About 7 percent of American children, or 3 million kids, are in some sort of gifted program. Nearly as many children are admitted into elite private schools. And while those programs and schools vary in quality and intensity, one thing is sure: They give those kids attention and opportunities that their peers may never have.
The authors of “NurtureShock” don’t argue against the worth of special programs for intelligent children. But they do make a convincing case against how children are selected for such opportunities:
While it’s no surprise that not all gifted kindergartners end up at Harvard, the operating assumption has been that these screening tests do predict which kids will be the best at reading, writing, and math in the second and third grades.
To give you a hint of the scale of the problem—if you picked 100 kindergartners as “gifted” … by third grade only 27 of them would still deserve that categorization. You would have wrongly locked out 73 other deserving students.
Most schools depend on intelligence tests to select gifted children; others will use tests that also score a child’s reasoning ability and learning aptitude. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with the tests, the authors say.
It’s when the children are being tested—while their brains are still rapidly developing—that’s the issue.
Many children are tested for gifted-program placement as young as 4 or 5, when they enter kindergarten. One researcher, Dr. Hoi Suen of Penn State, performed a meta-analysis of 44 studies that examined whether pre-K or kindergarten testing would correlate with achievement test scores two years later. He found only a 0.40 correlation–and it was no better when he looked only at studies of gifted program or private school tests.
Essentially, this means “you’re getting kids with good backgrounds,” said Dr. Ronald Rock of the Educational Testing Service. So kids who wouldn’t retest at an appropriate level in a couple years’ time are being plunked into gifted programs and special schools, while kids who didn’t test well at 4 or 5 but would test well when they’re older, at 11 or 12, are left behind:
Earning this classification when young is nothing less than a golden ticket, academically. The rarefied learning environment, filled with quick peers, allows teachers to speed up the curriculum. This can make a huge difference in how a child learns.
Scientifically, research has found a link between intelligence and the thickness of a child’s cerebral cortex. But new studies have found that in many kids, that part of the brain keeps thickening far past 7, when it was originally thought to have peaked, to around age 11 or 12. Moreover, IQ scores at a young age are highly variable, especially for the smartest kids.
The obvious solution—retest students, or hold off on initial testing until later—hasn’t gained much traction in schools because of time and money. The authors of “NurtureShock” called the 20 largest school districts in the country, and found two unsurprising things: (1) the latest any of those districts test children for gifted programs is second grade, and (2) none of them require children to be retested at a later date.
A couple of other underlying factors dissuade schools from retesting students. Many seem to be unaware of research showing IQ scores in flux until children are older, while others seem to think it’s unkind to yank a child out from such a program once he or she is admitted. In South Carolina, for instance, a student who doesn’t perform well can only be kicked out of a gifted program if there’s an issue beyond poor scores, and that child is always allowed back in the next year, no test needed.
Ultimately, the biggest program here isn’t children who had the opportunity to enter a special program or school. It’s the ones who never get that chance, the authors argue:
The late-blooming child lives with the mistaken fact that she is not gifted—she’s bright enough to understand that the Powers That Be have decreed that it would be a waste of time and resources to develop her potential. The gifted rolls have already been filled.
Do you have a child in a gifted program or elite school, or were you in one yourself as a kid? When were you tested for admittance? Do you think kids should be retested as they age?
grapefruit / 4800 posts
Is this a NYC thing? I’ve never heard of kindergarten test scores being such a big deal.
In our state they did have a gifted program but you could enter at any time, it wasn’t always based on testing. In my husbands state he went to an elite private high school but it wasn’t based on his kindergarten test scores.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
I was in a gifted program since third grade. I honestly know I was never tested, I think it was chosen based on aptitude in class AND parent involvement. If the parents didn’t push for their kid to be in the “program of advanced challenge and enrichment”, they probably would not be put in there… which is sad.
pomelo / 5178 posts
I remember being tested in first grade (I think it must have been an IQ test), and I was in the Gifted and Talented program from 2nd-8th grade. I know I wasn’t retested to stay in the class, but other people did join our class later, so I think other kids who didn’t make the initial cut must have been retested later on. I’m not entirely sure how it worked, though, since I was a kid and not really paying attention.
I don’t know of any private schools that require test scores, though. This muct be an urban thing, since all of the private schools in my area are pretty much open to anyone who can pay.
coffee bean / 48 posts
I was tested in 2nd grade (IQ test) didn’t make the cut, and then retested in 4th grade at my parents’ insistence and scored 20 points higher. I was lucky because they decided to expand the number of kids in the program that year, otherwise I probably would have been sitting on the waiting list. Glad I made it in eventually because I think it made a huge difference for me, but I’m not very impressed with the testing system.
grapefruit / 4006 posts
I know I was tested before 1st grade because I was put into g&t in 1st grade and switched classes for reading and math (instead of staying in the same classroom all day). Then g&t became more selective in 4th grade so i must have been retested and the class went from like 20 kids to 5 of us. A few other kids joined in 5th and 6th grade to bring the total to 7-8 so I imagine that kids were retested every year, but I don’t know for sure.
grapefruit / 4187 posts
I was tested in 2nd grade and put into the gifted program. We weren’t a special class though, it was more like a group that met during our regularly scheduled lessons, all from different classes. I stayed in it through 12th grade, it was really helpful for SAT prep because we did accelerated lessons on what would be on the test.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
We had two programs while I was in elementary school, Academically Talented and Artistically Talented. I was in both, but honestly, I feel like it put unnecessary pressure on me, especially with mathematics when I was in middle school and high school. The only thing I “got” out of Academically Talented was a love of logic puzzles.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
Most kids at our school were tested early. My mom didn’t have me tested until 4th grade or so. It was just in time to take the honors courses in middle school.
pomelo / 5866 posts
I was tested into a gifted class in third and fourth grade. I loved it and was continually motivated and challenged. When I moved to another state, I tested out to a full time GT program again but chose to only participate in the part-time program for the remainder of my elementary years, because I wanted to be at the ‘normal’ school with my cousins. Social issues were more important to me because of my parents/recent move/divorce. I was placed into honors English only after the teachers saw my work in junior high. I’m not sure how the referral process works for that but I don’t remember any testing. We moved A LOT after that and didn’t get tested when I moved mid-year. The administration would just stick me in the classes with openings.
Yes, in theory, I believe they should be re-tested as they age but I expect the students would be a little disappointed/stressed if that happened.
blogger / nectarine / 2687 posts
so fascinating! our school district falls into one of the largest 20 in the country and we test in second grade with the AA (advanced academics) program and centers starting in third grade. however, teachers are really good about pushing to have kids admitted in later grades based on their class work, observations and standardized test scores. plus, we also have tiered levels of AA, so there are AA centers where entire classes are formed from AA students and small group AA pull-outs at every school. at our school, some parents opt out of having their children go to the AA center because they’d prefer to have them in the immersion program…
i need to read this book!
blogger / pomelo / 5400 posts
I was tested in first grade for my gifted program. No retesting until I moved in grade 6, and that was only because I switched districts.
persimmon / 1255 posts
I remember taking tests but I think it was for general achievement assessments. In 5th grade, I was placed into Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) classes and I remember thinking that I liked it better cause the teachers were better.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I was in gifted. They tested at my school in the third grade. I still remember parts of the test and when I got my letter saying I was accepted.
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
Hmm… my post went away, but I said something about the testing method being worse than a coin flip! I was a skipper and in the GATE program, but I don’t know that any of it got me further ahead with my career and life. I have very mixed feelings about all this stuff. I want my children to be stimulated, but I also don’t want them to have the pressure of thinking that they are either smart or not smart.