Details

     The DISCOVER assessment was developed and refined over a 13-year period, supported by the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs and the Javits Gifted and Talented Education Program. It has been used with varied multicultural populations in the United States and abroad, and with students from varied economic levels. One well-established aspect of its validity is that when used to assess abilities, the percentage of students who receive the highest ratings is similar across ethnic, racial, language, and economic groups (Nielson, 1994; Maker, 1997; Sarouphim, 1999). Shonebaum (1997) also found that deaf students can be assessed effectively with DISCOVER, and that the only modification needed is to videotape rather than audiotape students' storytelling.

     Reliability

     Expert DISCOVER observers agreed more frequently and consistently (r =.92 to 1.00) than novice DISCOVER observers (.47 to .92). However, across experience levels, observers agreed 95% of the time on the highest rating of problem solving, the category used for placement in special programs (Griffiths, 1996). Recent studies showed that agreement between DISCOVER personnel with varying levels of experience was 81% overall and 100% on the highest rating. Agreements between DISCOVER personnel and school district teams was 85%, and was 82% among the members of the district's team (Kassymov, April, 2000).

     Validity

     In a concurrent validity study, Sarouphim (1999a) found that DISCOVER assessment results for spatial, logical-mathematical, and linguistic abilities were consistent with independent ratings made by both classroom teachers and a researcher who observed students in the classroom. Lori (1997) found a significant correlation between storytelling ability and personal intelligences in Bahraini children. Sarouphim (1999b) also studied the relationship between scores on the Raven Progressive Matrices in 257 kindergarten, second, fourth, and fifth grade students. In this group of predominately Navajo and Mexican American students, she found the highest correlations with spatial artistic (r = .58, p<.01), spatial analytical (r = .39, p<.01) and math (r = .35, p.<01) as one would expect, since the Raven is a measure of non-verbal logical reasoning. Lower correlations appeared between Raven scores and oral (r = .20, ns) and written linguistic (r = .093, ns) DISCOVER ratings.

     In a study of 55 gifted private school Caucasian students (without correcting for restricted range of IQ) Stevens (2000) found significant correlations between DISCOVER spatial artistic (r = .373, p.<.01) and written linguistic (r = .34, p<.05) activities and Full-Scale IQ. He found significant correlations between spatial artistic (r = .27, p<.05) and written linguistic (r = .388, p<.01) activities and verbal IQ. The only significant correlation with performance IQ was the spatial artistic activity (r = .369, p<.01). Griffiths (1997), however, did not find significant relationships between DISCOVER and WISC III or WPPSI verbal or performance IQ or full-scale IQ in her study of 34 Mexican American kindergarten students identified as gifted using DISCOVER. In this case, IQ scores ranged from 88 to 137 with a mean of 115.

     A recent analysis showed that the spatial analytical activity (solving tangram puzzles of increasing difficulty) correlated with total IQ (r = .272, p<.05) measured by the Otis-Lennon School Abilities Test in second-grade students (N=72). For male students (N=37) the relationship was stronger (r = .441, p<.05), but for female students (N=35), the only significant relationship was between DISCOVER math and non-verbal IQ (r =.454, p<.05). When scores were analyzed separately by ethnicity, no significant relationships were found for Hispanics (N=24), or African American (N=18) students. However, for Caucasian students (N=24), significant relationships were found between the spatial analytical assessment and total IQ (r =.477, p<.05), between spatial artistic and non-verbal IQ (r =.719, p<.05). In other internal analyses, we have found no significant relationships between the DISCOVER assessment activities and a cross-cultural non-verbal test of creativity, the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) (Urban, 1996) in any cultural or age group studied. A possible reason for the lack of correlation is that the TCT-DP is an assessment of divergent thinking in a decontextualized situation.

 
 

      References

     Almegta. (1997). Correlation of standardized math achievement, DISCOVER math worksheet, ability, and gender of American Indian students.  Unpublished Manuscript.  The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Griffiths, S.E. (1996). The inter-observer reliability of the DISCOVER problem-solving assessment.  Unpublished manuscript. The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Griffiths, S. E. (1997). The comparitive validity of assessments based on different theories for the purpose of identifying gifted ethnic minority students.  Unpublished doctoral dissertation. The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Kassamov, A. (2000). Researchers and implementers: Comparison of inter-rater reliability. Manuscript in preparation. The University of Arizona DISCOVER Project.

     Lori, A.A. (1997). Storytelling and personal traits: Investigating the relationship between children’s storytelling ability and their interpersonal and intrapersonal traits. Gifted Education International. 13(1) 57- 66.

     Maker, C.J.  (1997). DISCOVER Problem-Solving Assessment.  Quest, 8(1), 3, 5, 7, 9.

     Nielson, A. (1994).  Traditional identification: Elitist, racist, sexist?  New Evidence. CAG Communicator, 24(3), 18-19, 26-31.

     Shonebaum, J.A. (1997). Assessing the Multiple Intelligences of Children who are Deaf with the DISCOVER process and the use of American Sign Language.  Unpublished masters thesis.  The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Sarouphim, K. (2000).  Internal structure of  DISCOVER: A performance-based assessment.  Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 23(3), 314-327.

     Sarouphim, K. (1999a). Discovering multiple intelligences through a performance-based assessment: Consistency with independent ratings.  Exceptional Children, 65(2), pp.151-161.

     Sarouphim, K. (1999b).  DISCOVER:  A promising alternative assessment for the identification of gifted minorities.  Gifted Child Quarterly, 43(4), 244-251.

     Romanoff, B.S. (1999). Achievement of African American students and White students: A comparative study of placement in the program for the gifted.  Unpublished doctoral dissertation.  The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Stevens, B. (2000). Relationships between the DISCOVER assessment and Wechsler Intelligence Scales as identifiers of gifted children. Unpublished masters thesis. The University of Arizona, Tucson.

     Urban, K. (1996). Test of Creative Thinking – Drawing Production, Swets & Zeitlinger, Inc.

Visit Us Back to Home Page Contact Us