Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment What achievement test for "bored" 5th grader

My DD9 is a 5th grader with a previous grade skip and additional math skip. Her school has a core-class for gifted students. She also attends an after school class working on AoPS Algebra which she enjoys greatly.

The past 10 days have been frustrating and sad - most mornings start with a 20-30 minute meltdown crying and screaming about how school is so boring, and how she does not learn anything new (except in her music class and in her special "robotics" elective class), and why can she not stay home and learn with me... Also, stomach pains have flared up full force which is always a sign of stress for her.

These meltdowns may partially be caused by homework frustrations but I do believe she may truly be under challenged in class once again. We dealt with similar issues in Kindergarten prompting us to pursue testing for acceleration. I had hoped the acceleration would solv our problems for at least 6 years or so. Maybe my thinking was wrong.

Her end of 4th grade scores include a Lexile level of 1170L (correlating to somewhere around mid-7th grade according to online charts) and the Quantile math score was 1075Q which apparently correlates to Geometry level, but based on a 4th grade math test??)

I am wondering what would be a good test (preferably online and cheap :)) to support my suspicion that school work may need some adjustments. It could open the door to a teacher/ school meeting to discuss options. Another grade skip is not something we are too keen on right now, but home schooling (part-time or full time) might be a possibility if school and try ability are too far apart. I looked at the Stanford 10 test but it would only test the 5th grade knowledge - I would expect her to hit the ceiling on this. Would the 6th grade test be better?

Does a test exist that will really tell me what grades she "knows" and where she should continue to work? Something online would be nice since my husband is not very happy about spending money

As a side note, her sibling attends a "gifted" middle school and is still under challenged in math (a 6th grader working on 7th/ 8th grade combi class math, and at home doing AoPS Algebra). I foresee more troubles for child#2 in middle school...

Any testing or other advice you may have is much appreciated!

For 3rd - 6th graders, your DD can take the PSAT 8/9 test, which is designed for grade 8 and 9. Northwestern University CTD program offers this test in their NUMATS program. You can check out the below link to get more detail.

http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/program/numats

This is an above grade level test. The result report will show where your DD is standing at what grade level. They also have several comparisons of scores to the gifted population in the NUMATS program and national high school seniors. Check out the dates and fees for the tests that are coming up in Dec and Jan.

Good luck!

Thank you. We had already registered for the PSAT through DukeTIP. In the meantime we'll do some part-time home schooling one day every other week to keep the kid happier.