The Extent, Nature and Effectiveness of Planned Approaches in ...

Culture free and culture fair tests. A further strategy for identifying gifted minority children is theuse of assessment tools specifically developed to overcome the majority cultural bias of IQ tests. TheNaglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (Naglieri, 1996), the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence(Hammill. Pearson, & Wierderholt, 1996), the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment(SOMPA) (Mercer & Lewis, 1978) and Ravens Progressive Matrices (RPM) (Raven, Court, & Raven,1977, 1983a, 1983b) are all examples of standardised tests that are claimed to be ‘culture free’ or‘culture fair.’ Ford et al. (2002) report others’ research which found that 50% of non-white childrenwho failed to qualify for gifted programmes using WISC-R qualified when Ravens tests were used.Ravens Progressive Matrices, like other non-verbal tests, are considered to be better measures of ‘purepotential’ than IQ tests because they “do not have the confounding influence of language, vocabularyand academic exposure” (Ford et al., 2002, p. 57).Similarly, Castellano and Diaz (2002) cite studies where there was a seven fold increase in the numberof Latino children identified as gifted when Ravens Progressive Matrices replaced IQ testing as ameans of identifying gifted children while Mills and Tissot (1995) note that in their research “asignificantly higher proportion of minority children scored at a high level on the RPM than on thetraditional measure [The School and College Ability Test]” (p. 209). Mills and Tissot add that RPMappears to be a useful instrument for identifying academic potential in students with limited Englishbut suggest that it is used as a general screening instrument in conjunction with other identificationmeasures (p. 209).DISCOVER is an assessment tool developed by Maker, Nielson, and Rogers (1994) specifically for“use with students from groups who are traditionally underserved in programmes for gifted learners –children who may be at risk because of socioeconomic factors or disabling conditions” (p. 210).Assessment consists of a continuum of problem solving tasks in five different intelligence domains.Instructions are given in the child’s first language. While the child participates in the series of ‘fun’activities, trained observers record and later evaluate his/her performance based on established criteria.Nielson (2003) maintains that DISCOVER trials show this test is culturally appropriate and moreeffective in identifying gifted children from ethnic minority groups than traditional assessmentmeasures. This is reflected in DISCOVER’s widespread use in Native American schools and in areasthat have large populations of African-American and Hispanic students (Fletcher & Massalski, 2003).QUEST, Bauerle, Gonzales and Felix-Holt’s assessment tool (cited in Fletcher & Massalski, 2003)was developed to counteract the low scores of Spanish-English students on traditional measures ofverbal intelligence. It utilises a case study component and language sensitive responses. Fletcher andMassalski (2003) maintain that QUEST achieves an accurate qualitative assessment of bicognitive,bicultural and bilingual learning and development and thus is an appropriate tool for identifying giftedSpanish-English students.Another assessment tool was developed by Van Tassel-Baska and a team of experts in Project STAR(Van Tassel-Baska et al., 2002). Students are given a “sample test” which is followed the next day bythe real assessment tasks. These tasks are not timed, they use manipulatives and are scored accordingto specified criteria. The lack of emphasis on speed and the preteaching component optimiseperformance conditions for inexperienced learners. Because each task has a preteaching example toaccompany it there is no assumption of prior learning as is the case for traditional assessment methods.Field trials were conducted with 1792 children:The performance assessment tasks of Project STAR resulted in finding an additional groupof students who were 12% African American and 14% low-income children …Thesestudents represent those who would not have qualified for gifted programs using traditionalmeasures. (VanTassel-Baska et al., 2002, p.110).While these findings were encouraging the authors also note that these tests are a lot more timeconsuming to administer than traditional tests and extensive staff training is needed to administer andscore them accurately.129