Identifying Gifted Students Using Teacher Rating Scales: A Review of Existing Instruments

Abstract

The federal definition of giftedness conceptualizes giftedness as extraordinary intellectual and academic ability and high performance capability in creativity, the arts, and leadership. The practice of identifying gifted students in the schools typically centers on assessing intellectual and academic abilities. Rarely do schools identify the other areas of giftedness. This article reviews the technical adequacy and usefulness of three popular teacher rating scales designed to identify gifted students: the Gifted and Talented Evaluation Scales (GATES; Gilliam, Carpenter, & Christensen, 1996); Gifted Evaluation Scale, Second Edition (GES-2; McCarney & Anderson, 1989); and Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS; Renzulli, Smith, White, Callahan, & Hartman, 1976; Renzulli, Smith, White, Callahan, Hartman, & Westberg, 1997).