Gifted Programs
Determining which children might be served best by gifted programs within a given school system or district may not be an easy decision to make. Exceptional students are talented in many ways and there is nothing consistent about their talents and skill levels.
Most schools use a variety of testing methods to determine enrollment in gifted programs and can gain a pretty comprehensive assessment of a child's abilities when looking at scores and performance levels that cover a broad scope of subjects as opposed to narrowing the enrollment criteria to just one factor, such as IQ score.
Of course, IQ scores are important where gifted programs are offered. One problem with them, however, is that they are designed to measure intelligence in the average range of students, not the exceptionally bright or gifted students. There just aren't enough people in the highest score range to warrant including enough questions to determine varying levels of intelligence for this category of test taker.
There are also many versions of IQ tests, each with its own scoring system, that makes relying on IQ scores alone confusing when determining admittance to gifted programs at many schools. A somewhat standardized deviation to traditional IQ scoring identifies different levels of giftedness as follows:
- Bright: scores higher than 115 (as do 1 in 6 test takers), meaning 84% of all test takers score lower than 115
- Moderately Gifted: higher than 130 (1 in 50), or 97.9%
- Highly Gifted: higher than 145 (1 in 1,000), or 99.9%
- Exceptionally Gifted: higher than 160 (1 in 30,000), or 99.997%
- Profoundly Gifted: higher than 175 (1 in 3,000,000), or 99.99997%
For most measures of IQ, the average range falls between 70 and 130.
Of course even a profoundly gifted child may struggle with certain courses offered via gifted programs. Even exceptional students have strengths and weaknesses and the more gifted students may have issues of relating to students, teachers, and other adults that students of more average intellect don't experience.
Once IQ has been determined, most gifted programs will want further evaluation of any likely candidates for other areas of academic or artistic achievement. A well-rounded education, especially for the most gifted, means a broad base of learning from which to build an educational and professional future.