Dynamic Assessment and Its Use With Underserved Gifted and Talented Populations

A relatively new, nontraditional approach to assessing cognitive ability is to instruct students on how to perform on certain tasks and then measure their progress in learning to solve similar problems. This approach, called dynamic assessment, usually consists of a test-intervene-retest format that focuses attention on the improvement in student performance when an adult provides mediated assistance on how to master the testing task. The dynamic assessment approach can provide a means for assesstog disadvantaged, disabled, or limited English proficiency students who have not demonstrated high ability on traditional tests of intelligence and creativity. Dynamic assessment methods should be considered by school districts with large numbers of disadvantaged students which are dissatisfied with the effectiveness of traditional methods for identifying students for specialized enrichment programs.