ABSTRACT
Identification takes center stage in many discussions of appropriate programming for gifted students. In this chapter, the means of carrying out the identification and placement process in fair, equitable, and informative ways will be considered in light of both students who have been traditionally represented in gifted programs and those who have been historically under-represented. Traditional approaches to identifying gifted students are characterized by the use of scores from norm-referenced tests and other quantified information about individual students to make a judgment about which gifted services a student will or will not receive. The majority of the state definitions of gifted and talented encompass one or more of the multiple areas of giftedness reflected in the federal definition of giftedness. Specifics for identifying gifted students using the definition of giftedness that Renzulli has developed are aligned with the process, but there are significant differences.
