Gifted Rating Scales

The Gifted Rating Scale (GRS) is a scholastic assessment for school children. It is used mostly for Gifted & Talented admissions. It is administered by a teacher who knows the child well. The teacher rates specific gifted behaviors that they have observed over time.

Rating scales have developed since the early 1970s to assess general child psychometrics and psychopathology.

The Gifted Rating Scales, first published in 2003, are authored by Steven Ira Pfeiffer, PhD (1950-), and Tania Jarosewich, PhD. The GRS is completed through teacher evaluations and measures giftedness on multiple scales.

The GRS-P, designed for children in preschool and kindergarten, evaluates children on five scales:

The GRS-S, designed for children in grades 1-8, evaluates giftedness in children on six scales:

Notwithstanding skepticism — that laypeople lack expertise, objectivity, and consistency to administer the GRS — Harbrace contends that the GRS, by design, allows for minimal observational bias and a high degree of measurement accuracy, especially at higher levels.

One of the best advantages of using the GRS, as compared to interviews, is that it is easy to administer and less expensive than traditional large-scale testing. Time for administration is usually modest. Rater bias and subjectivity of responding can be reduced by using a standardized presentation of questions, though this has yet to be researched. The GRS can be routinely administered in schools. While the GRS itself is fairly new, rating scales tend to have good data on reliability and validity.

GRS validation studies have been accepted for publication in journals including Gifted Child Quarterly, which has accepted three GRS validity studies, the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment and the Roeper Review. It is important to note that research on the topic of the GRS has been published by the authors of the GRS, or one of their current or former students. Interested persons should consult the Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook review of the GRS for additional information on this and other rating scales.

Harcourt Assessment, Inc. is a unit of Harcourt Education, which is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc.

The GRS as a rating scale has yet to be evaluated up to the level commonly accepted by major research associations (NCTM, AERA, APA). As such its use in gifted and talented identification at this point is questionable. Although the GRS is among the top-tier of such rating scales meant to be used for gifted and talented identification, it is also by far the most expensive.

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