Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment NWEAs again!

My DS, in 4th grade, has had a 239 in NWEA MAP reading for over a year now. I've studied the NWEA progression quite significantly over the last two years.

What you're seeing is simply a lack of instruction at her level. The 230s+ on the reading test require a LOT of reading instruction and literature analysis to move beyond that level. For example, students need to be able to differentiate between irony, satire and humor, to recognize and identify types of propaganda (bandwagon, plainfolk etc) and to identify several types of logic arguments in context (strawman, circular etc.)

Most students at a middle school level would not encounter these lessons in their regular language arts classroom.

There is no reason, under normal conditions, that it should take her that long to take a regular NWEA test. The tests are cumulative and she would not have to go back to the beginning and start over after the first time she tests. It should start her one level below her previous MAP score and work up. I would look at 2E issues, the testing environment (alone? other kids? distractions in the room? interruptions?) and also how much pressure was placed on the kids relating to the test. Last year, my son's teacher told them that if they didn't meet their growth goals as a class, she would be fired.

Also, the test was recently renormed last year. The percentiles seem to be pretty different in the 80+ range. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when you look at reports from different sessions.

How does her expressive language disorder impact her? I only ask because there are so many different ways that it might - my ds12 has an expressive language disorder which obviously impacts his written expression, but I also find it seems to (I think) sometimes impact him with the tasks that might be associated with reading comprehension tests.

I'm not familiar with the MAP tests so can't help you there, but with the reading tests my ds has had over the years, he seems to be somewhat "losing" progress - he's progressing, but the percentile levels he tests at have gradually gone down over the years. With him, I suspect it's a combination of both how he's able to express his knowledge on the test combined with a bit of 2e-ness re the actual understanding of how to summarize or pull together what he's reading. He has some quirky behaviors when it comes to reading, even though he reads at an extremely high level and takes in very detailed information. It gets really difficult to tease out what's happening with kids who are so bright yet 2e.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Wow. It's amazing that she can get a FSIQ in the moderately gifted range even with her LDs. It takes a very large amount of innate intelligence to be able to do that.

Do her scores fall in a way that she meets DYS cut offs?

If her testing is recent, you can ask (pay) for a 'chart review' from a tester who is more familiar with 2E kids, and get results over the phone. It is really confusing.

At a few points I've found it helpful to journal about various family members educational paths. It's quite possible that your little apple didn't fall far from the family tree, and that you or your family or her dad's family are full of many examples of very very bright folks who weren't identified as gifted due to their LDs. When I get that feeling that I just 'can't do it' and or 'I've gotten it all wrong' or 'I just don't know where to start' that is usually something I can fix with journaling on topics that are slightly larger than the topic that has me feeling yucky.

Good Luck,
Grinity

Please know I'm not nitpicking here, but I'm curious what you mean by this Grinity? I'm asking as the parent of a 2e kid with multiple challenges who's FSIQ, while definitely lower than his GAI, is still very high (this is my ds12)... so my first thought when I read it was, why would you be surprised by a high FSIQ just because a child has LDs. I'm actually quite curious about this as my dd8 has challenges with associative memory and does not test as high on IQ as I'd expect her to based on her achievement in areas that aren't impacted by her challenges, and based on her verbal demonstrations of thinking ability. I'm not surprised by her scores on memory-related subtests, but her range of scores on other tests seems odd when compared to her academic achievements and how quickly she learns.

polarbear

She's not identified via the school at all, but she does get private ST every other week. I haven't thought about her expressive language skills affecting her reading comprehension in the ways that you mention, but it makes a lot of sense! I'll ask her SLP the next time we see her.

As for test-taking - she is a very slow test-taker (except for math) and her 504 states that she gets at least time and a half for tests. So, with that in mind, I had this feeling that there was something more to her test score. I asked her if she rushed through her test so she could finish with her friends and sure enough, my instincts were right.

So, this most recent score is even less accurate than what it could be. btw, I don't look at each individual score, I look at the pattern that the scores present and overall, her rate of progression is relatively flat. I don't have any idea of what her lexile might be right now since we don't get the reports from school.