The New York Times just released an article titled, “Schools Ask: Gifted or Just Well Prepared?” The article goes in depth about the processes used to assess young children to see if they should be placed into gifted and talented programs, and questions whether or not their success is due to actual giftedness or due to the amount of preparation they have prior to being tested. We can buy high scores on “gifted and talented” identification tests. Of course, higher SES leads to broader experiences and higher quality education, which then leads to identification as “gifted and talented”. My question is, when will tests used to identify “gifted and talented” students focus on their ability to learn and apply new information, rather than assess prior knowledge?

What do you think?