Reliability and Validity of the UNIT - Gifted Screening Scale (UNIT - GSS)

The psychometric integrity of the UNIT - Gifted Screening Scale (UNIT -GSS; McCallum & Bracken, in press) was explored by examining Cronbach's Alphas for each of its scales (reliabilities ranged from .95 to .98). In addition, the concurrent validity was evaluated by comparing scores from non-academically oriented UNIT-GSS scales to other instruments that measure the same constructs for 106 2^nd through 8^th grade students, rated either by their teachers or themselves, on the UNIT-GSS, the Gifted Rated Scales (GRS; Pfeiffer & Jarosewich, 2003), and a self-report instrument designed to measure emotional intelligence, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient: Youth Version Short Form (Bar-On EQ-i: YV [S]; Bar-On & Parker, 2000). To assess concurrent validity of the UNIT-GSS academic scales, scores on and end-of-year achievement test, the Terra Nova Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS; CTB, 1996) were compared (to the academically oriented UNIT-GSS scales). Coefficients for "like" constructs ranged from .46 to .85 (p < .001). Finally, providing evidence of construct validity, all UNIT-GSS scale means for 53 students who participated in a Gifted and Talented program were significantly higher (p < .001) than their matched non-gifted peers.