Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC IV Testing Questions

For those of you who've had children tested as required by the IAS, could you share what you know? Obviously facts will differ depending on school etc, but I'm curious, is this a one-day test, or will the psych spread it out over a few days? Also, how long before the information will be available to us?

Any insight will be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm not sure what IAS is,but for the individualized tests like WISC and SB(Stanford-Binet), it's going to depend on the tester and the kid. Some kids need more than one session as they could be fatigued or distracted or bored at some point. I've seen a lot of people mention the WISC running across 2 sessions. For some reason school psych used 5 sessions to do SB with my DS, which seemed excessive.

It's not a test, it's an assessment.

The IAS has a number of categories and the answers to questions receive a score. For instance a certain IQ number gets a certain score, achievement testing, whether there siblings in the skipped grade gets another score, relationship with teachers, relationship with peers, size, physical agility, all get scored based on the answers.

I think there's a category on whether the child wants to skip, what the teachers recommend in terms of a skip, etc. And the answers all get a numerical score. (If the child doesn't want to skip, it's assigned a lower number.)

Then, based on the total numerical score, there are (I think) four categories "excellent candidate" "good candidate," ... and I don't know the name of the bottom two which basically mean "don't skip."

The IAS is the Iowa Acceleration Scale and it isn't actually a test that your child takes. It is essentially a likert scale that is filled out using prior testing information and subjective opinions of teachers and parents. If you want more info on the IAS from those of us whose kids have had it filled out on their behalf, let us know.

In regard to the WISC, both of my kids who've taken it did it in one session and also did achievement and other testing in the same session.

Right, I understand that. Actually I was more interested in gaining knowledge about the WISC IV which is the IQ test required (using the IAS) for subject acceleration or grade advancement. But now that you're so kind to offer, I would love any info on the IAS! Thank you!

Also, thanks, Cricket, for the time info. As DS is 11, I don't think it would be unreasonable for him to do it in one session, but I don't really know how long the test is or how they'll work it in to his schedule.

Thank you, syoblrig!

It's been quite a while since the IAS was filled out for my dd14, but as I recall, there are a few different sections with just a couple of them being automatic "nos" in regard to skipping. The pieces that are considered to be immediate disqualifiers are: IQ below 130 (98th percentile) unless the child is old for grade, in which instance I believe that they consider kids with IQs around 115+, a sibling in the receiving grade (although this has been successfully done by some), or the child does not want to skip. The first part is objective and just assigns scores for IQ and achievement (both grade level and above level tests). As I recall, it doesn't specify how far above grade level the test should be which is a bit of a flaw IMHO. For instance, the kid gets a certain # of points for a 75th percentile + score on an above level test and a different, lower, number of points for a 50th percentile score on the same test. My dd took the Explore as her above level test. She was in grade 4 at the time, so it was +4 levels. I believe that I've seen kids given just a +1 level test, though. Personally, I'd want to see everything at or above the 75th percentile if the above level test is only +1.

The other objective parts are the child's physical size in relation to grade peers, grades and timeliness of turning in work, and age in relation to grade peers.

Other parts of the IAS are more subjective and ask the teachers to rank how the child gets along with kids of different ages, parental support including whether parents are overly involved and pushing the kid, school support for the skip, and a few other things along those lines that I cannot remember at this point!

Regarding the WISC, it has four subtests and really isn't something that you are supposed to prepare for although I imagine that it feels pretty high stakes in your situation. We weren't in that spot so much in that dd had taken the WISC two years prior to her skip so we weren't waiting to see if the IQ scores would rule her out. Essentially, the WISC will look at your dc's verbal reasoning abilities (verbal comprehension index), visual spatial and abstract reasoning abilities (perceptual reasoning index), short term auditory memory (working memory index), and speed (processing speed index).

Ooh, this is great info, as our DC may have been similar ages when the IAS was done? DS took an EXPLORE test (+3) and scored overall higher than 92% 8th grader and in reading, the subject we're considering for acceleration, he scored higher than 95% eighth graders. Math, his lowest, was still 75%. I'm hoping he won't have to take another above-level achievement test.

He's definitely interested in accelerating by subject. He states that's he's unsure about whole grade because many of his friends are in his grade. (though many times he complains he doesn't have friends, so I wonder) Anyway, if he's unsure, I doubt they'll consider the whole grade skip a possibility and that's okay with us, but I don't want it to negate the possibility of subject acceleration.

Oh, he's certainly not prepared in any way and because he's never been given an IQ test, we have no idea what to expect. We know he's been in the gifted program since first grade, but you know that doesn't necessarily mean high IQ, and really, the fact that he scored so high on the above-level test was a bit of a surprise. We were the ones who looked into subject acceleration not the school. I think they were content to have an essentially straight A kid who never got in trouble to carry on as usual.