Assessment of gifted students for identification purposes: New techniques for a new millennium

The augmented theory of successful intelligence [Sternberg, R. J. (2003b). Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity synthesized. New York: Cambridge University Press] postulates that intelligence comprises creative skills in generating novel ideas; analytical skills in discerning whether they are good ideas; practical skills in implementing the ideas and persuading others of their worth; and wisdom-based skills in employing one's creative, analytical, and practical skills for a common good. The article summarizes three projects designed to identify gifts. In the Rainbow Project, my colleagues and I found that it was possible substantially to increase prediction of first-year university academic performance and simultaneously reduce ethnic-group differences on the predictive test, relative to a standardized test used for admissions in the United States. In the Kaleidoscope Project, my colleagues and I found that students admitted for expanded skills performed as well as did other students, without the ethnic-group differences typically obtained in such measures. In the Aurora Project, Elena Grigorenko, Mei Tan, and their colleagues are seeking to identify giftedness in students at the upper elementary grades. All three projects show that it is possible to apply the augmented theory of successful intelligence in ways that enhance gifted identification.