Multiple Measures, Meaningful Insights: Inside the Naglieri General Ability Tests

At a glance:  

• Multiple measures provide deeper insight: The Naglieri General Ability Tests are comprised of three complementary tests (verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative) that can be used individually or together to help educators build a richer and more complete understanding of student general ability. 

• Designed to support fair identification: Language-free, visually based test content helps minimize barriers related to language, culture, and prior academic opportunity, allowing more students to demonstrate their true potential for better identification and support. 

• Flexible reporting supports contextually relevant decisions: Multiple scoring and norm options—including age-based, grade-based, local, and national comparisons—give educators flexibility in how results are interpreted across different student populations and contexts. 

Identifying student potential has never been more complex, or more consequential. As districts face increasing pressure to make defensible, cost-conscious decisions, while also addressing persistent gaps in gifted identification, the need for assessments that are both efficient and fair has never been greater. 

The Naglieri General Ability Tests™ (Naglieri—Verbal, Naglieri—Nonverbal, and Naglieri— Quantitative) provide educators a flexible approach to understanding how students think and solve problems. Grounded in decades of work on ability testing, these three complementary tests are designed to measure general ability while minimizing the influence of language, culture, and prior academic exposure, factors that have historically limited fair identification for many students. 

Traditional identification practices have been shown to contribute to the underrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse learners in gifted programs. By contrast, research consistently highlights the value of using multiple measures and approaches to better capture student potential, reduce missed identification, and support more inclusive decision-making.¹ 

The Naglieri General Ability Tests were developed with this reality in mind. By offering three complementary tests that can be used individually or together, the tests enable districts to adopt a more nuanced, multiple-measure approach—one that reflects how students think, rather than what they have had the opportunity to learn. This approach builds on evidence from nonverbal and ability testing research, which shows that reducing reliance on language and academic knowledge can help uncover strengths in students who might otherwise be overlooked.²

Three Measures for Multifaceted Perspectives  

The Naglieri General Ability Tests are three complementary tests: 

• Naglieri—Verbal  

• Naglieri—Nonverbal  

• Naglieri—Quantitative  

While each test uses different types of content, all three incorporate visual, language-free problem-solving test content, helping reduce unnecessary language demands to support a wider range of students, including those from diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. 

This approach helps educators gain a broader understanding of how students think and solve problems across different contexts—insights that may not emerge from a single measure alone. 

Each test can be used independently as a valid measure of general ability or combined to support a more comprehensive, multiple-measure identification approach. This flexibility allows districts to align assessment practices with their identification models, resource constraints, and fairness goals. 

More Insight Without Added Complexity 

One of the biggest advantages of the Naglieri General Ability Tests is built-in flexibility, providing richer data without adding burden to the assessment process. 

When districts administer two or more tests, they receive: 

• Individual scores for each test   

• A total score that reflects performance across the administered tests  

This approach delivers multiple data points from a single testing experience. Each score provides meaningful information independently, while the total score offers an additional perspective on a student’s overall general ability, supporting more defensible and transparent identification decisions while reducing reliance on a single high-stakes measure. 

For districts balancing budget considerations with the need for defensible, robust data, this flexibility translates directly into value, allowing districts to gather data without extra administrative burden or cost. Schools can tailor their assessment approach based on local needs, without sacrificing the depth or reliability of their insights. 

In addition to flexible test combinations, districts can also choose how students are compared to their peers. Districts have access to: 

• Grade-based norms  

• Age-based norms 

• Local school-level norms  

• Local district-level norms  

• Local subdistrict-level norms 

• National norms  

This range allows educators to select the most appropriate comparison group based on their population, identification model, and decision-making goals, supporting more contextually relevant and fair interpretation. 

Age-based norms are supported by a large post-COVID normative sample of approximately 19,000 students that closely reflects the U.S. population, giving educators additional flexibility in how results are interpreted across different student populations and contexts. 

Designed With Fairness in Mind 

The Naglieri General Ability Tests were intentionally developed to support fair assessment practices. 

Key design features include:  

• Animated instructions—Instructions are presented to the students using animated videos which eliminates the need for comprehension of verbal directions. 

• Measuring thinking rather than knowing—The verbal, nonverbal, and quantitative tests measure thinking with minimal influence of prior knowledge and can be solved regardless of a student’s language background. 

• Multiple choice format—To eliminate the role of verbal expression in the tests, students respond using a multiple-choice format. This ensures that answers reflect thinking ability rather than language skills. 

Rather than heavily emphasizing learned academic content, the tests focus on students’ ability to identify patterns, reason through problems, and think critically. This allows students to demonstrate their abilities in ways that are less influenced by prior opportunity, language proficiency, or educational background. The result is a clearer, more inclusive view of student potential, helping educators identify strengths that may otherwise go unrecognized in more traditional, knowledge-based testing environments. 

A Flexible Solution for Modern Identification 

Every district approaches assessment differently. Best practice in gifted identification emphasizes the use of multiple measures, universal screening, and fair access. 

The Naglieri General Ability Tests are designed to support this range of needs. Whether administered individually or in combination, the tests provide meaningful insights into student general ability, bolstered by various scoring and reporting options that support different identification models and student populations. 

By combining flexible administration and multiple measures, the Naglieri General Ability Tests enable districts to build assessment approaches that reflect both their priorities and their realities. The result is a more complete and actionable understanding of student potential, enabling identification practices that help more students be accurately identified and supported. 

Want to learn more about the authors of the Naglieri General Ability Tests? Visit their website here.   

See how Naglieri General Ability Tests could fit your district’s identification model. Get in touch with a member of our team.   

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References 

1 Hodges, J., Tay, J., Maeda, Y., & Gentry, M. (2018). A meta-analysis of gifted and talented identification practices. Gifted Child Quarterly, 62(2), 147–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986217752244 

2 Lee, H., Karakis, N., Akce, B. O., Tuzgen, A. A., Karami, S., Gentry, M., & Maeda, Y. (2021). A meta-analytic evaluation of the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test: Exploring its validity evidence and effectiveness in equitably identifying gifted students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 65(3), 199–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986221997800