ABSTRACT
In education and psychology, assessment is a term that refers to the process of documenting and integrating information from a variety of sources to assist in making a decision. Sources of information can include observations, interviews, and tests of many types. Educational and psychological tests can be an important source of information in educational assessments if the tests are well constructed and the use of the test scores is supported by validity evidence (American Educational Research Association [AERA], American Psychological Association [APA], & the National Council on Measurement in Education [NCME], 1999). As should be clear, assessment is a broader term than testing. In the current chapter, the focus is primarily on nonverbal tests, but the tests are discussed in terms of the type of information that they yield for use when assessing children for placement in programs for gifted and talented students.
