My son is 5 and highly advanced academically. His kindergarten teacher has taught for 30+ years, K-5, including gifted children, and has made kindergarten her permanent grade and has received her masters in early childhood. She has assessed my child with the most advanced materials available to her and he has surpassed all of it. For example, they stopped with his reading/comprehension assessment at a level that equates to the end of 3rd grade. She says she has no doubt he can go beyond it, but she and the literacy coach just stopped there. Similar testing has been conducted for math skills as well, with the same results. They have modified his curriculum somewhat but his teacher says the modified coursework is "a waste of his time."
In all of her 30+ years experience, she says she has never seen a child this age able to accomplish and comprehend what my son can.
I think that you've just been given a lot of information regarding what type of educational placement your child needs. ((He had better have access to more than 3rd grade material, for a start. Got any places like that local to you? Were you planning to move anyway?)) Let us know if you want advice on
liking what you are hearing. It isn't easy.
So my son will soon undergo a series of tests for early acceleration, starting with the Stanford-Binet V. I met with the school committee yesterday and am concerned that the school psychologist does not have much experience with highly advanced children. Also, when I read about the SB test, I find that the results may not be completely reliable. I thought this assessment would answer many questions for us, but before we even begin, it's already creating more.
Other tests in the series include the Woodcock Johnson tests of achievement, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, and some other adaptive behavior tests that appear to be a collaborative system between the school and parents.
These are the tests you want to have. They may help you apply to the young scholar's program. They won't tell you much in the hands of the inexperienced tester, but if money is an issue, you may want to start with what the school offers. It's worth at least as much as you paid for it. Should you expect to get good info outside of the top 6 places in the US for the "wildly" gifted? No, that isn't going to happen. But for most of us, we couldn't quite tell that we needed to spend the money and time to travel to one of the top 6 places right away. If you have the money and the eyes-openness to recognise that you want answers and you want them now, then don't bother with the school and get back to us with some hints so we can advise you were those top places are.
Some of our young ones loved the testing experience. For other children it was draining or uncomfortable. This figures into the equation. For my son, DS10, taking the WICS IV at school was the highlight of the academic year last year. Yeah, we made some changes.
I guess I'm just interested in hearing about others' experiences with this type of assessment and if your results were helpful in determining the type of schooling your children need.
A red flag for me is when I expressed my desire to learn whether or not my child is an alternative learner, or special needs child, and I hoped these tests would give us that information, the psychologist could not understand what I was asking. Basically I want to know if the public education system is fine for him, or whether we need to explore other schooling options. They are very pro- keeping children within their age groups but I refuse to stifle my child's natural abilities.
Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded. I knew we would have this to face when he entered school but I had hoped this assessment would lead us in the right direction. Now I'm wondering if we're even giving the right assessment.
Thank you for reading and any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
It sounds like you can "stomach" going straight to one of the Meccas. If not, let the school do the best they can. If you want advice about where to go, give us hints of where is doable geographically, and about you child. ((Are there hints of "other exceptionalities?"))
BTW - What have you read? Which experts "speak" to you? Have you read Deb Ruf's Losing our Minds, Gived children left behind? A Nation Decieved? The Spirited Child?
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