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). The protocols of sixty children, who completed the identification process for the Gifted and Talented Program (GATE program) in the Richmond Unified School District (R.U.S.D.) were used for the purposes of this study. The protocols included the Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale scores from the WISC-R, and the teacher rating scales which were completed by R.U.S.D. teachers. The children's protocols were divided into two groups, those of thirty children who did qualify for the GATE program, and thirty who did not qualify. For each group, the individual teacher rating scales were summed and compared to each of the Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale scores on the WISC-R. A Pearson r coefficient was computed to determine the relationship between the teachers' ratings of gifted characteristics of children and their overall intellectual potential as measured by the WISC-R. In addition, a Pearson r coefficient was computed to determine if the Verbal scale on the WISC-R was more associated with the total rating scale than the Performance scale. The results indicate that the R.U.S.D. teacher rating scale, as a whole, was not statistically associated with the R.U.S.D. 's criterion for identified giftedness. the Full Scale score on the WISC-R. The summed total ratings of children who were certified for the GATE program were associated with the Performance scores on the WISC-R. Based on these results, however, it was concluded that the R.U.S.D.'s rating scale probably needs to be revised. But the results of this study did not provide a clear direction for such revision. The possibility of adopting a published rating scale and training teacher-raters in the use of the instrument should be considered. Furthermore, expanding the criteria to include multiple measures instead of a narrowly defined criterion, namely the IQ score, was recommended for determining giftedness for placement into subsequent programs.