Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Average score on screening, but...

Ok, last year and the year before, my child's teachers suggested she's gifted. She did not pass the screening either time. Should I drop this issue or request for her to be screened again now that another year has passed? She's in kindergarten and reads at around a third grade level. Certainly second grade text is easy, but third grade text length is too much. In math, she is adding and subtracting to and from 20 in her head. She also understands things like 4-6=-2.

All that to say, she scored average on the screening in the matrices. I'm thinking maybe she just had never seen than and didn't know what to do. Her other scores were high enough. She's never had a full scale IQ. She's just had the screening, which was done last February on the day of her school's Mardi Gras parade at recess. I am sure the score was lower due to this, too.

DD1 has IQ of 135+.

Hate to just blame it all on being the second child. Ideas?

Thanks!

My answer would depend on a few things -

If she were to test gifted, what would change? (what difference does it make?)

How does she feel about testing? Does she mind doing it again? Does the school mind? (in other words, how much pain is it?)

Does the school accept outside testing? Is that something you'd consider pursuing?

Yes, they accept outside testing. It's $425 here. So, I'd rather not do that if I don't have to. Right now my goal in life is to get to the point where she goes to school daily without saying it's the most boring place on Earth. She would have gifted class 1.5 hours a week. The school doesn't have a choice but to retest if I request it because it's been over a year. Also, worth noting that I gave her a cogat practice test to see how she would do and she scored a 94%. It's not normed, but there's that. She also has been referred by her music teacher for talented in music. I have no idea what will be on that test. That's a whole different issue.

Not sure if you're in LA or somewhere else on the Gulf Coast, but this is what LA has to say about it - see "Backgrounder - About the Gifted Program," second link in the list: https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/academics

Looking at Section 3 - Criteria for Eligibility shows that a K student has a significantly higher threshold than a 1st-grader. The standard matrix they're referring to is a little bit below. If the teachers are on board enough that they're willing to make an official recommendation, then your DD would only need 6 points on the matrix, instead of 10.

My DD's school suggested we wait for full evaluation until after her 6th birthday, at which point she would be measured at the 1st-grade threshold (we took that advice, thinking she wouldn't hit +2.5SD on the RIAS... shows what I know). If your child takes the test and doesn't make the cut, they won't let her take it again for another full year.

Distractability might explain your DD failing to deliver her best results in February, but you said they've screened her twice. That would have been in Pre-K? Not sure how that's even valid.

Keep in mind that the CogAT is not exactly the same as the KBIT (which, if I recall, is what your school administers for screening), so performance on a practice CogAT may not be predictive of the KBIT, for multiple reasons.

I would return to the question of utility. I generally advocate for testing when it does one or both of 1) provides access to services, resources, or placements of substantive value, or 2) helps to answer a question or elucidate a functional problem presenting itself.

At the moment, I see that there is some potential for meeting test 1, but that would hinge on the real value of the services accessed. Would 1.5 hours/week of gifted enrichment address her current daily perception of school as unengaging? She still has to be in the same school settings the other 10 to 25 or so hours a week (depending on whether it's half- or full-day K).

No IRL concerns are being reported that would meet test 2, but perhaps you have other information that would change that.

If you re-screen, and she still doesn't meet criteria, that doesn't change her need for additional academic and intellectual stimulation, and what other resources or supports would you be able to recruit for that? (After all, the verbal scores you reported previously still project academic advancement in language-based areas of about two grade-levels, plus or minus, even if they don't meet arbitrary GT criteria.)

I feel somewhat at a loss. I know that a kindergartner reading 3 or 4 grade levels above is not in the norm. But whether it would help to have gifted classes or not is debatable. She is completely French proficient already (2 years of immersion). I always think adding a language will help Stace off the boredom, but it doesn't. I guess going for gifted is my last ditch effort at my child not hating school.

I feel somewhat at a loss. I know that a kindergartner reading 3 or 4 grade levels above is not in the norm. But whether it would help to have gifted classes or not is debatable. She is completely French proficient already (2 years of immersion). I always think adding a language will help Stace off the boredom, but it doesn't. I guess going for gifted is my last ditch effort at my child not hating school.

I believe you discussed homeschooling your older one, if GT programming hadn't been an option. That may still be a consideration for your younger one, even if the older is being appropriately educated in school.

Whether or not you re-test, and whether or not she meets district criteria, this may be a direction to contemplate, especially if the diverse profile seen in her testing from last year holds for this round.

While giving her the practice test, I noticed that on some sections, she had to have me explain the way they figured out the answer on the sample. Then she could do them all. Some were easier than others. I can't homeschool now bc I'm working, but I have the summer off.