So in my experience, NWEA gives you a great place to start a conversation about a child's achievement and how well they seem to be learning. If the school uses them for placement, the scores may also be relevant to that conversation. I would also encourage you to be armed with additional data, however, as most schools are hesitant to place a student solely based on NWEA data. Has he taken any out-of-level or ability tests? These will help you show that the strong achievement scores are not just an accident.
He has, Loy58. Part of the problem is that the school is not big on testing. The school has his full report with DYS qualifying scores both on the WISC-IV and on the WIAT-III. They've had that information for a couple of years but I feel a hesitation to take them to heart (perhaps because they were done by a private provider). He was also assessed with mandated district wide testing on the CogAT and Terra Nova with scoring mostly in the 99%. That seems to actually have hurt us as many kids score in the 94% and above (criteria for receiving high ability services in our school district) at DS school so the principal seems to think there about 20%-25% of the kids have a similar cognitive profile to my child not understanding that those tests have pretty low ceilings.
DS has a January birthday. I believe a full grade acceleration would be for the best but I don't think the school will agree. I am trying to get what I can for him. The school has a great learning environment so if he could just be challenged a bit more academically, it would be pretty darn close to perfect!
Thank you for your insight - I really appreciate it!
