Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Please clarify, from 5 Levels of Gifted by Dr. Ruf

I am slowly working my way through this book, after waiting forever for it to be available. I am confused by what is said in Chapter 10. It states that "most teachers have been erroneously taught that grade level equivalencies on grade level achievement tests do not reflect the grade level education that a student can actually handle." It goes on to add, "When a fifth grader receives a tenth-grade equivalency score, it means that the child is ready for the same curriculum as a typical tenth-grade student." I have always been told the same thing, not to look at the GLE as a grade level of work the child could handle. Can anyone shed some light on this topic for me?

I have not read Dr. Ruf's book, so I can't comment on that. However, if we are talking about a grade-level achievement test, then the GE's are in fact pretty meaningless. If a 2nd grader gets a GE of, let's say, 9th grade, that means that the 2nd grader got the same score as a 9th grade student would if that 9th grade student took the same (2nd grade level) test. Frankly, it seems ridiculous to even calculate this sort of grade equivalent. Who cares what a 9th grader would score on a 2nd grade test?

Even on Achievement Tests that cover many grade levels (e.g. WJ-III or WIAT-II, etc...) you still need to take GE's with a grain of salt. There are two reasons for this: One, the tests have very few questions per grade level. Two, if your 2nd grader gets a GE of 6th grade, let's say, that means that they have achieved the same score as an AVERAGE 6th grader (from an average school) would. For most parents of GT kids, we would never want our child to be performing at the level of an average Xth grader from an average school.

Not sure if that helps, but no doubt other people can chime in and clarify anything that I have not explained well.

Our 8yo son's WJ-III GE's ranged from 7th to 18th, with an overall score that put him in 13th.

Umm, no. He's not ready for high school... not by a stretch.

I used the GE's on his WJ-III, though, very effectively with the district & school staff. I approached them saying, "Clearly his results don't mean that he should be placed in high school or anything crazy like that... but can we at least agree that the scores suggest he probably shouldn't be in his current (4th grade) classroom?"

The scores were helpful in promoting the discussion about a grade skip, and honestly, after that point, I never brought them up again.

I've enjoyed reading the various debates about the usefulness of IQ & AT testing. Obviously, the scores have opened doors for our son... but after that, I'm starting to fall off the fence to the side of "there's an awful lot of hocus-pocus" in how the results are interpreted, especially when we're dealing with kids at the extremes.

OK, so we are all basically on the same page on this. I was really surprised to read this in this particular book, knowing how popular it is. I find this statement very misleading, especially if this is someones first or only point of reference. Luckily we have been at this a few years and found this board relatively early on.

I think that the other thing to consider is that achievement tests don't give a full picture of the child's functioning. Dd#1, for example, took the WJ-III , the SRI Lexile, and the DORA (some kind of reading test) in 2nd grade when she was 7. On the written expression & word decoding parts of the WJ-III, she scored in grade 18+. On the DORA, she was at grade 12+ in numerous areas and on the SRI Lexile, at grade 7 or 8, I believe.

None of these addressed readiness for reading content of middle or high school level books &, while dd is a really good writer, I really don't think that she could write as well as a typical graduate student at age 7 in terms of syntax, grammar, ability to write research papers, etc. Writing achievement tests, in particular, don't usually give you a good feel for whether the child can write the type of material (research papers, persuasive arguements) that would be expected of older teens. I believe that the written part of the WJ that dd tested so well on was more related to how well she could construct a basic sentence.

The actual statement from the book (p239-240) includes the part in bold.

If the typical 5th grader is eleven and the average 10th grader is sixteen, it seems absolutely plausible that the gifted eleven year old can do the same work expected of an average sixteen year old at an average school.

IMO, the average 10th grade curriculum would make an excellent 5th grade �honors� curriculum similar to when high school students take average college level courses as honors and AP/IB classes while in high school.

Regarding grade or age equivalencies, my son had both young and older adult age equivalencies on his SB-5. I wouldn�t know whether the twenty-something or fifty-something score would be considered more advanced. They certainly struck me as meaningless.

Maybe this is my confusion, I have a hard time thinking in "average" terms.

Unfortunately, throughout the U.S. there are numerous advanced and highly gifted sixteen year old students subjected to very average 10th grade curriculums. Some parents and students are aware of the mediocrity, but most aren�t.

Some example numbers from a STAR reading assessment

Grade Equivalency: a score of 5.6 means a typical 5th grader during the 6month:
~This means the child scored around 50th percentile when compared to 5th graders, it does not mean that they got a high score on a 5th grade test. In fact it is possible for the inverse to be true if they scored on the lower side of 50

Instructional Reading Level: 4.9 is the level, in which STAR, recommended instruction because the child "is at least 80% proficient at recognizing words and comprehending reading material at this level."

Zone of Proximal Development: 3.8 - 5.8 this is the reading level zone that is recommended for the IRL 4.9 to maintain growth

My opinion is that G.E. is only useful for finding students who are falling below the average for their grade

I believe that proficiency scores are a much better tool to measure curriculum abilities.

If a 6yo can score an 80% on a 4th grade reading comprehension test, that child should be able to handle a 4th grade reading curriculum, not necessarily placed in a 4th grade class

I find this so depressing.