An Exploratory Study of the Psychometric Properties of the Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument at Grades 6-12

Educators have long been challenged to close the achievement gap which exists between the general school population and linguistically diverse students. However, a disconnect persists between most secondary teachers and culturally and linguistically divergent students. Because of this disparity, the call for equity education becomes more arduous. The absence of culturally and linguistically diverse students in gifted and talented programs is a glaring indication that too few educators have the ability to look beyond their immediate paradigms. One way in which to increase diverse student representation is to provide teachers with additional instruments to assist in the identification of students? gifted tendencies. The Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument (HBGSI) is a tool specifically designed for teachers who may not be aware of cultural differences among themselves and Hispanic students. The goal of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the HBGSI with secondary Hispanic students in grades 6-12.

Eleven secondary teachers answered the Hispanic Bilingual Gifted Screening Instrument with their ELL Hispanic students (n=101) in mind. Findings showed a correlation among students identified by teachers as gifted and those who passed the state required reading/language arts test. This study also examined the psychometric properties of the HBGSI within grades 6-12, whereas former studies have included grades kindergarten through fourth grade students. This investigation revealed the eleven components of the instrument can be loaded into three identifying dimensions: a) Student Awareness and Initiative, b) Tangible and Intangible Student Influences, and c) Student Communicative Language. Exploratory analysis of the HBGSI?s psychometric properties examines whether a concurrent validity exists when compared with another non-verbal measurement (NNAT2) for giftedness. Implications from this study demonstrated that the screening instrument, HBGSI, may be considered a viable tool to help secondary teachers identify gifted potential among Hispanic English learners.