Gifted student = perfect student? [TAG]

I was chatting on Google Talk the other night with a friend I've known since preschool. He's moved across the country since graduating college, so we've ended up communicating strictly over the internet. We got on the subject of my job and he asked me about identification. I gave him an overview of our identification plan (once I actually go through the process I'll post about it) with the caveat that we don't "formally identify" until the Spring of 3rd grade.

He went on to tell me that he got "kicked out" of TAG in 2nd grade. He said he was, "invited to come for like a couple weeks, and then they just said 'Don't go today' and I never went again." His mom just happened to be online while we were talking, so he asked her about it. She had a memory of being told that he wasn't getting his daily work done in his regular-ed classroom, which was why he was being taken out of the TAG room.

I have high expectations for my students. I also maintain a discussion with my students about their having raised expectations for themselves. Did the expectations my friend's teachers had for him ("get all your daily work done") match the outcome the expectations affected ("get the label of 'gifted'")? The teachers were looking at a behavior of my friend (it could just as easily have been "you are messy") to determine the potential of his intellectual abilities.

This story is an illustration. It was related to me for the first time 20 years after the fact, without hearing the teachers' side. That's beside the point anyway. I'm not looking to lay blame, or even say that this has held my friend back in life (he is currently finishing up a Master's Degree in Theology). I just wonder if we're identifying the needs of gifted students with the right tools. I hope you're with me when I say I wouldn't measure a home run with a ruler.

What are some tools you've seen or used that worked well for identifying gifted needs in students? Any that haven't worked or perhaps led you astray, looking back in hindsight?