Creativity and Giftedness: Published Instrument Uses and Abuses

This article reports a study of schools' assessment of creativity as part of their identification procedures for gifted programs. School districts across the nation were asked to supply information on the published instruments they use to measure creativity. Although many school districts include creativity as part of their assessment, they continue to have difficulty with the complex conceptual and operational definitions of creativity. Dis-' tricts often select instruments for assessment of creativity without attending to the definition of the construct. Researchers are encouraged to improve the translation of their work to the practitioner so that more valid, reliable, and useful assessment will be possible in the schools.