Issues and opportunities when using rating scales to identify creatively gifted students: Applying an IRT approach

ABSTRACT Identifying creatively gifted students remains a challenging yet important task. Often, teacher rating scales are used to assess students’ creative behaviors; however, the school environment may not always provide opportunities for students to demonstrate creative ability, making it challenging for teachers to observe students’ creative potential. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to (1) explore students’ perceptions of their own creativity, (2) determine the discriminatory validity of the creativity subscale of the Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS-C), and (3) compare students’ and teachers’ ratings on the SIGS-C. Data were collected from 236 middle and high school students and their teachers in the United States. Significant differences existed between how students perceived their creativity in general and at school (t(217) = 7.946, p < .001), and their SIGS-C scores more closely correlated with their general ratings (r = .64, p < .001) than their school ratings (r = .20, p < .001). SIGS-C items were analyzed using an IRT approach, and two items (breaking gender stereotypes, spending time alone) did not adequately differentiate between levels of creativity on teacher or student rating scales. Finally, teachers’ ratings were minimally but significantly correlated with the students’ ratings (r = .14, p = .046), demonstrating the importance of considering multiple sources of data when identifying creatively gifted students.