Originally Posted by pinkpanther
Okay, so here's the latest after talking with the psych friend. DD's VIQ was 140, her PIQ was 119, and her FSIQ was 134. There's definitely a discrepancy there which totally explains DD's low NNAT score and the reason she was denied entrance into GATE. The phych asked me what the school cutoff was, so I explained how it all worked (130+ on individual test or 17 out of 20 points on a matrix for schools that screen, like ours). He was very puzzled at the school's reasoning for using only a nonverbal screener because he said a verbal score is a much better indicator. He said we should consider asking the school to do the WISC or have it done privately.

Here's the rub. My friend doesn't want to produce a writeup of her WASI because he's our friend and it would not be ethical. I completely understand this. He said that he's given 900+ WASI's, so he feels very confident that these scores are an accurate reflection of her abilities. He's definitely concerned for DD and on our side in all of this, but he also wants to do the right thing professionally.

So now what we need is hard core evidence for the school. Whether that's in the form of writing samples or private testing results, I don't know. Then there's still the OLSAT in the spring. I just don't know the right way to approach this. My friend can definitely recommend someone to test DD privately if we choose that route.

DH and I are having lunch today...there will be lots to talk about.

DH and I decided to write a letter to the school/school system and see what we could get from them in terms of more testing. After a month of waiting for a response (I did nag a few times via email), they are offering to test DD9 with another screener, probably the RIST. I'm not terribly crazy about this choice because it's a very short assessment, but it does have a verbal component. Since the system screens, the gifted ed specialist gives the screeners, so that's why it has to be a B level assessment (i.e. nothing thorough mad). If DD scores high enough to place, we're done. If she doesn't, but scores high enough for further testing, they will do that but the psychometrist is booked up into June.

DD is also taking the OLSAT/SAT next week. So, our other option is to opt out of the RIST and wait for OLSAT scores. The school gets the scores in late July or early August, and then they will look at her scores to see if she qualifies.

I only forgot to ask one thing: If DD tanks the RIST or falls short in individual testing this summer, will they still look at her OLSAT scores? I can't imagine why the answer would be no, but I'll have to ask. If the answer is yes, then I guess we have nothing to lose by requesting the testing now.

When I inquired about private testing, I was told that they could only use the results as a referral and not for placement. mad

Is this progress? All of this is making me nervous/sick!


Last edited by pinkpanther; 03/28/08 06:19 PM. Reason: added part about private testing