Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Slosson screen

Greetings, all. I've been lurking for a few weeks and was hoping that some of the experienced members of this forum could help me out. I'm just starting down this path with my DD5 (almost 6) in K and would appreciate the benefits of your experiences.

I've not been able to find much info on the quirks and/or emphasis of the Slosson screen and was hoping some on this forum could share their experiences or insights.

For some history - after relatively gentle prodding and behavioral issues in class, the school agreed to screen DD5 for their gifted pull-out this year. They don't normally test or allow the pull-out for K, but I am aware that path was blazed last year by someone I work with whose DS is one year ahead of my DD.

They start with the Slosson as a screen and I'd like any info I can find about the pros and cons of this tool. Of course conducting the actual screen is not a priority as I signed the paperwork the first week of Jan and a follow-up call this week revealed they have not yet done it.

Thanks for any advice or information!

Prissy

This is only the first step and the school's commitment to further testing and ID would depend on the results of this screen. I knew it wouldn't be particularly accurate - was just looking for what things it might over or underestimate to get a feel for how my DD5 fits. You hit the high points I needed.

Thanks much for the info.

The state of AL has the Slosson on its approved list of screeners, but schools don't use it. The cutoff scores are set really high by the state. Basically, a 130 on the Slosson is equivalent (in the state's matrix scoring system) to scoring a 115 on the OLSAT/NNAT. I was told that some schools were not administering the test properly and answers were getting out, thus inflating the scores and that's why the state raised the cutoff scores.

Screeners in general are not as accurate as individual tests, FWIW.

Wow, that's one bad screening!