Had a meeting at school today for DS - just me and hubby, classroom teacher, and director of special ed.
To recap, DS (7, 1st grade) had a KBIT of 142 but WISC FSIQ of 119 and GAI of 129 (very high PRI, much lower Working memory and PSI). He wasn't feeling well the day of the WISC or the KBIT and had missed a day of school due to illness the week he took the WISC. School said since GAI wasn't at least 130, he doesn't qualify for any further evaluation or gifted programming. They didn't do any standardized or curriculum-based achievement tests, just used his DRA levels. We did not sign that we agreed with the report and recommendation that all his needs could be met in the regular classroom setting, so that's what warranted today's meeting.
We want to make sure that DS is being instructed on a level appropriate for him, and that he is experiencing some challenge and not just "cruising by" getting 100's all the time - he needs to learn that it's OK to get things wrong and that sometimes you need to work at something to get it done right - and so far that hasn't been happening. The psychologist noted in his GWR that he seemed hesitant to try questions on the WISC if he wasn't sure he knew the right answer immediately and needed prompting on several occasions to give an answer. I've also seen it at home when we give him enrichment worksheets and his classroom teacher noted it today - if an extra math worksheet looks like he might have to try a little bit, he pushes it aside and won't do it or procrastinates greatly.
We hoped today that maybe with the director of special ed looking over his scores and talking to her, she might concede that the 129 GAI statistically is 130 taking into account SEM and confidence ratio, and he might be identified and we could communicate our concerns.
At the meeting, the director of special ed told us numerous times how it will not matter if he's identified as gifted or not, the high achievers all the get same opportunities as they go through school and by high school there is no more "gifted" instruction to speak of - the kids all just take AP classes because that's what colleges were looking for. At least next year, even if he would be identified, he would not get any other instruction than what he's already getting - "intensive reading group" (translate - during small group reading time he is in the highest group) and that's it. She said they don't do anything for math at all (so apparently the extra enrichment math worksheets they agreed to give him after the last meeting is some kind of exception to their standards). And that's that. Since he struggles/isn't strong with the retelling portion of the DRA which they use for reading assessment, he'll be kept where he's at with that despite the fact that he can clearly comprehend what he's reading independently and answer questions (he just won't/can't retell in the fashion they're looking for). And he's reading above grade level by their standards even with that retell factor.
I asked what differentiation happened in math class to accommodate different learners, and was told "nothing" - the enrichment worksheets he gets is the only accommodation so apparently no other student gets any kind of accommodations in math.
Since they were putting so much weight on the WISC scores and his Perceptual Reasoning score was in the very superior range, we asked what the school would do to enrich and challenge him in that area, since clearly that's an area of strength. The director and teacher just looked at each other and said they didn't know, but they could ask the gifted teacher if there is something they could do.
When pushed about making sure he's truly getting a year's worth of academic growth each year and how do they know what level he is truly at of without achievement testing, the special ed director told us that if they stray from protocol for us, then they'll have to stray from protocol for every parent from now on and the screening system they have in place was developed by parents and teachers and administrators several years ago and has worked quite well. She did say that she could go directly to the superintendent and try to get permission for achievement testing after school was over if we really wanted to push things. She also said that they could put DS' name on the gifted teacher's roster to have her check in with him once a week when she's there. She said we could just have DS retested in 2 years and see if anything changed, to which I politely replied that state regulations say they can be tested every year if we make that request - that remark didn't get a very happy look in response.
Overall, it was not a great meeting. I'm frustrated because it just seems like they're trying to fit every peg into the same hole, no matter what shape it is. Yeah, it's great that DS is getting 100s on everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's learning. And in the fall when he was yelling at us every night that he hates school and hates reading (when all he wants to do is read most of the time) we had an issue with that and don't want to see that again next year.
At the end, the director shared about a student years ago whose parents pushed for testing for gifted in first grade and scored 117, tested 2 years later and scored 118 (because she said IQ won't change by more than a point or so), was tested again in middle school and came out the same again and just cruised through school with high grades in AP classes and parents kept pushing to have him identified all the way through, but his IQ just wasn't high enough.. Turns out after high school, he went to a big college and started partying and doing "fun" things that she said the parents wouldn't let him do in high school because they were pushing him so hard academically, so he dropped out of college. That was to encourage us to stop pushing the issue, I think.. But I retorted that that was exactly what I was afraid of - cruising through not having to learn how to work and then when actually having to do work, DS won't know how and will just drop out.
Anyway, after that rant, my question is what would you do from here? Push for the achievement testing over the summer? Just let things go and see how second grade start and hope it's better? He might be seeing a neurologist (not a neuropsych) over the summer for some persistent tic issues he's been having, if that's at all relevant.
Thanks again for your thoughts and wisdom!
