Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment High KTEA-II (achievement), but not high KBIT (IQ)

We are seeking clarification from the testing facility on this issue, but I wanted to run it by the parents here. Our 4-year-old had a screening with KTEA-II and KBIT-2 - both brief forms. It was for a summer camp program (for which he qualified).

He scored 99th percentile in KTEA-II (in reading, math, and overall) but just mid-80th percentile for IQ in the KBIT-2.

My feeling is this. Our son has PG older sister. He's been exposed to a world of reading and learning opportunities. We never "push learning" on him, but we are a rather nerdy family by nature and he has a very curious mind and seeks out learning on his own. I believe this is why he scored so highly on an achievement test...but perhaps, in reality, his IQ isn't all that remarkable.

My spouse thinks he just got bored in the testing and stopped "playing long" when they started up to KBIT-2 test. Also, this was just a brief 45 minute or so screening, so how much weight should we really give it.

He is attending a "gifted" preschool right now (for which he had to take yet another screening, and passed), but I am thinking we might just send him to public school once he is elementary age. If his IQ is just 85th percentile, he really shouldn't need any special accommodations. Spouse disagrees.

How would you interpret these scores? Is my understanding correct?

Either interpretation could be correct, but I'd tend to say that four is too young to know for sure what a child's ability and academic needs may be down the line and brief screening instruments aren't the best way to tell either way.

If possible, I'd defer making a decision and try to have him tested on a more comprehensive measure when he is older and you are faced with making schooling decisions for elementary. Could you afford to have a full IQ test done in a year or so? I'd love to say wait longer (until about age seven or so, when the scores are probably going to be more stable than at four), but if you really need the info to decide for elementary placement, you might have to test sooner.

Also, IQ isn't the only thing that matters in terms of academic placement needs. I've seen kids with less remarkable IQs than the 85th percentile do well in GT programs and with some acceleration and who continue to perform well into middle school as good students in honors classes with top notch achievement scores. I don't think that these kids' IQ scores are wrong or falsely low in these instances. I just think that they are bright high achievers who are motivated and who come from families that place value on their education and achievement. Sometimes those kids do better achievement-wise than the more HG+ kids.

I guess that it comes down to what your alternative to traditional public school is. If the alternative really would not be a good fit for above average very high achieving kids, should that turn out to be what he is, then it would be more vital to know. Our GT programming often is a better fit for the kids who aren't so HG+ so I wouldn't worry terribly about placing a kid who isn't technically gifted in them, should that be what a specific kid was.

Was this done through Northwestern by any chance? I'm looking into doing the same testing with DS4.9 but not sure how reliable this would be? Though we would also be doing this pretty much just to qualify for their programs if we wanted him to take part in them.

That is sound advice. A full test next year is not only possible, but will be required if we want him to attend a private gifted elementary school as opposed to public.

One area which always startles me with my son is his memory. I believe this is something that the KBIT does not test, but other IQ tests might (at least working memory). Memory and math are his two strong areas, it seems.

My ability to assess giftedness is kind of "off" since our daughter was so off-the-charts. So I second-guess whether or not our son is gifted all the time. This screened confirmed (for me) what I suspected. That he is well versed in academics but doesn't really have a matching high IQ. But I am probably reading too much into a simple screening test, especially given his age. Frankly, I think I just want a kid that is "easy" in school and doesn't require a lot of accommodations! So I am bringing some of my own hopes/baggage into this interpretation.

Around these parts KBit is a screening ONLY devise. It is NOT accepted as an IQ score worth any merits at all. I will tell you it isn't a terrific screener either.

My son was given the KBIT as a screen instrument for gifted in K (right after turning 5...like a week after). He missed the cut off for gifted by one point. The guidance counselor flat out told me that either they needed to lower the cut off by one point for K or they needed to use a different instrument for K because she saw year after year after year clearly gifted Kers who would miss the cut off by one point, wait a year and be rescreened and make the cut. She said the kids were just as gifted in K as they were in 1st...there was no huge improvement or change or exposure to anything...it just wasn't a good VALID instrument for 5 year olds. Apparently it became slightly better instrument as far as validity goes the following year because she says those who make the cut off in 1st generally (are some exceptions) go on to test gifted with further evaluation.

In our district, they use the KBIT as a pre-test, to determine if it makes sense for them to do a full WISC. My youngest scored about 93% on the KBIT and had they done only the KBIT, he most likely would not have qualified for the school-administered WISC. Luckily, they had also done the TOMAGS, and he hit the ceiling on that. My point is that they did go ahead and do a full WISC and he scored 145 -- so I don't think the KBIT is necessarily that accurate for all kids. (My son happens to be very mathy, which is why I think the KBIT didn't highlight his strongest areas.)

Hi, everyone -
I wanted to follow up on this old post in case it helps other parents in dealing with the same tests.

Many months after the above screening was done, my son had to take an IQ test for entrance into Kindergarten. This was the WPPSI-IV, I believe (the newest version of the WPPSI test - not sure if that was IV or III... but I think it was IV.)

His verbal score was over 150, which I was told is >99.9 percentile. His general/total score was a bit lower - 99.8 percentile.

So the initial KBIT screening we did for the summer camp obviously wasn't too representative of his actual IQ. The WPPSI tester said his IQ is likely a bit higher than what this test shows, but there were some ceilings he hit and then towards the end of the test he was losing interest and trying to tell jokes instead of doing the test.

I was a bit surprised by his result, to be honest. I'm not sure how reliable the WPPSI test is. Well, I'm not sure how reliable any standardized test is with children this young.