Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Oh help! Radical acceleration issues!

He sounds very much like my son but LOGs more advanced. lol.

Good luck! I'm just amazed that the school is even willing to sit and discuss all this.

A psych friend, who was reviewing WJIII scores for me for a friend, when I tried to give him GE said something like "Oh those numbers are useless. I don't need those."

Well, getting accelerated science and curriculum compacted math sounds FANTASTIC! Really, I think that's an excellent outcome.

How are you feeling, ebeth?

Good luck!! I think he will have a blast.

Ahhh. I think I understand the difference between STEP, SCAT, and the WJ III. And your explanation of the GEs makes sense too. DH and I are used to thinking in terms of uncertainties and error bars on numbers and graphs. I think that when the grade level projections become extended out beyond multiple grade levels, then the uncertainty of those projections begins to swamp the useful data. That is what we saw when we looked at the grade equivalent for DS's science score.


I also like your insight in to the scholastic Powers that Be. It explains a lot. Really.

I'm feeling a little bit better today, although I didn't get too much sleep last night. My brain is a little bit foggy and slow today. Something akin to Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome with a side of WJ III shock and denial, perhaps? This isn't fazing DS at all, though. Or at least it hasn't manifest itself yet? We shall see. But I feel some optimism creeping back into my numb bones today.

I'm new to this board, so I hope someone can clarify something that has come up with my DD and DS.
My understanding that a GE of, say, 9, on an achievement test taken by a 4th grader, does NOT mean that the 4th grader is doing 9th grade level work. It means that the child in question performed 4th grade work AS WELL AS an average 9th grader would perform the same 4th grade work. The test, after all, has 4th grade level questions, not 9th grade level questions. Thus, the utility of EXPLORE, SCAT, etc...to assess above-level ability.
Is that right?

Interesting you brought this up. I just found this

"What is a grade equivalent, and what does it mean?

A grade equivalent (GE) is a score reported on norm-referenced tests that allows educators and parents to compare students based on the performance of other students relative to the school year. Based on a 9-month school year (typically September through May), the score represents a period during the school year, displayed as a number to show a grade and a month. The score is an estimate of the performance that an average student at a grade level is assumed to demonstrate on the test at a particular time in the school year. For example, a score of 5.8 represents a performance level typical of fifth-grade students in the eighth month (April) of the school year. It is important to note that grade equivalent scores outside the current grade are common and should be interpreted with caution. For example, a fifth-grade student could receive a grade equivalent score of 7.4. This does not mean the student can perform seventh-grade work � the student would not have been exposed to seventh-grade content, nor would a fifth-grade test contain seventh-grade content. It suggests that a typical seventh grader in the fourth month would have received the same score if seventh graders had taken the fifth-grade test."

I found it here www.pearsonedmeasurement.com/research/faq_2d.htm

I just googled "what does grade equivalent mean" and this came up and seemed to support what she was saying. I have no idea what tests this would be meaningful for. (I shouldn't venture into areas where I don't really know what I'm talking about should I???)

Just in case I have caused some mild form of school envy for DS's acceleration, I thought I should mention that we are not the first HG+ kid to go through the district. There has been another family, in a different school, that paved the way for us with the notion of radical acceleration. We are completely indebted to them for stretching the school norms to accommodate highly gifted kids. We have an excellent school system, but it was made easier for us because we were not the first to wonder into uncharted waters.

So keep pushing those teachers and administrators to understand levels of giftedness, asynchronous development, and the academic needs of these unusual kids! Someone coming along behind you will also reap the rewards!