Lower Merion’s Identification Process

1. Lower Merion’s Identification Process Determination of gifted ability not based on IQ score alone IQ score of 130 and/or multiple criteria Students must present a need for specially designed instruction

2. Important questions to consider in determining need for gifted support • Does the student have very superior cognitive ability? • Does the student lack a peer group in areas of high academic achievement? • Is the student two or more grades above grade level compared to peers? • Does the student have language, cultural, or social barriers that may mask gifted ability?

3. Steps in Identification Process • Student referred by parent and/or teacher (in writing) • Parents and teacher submit information about student • KBIT2 • Math assessments (GOALS, TOMAG, CBA) • Results compiled and discussed with team (psychologist, principal, guidance counselor, teachers, parents) • Decide if screening warrants further evaluation with psychologist

4. KBIT-2 Overview KBIT-2: Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition KBIT-2 is a brief, individually administered measure of verbal and nonverbal intelligence. It yields three scores: Verbal, Nonverbal, and overall score, known as the IQ composite. The Verbal score comprises two subtests (Verbal Knowledge and Riddles) and measures verbal, school-related skills by assessing a person’s word knowledge, range of general information, verbal concept formation, and reasoning ability. The Nonverbal score (the Matrices subtest) measures the ability to solve new problems by assessing an individual’s ability to perceive relationships and complete visual analogies. All matrices items involve pictures or abstract designs rather than words.

5. Range of Standard Scores 131 or greater 116-130 85-115 70-84 69 or less Category Upper extreme Above average Average Below average Lower extreme KBIT-2 Descriptive Categories

6. WISC-IV • The WISC-IV is a standardized measure of intellectual functioning that may be administered to students ages 6 through 16.  It provides an estimate of overall cognitive ability (the Full Scale IQ), in addition to four factor scores. •  The four factors assessed by the WISC-IV are: • Verbal Comprehension • Perceptual Reasoning • Working Memory • Processing Speed

7. WISC-IV - INDICES DEFINED: • VCI – Verbal Comprehension: a student's ability to use language in reasoning and problem-solving, as well as a measure of the student's fund of knowledge acquired from their environment. • PRI -Perceptual Reasoning: a student's use of visual and spatial information to solve unfamiliar problems.

8. WISC-IV - INDICES DEFINED: • WMI - Working Memory: a student's ability to actively hold information in awareness while taking in new information, transforming it, and producing a result. • PSI - Processing Speed: the rate at which a student is able to scan, perceive, understand, and act upon visual information.

9. WISC-IV Results • Based on chronological age, a child's score is compared to the scores of a reference group of same-aged children.   • Relative strengths and weaknesses can be determined by examining the subtest scaled scores. • The subtests of the WISC-IV have been designed to tap many different cognitive abilities, which all together reflect a child's general intellectual ability.  

10. WISC-IV Results • No one subtest is intended to reflect all intelligent behavior (i.e., a subtest may require the child to use perceptual skills but not abstract reasoning,) nor is one subtest meant to be interpreted as separate from the rest of the test.   • Peaks and valleys are characteristic of the scores of most children, indicating that children develop their intellectual abilities in different ways and have different patterns of cognitive strengths.