I have a kiddo who does not test gifted but otherwise has the signs and symptoms... We moved schools and she got skipped up 2 years in math. For a while she knew none of the material because she had not been taught.... It was great to see her work and enjoy it and she loved the teacher...but we also knew that the pace would sooner or later disolve into something that did not work for her...She came into the class mid year and ended up the top in the class and flying through the material.... We were lucky with her placement at the school as they let the kids work at their own level but could not adjust for pace.... I am not sure why she does not get the scores she needs and I agree that instruction needs to be tempered according to some criteria I just do not agree that an IQ test should be the sole criteria.
She doesn't sound like she's just a high acheiver though....I would doubt that a non-gifted high achiever, placed two years above, could start behind the other students and in less than a year outpace all of them.
I don't believe that a single (type of) test score should rule out anything, btw. Too many variables. And it sounds like between the pitfalls of group administered tests and the problem of individual testers who lack experience with gifted kids, there are lots of ways for giftedness to get missed.
You make me reconsider my earlier thoughts though. I was thinking about performance from an achievement test perspective, but I also subscribe to an RTI kind of approach. Given material that is appropriate to begin with (at actual level vs. at grade level), a child can demonstrate a need for gifted services based on an unusually deep or rapid acquisition of the material (as you've described). A child who is a high achiever but not gifted might demonstrate that kind of acquisition with grade level material, but probably wouldn't if placed in a situation where the content was all new. Of course, given the range of giftedness, there is going to be a significant range in rate and depth even with the gifted population. Certainly not all gifted children need the same thing. I just think that there is a difference between what gifted children of all levels need when compared to children within the range of typical cognitive abilities.
