Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Does NUMATS have a ceiling?

Hi everyone,

My son is a fifth grader in Illinois and we recently had him take the NUMATS. He is the youngest in his class bc we oved from VA where the cutoffs are different. He didn't prepare for it at all, I simply explained that it would be much harder than any other test he's taken and to not worry about it and just have fun. We have known that he is gifted for a long time, showed all the 'classic' signs as a baby/toddler. He's only taken the Otis Lennon at the end of 3rd grade in Virgina (for their GT Magnet school) and scored at the 99th percentile in all areas. He also took the IOWAs last year in school (4th grade) and got a grade equivalency score of 11.5 overall- with subjects as high as a 13 and as low as a 7 (from what I understand it refers to what grade level you're at).

I was happy to have found out about the NUMATS because I figured above level testing would give me a more accurate score. He scores came out:
English- 23 (97th)
Reading- 22 (94th)
Science- 25 (100th)
Math-21 (94th)
Composite- 23 (99.2)

Is there another test that I can have him take that would give me a better idea of his abilities? Would these scores be considered hitting a 'ceiling' or is that if everything was in the 99th percentile?

People speak of so many different IQ tests here that I wouldn't know what to have him take even if we were to get him formally tested.

I'm totally clueless- any advice would be nice. I want to talk to someone at the middle school he will be attending and I feel like I need 'proof' to get him into accelerated classes in certain subjects without grade skipping. I'm very uncomfortable with grade skipping.

Thanks!

Congratulations on your son's scores nkh74!
Dottie's post is very good advice - the college admissions tests, ACT and SAT are very good things to have 'in hand' when trying to talk to middle school folks. The scores also come back rather quickly (not sure, but I think about a month) which cuts down the wait time.

I wasn't exactly clear on your goal above. Are you trying to get your son into classes normally offered to fast-paced 6th graders that eventually cover more than one years 'standard material' in one years time (accelerated) - Or - Are you trying to get your son into classes normally offered to 7th graders, which we call 'subject acceleration' - sort of a 'little sister' to full grade acceleration.

The great thing about (some) middle schools, is that groups of students no longer migrate through their classes together, so if the schedule can be worked out, it is so much easier to take '6th grade science, 7th grade Language Arts, and 8th grade Math.' This gets even easier in High School. This can work very nicely without a full grade skip for many children in many situations.

Of course you want to make sure that the classes he subject accelerates into are for the strongest grouping of kids available, to get with the pace and the social connections. So one can subject accelerate into an accelerated class! See?

I'd also recommend you read A Nation Decieved
because it lists lots of other ways that school can be enriched for strong students. You can download it immediately - and it's free!

Good preparation for any school meeting.

Good luck! Please let us know how things turn out!
Grinity

Thank you for your reply Dottie and Grinity!

I will definitely check out the ACT. Dottie- I guess I would be okay with either one. I don't think they offer acceleration within the grade where you would cover more material than average. That would be ideal, but I'm not certain if that's available. I wrote an email to both the 'gifted resource' person and the principal asking for a meeting but no response... We are looking for a house and really have heard great things about this school but not in terms of how they deal with gifted children who need more of a challege. It makes me sad that I haven't done anything up till now...I just buy him tons of books and tape NOVA Science type shows and talk to him a lot.

I would love to have him apply for the DYS Program...do you have any recommendations on which of the list of tests in the first category is the most accurate/dependable?

Thanks!!

This varies from school to school. A few schools offer these types of classes and they are wonderful.
Sometimes 'really good school systems' are the worst for highly gifted kids because these schools tend to be less flexible and less willing to accept that a child might be outside the norms of what they are able to provide for. That's what happened to us locally. In our state there were also 'best of the best' sorts of school systems that my sib's kids attended, and they truly did have programing for highly gifted kids.

I think you could figure it out if the neighborhood is one of the 'top 40' in the US sorts of places - then it might be 'best of the best' kind of district. If you have more of a sense of 'definitely above average' then you might be dealing with a 'really good' (read: danger!) type of demographic.

I hope that helps!
Grinity