Are Teacher Rating Scales of Gifted Student Behavior Just Measures of Personality?

IQ Research
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A new article in the GCQ journal examines teacher rating scales for selecting kids for gifted programs. The authors’ conclusion is that these scales are mostly just poorly constructed personality scales that favor kids with high conscientiousness and openness to experience.

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In other words, they systematically favor compliant kids and “good students,” even if students with other personality traits are just as smart.

Another finding is how little agreement there is among the scales, which is apparent in the image below. Whether a teacher rates a child as “gifted” probably depends a lot on the scale that teacher uses and not the child’s actual traits.

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This study raises a lot of fundamental questions about the use of rating scales in gifted programs:

:right_arrow: If these scales mostly measure personality, why not just use personality tests?
:right_arrow: Why should personality be a consideration at all for selecting kids for gifted programs?
:right_arrow: What has the validity process looked like for these scales?

We think that a just using a IQ test battery is a better choice that solves a lot of problems for educators.

Original post: https://x.com/RiotIQ/status/2009647350437028078?s=20
Link to study: 10.1177/00169862251397381

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This is kind of alarming honestly. So teachers are basically identifying “gifted” kids based on who’s conscientious and agreeable rather than actual cognitive ability? No wonder so many bright but unconventional kids get overlooked. The lack of agreement between different rating scales is especially concerning. Feels like whether you get into a gifted program depends more on luck and teacher bias than anything else.

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I’ve always suspected this! The “gifted” kids in my school growing up were mostly just the quiet, organized ones who turned assignments in on time. Meanwhile some of the smartest kids I knew were bouncing off the walls or daydreaming constantly. Using personality as a proxy for intelligence is such a flawed approach. Just test cognitive ability directly and stop pretending behavior correlates with IQ.