This monograph summarizes research about the assessment of academically gifted students and addresses the kinds of advocacy a psychologist can offer. The components of a comprehensive assessment are described, noting that many tests developed for the age or grade of gifted students will fail to reflect their advanced abilities and skills. Assessment issues include group versus individual testing, the recency of the standardization, out-of-level testing, test basals and ceilings, and the effects of timing on performance. It points out that the reliability of ability tests is inversely correlated with the level of IQ, resulting in greater discrepancies among abilities for gifted than non-gifted students. Gifted students may also present some special personality concerns, such as a view of their abilities as outside of their control, which leads to fragility in the face of challenge, realistic anxiety about high stakes testing, perfectionism and meticulousness, and reluctance to give up on difficult items. Special situations are considered, such as testing the highly gifted, testing the very young, testing the coached student, and assessment of children from underserved minorities and/or ethnically isolated families. Appended are a reading list for school psychologists and a resource list for educators. (Contains 46 references.) (DB)