ABSTRACT
The field struggles to articulate effective strategies for identifying students from underserved populations who would benefit from gifted education services. A core tenet of Promoting PLACE in Rural Schools, a longitudinal, federally funded study, was to increase the number of students identified for gifted education in high-poverty rural schools. As such, researchers examined the impact of implementing an alternative identification process for gifted services, drawing from a student sample (n = 3,945) in 11 rural districts where more than 50% of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. This chapter describes in detail the identification process developed, its implementation, and its impact. Data analysis validated the process in yielding a new pool of students and confirmed that rural gifts may manifest in ways “missed” by traditional identification processes. Results also demonstrate that while students varied on pre-tests of achievement (with alternatively identified students performing lower), there were no differences in scores on the standardized post-tests among the two groups, invalidating claims that alternative assessment leads to the inclusion of students less capable of high levels of achievement.
