Screening for Potential, Assessing for Achievement: A Study of Instrument Validity for Early Identification of High Academic Potential in Norway

Figures & data

Figure 1. Relationship between R², true and false positives, and true and false negatives.

Figure 2. The interpretation/use argument for identifying children with high academic potential.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics, cases.

	SKOLEKLAR (all cases)	Kindergarten (complete data)	8th Grade (complete data)
Number of cases	243	219	136
Girls: number (percentage)	119 (49%)	105 (48%)	70 (50%)
Child's birth month: mean (SD)	6.6 (3.48)	6.6 (3.51)	6.3 (3.46)
Mother's education level*: mean (SD)	3.3 (1.30)	3.3 (1.29)	3.4 (1.25)
Family income decile*: mean (SD)	8.5 (1.27)	8.5 (1.25)	8.6 (1.15)

*when child was in kindergarten.

Table 2. Questionnaire items retained in the teacher and parent scales.

Teacher Nomination Scale

The child can already write and read

The child shows early interest in geography, the universe, and nature or other topics

The child can create interesting and unusual shapes with different materials

The child can solve a puzzle meant for older children

The child understands abstract concepts like the meaning of “death” or the meaning of “time”

The child learns new skills without much training and repetition

The child asks many questions and gives many comments to adults

Parent Nomination Scale

The child learnt to speak early (e.g., first words around 6 months, first sentence around 12 months, and simple conversations around 18 months)

The child had many questions about concepts before the age of three

The child has a high level of concentration (e.g., the child spent much time playing alone with a toy or looking in a picture book before 2 years old)

The child learned to read and write quite early (around the age of three)

Table 3. Models regressing kindergarten academic achievement on each academic potential scale.

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
Intercept	−0.69**	−0.62**	−0.55*	−0.39	−0.99***	−0.08
Parent scale	0.35***
Teacher scale		0.51***
IQ test			0.52***
Combined scale (mean)				0.65***
Combined score (logical OR)					0.71***
Combined scale (logical AND)						0.67***
(control) Mother's education	0.24***	0.18**	0.17**	0.13*	0.17**	0.18**
n	136	136	136	136	136	136
F (2, 133)	19.11	29.79	36.06	53.78	36.49	41.93
p	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
RSE	0.914	0.862	0.835	0.771	0.833	0.812
R^2	0.22	0.31	0.35	0.45	0.35	0.39

Note: *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 4. Kindergarten screening, 1.28 SD cut-off.

	Total nominated	True positives	True negatives	Sensitivity	Specificity	OCC*
Parent scale	11	5	105	0.20	0.95	0.81
Teacher scale	15	8	104	0.32	0.94	0.82
IQ test	15	6	102	0.24	0.92	0.79
Combined (mean)	13	9	107	0.36	0.96	0.85
Combined (logical OR)	32	14	93	0.56	0.84	0.79
Combined (logical AND)	1	1	111	0.04	1.00	0.82

* Overall correct classification.

Table 5. Kindergarten screening, 0.67 SD cut-off.

	Total nominated	True positives	True negatives	Sensitivity	Specificity	OCC
Parent scale	31	12	92	0.48	0.83	0.76
Teacher scale	51	20	80	0.80	0.72	0.74
IQ test	52	17	76	0.68	0.68	0.68
Combined (mean)	40	20	91	0.80	0.82	0.82
Combined (logical OR)	81	23	52	0.92	0.47	0.55
Combined (logical AND)	11	7	107	0.28	0.96	0.84

Table 6. Models regressing 8th grade academic achievement on each academic potential scale.

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
Intercept	−1.06***	−0.98***	−0.89***	−0.78***	−1.30***	−0.62**
Parent scale	0.26**
Teacher scale		0.42***
IQ test			0.48***
Combined scale (mean)				0.55***
Combined score (logical OR)					0.68***
Combined scale (logical AND)						0.49***
(control) Mother's education	0.31***	0.27***	0.25***	0.21***	0.24***	0.27***
n	136	136	136	136	136	136
F (2, 133)	22.25	32.48	43.79	52.03	46.64	33.94
p	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
RSE	0.872	0.826	0.782	0.755	0.772	0.820
R^2	0.25	0.33	0.40	0.44	0.41	0.34

Note: *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 7. 8th grade sensitivity and OCC of screening, 1.28 SD and 0.67 SD cut-offs.

	1.28 SD cut-off		0.67 SD cut-off
	Sensitivity	OCC	Sensitivity	OCC
Parent scale	0.21	0.83	0.32	0.72
Teacher scale	0.47	0.88	0.74	0.69
IQ test	0.26	0.82	0.63	0.65
Combined (mean)	0.32	0.85	0.68	0.76
Combined (logical OR)	0.63	0.94	0.84	0.50
Combined (logical AND)	0.00	0.85	0.21	0.84

Figure 3. High academic potential and academic achievement, by gender and mother's education.