Older children have a greater chance to be accepted to gifted student programmes

Elad Segev*, Sorel Cahan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Selection to programmes for gifted students in Israel, performed in the second grade, relies on raw ability and achievement test scores, irrespective of age, thereby ignoring the well-known effect of within-grade age differences on test scores. Employing the entire cohort of third graders of legal age (67,366 students, 1.4% of whom were enrolled in a gifted programme) in 2011, this study examined the relationship between chronological age and the probability of acceptance to programmes for the gifted in Israel. The results reveal an almost perfect correlation between chronological age and the probability of being selected for a gifted programme (r2 = 0.92): older students have approximately 3.5 times greater chance of acceptance than younger students. Reliance on raw ability and achievement test scores, unadjusted for age, in selection to gifted students programmes is thus shown to be biased in favour of older students and to unintentionally discriminate against younger students.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4-15
Number of pages12
JournalAssessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice
Volume21
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2014

Keywords

  • age at school entry
  • age at testing
  • gifted programmes
  • school
  • selection

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