Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment When is the right time to talk to the teacher?

DS7 just received his MAP test scores back. For 2nd grade in reading he received a 202, which is the 99th percentile. For math he was at a 194, which is 89th percentile. The math I believe is low for him. The math test has 4 subcategories: Numbers and Operations score 187; Algebra score 196; Data Analysis score 196; and Geometry and measurement score 199. I believe a more accurate score for his capabilities would be in the 196-199 range.

So essentially he got the lowest score on the "easiest" subcategory. This is pretty typical because of his behavior. He absolutely hates repetition and when he "knows" something already he rushes through making careless mistakes. Like he can't be bothered with it. Then when something is new, interesting and challenging he is excited, engaged and takes his time.

We had similar results last year on his reading tests. He scored mid-average for his letter fluency test, and then for his "non-sense" words test scored higher than his teacher had ever seen- above the "above average" range and almost off the chart. Once again letter fluency=been there done that, nonsense words=fun, new, exciting.

His school district has a 4 tier GATE program (1 being the lowest- 4 being the highest). Right now it appears he qualifies for the 2nd depending on how his CoGAT scores are in November he may qualify for the 3rd or 4th.

Now here is the question- as of right now he is doing the advanced reading group and last year he did do some pull out, small group work with the gifted teacher for math. When is a good time to meet with the teacher to see what else they can do for him? They haven't started the pull out groups yet and are a month into the school year. Conferences are scheduled for the end of October/beginning of November. CoGAT testing will be the beginning of November. Do I just wait? I just worry that by then we are already 2-3 months into the school year and we have lost precious time. Add the fact that this is his teacher's first year fresh out of college and she hasn't had to navigate dealing with a GATE student yet. The longer he doesn't get the support he needs to work at his level I feel the more we are at risk of him losing interest in school and learning. He picks up on the new material easily and then loses interest quickly. If they start new material he has it mastered often within just a day or two, but the normal school curriculum has them working on the same thing for weeks on end. He then becomes uninterested and then gets in trouble for socializing, etc.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

When should I talk to the teacher? single choice
	Now
	At the normal conferences in a month
	After we get the CoGAT results 1-2 months
Votes accepted starting: 09/30/15 05:28 AM
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Welcome!

Does your child have homework? This may provide an opportunity for you to gauge the work being given and collect examples/evidence of things which may be too easy and just right.

Asking an open-ended question such as "what else they can do for him" may seem like good partnering with a school, however you may wish to be prepared with suggestions. Discussing last year's pull out small group work with the gifted teacher in math may be helpful if that seemed like a good option for your child. Might single-subject acceleration be an option?

You may wish to consider thinking in detail about any plans for differentiation. The 5Ws can be a handy guide (Who-What-Where-When-Why and How). More information and examples at these two old posts: 1 & 2.

The optimal time to request a meeting with the teacher may be as soon as you have prepared yourself with information to share, and questions to ask.

While the initial meeting may be rather informal, this summary of crowd-sourced meeting prep tips may be helpful.

Regarding his MAP testing, it seems as if his final result is only a couple of points lower than you would have expected. It also seems that the only thing that pulled him down was his computational accuracy, which you report is a typical behavior for him. In that light, I'd say the MAP results are a fairly accurate portrait. They paint a picture of a student with outstanding grasp of math principles who sometimes shoots himself in the foot. I was that student though elementary school, until I learned strategies to overcome that. My DD10 is currently that student.

It does not appear that the CoGAT is going to tell you anything you don't already know, so I'd eliminate that option. That leaves you with the choice between speaking now, or waiting until parent/teacher conferences at the end of the month. That choice, for me, would depend on when the school begins their pull-out program. If it doesn't start soon, what else can the teacher offer? The answer may be, "not much."

As for your DS getting in trouble for getting bored and socializing, unless it's presenting as a major problem for your DS or the teacher, I wouldn't sweat it. Getting the occasional warning from the teacher and seeing the quarterly citizenship grade marked down to "satisfactory" is not a problem worthy of parental intervention.

You said the GATE is four-tiered. So what is the chance of upward mobility or will they use this testing to define which level he would be at forever with them? What is the difference between the levels? Is it appreciably enough different that you need to advocate now vs. later?

Will he take MAPs at a later date? Like at the end of the year? It could just be that he was bored with the math or they did the testing on an off day. But it is very much a "gifted thing" for them to not be careful and overconfident with math problems that they feel are beneath their intellect.

Do you have other testing results to fall back on?

Thank you for the feedback. I spoke with his teacher and she agreed that he needs more challenging work. He is already in the advanced reading group. After receiving another norm based reading test where the results clearly stated "consider the need for individualized instruction" they are working to try to give him some of that during the advanced reading group. She also informed me that he will be starting the level 3 GATE math group when they start in November, and this week she started sending home "challenge" math work for him. So far it is going well. He is able to quickly answer most of it, but there are parts he has to stop, think about and ask questions which is exactly what I was hoping for. Now his CoGAT score will only determine whether he qualifies to apply for the full time level 4 gifted program.