Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment need last minute advice on DYS application

My 8 year old son has a WISC-IV GAI, using extended norms, of 152.

WE did the woodcock johnson a couple of days ago and he did 138 (99%) broad math, and 133 (99%) broad reading. I know those scores don't cut the mustard for the application so I have been scouring the board for portfolio ideas.

He has been in a brick and mortar school for 3rd grade, and as an august birthday he is still top of his class, which is not saying much. The other day I was going through his home school work a year ago, and he was doing things in math he hasn't even gotten to in regular school. It is frustrating.

I got a workbook of supposedly 6th grade work, and he did some sheets on reading comprehension, math, etc. But these seem awfully easy and I really can't tell if it is 6th grade or not. I also made a video of him talking about a favorite topic, but he was self-conscious and not sure his brilliance came through fully.

My question is:

SHould I turn in what we have including the sub-acceptance WJ achievement scores?

And portfolio, what is a great set of items for this age?

Any sage advice in general?

TIA

Congratulations on your son's strong scores!

First, I think the entire results have to be submitted, though I'm not entirely sure. I would send a quick e-mail to Davidson and ask if the achievement scores need to be submitted if you are relying on a portfolio.

Second, I wouldn't rely on the grade listings of workbooks as to the level of the work. If it doesn't impress you as likely 6th grade work, it probably isn't. It sounds like, as to be expected, he isn't really being challenged at school and thus not being given the opportunity to demonstrate an ability to work well above grade level. If it was me, I would spend a month after schooling, teaching him above level concepts and giving him the opportunity to demonstrate that ability. Personally, I would be inclined to delay submission of the application a month, so I could insure I had 3 or 4 items that all felt to me that they were clearly 2 or 3 years above grade level.

I'm not sure but if your son has an August birthday and is a year older than his classmates, then he may be judged on par with his age, with the expected portfolio showing being 2 to 3 years above his age, not his grade. You may wish to check this with Davidson, but I do recall that the requirements were above age level, not grade level.

I hope this helps!

You might also consider having him take the EXPLORE next year to see if he gets qualifying achievement scores there if the portfolio route doesn't work. I submitted some writing samples of some stories she had written and a reading list, but I also submitted both sets of qualifying score so the portfolio was redundant and I have no idea what the reaction was to it!

This may not help much, but we were in a similar situation.
Not sure if my son will even get accepted, but in his portfolio I used a picture of a creative and fairly detailed project he did on a poster board, a speech he wrote for his class president campaign, and several videos of him talking about the Lord of the Rings books we/he's reading, plus a video of him talking about deep sea ocean life.
It was not pages and pages of portfolio items, but sometimes being concise is the way to go (I hope).

By the way, my son is the same age.

Hi, thanks for the responses. He is a young 3rd grader, actually started kinder at 4... Most boys where I live are redshirted in that situation, but since he could already read, and was advanced, we did not do him that disservice.

I have pulled together a few things for a portfolio but I think I will try to get the WIAT or KTEA administered soon. I really could use support as this school year was kind of a bust. He will probably home school next year, so he can actually progress and learn something.

I think video can be a really good way to demonstrate the way your child thinks. We submitted a total of about an hour of video of my daughter.

Hi teachermom,
I had to reply because it's a little eerie how similar our DSs are. My DS is 8, with an August birthday, in third grade (in a sea of redshirted 9 and 10 year olds), exact WJIII scores as yours, and a 151 GAI.

I had the same trouble with a portfolio you were having . I just struggled with trying to imagine what 2-3 years ahead "really" looked like. I read all the threads here on the subject but I just could find anything that I thought was objectively so WOW that there would be no question. He just wasn't getting exposed to that kind of advanced stuff in school.

We're in a school that is high-performing (but that underserves its GT population) so both he and my DD5 (who just tested into the GT program) will attend a higher performing GT magnet school next year. That seems fine for us now. But I may need to readdress this next year.

Anyhow, good luck with the DYS app! Let us know how it goes!

The scoring profile you are both describing is fairly common with gifted kids. Most of the kids in my class have IQs that qualifies them at >130, with achievement more in the low 120's. Some of the more gifted kids have profiles similar to the ones posted here. I have several kids with scores that are in that range. I thought the Davidson program was looking for kids with scores that were extremely high in both IQ and achievement? The kids presented here are very gifted, and will likely excel even in a gifted program, but it seems they fall a bit short of the Davidson level.

SharonM: I have other achievement/IQ scores from homeschooling (ITBS & Stanford & OLSAT) which reflect the higher cutoff (99.99% & 145+), but achievement scores are reflective of what they have been taught recently, not if they are high achieving. And, Davidson YS requires 145 + in IQ, Achievement, *or* a portfolio. His WISC does have extended norms, because he hit the max on 3 subtests. Not sure what you are getting at with your comments. My son has scored consistently superlatively high on testing, my personal feeling is he had an off day with the WJ test combined with a year of public school underperformance of services. He is in current gifted program with 1 day a week pull out and is not excelling. I am a certified EC-6 teacher with gifted endorsement, btw.

OCJD, wow, that is eery! I had him do some multi digit multiplication sheets, and some reading comprehension with responses... you know, I used to teach community college, and my son writes much better than the bottom 50% of those students... I guess I am so used to him being ahead, I am not sure how to judge by how much. I think I will wait for him to plow through a couple more years of EPGY math in a couple of months, like he has done before, then go back for the achievement test in late fall. Thanks for your post.

By all means, apply. I'm sure he has a reasonable chance. I do think you misunderstood what I meant by excelling in the gifted class. I meant that with those scores, he would still stand out even in a gifted class. Perhaps he will have enough to be accepted. Good luck!