“I’m gifted!”

My adolescent education as determined by an intelligence test

In the 3rd grade I brought a pamphlet home to my parents endorsing the Gifted Program, a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) program for students in grade 4 to 12. In the pamphlet, the Ontario Ministry of Education describes “giftedness” as an “unusually advanced degree of general intellectual ability that requires differentiated learning experiences of a depth and breadth beyond those normally provided…(DDSB: Who are the gifted?, 2013)” To be quite frank, I doubt I fit into this definition as a 10-year-old (let alone now as a 21-year-old), yet I went through the procedures of applying to the program to satisfy my hopeful parents. After passing the first two steps in the application, the prerequisite grades and an educator nomination, I was on to the last step of the process — the intelligence test.

On the day of the intelligence test, a psychologist sat me down in the office and proceeded to administer — what I now know today is — the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV). The WISC-IV is an intelligence test for children between the age of 6 and 16 composed of five primary index scores: Verbal Comprehension Index, Visual Spatial Index, Fluid Reasoning Index, Working Memory Index, and Processing Speed Index. These index scores generate a Full Scale IQ which represents a child’s general intellectual ability.

A week after my testing, I received a letter stating that my WISC-IV scores had not qualified me for the Gifted Program. Needless to say, the rejection was a huge blow to my self-esteem. It left me feeling ashamed and embarrassed at my failure. Eventually with time and an amazing support system in my parents, the emotional and mental wounds healed and in grade 6, I applied again to the Gifted Program. This time, I did well enough on the WISC-IV to get in. I was gifted.

Looking back, it’s crazy to think of the impact that an intelligence test had on not only my self-esteem but also the quality of my education. This raises the questions:

1. Is the WISC-IV a valid measurement of intelligence? And if so,
2. Does intelligence change over a person’s lifespan?

The WISC-IV is a valid measure of intelligence. As acknowledged by psychologists, the test is used in clinical practice to measure a child’s intellectual performance and adaptation in day-to-day life (Williams et. al., 2003, pg. 8). Through my experiences of attending the Gifted Program from grades 7 through 12, I have met Harvard-bound students in the normal curriculum and can identify individuals in my Gifted class who received failing grades often. However, I did notice that on average, students in my Gifted Program received better grades than the students in the normal curriculum, as supported by the much higher university application-to-acceptance success rate of my graduating Gifted class compared to the normal curriculum classes.

So if the WISC-IV is a valid measure, then can intelligence change through a person’s lifespan, as indicated by my significantly better score in the 6th grade compared to the 3rd grade? A 2013 study published in Psychological Assessment by Marley Watkins tackled these two questions head-on, and concluded that it cannot be assumed that WISC-IV scores will be consistent across long test-retest intervals for individual students. The paper further elaborates that “[clinicians] should question recertification of eligibility for special education on the basis of historical WISC-IV scores. (Watkins, 2013, pg. 479–480)”

Although the WISC-IV is a valid and reliable intelligence test for a child’s present intelligence, there is not enough evidence to show that it is indicative of a child’s future intelligence. As a child grows, there are too many factors that can affect their intellectual ability to assume long-term stability. Yet parents, educators, and clinicians rely heavily on the WISC-IV to determine a child’s present and future enrolment in TDSB’s Gifted Program. New guidelines must be implemented to either administer intelligence tests periodically, or to find a way to reliably measure long-term intelligence. Because if the WISC-IV can be used to label me as “not gifted” in the 3rd grade and “gifted” in the 6th grade, then the opposite can happen too.

260517749

DDSB: Who are the gifted? (2013). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://www.ddsb.ca/Programs/SpecialEducation/GiftedProgram/Pages/FAQ's---Gifted-Students.aspx

Williams, P. E., Weiss L. G., Rolfhus E. L. (2003). WISC-IV Clinical Validity. The Psychological Corporation WISC-IV Technical Report #3, 8.

Watkins, M. W., & Smith, L. G. (2013). Long-term stability of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Fourth Edition.Psychological Assessment, 25(2), 479–480.