TALENT BEYOND WORDS - IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL TALENT IN DANCE ANDMUSIC IN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

We present evidence for the reliability and validity of the Talent Ide ntification Instrument (TII), an observation process in music and danc e in which multiple judges rate students throughout a multisession aud ition. The approach was designed to recognize previously overlooked ab ilities in urban elementary students, including low income, bilingual, and special education students. The TII observation process was desig ned to evoke artful behaviors that can be readily recognized by arts s pecialists and classroom teachers. We found strong agreement among rat ers and adequate stability estimates. Evidence for validity was obtain ed through factor analysis and a variety of construct validity procedu res. The performance-based assessment described here may have implicat ions for discovering hidden potential in academic as well as artistic domains.