Another note - this test is not accepted in Ohio as an instrument for assessment for Subject Acceleration. I don't understand why she did this particular test. Need to go back to her to find out her reasoning....
I also found in Ohio law that a school is not allowed to deny services based upon a re-test, as re-testing is not necessary once a child has been identified as gifted.
These are just a few random thoughts thrown out from the advocacy experience of a parent who doesn't live in the same state you do, so take them for what they are worth
We found that in our school district, the district prefers to have in-district testing as proof of eligibility for gifted program over private testing. While this may sound controversial here, what I was told happens sometimes (and to be honest, I think it did happen where I live), was that a few of the private psychologists who test for giftedness will inflate results for children who are semi-close but otherwise wouldn't have qualifying scores in order to make the parents happy and get the children into our gifted program. If there is a similar bias on the part of the school where you are (distrust of outside scores), and the previous WISC was through an outside provider, then you may be bumping up against that bias. If so, this is my suggestion re how to approach advocating through the bias:
1) Always present your information matter-of-factly, without emotion, just stating the facts and a few simple questions.
2) Restate that your ds had qualifying scores for the program when he was tested with the WISC in the fall. Address that the scores show some similar trends in the school testing, but other scores don't match up between the WJ-III Cog and WISC. If you have some thoughts re why they might not match, mention those, but don't suggest that it was an issue of how the test was administered by the school or a factor of an invalid test etc - don't put judgements on any of it. Simply note that there's a discrepancy. Then note that it's not impossible to score lower than your ability on an ability test, but highly unlikely to score higher than your ability, hence you have doubts about the WJ-III Cog results.
3) If the school questions the validity of the WISC scores, state simply "Are you questioning the results of testing through a board-certified (or whatever) psychologist who is respected in our community?"
4) If all of this gets you nowhere, summarize the meeting in writing and send the summary back to each of the participants who were present asking if they have any input to add. Once that is complete, send your summary and your appeal to the next higher level supervisor (director of district gifted program?).
5) Re the retesting not being necessary once a child is id'd as gifted - was he officially id'd as gifted? If he was (by the school district, not by a private psychologist), then I'd be sure to mention this in your communications with the school.
My last thought - aside from qualifying for the gifted program - the discrepancy shown on the WISC and on the WJ-III Cog is fairly large - do you see anything in your ds' academic work or daily life at this point that indicates he might be having any issues with processing speed or working memory? It's possible it's just a profile that is meaningless and he's doing fine, but there are also quite a few of us on the forum who have children with similar discrepancies who've struggled quite a bit, but are able to "fly" once their struggles are addressed. It's not easy to see or know when a child is not quite working up to ability in early elementary, especially for highly gifted students, because early elementary work is so danged early elementary. If you have any thoughts at all that the gap might have some meaning, I'd look into it further.
Best wishes,
polarbear
