Hey Tammy,
There does seem to be a little controversy especially with the newer tests.
Here is my understanding and please feel free to jump in and correct me if I am misunderstanding any of this. Truly, I wouldn't be offended because I am summarizing the info as I understand it.
There was a study done recently because of the changes to the tests, whereby, they administered the WISC-IV to children who had previously scored 130+ on the previous test. The average score was 123 or something along those lines. They determined that the kids were getting scores about 3-10 points lower on the newer WISC. The accepted understanding about why this is happening is investigated on another thread, I believe, about processing speed.
That's why the Hoagies's chart shows lower scores for the newer tests, pushing kids into the category of HG, EG, or PG that wouldn't have been there for the older tests.
The tester may have given you a percentile. This tells you how your child compared to all other US children taking the test. For example, a FSIQ of 140 puts your child in the 99.6th percentile, I believe. Meaning, your child scored higher than 99.6% of the children in the US that have taken that particular test.
I am guessing the 145+ number is chosen because I believe that number puts one in the 99.9th percentile for WISC-I mV.
I said Guessing, so please correct me nicely if I got this wrong
I believe this is important because a 140 on the newer tests is more significant than a 140 on the older tests, for example, even for the newer WPPSI. If your school administrators are not hip to this information they could possibly be misperceiving your child's abilities. Although, it sounds like at Tammy's DD school they are doing a good job of accomodating her, so that's awesome.
I brought this up to the gifted coordinator for our entire school district and she was not understanding how these newer tests scores are different from the older ones and what it means. That was pretty disappointing, although, she promised to look into it and attended the NAGC conference recently, so I am hopeful.
I think percentile is key and I think any kid scoring in the 95th percentile and above should definately get "special services". And those in the top one tenth of one percent........
I said "I beleive" and "to my understanding" alot.
Do I sound more like Bill Clinton or George Bush?
Incog
