Journal for the Education of the Gifted

This study investigated the ability of teachers to accurately rate the cognitive and academic functioning of 1,375 students in kindergarten through the third grade on the Clinical Assessment of Behavior (CAB), as compared to two objective cognitive ability tests. CAB teacher ratings were compared for high-ability students who were currently functioning with ability test scores ≥ 120; comparisons also were made across the students' full ability range and according to their race/ethnicity. The Bracken Basic Concept Scale–Revised and the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test were contrasted with the CAB in terms of the proportions of culturally diverse students identified as high ability. A discernable CAB scale and cluster profile was evident for high-ability students, showing significantly better adjustment among the high-ability students as compared to the typical student from the general population. High-ability students evidenced adaptive strengths on the CAB Social Skills and Competence scales and on the Executive Function and Gifted and Talented clusters.

This research project employs a historical methodology to analyze and characterize the growth of the knowledge base in gifted education following the U.S. Department of Education's (1993) report, National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent. Topical priorities and descriptors of inquiry are compared against the recommendations of the National Excellence report. During the 10-year period from 1994 to 2003, a disconnect is evidenced between recommendations and actual research priorities and practices.

This article focuses on the first phase of a recent National Research Center on Giftedness and Talented (NRC/GT) project, which used survey research to target a disproportionate nationally stratified random sample of primary grade teachers about their beliefs and practices related to talent development in young children and their responses to case studies describing four different types of students—one easily identified as gifted from a traditional paradigm; the others manifested talents masked by some other factor—poverty, language status, or concurrent social/emotional needs. The mixed-method survey design facilitated triangulation of findings to better understand the contextual factors that influence primary grade teachers' perceptions and behaviors. Findings indicate that primary grade teachers continue to hold traditional conceptions of talent that shapes how they view cultural minority students, nonnative English speakers, and children with other exceptionalities. These beliefs influence the types of academic, social, and programmatic interventions they believe diverse primary grade learners need, often seeing the deficits before identifying the talents.

Ninety-four gifted children and 200 nongifted children (aged 9 to 13 years old) were involved in the present study. Their self-concept was assessed by the Revised Song-Hattie Self-Concept Inventory (Zhou & He, 1996). Academic self-concepts pertaining to abilities, school achievements, and grade concepts and nonacademic self-concepts pertaining to family, peers, body, and self-confidence concepts, as well as self-concept in general, were considered in the present study. The findings indicated that the development of self-concept in gifted children was different from that of nongifted children. Specifically, the self-concept scores in general of nongifted children increased from 11 to 13 years old, while those of gifted children decreased for the same age period. Both academic and nonacademic self-concepts are discussed in the present study.