Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Kbit 2 and Ktea II score discrepancies - retest???

Hi, I thought a read a small thread about this but looked forever and can't find it! My son was tested last year at the end of kindergarten after I spoke with his teacher and inquired about the gifted program. I just received the results from KBIT 2 given the last week of May by his former guidance counselor, and the KTEA II given four days later by the gifted teacher. On the Kbit he scored avg in verbal and just barely in the upper extreme in nonverbal. On the Ktea though he scored in the upper extreme across the board. His new guidance counselor said the discrepancy may be because the kbit measures ability and the Ktea measure achievement, so if he went to a good preschool (which they know he did) or had enrichment classes they may affect the result. Is this true? I feel like he wants to retest my son possibly only to confirm that he doesn't qualify for a full IQ test. But I'm stressing at the results because my son has so many characteristics of a gifted child that I would have a hard time believing that he isn't. I guess I'm just looking for some feedback on this.

My son didn't meet the kbit cut off in k for more testing but a year later he did...turns out he is HG or PG somewhere in there...anyway the kbit score he needed was one more point...he was HG back during the K screening He didn't just magically become HG the next year...so the kbit isn't such a great tool for kindergarteners IMO.

I believe the KBIT is a very short screener test, but the K-TEA is a full-on achievement test. I'd ask for them to give the K-ABC test, since they are using the Kaufman tests. The K-ABC is the full-length IQ test.

It's very possible he just connected better with the Gifted Teacher, or that she has much more experience working with gifted kids and was able to get and keep his full attention for the test.

Well, my son's guidance counselor had him retested using the KTEA2 and the KBIT2 and his scores this time were much lower than last spring (above avg range/avg range.) I don't really understand it, and I've been reading various articles about screenings. Two things stick out in my mind: (1) should he have been given the same screenings as he took almost 6 months ago? And before his re-screening he had an annual checkup with our pediatrician. I mentioned some of his behavioral issues, and told him he's not really challenged in school and was given a screening for possible gifted program. I told him he scored in the upper extreme/gifted range on one part and just above avg on the second part, so his school was probably going to re-screen him. His dr commented that in his opinion it was a waste of time because a truly gifted child can score very high on one test and very low on another, but a truly above avg child wouldn't score extremely high on one part, even as a fluke. So (2) is it true that an above average child wouldn't ever score in the highly gifted range? Trying to figure out what to do because my gut tells me my son is gifted, and I'd like to get him more challenging work at school, but I need the numbers to back up my request.