Pegnato Revisited: Using Discriminant Analysis to Identify Gifted Children

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of discriminant analysis and an illustrative example of how this powerful technique can maximize the and (Pegnato and Birch, 1959) of screening procedures for identifying intellectually gifted students. The best predictors of scores on an individually-administered intelligence test were scores on group IQ and achievement tests. Key words: Identification, Giftedness, Discriminant analysis Pegnato Revisited: Using Discriminant Analysis to Identify Gifted Children The identification of gifted students remains a controversial issue in gifted education (Feldhusen & Jarwan, 2000; Hany, 1993; Heller & Feldhusen, 1986; Jarwan & Asher, 1994). In addition to lack of agreement about the nature of giftedness, the practical issue of how to implement an identification system that combines multiple sources of information is a source of debate. In many instances, the definition and operationalization of giftedness is legislated. Although there are many ways that one can be gifted (Marland, 1971), giftedness is often operationalized solely in terms of an arbitrary IQ cut-off score on an individuallyadministered intelligence test. Since the cost of administering this test is very expensive, many school systems implement one or more screening procedures to determine which students should receive the individual intelligence test. Effectiveness and Efficiency A seminal article in the gifted education literature is Pegnato & Birch's (1959) report of the of screening approaches in gifted education, which was based on Pegnato's (1958) dissertation. Pegnato & Birch (1959) introduced the concepts of effectiveness and efficiency of screening procedures for identifying gifted children. In the context of a school system, the of a screening procedure is the ratio of students identified by a procedure to the total number of gifted students in the school system. Unless a school system administers the criterion measure to all of the students in the school system, the number of identified gifted students becomes the estimate for the total. The of a screening procedure is the ratio of the number of students identified by a screening procedure to the number of students referred by a screening procedure. Pegnato and Birch (1959) reported that teachers in their study were able to identify 41 of 91 intellectually gifted students (those with Stanford-Binet IQ scores above 136), resulting in an ratio of 45.1%. To find these 41 students, teachers had to nominate 154 students, resulting in an ratio of 41/154 or 26.6%. There is a trade-off between and efficiency. A group IQ cut-off score of 115 was found to be 92.3% effective in identifying intellectually gifted students. However, the score was only 18.7%. Raising the group IQ cut-off to 130 increased the ratio to 55.5% at the expense of effectiveness, which dropped to 21.9%. Preference for one approach depends upon a person's role in gifted education. Advocates for gifted children want to ensure that every gifted child is identified and served, so advocates are more concerned with effectiveness. Since the cost of administering individual intellectual assessments is expensive, school administrators and school psychologists lean toward efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of discriminant analysis and an illustrative example of how this technique can maximize the and of procedures for identifying intellectually gifted children. Discriminant Analysis Developed by Fisher (1936), discriminant analysis is a multiple regression technique that seeks to find the best linear weighting of predictor variables to maximize the differences among two or more groups. Variables that contribute most to the prediction of group membership in relation to other variables are given the highest weights. …

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