Addressing underrepresentation of gifted minority children using the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)

A persistent problem in education is the underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted education programs. Many educators attribute the poor participation of diverse students in gifted programs to the ineffectiveness of standardized tests in capturing the ability of these students. Thus, a primary agenda of school selection committees is to find more culturally sensitive measures. This study examined the effectiveness of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) in identifying gifted Black and Hispanic students in comparison to White students. The sample was comprised of 20,270 students in grades K-12 who were similar to the U.S. population on several demographic variables. The distributions of NNAT standard scores were studied separately for White, Black, and Hispanic groups. Results indicate that similar percentages of white (5.6%), Black (5.1%), and Hispanic (4.4%) children earned an NNAT standard score of 125 (95th percentile rank). These findings suggest that the NNAT may be useful as part of a procedure to identify diverse students for gifted education services.