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    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Our limited testing experiences have made me wonder which is more accurate, school testing or private. My gut tells me that private testing means much more, but we have very little personal experience to go by.

    DD9
    NNAT 110 (given at school)
    WASI FSIQ 134, PIQ 119, VIQ 140 (given privately)

    DD6
    NNAT 104 (given at school)
    RIAS CIX 114, NIX 121, VIX 105 (given at school)

    DD6's scores don't make sense to us, based on what we know about her reading and writing skills. We expected the VIX to be much higher, and in fact, we thought it would be higher than the NIX. The RIAS only takes 30 minutes AND DD6 is highly distractable, too. Believe it or not, the NIX of 121 was enough to qualify her for gifted services, along with her 99th percentile achievement test results, writing samples, and teacher ratings. I think there must be more to that story than I'm seeing from the school scores.

    Thoughts on the RIAS? I really know nothing about it, and I can't find much info out there.

    Has anyone had discrepancies between school and private test scores? I just don't have much faith in the system.

    Last edited by pinkpanther; 03/05/08 02:00 PM. Reason: wrong VIX score reported
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    We've only gone with private testing. Our schools won't test before 3rd grade unless a child is failing.

    For gifted, they are all screened with CogAT in 3rd, 4th or 5th grade.

    Last edited by Cathy A; 03/05/08 01:59 PM.
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    None of it really makes sense to me. The only thing I can find on the RIAS is that it correlates something like .6 or .7 with the WISC (which means the two scores could be very different). Yes, I agree that brief testing is limited.

    I met the school psychometrist, and she's kind of a quiet mousy type. I'm not sure DD6 would respond well to her, and maybe that explains a lot.

    Yes, at least her achievement tests were high, and her work samples wowed them. I guess that was enough to show them what she could do.

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    I trust individual scores over group tests. The NNAT is a group score, isn't it?

    DS's school-administered group CogAT gave him scores a good deal lower--like an SD or two!--than even the bad-day testing with the SB5, let alone the good-day testing with the WISC.

    FWIW...


    Kriston
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    Originally Posted by Dottie
    This is Dottie...reminding Dottie....that we really don't need private scores!

    You folks are getting my anxious heart a-stirring again! I console myself by saying that all three are now pretty much past the "ideal" testing age of 7-9.

    Honestly though, once you have an ID, however cheesy, past about age 9 it really boils down to achievement from there on out.


    My response, as always, is what's your reason for testing? Idle curiosity is NOT a good enough reason in my book.

    Is there some need not being met? Is there some problem you're trying to solve? If not, don't bother with more testing.

    Dottie, you data hound, you're cracking me up! smile


    Kriston
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    I love that you gave kcab essentially the same advice I gave you.

    Physician, heal thyself! grin wink


    Kriston
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    Yes, I don't think talent searches count. There's more benefit to those than simply giving you more scores to obsess over. smile


    Kriston
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    pinkpanther - I'd have to say that private is more likely to be accurate, but it depends on the child and the reason for the testing. If it's merely identification for a GT program that you're looking for, and if the school testing yields results that would qualify your child, then it would seem that's all that's needed. If, however, you have anything like twice exceptional concerns, or the school testing does not yield results you can trust due to the testing conditions, or your child may be particularly difficult to test for some reason, then private testing would probably be far more accurate. For some kids, like mine, there's no substitute for one-on-one testing with a professional who understands gifted kids.

    We did private testing for DD6, 2E, at the Gifted Development Center, and I was blown away by the amount of info that came out of that (it was the WISC IV). They pointed us in the direction of other things that have helped greatly with her learning issues (OT, vision therapy, etc.). The experience was invaluable. I am able to apply a lot of that knowledge to my other kids, though I'll still want to do private testing for them as well, if and when I decide the time is right. In DD's case, the school was useless - she floated along in K, performing average and not seeming to learn anything, and no one connected with the school had a clue. I decided to do the private testing on a hunch (well, several hunches). This led to a school change. We'll probably repeat the private testing for dd if we need to apply to a gifted program, since they said her score is likely to go up once certain issues (especially vision) are addressed.

    In contrast, at the moment we are going thru the IEP process for DS5 (for OT for fine motor/handwriting and speech) and I assume he is 2E as well (more extreme in every way compared to dd). This testing is still part of their early childhood program since he's not in K until next fall (my purpose is to make sure he gets services at the very start of K). So, in their defense, this school team was not assessing giftedness, nor did they appear to have any special experience with gifted kids. The school psychologist was brought in, and performed a cognitive assessment called the DAS II, which is not an actual IQ test as much as a way to diagnose learning issues (the results were not surprising, though we still don't know the full extent of his knowledge because he is not interested in sharing/performing/talking - long story - very introverted). The psychologist mentioned several times that the scores would have been lower in the high areas if she had followed the scoring rules more closely in that she had given him incentives (stickers) to answer questions, which apparently is contrary to scoring rules. (Um, are we looking for a truer measure of his abilities or not?) Anyway, the tester from the Gifted Development Center was very accustomed to dealing with introverted kids, and in the beginning my dd was answering through a stuffed bunny. Big contrast in that regard - the private tester was not only very experienced, but very motivated, to get as accurate a picture as possible of my dd. This is the basic reason, my kids' extreme introversion (dd was supposedly one of the most introverted they had ever tested - how is that possible? and yet her brother is more extreme in that regard), that if and when I need a real IQ score to apply to a gifted school/program, I'll definitely go for private testing for my kids.

    Somewhere I read (on the GDC website?) that the highest score a person had achieved was the closest to their true ability level, since one cannot achieve greater than their ability on an IQ test. So, in the case of all the different tests your kids have had, I'd assume the highest ones were the best, among the existing group of scores, in terms of accuracy.

    that's my two cents, though I'm not sure if it helps
    smile

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    Originally Posted by Kriston
    My response, as always, is what's your reason for testing? Idle curiosity is NOT a good enough reason in my book.

    Is there some need not being met? Is there some problem you're trying to solve? If not, don't bother with more testing.
    The only need that's not being met is with DD9, who has not yet been identified. We've appealed to the school for more testing, but we don't know what the response will be.

    As for DD6, you're right. There's no point to test further now.

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    If the school says "no" to testing DD9, then I'd say consider testing her privately.

    (You might make sure the school will accept private testing first though, to save yourself the $$$ if they won't...)

    Needing an ID is definitely a good reason to want to test! Perhaps the very best reason!


    Kriston
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