Parents as Identifiers of Giftedness, Ignored But Accurate

A stratified sample of 465 kindergartners enrolled in Rockford Public Schools, were administered the Slossen Intelligence Test and two performance subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Children who scored 132 and above on the SIT were identified as gifted for purposes of the study. The WISC performance scores were scaled and an I.Q. equivalency assigned according to the normed technique developed by Massey. Students who were not identified as gifted on the SIT but who achieved a WISC equivalence score of 120 or above were called hidden potential. Parents were administered a questionnaire asking them if their child was gifted according to stated criteria. Teachers were asked to identify gifted students in their classrooms. The parents nominated a total of 276 (39 gifted, 36 hidden potentials, and 201 non-gifted by either criterion). They correctly nominated 39 of the total 58 for an effective of nomination of 76%. The kindergarten