ABSTRACT
Every identification system reflects decisions about instruments and criteria used to screen, identify, and place students in educational programs. The identification system should be economical, but effective, in terms of the personnel time, group and individual testing costs, and the cost of other resources necessary to identify gifted and talented students. The axioms explored above and their related postulates point out the hazards in the "landscape" surrounding the always complicated and frequently controversial topic of identifying gifted and talented students for services in special programs. When students get all, or nearly all, items on a test correct, the test may have a ceiling effect meaning that it did not allow the student to demonstrate learning beyond that level of the test. Out-of-level testing is using a more advanced test than is normally administered to a child of a given age or grade level so that a more accurate measure of the student's true level of performance can be made.
