Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Newly Diagnosed, looking for insight

Sorry, I'm confused. Let's say that OP's son is in 3rd grade. Are you saying that he scored that same score as an 11th grader doing a 3rd grade test; or that OP's son answered questions up to 11th grade?

Neither. The test has items leveled by difficulty (not by grade level) from approximately preschool up through some high school topics. Examinees start from an item expected to be easy for them, based on their grade, and test until they trigger the discontinue rule (based on number of items incorrect in a row). This generates a raw score, which is converted to age-based norm-referenced scores (the standard score). With regard to the grade equivalent, that same raw score can be compared to the median score obtained in the standardization sample at each grade level (not literally--the curve of median scores by grade level is smoothed statistically).

So the OP's child obtained the same raw score as the expected median raw score for an 11th grader on that task, which included items of varying difficulty, ranging from preschool to high school. A couple of other factors: The median 11th grader does not actually answer all items correctly at the 11th grade level, so median performance demonstrates mastery at a level notably lower than 11th grade. And it's the raw score that is the same, not the actual items. It's possible for two students to obtain identical raw scores (hence grade/age equivalents), but to do so by, say, getting every item right all the way up to the ceiling, at which a series of consecutive incorrect answers ends testing, or by scattered accuracy up to a very high level (perhaps without a hard ceiling at all), with numerous gaps in accuracy along the way (such as often occurs in students with executive function/attention weaknesses, those with gaps in formal instruction, or those with certain learning disabilities). The second student may actually have a higher level of academic potential, but many gaps or inconsistencies along the way, for whatever the reason.

In short, he answered the same number (number, not necessarily difficulty) of items correctly that an 11th grader would have on the same multi-grade-level test. An impressive feat, but not one that tells you what his instructional level is, or what his mastery of either 3rd grade or 11th grade content is.

From what I was told about the test aeh is correct. He was asked questions until he could no longer answer them correctly. He was asked them verbally and did not have scratch paper.

The test was given verbally. He answered the questions and the test stopped when he got a question (or questions?) wrong. He did not have scratch paper or pencil. That's about all I know. We will get a full written report in about 3 weeks.

We were also told he had a Beery Tests of Visual Motor Coordination - SS=88 (Low Average Range). Anyone know what this might mean? It's hard because we won't have the full report before school starts. I meet with his school next week.

Another way of looking at this is that there is a huge discrepancy between the math that an 11th grader at the 50th percentile knows and what we think of as "11th grade math."

It is not useful to compare gifted children's achievement to students at the 50th percentile. It is more useful to use the 90th percentile--that is, good students who probably haven't gone much beyond grade level instruction.

How does he feel about what's going on around him?

He thought the two testing days were fun and wants to know if he can take the test again. We have not told him yet that he has ADHD but will need to soon because we would like to try him on some medication soon. We will probably tell him tonight.

The compacting and chapter tests is how my DS was placed, but we used 80%.

The VMI is a fine motor task, probably given to investigate whether the low PSI was more a function of motor coordination or speed of information processing.The results support personal weaknesses in fine motor skills, at the low end of Average, and are probably sufficient to explain the PSI score (though they don't rule out other motor-free speed issues).

The achievement test sounds like it was not the WIAT-III, since no paper was allowed. Perhaps it was the WJIV. The WJ does have a high ceiling, which is good for this case.

We used 80% for our kids too, but some schools I know have used 70%.