Skip To Main Content

Identification Purposes of Gifted and Talented Students

Gifted Students - Who are they?

 

Gifted and talented students are those who are identified in grades one through twelve as demonstrating high performance ability or potential in academic and/or artistic areas and therefore require educational programming beyond that normally provided by the general school programming in order to achieve their potential.

 

Identification Process

 

Gifted and talented students may be found within any racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group; within any nationality; within both genders; and within populations with disabilities.  Identification is a multi-step process, which consists of referral, screening, and assessment of eligibility by a district evaluation and placement team.  In order to qualify for placement in gifted/talented programs, a student must meet the eligibility criteria in TWO out of the following three dimensions below:

 

  • Dimension A -- Reasoning***

Students must score at or above the 93rd national age percentile on a nationally normed aptitude test.  Students may be eligible for placement on the basis of aptitude scores alone if they score at or above the 96th national age percentile on the composite score of a nationally normed aptitude test. 

 

  • Dimension B --Achievement

Students must score at or above the 94th national percentile on approved reading or math subtests on a nationally normed achievement test such as MAP or score at the performance standard level set at the state level on the South Carolina ELA and/or math tests.  Students are NOT eligible on the basis of achievement scores alone.

 

  • Dimension C -- Academic Performance is only applied if student has already met Dimension A or B.  

For placement in grades 3-6, a student must achieve a performance standard set on verbal or non-verbal performance tasks which are administered in February of each year. A 3.75 grade point average in the academic disciplines may also be used starting as a rising 6th grader.

 

 *** Automatic Eligibility for Placement:  A composite score of 96th national age percentile or higher on a nationally normed aptitude or intelligence test.

 

 Evaluation for Placement

 

Eligibility Criteria in at least Two of Three Dimensions:

Screening/Referral/Assessment 

Criteria

Examples of Qualifying Test(s)

 

Dimension A:

Reasoning Ability

(Scores only valid for 5 years)

93rd age percentile or higher on a nationally normed aptitude test (Verbal, Nonverbal, Composite)

CogAT (V, NV, C)

Raven (NV only)

NNAT (NV only)

Dimension B:

High Achievement in Reading and/or Mathematical Areas

(Scores only valid for 2 years)

 

94th percentile or higher on nationally normed achievement test

OR

SC Ready

Qualifying score on SC state test set annually by the state

 

STAR

Iowa Test of Basic Skills

Standford 10

Dimension C:

Intellectual/Academic Performance

PTA in grades 2-5 only and then in grades 5-12 GPA

Qualifying score on South Carolina Performance Tasks (Verbal or Nonverbal) Rising grades 2-5

 

SC Performance Tasks

(administered annually in February/March only if they have one dimension)

GPA on 3.75 scale for core content classes and yearlong world language

 

 

 For help reading your child's Gift Profile sheet click here.

 

For further information about SC Department of Education state identification criteria click here.