Gifted Students & the AIMS test

Parents of gifted students may be surprised to learn that their children did not exceed the standard on the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test. State data show that this occurs widely, regardless of the gifted program model in which the students are enrolled. The following information may help explain why this occurs.

Students identified as gifted demonstrate higher levels of cognitive abilities in comparison to their chronological peers. Gifted students are abstract thinkers, intuitive and make generalizations and connections that age peers do not. They have a greater capacity for learning, reasoning and understanding.  Ability tests used to identify giftedness measure students’ aptitude for learning.

Scoring in the gifted range on an ability test does not guarantee that students will achieve in all content areas on an achievement test. Achievement tests measure retained knowledge of specific information learned in school based on grade level standards. AIMS is a criterion-referenced test on which students must demonstrate knowledge of grade level standards in a forced response format.

Intuitively, we would expect that students who have the ability to learn at high levels should be able to demonstrate mastery of grade level standards on an achievement test such as AIMS.  However, gifted children learn at deeper levels and in more abstract ways. Because criterion referenced test items measure concrete basic facts, gifted students commonly over-analyze the test questions. In Mis-Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis of Gifted Children, Jim Webb describes possible problems that may be associated with characteristic strengths of gifted kids:

• Strength — Gifted students acquire and retain information quickly.
  
  
• Possible Problem — Gifted students may be impatient with slowness of others; dislike routine and drill; may resist
  mastering foundational skills; may make concepts unduly complex.  

We must remember that the AIMS is a snapshot of a student’s achievement on one particular day, it is not a full measure.  It is important to look at all other assessments in addition to the AIMS.

Other assessments include benchmark testing, report cards, end-of-unit tests, performance-based products and teacher observations and remarks.