Experienced folks, please help me figure out what this means:
I had my 7 year old's public teacher inquire about testing her as gifted. She spoke with the school psychologist and possible also the GT coordinator for the district. The response was that they don't like to test children for giftedness before 3rd grade. I asked the reason and got an answer that didn't make much sense--probably because what the administrators had told the teacher didn't make much sense in the first place. Something about the data not being reliable for younger kids.
Now, I am not particularly surprised that they would resist. The elementary school does not have a gifted program at all, despite the posted policy. I know this both from hard experience with an older child and because the principal admitted it flat out. Why test kids for a non-existent program?
What I would like to know--beyond the obvious approach of not wasting resources testing for services that can't be delivered--is what could be the rationale for not wanting to test younger children for IQ (of course they test for all sorts of other data the school and the government want to know about)? It's pretty nonsensical to think that a child is not gifted in second grade but suddenly would benefit from services when older. I would like to have some examples of reasons that might be offered so that I can think about how to counter them, or ask rational questions about them, before I try to sit down with those administrators?
Thanks for any insights you can offer.
