Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Finally some good news from school!

Some of you may remember my previous posts about DS8. Last year (1st grade) was a nightmare resulting in a midyear classroom change. 2nd grade, fortunately, has been a completely different story. He has been really flourishing and his teacher is much better. Looking towards GT identification though, he completely bombed the CogATs so I was pretty sure he wasn't going to get in. But, imo, the CogAT scores did not describe him well and his strengths showed up as significant weaknesses. The profile just didn't seem to match what I know about my kid (I probably posted about this a few months back). I was hesitant to discuss my concerns with the GT teacher because I didn't want to be "that parent" you know? But I finally did and she assured me that the CogAT was only one piece of the id process. But I figured he still probably wouldn't get in, but at least I had done my best to advocate for him.

She called me Friday to tell me that the committee had agreed that given his super high achievement scores (I haven't seen them yet), his grades and teacher observations, as well as her own observations (she leads a math enrichment) that they agree that his CogAT scores are not a good representation of his abilities and that he did get in based on the other factors! I was thrilled, not just that he got in, but that she recognized that the CogATs weren't accurate for him. Her words "some kids fit nicely into the boxes we expect, and some don't. (DS) is clearly an out of the box thinker and the kind of student we want to make sure we don't miss. And those kids are the most fun for me!"

I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear someone at that school recognize these qualities in DS and go the extra mile to make sure he is being properly placed. It may not be perfect, but next year he will get 200 minutes pull-out gifted enrichment plus accelerated math.

And, if I'm honest, I also feel a bit relieved that I wasn't wrong about my kid. After those CogATs I was questioning my perspective wondering if I was wrong. It's so hard, especially when its your oldest, to know what is unusual for a kid his age.

Thanks for reading, there is no where else I can discuss this without worrying that it sounds like bragging, so I really appreciate this board both in the bad times and the good!

Yay! That's fantastic!

Yay! Great to hear they overlooked Cogat. It's my least favorite test for GT kids.

Congrats!!! And 200 minutes?? I need to move to the western burbs!

Yes, the CogAT was just awful. My point of view is that if is "ability" is significantly lower than his achievement, then one would expect to see a student who is really diligent and works really hard to master concepts that don't come easily to them. DS, however, picks new things up quickly and easily (when his perfectionism isn't an obstacle!) and almost never has to study. So this suggests that the "ability" assessment is off. I suspect that the results were a combination of him thinking differently and seeing different patterns/relationships in the questions and his habit of not listening very well to instructions! lol


Yeah, 200 minutes seems pretty good from what I've heard is given in other school districts. I don't know how it is broken up (daily, 3xweek,) but I really like the math enrichment this GT teacher has provided this year for DS and others where she presents a combination of 3rd grade concepts and critical thinking work.

in D54 its 40 minutes once a week unless the kids qualify for the magnet in third grade. That is a self contained classroom. The good news for us .. ds6 was guaranteed services in first grade which is not the policy for our district (programs start in second).


Let me know how it goes. Maybe we need to move

Wow, that is GREAT news!! So often it seems that they only look at numbers. The first time my ds12 took the OLSAT, in 1st grade, he got 18th%-ile on the non-verbal portion (and yes, I'll admit, I was crushed). Ever since then he's scored 99th in the nonverbal (and about that in verbal, though the nonverbal numbers stick with me after that first horrrible result). He even rocked the SATs this year. But, our school did NOT place him with those results, in spite of tons of other evidence. Luckily, he retook it with all second graders (only recommended first graders took it) and for some reason, did amazingly well not even a year later, and was placed in gifted mid-second grade.
My ds10 will be taking the COGAT (school switched last year) next fall for middle school gifted placement and I have to admit, I'm nervous. He's always done well on the OLSATs, but I have no idea about the COGAT and I've heard bad things.
Anyone have any feedback on why this isn't the best test? I hope that after years of evidence they won't rely on just this one test, but....
Anyway, I can only imagine (after my own experience) how sweet that phone call must have been and how vindicated you must have felt. YAY!!!!!!

I don't have much experience, but from what I read I think if he does well on the OLSAT he should be fine on the CogAT. Our school district gave the OLSAT up until last year and switched to the CogAT this year supposedly because it provides a more detailed profile and meshes better with the ITBS which they give for the achievement portion of the id process. This is what I was told, but part of me kind of wonders if maybe the CogAT was cheaper! Personally, I think one of the drawbacks to the test DS took (2nd grade) was that the questions were read to them by the teacher. It makes sense in order to take out the influence of reading level, but on the other hand, if you space out for a few minutes (which DS totally does at home!) you are pretty much out of luck! And it has to be incredibly dull to listen to the teacher read every question, so DS would have been easily distracted! I can also see him thinking excessively about question 1 and totally missing questions 2-4 or something like that!



She emailed me Thursday night to set up the phone time and I was certain that she was just calling to kindly tell me he didn't get in, since we had had a few discussions over the last few months. LOL They are sending home the written recommendations tomorrow so I wasn't expecting her to call me at all. I had prepared myself for that awkward conversation and so was really happy that it turned out much better than I could have anticipated!

momtofour, I am sure your DS will do fine! If he has done well with standardized testing previously then he knows the ropes!