Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Do I appeal?

Hi,

I received my son's test scores for the school gifted program and unfortunately, he didn't make the cut. One of the scores was on creativity. He mentioned to me after the test, that he was caught up in answering one question and hence could not finish the test. He only completed 2/3 of that test and scored a few points less than what was needed. His ITBS and Cogat verbal and quantitative scores were in the 97-99 percentile. I was surprised seeing his Cogat non-verbal scores as they were much lower than I expected. All signs show him to be a strong visual-spatial learner, so I don't know what went wrong there.

He is bored out of his mind at school, and I was hoping this program would give him the change he needed. He reads at a high school level and is at least two grade levels ahead in math. I fear another year of not learning anything at school and not having peers that challenge him to work harder will make him underachieve.

Can I appeal based on what I have observed at home? He does tend to get caught up in what he is doing (especially with drawing) and loses track of time. Can I request a recalculation just in case there has been an error? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

How old is your son?

It depends on what your district allows. I would test privately on an actual IQ test if they allow and accept it.

He is 8 and in 2nd grade.

Our district does not accept outside testing. However, we do have him scheduled for a WISC V next week to get some clarity on where he actually stands.

We are also wondering if a grade skip would be an option. It is not something we ever considered, but just seeing how his love for school has come down so drastically, we are trying to see what can be done to keep him motivated. At home, he is a self-directed learner and is constantly challenging himself with new things.

What makes me most concerned is that he gets that he is different from his classmates and is constantly mentioning that he wishes he wasn't so smart and that he could also be as excited as them when they learn new things at school.

Sorry for rambling!

I doubt a "recalculation" or "based on what I have observed at home" is going to go anywhere, though you can try.

We had to spend the $$ to privately test our youngest daughter when they declined to put her in the gifted program in 1st grade. The same daughter who is now in 8th grade and in DYS, SET, captained the school math team, MVP at Academic Games Nationals, outscored the average district student by 425 on the SAT, etc.

Sometimes they just get it wrong. Private testing or waiting out the re-test period are the likely options.

I have an obviously HG+ kid who didn't score high enough on the Cogat to qualify for our district's gifted program. His teacher also refused to fill out a survey for him that listed potentially gifted traits because she didn't think she knew him well enough to answer the questions (he's never been one of the kids that stands out as obviously gifted unless you take the time to actually talk to him, and he also has a 2nd e). We appealed, and he got into the program.

What you can gain through an appeal is going to depend on your individual school district and possibly individual school program, but unless you have a reason to suspect an appeal would somehow hurt your chances of getting accepted at a later date or you're worried that you need to save your parenting advocacy for some other larger issue that might arise later, there's really nothing to lose in making an appeal. I was really surprised to learn when asking around at the time my ds was denied entry into the program that there were quite a few parents who'd had their children accepted because they were denied at first and then appealed... somebody from the district actually told me "it's the squeaky wheel" that gets the child into the program. BUT... that's our district. Other districts might not function the same way.

The other thing that helped us in our appeal - first, I researched to understand the possible reasons why my kid who scores sky-high on every other ability test he'd had scored as low as he did on the Cogat. I also asked him about the test so I had a good idea what types of things tripped him up. I never actually used this info in advocacy, but it was helpful for me to understand what was causing him to not "look" gifted to the school personnel. We were fortunate to have outside (private) ability testing for ds which was very difficult for the school to argue that he wasn't gifted. So my recommendation is to gather all the data you have (which can also include your observations of your ds' abilities), put it together in writing (don't include emotion, just facts), and send a written appeal (email is ok).

I'd also try to find out the name of the test that was administered to assess creativity - and find out if it's supposed to be timed.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Hopefully your district is different but we were excited for DS to have a qualifying score to then realize the gifted program really did virtually zero. We supplemented and it worked fine for DS.

I agree, but I don't want to regret not appealing, especially since he is struggling with regular school.

It's great to hear your daughter is doing so well. Did she change schools based on her private test results?

Thank you! This is really helpful. I will follow your advice of putting in just the facts. Our district is full of 'squeaky wheels' though! The chances of him getting in are bleak, but I don't want to not appeal and then regret it later. Hopefully, the private test results will give us a clearer picture as well.

The creativity test was timed. it was 3 subsections for 10 minutes each. My son said he kept adding details to something he was drawing and didn't have time to finish a whole sheet of questions.