Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy math acceleration advocacy & SCAT

Hi all - Hoping for advice from parents who have been through this. My second grade DS is very precocious in math and has been frustrated with classroom math since KG. He is pulled out once a week for math enrichment but this is only 45 min/week and enrichment only. He enjoys it but in regular math class still has to go over topics he mastered years ago. There is some differentiation in class, but not much, and it varies greatly year to year depending on classroom teacher. He has been complaining a lot about how he doesn't get to learn math in school.

His math scores on the school administered achievement tests (STAR) have always been 99%. He recently scored 99% on the math portion of SCAT as well (2nd grade compared to 4th graders). I would like to advocate for him to be placed in a higher grade math class during math every day or for some more meaningful acceleration than what he gets through the standard in-class differentiation, which is next to nothing. My main question is: do you think that the SCAT score is a useful tool in advocating for this? I am not sure what school districts think of this test and how meaningful the score is.

thank you in advance!

I am not familiar with the SCAT. However, given he is testing at 99% on the tests he is getting, it might be worth asking if he could be given an end-of-year test for his current grade, and also a mid-year and end-of-year for the next grade up. This is what our son's school did. They tested until he scored under 80% on a year-end test and then put him in that grade for math. It resulted in him being moved up two grades in math. This change has worked quite well.

If I remember correctly the SCAT Quantitative section is 50 multiple choice questions comparing expressions for equality. I'm sure it can't hurt to include the info but its certainly not comprehensive.

Kombre,

My DD took SCAT when she was in 2nd grade too. The only problem is that your school administrators may not know what SCAT is. Be prepared to educate them. If your ISD has district Gifted coordinator, make sure to get them involved as well.

Make sure that they know it's from John Hopkins CTY and 2 grades above level test. Clearly, your DS is excelling at 2 grades above level and he needs subject acceleration at least to 4th grade now. (In-class differentiation rarely works). I am pretty sure the school want to test on their own but he'll be fine.