Just a quick update on DS6 currently in second grade. We didn't know that GIEPs aren't aligned with the school year, but updated annually according to their inception date. We were under the impression that we were just waiting for this year's (second grade) GIEP to be updated. When we realized that, we asked them to update the PLEP part of the GIEP so that we had this year's baseline. That triggered a GIEP meeting to be scheduled.
While waiting for that meeting to occur (they seem to take forever to arrive) we had our DS take the WISC and get a full WIAT-III (he was too young when he was first tested for achievement to take any real sub-tests). The results were very interesting and we're still trying to figure out exactly what it means. The FSIQ is gifted, but not near the upper spectrum. The achievements, particularly in math are off the charts. We wanted the achievement tests to better support our GIEP (on the PLEP part). It's possible that it's just when DS is interested in something he goes waaaaay deep or that IQ tests aren't really tapping into the way he thinks about patterns and math. Who knows.
We had the GIEP this morning. It was very friendly. We met the math specialist and another admin and we shared with them our testing results. The math specialist suggested curriculum based assessments (CBA) which we were glad to hear. We asked that they start at the end of third grade, and she agreed she'd start there. For reading, we're comfortable with what goes on in the classroom because it's easier for the homeroom teacher to go deeper with reading and writing without something special set up. For math, ultimately, I think we want him to be working another grade level (or two or three or...) higher, but we'll see where the CBA takes us.
So while nothing came out of the meeting immediately (although we did get some detailed testing results from them for reading comp.) we did get our goal for this meeting: that the school will do CBA for math. I basically came out and said that from those results we'll then update the math section of the GIEP. That next meeting may be a little more confrontational if they don't see the need to make a more radical change, but we had a very constructive meeting this time I think they know we're not kooks. While it's taken a long time, we're starting to build a pretty good rapport with the staff.
Anyways, just wanted to give everyone an update... for those of you playing along at home...
JB
