Transferability of norms and its implication in cross-cultural gifted education: norming Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) in the Philippine public schools

This is a normative study to investigate the transferability of norms from western-based intelligence tests to Filipino students. More than 2,700 Filipino sixth graders were sampled across the country and administered the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT). Scores were then compared to the US normative sample. The results showed no significant differences in mean scores and the standardized mean difference is small when scaled scores are used in comparison. However, in situations where the test needs to be used for specific portions of the population such as in the context of gifted education, further analysis revealed that the distribution of scores for the Philippine sample differed significantly from the expected values based on the US norms, particularly in the tail ends of the distribution. In these cases, it may not be valid to transfer the US norms directly to Filipino students without any modification.