Old stereotypes of the gifted student as well-rounded achiever, easily identified by self-confidence and history of success, must be replaced by serious efforts to arrive at a definition of giftedness that will include all gifted students, the nonachieving as well as those who are achieving. (JHZ)

The efficacy of Raven's Matrices in the gifted identification process is reviewed, focusing on their reliability, validity, and fairness and comparing them with other intelligence tests. It is concluded that, despite problems with narrowness of scope and standardization practices, these tests provide a useful screening device for intellectually…

Discusses criticism leveled at intelligence tests, including cultural and ethnic bias, charges related to content validity, and the ongoing debate of the relative influence of heredity and environment. Many popular attacks are misguided. (RM)

Twenty-five papers address issues of the underserved gifted, including environmental influences, multicultural and global factors, special learning problems, and the highly gifted and creatively gifted. The papers are: "Twenty-five Teaching Strategies that Promote Learning Success for Underserved Gifted Populations" (Jerry Flack); "The Invisible…

This paper explores the impact of teacher bias on identifying students as gifted or talented. It reviews findings from an investigation that developed a series of hypothetical student profiles to assess teacher nomination bias of gifted students. The profiles were also used explore both the interaction of gender with student interests and work…

This issue of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC) Journal focuses on creativity. Featured articles include: (1) "Creativity: What Is It? and What Does It Look Like" (Sally Y. Walker); (2) "What Is Creativity?" (Debbie Cho); (3) "Creativity and Underachievement" (Sylvia Rimm); (4) "Stacy Hayden:…

This issue of a research journal on gifted education explores issues surrounding gifted children who also have learning disabilities. Specific articles include: (1) "Notes, Quotes, and Anecdotes" (Francis Cartier); (2) "Gifted Children with Learning Disabilities: A Review of the Issues" (Linda E. Brody and Carol J. Mills), which examines current…

Gifted students with disabling conditions remain a major group of underserved and understimulated youth. This digest stresses the importance of both accommodating the disability appropriately while recognizing and nurturing the individual's intellectual strengths. Discussion of assessment is followed by a series of lists intended to assist parents…

This report presents results of a cross-sectional study of achievement and underachievement in middle and high school (grades 6 to 9) African-American students in five mid-Atlantic school districts in 1995. Interviews with 152 African-American students, of whom 44 were identified as gifted, were conducted. Students were asked about their…

This report presents findings of a study of instruments used in the identification of gifted and talented students. The study first examined the published literature, both standardized and locally developed identification instruments and procedures, and strategies used to identify underserved populations. These data were catalogued in the National…

Studied the consistency and formation of teacher's judgements about child's abilities by having science methods course undergraduates watch two 10-minute video-taped lessons conducted among nine children. Indicated the most agreement on two extremes and the use of children's accomplishment speeds as judgment criteria. (CC)

A critical review of the psychometric properties of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA) model for student assessment is presented. The review criticizes the lack of validity of some of the measures but praises the goals of the system. (JKS)

Suggestions are given on how a competency-based teacher-education program might focus on nontrivial tasks and measure them in ways that are not merely based on checklists. (MK)

This article discusses theories on children's giftedness, including opposing movements in the gifted field--the Talent Development Movement and the Columbus Group Movement--which exemplify the "gifted achiever" and "gifted child" strands of research, theory, and practice. Vygotskian theory is suggested as a conceptual framework that can…

This article presents four strategies for identifying young gifted children: recognize the limits of testing; network with parents; consider new ways of thinking about and observing giftedness, including incorporating different learning styles in teaching; and use portfolios to collect actual samples of children's work. Advantages of portfolio…