Hey there,
I'm looking for anything anyone can give me, advice or literature out there to reference.
My district is denying my kid acceptance to their gifted program. I've posted in here before about identification, but I don't have any question about her giftedness anymore.
Stats:
IQ (WPSSiii): full 141 verbal 143
processing was 125, which the ed psych told me was due to perfectionism
OLSAT: below 50% verbally, 80% math
CoGAT: 127 verbal, low in nonverbal and quantitative (The district doesn't actually give us the scores, but gives us a matrix with the scores represented. She didn't get points for wither of these areas, so I don't know the score, but that means under 90 percentile, I think.)
MAP Reading for beginning 2nd grade: 214 (99.9%)
MAP Math: 195 (92%)
Teacher evaluation: Highest points possible. Can not believe that she didn't test in. Wrote an appeal on her behalf.
Gifted specialist's evaluation: Can not believe that she didn't test in on the CoGAT. Says, "There are some kids who I can't wait to get the scores back on because I know they will be so high. She was one that I expected to be high." She says that my DD is so bright and does such a great job iwth inferential thinking and abstract thinking.
In house reading assessments: Tested the highest in her grade for three years. (This may not be so impressive, but I think that it's worth noting that even by local norms, she is ahead of her peers.)
So, the district still says, sorry, she is not "gifted" because of those lower CoGAT scores.
I inquired as to why they will not consider the private testing. The answer: "We want to be consistent and treat all of our students in a similar manner so they are all on the same 'playing field'." I find this repulsive. It implies that this is a competition. I don't care if every single kid in her class tested as high! Just give her the appropriate level of challenge and support.
The reality is that my daughter tested into a gifted school that we can not afford and I an wracked with guilt over it. She is a happy child overall, but she comes home from school in tears some days because it was so boring. I have seen the work. She's doing stuff that is painfully simple, even in math for her. She was reading at a higher level than what they are doing with her in class before she was in Kindergarten!
I also know that she REFUSES to be herself at school. The class looked at life cycles last year -- frogs, toads. She came home and said, "I want to write the life cycle of the pheonix." I told her to do it! I could see the little wheels moving and she said, "No. I don't want to bring it to school." She did a science fair project last year about what conducts electricity. We have a snap circuit kit and she had already mastered it on her own. She took the notes on her own and figured out a bunch about conductivity. She REFUSED to write up the report. I thought it was sort of cute, but I think that it's part of the socialization of a smart girl not wanting to be seen outside the norm. I don't want my kid in the gifted pogram to be ahead of anyone. I just don't want her to not be comfortable being smart!
1. If anyone is still reading, do you know anything about the levels of CoGAT? I've read that higher IQ kids need to be tested with a harder version of the test? Anyone know anything?
2. Do I appeal based on anecdotal evidence or do I bring in research about the unreliability of the CoGAT? I don't want to insult the people that I want something from, right? But, I think I could make a very strong case for the fact that they are doing a great deal wrong.
3. Anybody have any good research about girls hiding their giftedness? The interesting thing to me is that the two tests that she underperformed on were group tests. When she's on her own with the computer or a researcher, she's scoring very high.
4. Anyone with advice for dealing with upper administration who have never nor will ever set eyes on your child (and who are in the way of your kid receiving services even though every educator to run into her thus far tells you that she is clearly gifted)?
Thank you. I'm sorry to be so long winded.
