IQ Tests: Measurement of Reasoning Ability or Achievement?

This blog is being written from Vancouver, BC, the site of the World Gifted Council. Whereas I usually focus my discussion on a book I have read, I am prompted to respond to a keynote presentation by Dr. Jack Naglieri. Naglieri is the author of the NNAT, a non-verbal ability test that is designed to assess general reasoning ability in children and adolescents. Dr. Naglieri showed several examples where IQ tests had identical items as tests for achievement. He argued that while achievement tests are able to assess talent, a true IQ test should assess reasoning ability, free from achievement-type questions. He showed examples from his non-verbal ability test that have been shown to be free from culture or language bias as they do not require a student to read, write, or speak while completing the test. For a sample problem from the Naglieri test, see the Duke Newsletter.

While this is not the only test we can use to identify gifted students, Dr. Naglieri is encouraging educators to provide this test to all students so that we are able to identify a more diverse group of high ability students including students from under-represented populations as well as students with high introversion who may be overlooked by traditional teacher nominations. Once a student is identified as having gifted ability based upon this test, it is important for teachers to provide appropriate instruction so that these students have a greater chance of realizing their talents. I look forward to returning to my community to encourage our local educators to take a new look at gifted identification. Our gifted students are one of our greatest resources, and we can’t afford to lose these resources to a lack of appropriate assessment.