Universal Talented and Gifted Screener (UTAGS)

• features up-to-date national norms,
• is effective with twice-exceptional learners,
• includes bias-free items, and
• provides a fair assessment regardless of student demographic characteristics.

The UTAGS offers schools a time-saving screener for identifying gifted and advanced learners. Designed to be culturally and linguistically fair, the UTAGS is ideal for schools seeking a nationally normed, statistically sound identification screener. Additionally, the UTAGS includes specific considerations for identifying twice-exceptional learners.

UTAGS is designed to screen potentially gifted students in six important areas of school success:

• cognition,
• creativity,
• leadership,
• literacy,
• math, and
• science.

This theoretically sound instrument provides easily interpretable scores in the IQ metric (i.e., Mean = 100; SD = 15) and identifies student strengths/weaknesses in a quick, accurate, and cost-efficient format. UTAGS provides interpretation norms based on a standardization sample of 2,492 participants from 22 states; student demographics closely reflect the United States population.

The authors also provide a guide for local norming. Assessment fairness was a strong consideration during the UTAGS development, and teacher raters are requested to focus on effective examinee communication strategies rather than addressing the particular language/communication mode employed by the student. Consequently, examinees from other cultures, those who have speech limitations, or those who use nonstandard English are not unfairly penalized.

The UTAGS Complete Kit includes the Administration Manual and 50 forms.

Ages 5 years 0 months-17 years 11 months