Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Qualifying for DYS- question

Just having a look at the qualifying scores for DYS : http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx

Wondering, for Option 2, I see for the WJ-III it says "one of the following sections", Broad Reading being one of them... in the interest of saving money could we just test with the 3 subtests that make up Broad Reading to satisfy the Option 2 requirement?

I would not recommend doing that if you have a younger child. Would it cost significantly less?

I would not do only part of a test. I would want to see all of the strengths and weaknesses on the test. In particular on achievement testing. I would want to know if there areas of weakness to address. I do not know what Davidson would think of that. You could call and ask. Do you know a tester that would do only part of a test? Would it really be cheaper?

Oh no I don't know for sure that it would be cheaper, I just assumed it would be. I looked into it a little more and I think it would make more sense to do enough to at least get a Total Achievement score. Thanks.

I would have it all done, I doubt any tester would reduce the price to do a portion of it. From when my DS completed this test, both times...it didn't take a really long time (compared to the IQ testing ) I would figure that the fee would incorporate a certain standard of time, and time to score/report etc.

The WJIII was the cheaper test when we had DS professionally tested last summer.

Does your school district by chance use the WJIII? A lot do for academic assessment, so you could talk to the special education department at your district and see if you could have them test possibly.

In states that require standardized testing for homeschoolers, lots of people use either the Peabody test or WJ-III. Both are popular since they are quick, mostly oral, nationally normed and cheap. As far as I recall PIAT(non-DYS) is in the 50-100$ range and WJ-III is somewhat more maybe 75-150$ depending on whether its the standard or extended test. These are local prices in MN but you an probably find something similar if your testing through your psych is going to be substantially more.

Good Luck.