What are the reasons / advantages of NOT sharing private testing scores with a child's school? Because we felt my DS's school was not really understanding him (mostly due to 2e hiding gifted abilities and gifted abilities hiding areas of challenge), we chose to share everything with the school. They were very receptive and have been trying to work with us to appropriately challenge and accommodate my DS. So far they haven't been able to, but they are trying. I'm wondering if the decision to share his scores could have negative consequences down the line.

I'm sure others will comment later but to start with when you go to private testing it appears to be undermining their authority. Like you're "one of those parents". You said they were very receptive so why haven't they done anything? What gives you the impression they are trying? You mentioned the school wasn't understanding him but they were trying to accommodate. That would seem to me a contradiction in itself.

It's complicated.

Our situation might be different, because we do not have known 2e issues. Our fear with our present younger DC's scores is that: 1) the scores were done privately, not at the school (so we are not sure how they will be interpreted or valued by the school); 2) obviously, our DC is much, much more than a test score, and we'd like the teacher to get to know DC first; and 3) potentially immediately label us as "Tiger Parents," not allowing for other productive conversation.

In our situation, I just don't want to share "out of context." That is, if the school/teacher is LOOKING for a read on our DC, I'd be more apt to go ahead and share. I think it's more "when and how," for us - not that we are trying to withhold information (although absent the 2e issue, we also face having to possibly explain WHY we had the DC tested).

The problem with the school/teacher NOT having the information is that we are not on the same page. I think the challenge we face at the moment is HOW to broach the subject of our child having different needs, and then WHY we believe that this is so.

In the upper grades, where testing is rampant, this is honestly, less of an issue. The school does quite a bit of its own testing. DD's school also has her out-of-school scores and these were shared in the context of placement for this upcoming school year.

Brainstorming possibilities with no sense of liklihoods:

1) One reason not to share would be that the school or a teacher may use it for an artificial lens against their achievement. That could make them look unfavorably at 2E impact areas as lazy underachieving whilst ignoring the 2E aspect.

2) There could also be catch-22 situations where some standard test A is required to access a program which is a similar test to B, but since they have B scores they don't do A and that option is unavailable.

3) In regions where scores are too commonly obtained under suspect conditions, the school may make an assumption that private scores are way over-representative of actual aptitude.

4) Some people seem hardwired to look at the negative, and they may fixate on the lowest subtest with total disregard to the overall meaning. Like if there is an average processing speed score, they could argue that the kid couldn't keep up with a gifted class despite having reasoning scores out past three standard deviations.

Again, no idea how these weigh out compared to advantages. To me if I had to thrust them upon the school, I'd expect worst case results. If they were eager to see them, then I'd anticipate a more positive reaction.

It is bit of a long story, but the short version is that we had my DS tested privately because his public school recommended it.

The longer story... Toward the end of kindergarten, we asked the school to do an OT/PT eval. They agreed, and the results were what we were somewhat expecting -- while there are gross and fine motor issues for him, he is "close enough to normal" that by law he doesn't qualify for services. This was not really surprising to us because since he was young we saw issues, and in fact his preschool teacher asked if he could be observed when he was 2 because of her concerns. The results out of that preschool observation were the same -- definitely difficulties, but close enough to normal to not need services. After the OT/PT eval in kindergarten, we met with the Asst Principal and his K teacher to go over the results. The school therapist suggested we have him privately evaluated for OT/PT and get services outside the school since they couldn't help him. After this meeting, his K teacher pulled us aside and suggested that we have him tested for giftedness because some of the other problems he was having (social stuff) and behaviors she observed in him could be due to being highly gifted. I thank this teacher every time I see her for doing this because she opened up our eyes to really understanding our DS.

We had the WISC-IV and an OT/PT eval done the summer between K and 1st grade. We decided at that point not to go with the full neuro-psych eval because we thought a shorter eval would be enough; we were trying to save money; and we did not expect to get the results that we did. We shared these results with his 1st grade teacher, but not the whole school (Asst Principal, etc.) at that point. Our school doesn't start gifted programs until 3rd grade, and we were told any differentiation would happen in the regular classroom.

A third of the way through 1st grade we felt it necessary to finish the complete neuropsych eval. We then had a meeting with the neuropsych, his private OT, the school psychologist, the Princiapl, Asst Principal and his 1st grade teacher. Everyone except his teacher got it, and they got him. In fact, at one point the Asst Principal said "By law we don't have to do anything, but we are going to." We are in a state that doesn't have a gifted mandate. Very very quickly after this meeting they started to work with my son. They ordered a ball chair for him to use and set up a "writing station" for him to use. The school psychologist and another aide came in and worked with him to setup other supports such as creating a "work list" with breaks. My DH and I were extremely happy with their response and effort. We still aren't sure if they will be able to accommodate him, but they are absolutely making an effort. Where it all broke down was his teacher. She was not able to follow through with the supports and suggestions made by the school -- they weren't even coming from us. She just didn't get him. In fact, she made comments to me (luckily in private) that we could have sued the school for. I told the principal about these comments, and to say he was upset was an understatement. This teacher didn't seem interested in changing her teaching style for any child -- not just my DS. It wasn't that she was singling him out.

So this past year was a really big year of learning for my DH and I as well as the school. I feel like it took us a whole year to all get on the same page and understand what my DS needs. The supports they were putting in place they understood probably wouldn't make a big difference for 1st grade as it was near the end of the school year when they really started. The school was really looking forward to 2nd at that point to make sure he can hit the ground running this year.

My biggest concern right now is around academically challenging him as the school didn't have as clear of a plan in place for that as for helping him with the issues around DCD. He was never differentiated for academically in 1st, even though the teacher said she would. This school year the district is adding a K-2 gifted resource that will be at our school once a week. Our school administration seems very excited about this program. I think they are still working out what this is going to look like since it is new. It is only once a week, but it is something. I am hoping that she will work with his classroom teacher to differentiate his work on a daily basis.

At this point, we have a very positive, cooperative relationship with his school and those working with him. Again, the big question is if they can really meet his needs on both ends of the spectrum. It also seems to really come down to teacher placement. All the other support staff at the school who are working with him have been fantastic, but if the teacher doesn't follow through it doesn't really matter. I met with the principal at the end of the school year, and he apologized that it was such a rough year and was very hopeful that this school year will be better. We don't have teacher placement yet, and he wouldn't tell me it at that point. However he said that he thinks we will be very pleased, and that they are grouping him in class with some other kids who need more challenge like him.

For your child's performance, do you have an overall goal, toward which progress is measurable? Do you have a plan or strategy to advocate for specific steps toward that goal?

The recent posts here and here may be of interest... the threads in which they are posted may also provide more ideas and resources for you to leverage.

Thank you for the resources, indigo. I will look at them more as we are preparing for school to start. I hope to meet with the new asst principal and his teacher next week before classes start.

For his performance, we don't have a formal goal or plan right now. We have identified with the school where he needs extra help and that he is advanced academically. We are letting them take the lead now as we want to continue with the idea that we are all a "team" working together to support my DS. We want them to feel like they are running things and that we have confidence in them because at this point we do. Because they are making a definite effort, I don't want to push too hard and become a parent they see as a problem and thus don't want to work with me. However I did learn my lesson last year that I won't wait so long to push for something different if what they are doing isn't making a difference. For most of last school year it was really just his ineffective teacher we were dealing with. Now there are many more people at the school aware of DS and what he needs, and I expect they will be keeping an eye on him because of all the advocacy work I did last year.

BlessedMommy, we've always shared scores with the school rather than purposely withholding them, but we share with purpose, and to be honest, IQ scores haven't ever really meant much to our school and haven't been terribly useful in advocating - outside of our using them to illustrate the 2nd "e" aspect (disability) and explaining the size of the discrepancy in abilities. Re differentiation, acceleration, gifted programming etc - the piece of the puzzle that teachers and school staff were more interested in has been, almost always, achievement testing administered by the school, or an achievement test that is the same as the achievement tests administered by the school (TerraNova, MAP, etc).

It sounds like you have a good path forward with your school and a good working relationship - I don't hear anything in your post that sounds like you *need* to share private test results at this point in time. If you find that the promised differentiation doesn't happen as you get further into the school year, you might want to reference the test scores when you have a team meeting - but I'd be sure to include work samples and any type of school testing that you have also.

Best wishes,

polarbear

We didn't share scores with DS7's with his school- I wish we had because his teacher said he was inattentive and he was claiming that he was bored because he didn't understand the material. She was completely unwilling to entertain that he was indeed bored and it contributed him being inattentive.

In her defense, I think that she found the simplest and most likely answer for DS's issues in her class- if I had provided his IQ scores and subsequent achievement test scores, at least she would have had a complete picture. I don't know what the result would have been, but we got the worst possible outcome without sharing- a wasted academic semester at a hefty tuition price and we changed schools.

We were much more direct (although polite, modest and diplomatic) with DS's new school. So far, so good.

Oh, cammom - that is a good, cautionary tale. May I ask how you managed to communicate with the new school (and I agree that being polite, modest, and diplomatic is key)?

I think if you have a kiddo who is 2e, they are so frequently UNDERESTIMATED, that I would be more apt to speak up and freely share. It is a little trickier with a non-2e kiddo, I think, although the reason for testing is usually the same - the parent often doesn't feel that their DC's needs are being met.

But just raising the issue that one felt the need to go outside the school to have their DC assessed, could be met with defensiveness.

I feel like I'm tiptoeing through broken glass with these: on one hand, I can see where the achievement data could be VERY relevant to the teacher (for example,suggesting a DC is functioning pretty comfortably above grade-level); also, the IQ data could remove the concern that a DC has been hothoused into this level of achievement. On the other hand, the school might not react positively to a family who privately went to have a DC tested. Still, just when/how/what to share? That's the tricky part.

We have already shared the scores -- IQ, achievement, OT/PT, full neuropsych report, etc. The question I first posted was to see if this might have been a mistake down the line. After reading the responses so far, I'm feeling like this was the right decision for DS.

So far, it has been really positive that we did share the information. I agree with Loy58 that for a child who is 2e it is easy to underestimate them, and I think this is what his first grade teacher was doing -- even though she had the information. I think she really just didn't "get" gifted kids, especially those that are 2e. I feel lucky that while our state does not have a gifted mandate, our district does do at least something. I'm waiting to see if what they do will be enough, though. There seem to be a number of teachers and administrators who do understand gifted kids, and I think they want to help but they are limited in resources. I'm just keeping fingers crossed that he gets those teachers as he progresses through school.

I am still wondering about that one myself,
So far I am thinking I might just share (orally) the recommendations on the third page of the report about acceleration differentiation and enrichment, and not share the numbers, as they probably do not mean much to the teachers. I suppose the FSIQ would. He is not appreciably 2e (his anxiety and his sensory issues show up socially and in PE, but do not detract from either his ability scores or his academic achievement at this point. I guess I may share if they ask, either show a genuine interest or scepticism (of the "you know he's not the fastest student in class"...variety.) I just do SO not want this information to get out among the other parents. Social suicide. Not sure just how much you can trust them all to keep their mouths shut and not slip...

Fascinating. I have to say that this never, ever even crossed my mind when we shared testing results. Like what do you think the result would be? At this point, DD is working 2-3 grades ahead, so if it were social suicide we'd be dead 1000 times over.

No one we ever shared our results with ever cared (or in many cases, bothered to look at the information). For us sharing results had no effect, or in some cases, made things worse. The OP is NOT in this situation and, I think, is doing the right thing. That's not always the case however.

In my experience, that would be the same parents who pit their own children's IQ scores against each other, and berate the lower scoring child, or dismiss their future potential because they are "not as bright" as the higher scoring child. This is why I started burying my score tables in the back of the report, in an attempt to put the focus on functional strengths and weaknesses, and to stress the confidence interval aspect of scores.

I would be very *very* surprised to have specific IQ information slipped from *school staff* to parents for two reasons: first, the school staff have an obligation to keep this information private, and second, what may seem like hugely important information to us as the parents of our children really is just one tiny blip of data on a child that is not the center of the world for the teacher, hence in the realm of what he/she is likely to share, I just don't think the IQ scores would be anywhere near likely to get accidentally slipped. OTOH, what I think *might* get talked about is a parent's attitude - if they come across to the teacher as a "know-it-all" or pushy parent or tiger-parent or whatever. This is of course just my perception and speculation, based on the friends I have who are teachers and who I know well.

What I *have* heard though - in our schools - among the parents of HG/+ kids - is parents who like to compare their child's IQ # to another parents' child's IQ # as if a higher # makes their child somehow much more incredible than the other parents' child. I've never ever heard talk among parents like that when I'm with the non-HG/+ crowd (or even most of the HG/+ crowd). Just my experience, of course, but the people I'd not want to share scores and info with are other parents. I wouldn't worry about teachers discussing it in terms of actual data/numbers.

polarbear

Loy58- DS is in private school, so we shared it while shopping for the "new school." I was straightforward- stated that he had a recent IQ test and the results were high. I shared that he was specifically advanced in some areas, particularly math. I asked how the school accommodates students like DS. My BS detector was on red alert by that time, so it was fairly obvious which school was going to be the fit.

When DS started first grade (bear with me) I hoped that the teacher would see his abilities independently. At the time, I was still reeling a bit from his scores, uncertain what it would mean, and buying into the idea that kids may even out.
DS quickly became disengaged with academics, and careless with his work. His teacher noted his inattentiveness, carelessness and general disinterest and came to inaccurate conclusions. Everything from my tentativeness to DS's attitude, and his teacher's observations of his behaviors created a negative situation.

I'm mentioning this because I can't imagine that the situation is too uncommon. Many of the folks who post on this forum are a bit shocked and uncertain of what IQ scores may mean--they may naturally have trepidations about coming on too strong with a teacher. However an under challenged child may not react submissively, and may check out or become disruptive. Teachers have their own bias because a truly gifted child is unusual- when they see behavior, giftedness probably won't be their first instinct. It can become a perfect storm- all parties frustrated.

Just thoughts.

Thank you, cammom. That really gives me something to think about.

This is surely cultural and varies from from country to country, from area to area, I'd guess from school to school even.
I live in a European country that does not do standardized testing, neither for achievement nor for ability. There is an extreme need to pretend that some differences do not exist, even in achievement. The OECD testing for Pisa was an eye opener and is still hotly debated not just for its actual implications (it showed that students in some states scored, on average, two grade levels higher than students in others, which led to finger pointing at the high scoring states for putting too much pressure on students) but on a philosophical level, do tests even have any meaning at all....because if they don't, you don't t have to bother about why your schools fail...

Even just having your child tested puts you squarely in the category of That Parent. Who needs a gifted label for their kids to inflate their own ego, to find excuses for their child's behaviour problems, and so on. Clearly you're working ahead in the afternoons, hot housing, trying to jump an imaginary queue. If your kid is so gifted, let him show it by making perfect grades, and if the kid is actually making them, it must be all about you and your hot housing again.

We live in on of the highest scoring stated which still has a rigid tracking system, based entirely on grade average in fourth grade, meaning you are in direct competition with your class mates. While in theory, teachers are supposed to grade objectively against grade level standards and not on a curve, in practice this is what happens (again one of t hose dirty little open secrets substantiated by test results nobody wants to hear).

If your child goes to a high SES school with over involved parents like ds7 does, third and fourth grade are make or break time. Everything is about getting into the right (ie college prep) track.

Your observations sound familiar to those in some areas of the United States.

It is ironic because in sports/athletics it is widely accepted as natural that some will excel; These individuals are celebrated. Meanwhile in academic/intellectual endeavors uniformity is mandated; Those who excel may be cut down (tall poppies).

In some schools, gifted students may be graded on much tougher, more time-consuming assignments as a means of "differentiated task demands", resulting in deceptive, uneven grading.

In some high performing areas teachers may be credited with the performance of pupils even though there may be a strong program for uniform outcomes with little or no gifted support; Parents may be sacrificing greatly to provide weekend, summer, or afterschool enrichment for their children so they may learn something new. Based upon high student performance, the teachers to whom these students are assigned are then deemed superior and draw higher salaries although the students' high performance was based on parental decisions, sacrifice, and actions in support of the student.

Yes, this may be similar to the observation that children in practice programs may have high GPA... but with little outside evidence to corroborate high academic achievement... thereby hinting at inflated grades for some students (based on uneven grading practices).

We weren't in a high performing district, but I still felt some of this. When we moved and stayed in the neighborhood, the principal made a happy comment about not losing one of their brightest students... but when I asked for accommodation, I was completely stonewalled.

Where I live school choice is a heated issue, with a lot of people feeling like it's important to stick with your assigned school in order to give it necessary support (if all the "rich" involved parents pull their kids out, what will the schools do?). My response when someone makes this comment is always "well, if the school wanted me to support them, they should have supported us."

Tigerle, I see what you are saying, though it sounds more like educational suicide rather than social suicide. I think I was definitely seeing this through a US lens, where other parents might be competitive or annoyed at the information, but who cares? (Answer, not me.)

I guess there are old traumas coming into play again...
So far, DS is doing okay in his class, not super popular, but he's accepted for who he is (much more than I ever was at that age). But we have had a few odd snarky comments from parents already. I am worried that if the words "gifted", "grade skip", "gifted program" (I am not worried about test scores leaking, I do not think the numbers mean anything to most people) somehow come up in the parental gossip (it is unbelievable to me how gossipy these grown up educated pleasant women are...) parents who feel threatened by this might gang up on us and make their kids gang up on DS.
It's happened to me, and it was merely caused by a grade skip, no one even bothered about iq back then. I'm SO in the closet.
I suppose it's easier if you do not have a choice, if it's the school doing or demanding the testing and making the placement decisions. In my case, it is completely up to me to make the results relevant or not, as the case may be.

Just re-read this thread to see if it answered my question, since it was similar to the original post of this thread. And I don't think it did.

Are there situations where you HAVE to share the test results with public school in CA? My understanding is many of these tests (like the WISC IV) can only be run once per year? And that if school starts talking about testing I would need to show them the results. I do realize that my original plan in getting the testing done was to show it to the school, but I'm unsure how many details, who's report, and what timing to do this.

Part of my indecision is because I don't yet have a full written test results back. We are waiting for one last test that will be done this Wed. My son's psychologist (separate from the tester) will write up her own report based on the results and that will take yet more time. School starts in two weeks and I had plans to talk with his counselor this week to make sure she is "hand" scheduling his classes like she promised. I'm not sure if I should bring up that we had the testing done yet as I haven't seen the report and known the results. And I don't yet know which report I want to give the school or if I want to give them both. DS15 is due for a second SST about 3 weeks after the start of the school year. Although this makes little sense as the teachers will be all different, and he usually looks fine (if a bit shy) at the start of a school year. Partly this is because I am really skeptical of what the H.S. can really offer us in the way of support.

I do trust that the school staff will not reveal the testing to parents & or anyone who I don't give permission that isn't an issue. It's just that since I don't know the full results or recommendations. My instinct is to not say anything at all about it this week, and keep my wait and see attitude.

No. But if additional testing is in the offing, you have to tell them that you had testing, and what the instruments were, or you will end up putting your child through a slate of useless, invalid testing. (The re-test time for the same cognitive instrument is actually 24 months.) And if you want them to use the results of your testing, obviously you have to show them the testing. If you don't want them to use your testing, then they have to select different instruments to answer the referral question.

If you wish to wait and see, that is, of course, up to you, but I will just make one caution: how the school staff perceives and receives parent-initiated outside testing depends largely on the relationship between parents and school, and on the alleged referral reason. In my experience, when this kind of testing is not well-received, it is mainly because it feels a little deceptive, like you're being blindsided with a list of demands, when you haven't been given a chance to respond to the needs in a collaborative conversation. Now I realize that many of the families on this board have not experienced effective collaboration with the schools, nor seen evidence that personnel are motivated to do so, so I definitely see that there is a place for defensive management of information, but it is also difficult to feel collaborative when key information is withheld. Especially if the SST thinks that this process could be heading toward an in-school evaluation.

My inclination would be to mention that you've been having some outside evaluation done, for various reasons, but you don't have results back yet, and if anything turns up that might affect school planning, then you'll update them. Of course, the focus of your current meeting is scheduling, so I would view this more as a "by the way".

EDIT: Just re-read your post. I will qualify my comments by saying I have a lot of regard for intuition (in addition to facts and reasoning, of course!). If there is something about your situation that makes you feel waiting would be wiser, there is probably a reason for it.

aeh.. Thanks you are probably right about saying we are having the testing done but don't have the results back yet. The probability is the councilor would be too busy to do much with that information at this time anyway.

I am likely to share the results, but not sure if I want to share BOTH reports or what I have heard said yet. The tester isn't an expert at gifted kids and I really want to see what the both report say before sharing. I had really hoped I would be farther along in the process and that I would have had the report in hand by now.

Reports I haven't seen I frankly wouldn't mention yet. As long as you don't have them you're not withholding anything.
Our tester shares the report per email first and asks if there are any concerns with the wording. I have asked her to make a few changes but in tone rather than content. Haven't decided yet what to share myself but I want to make sure it's a ext I would to ind sharing as such.

I agree with the ethics of the situation, and parents ought to share which test(s) their child has been exposed to. Some may find it easy for things like this to (willfully) slip through the cracks. Overexposure to tests, and validity of test results, are serious concerns with far-reaching impacts on many people.

Prior to test administration, are parents required to sign a form attesting that their child has not been exposed to the specific test instrument(s) within a 2-year period?

Sadly, unless/until there is enforcement such as laws under which parents will be penalized for falsification of records related to withholding prior test information (resulting in their child re-taking a test within the 2-year wait interval), some parents may find this an expedient way to game the system in order to achieve a higher IQ score.

Unfortunately, there are currently no avenues for enforcement. I have found, however, that in the evaluation environment, children are surprisingly honest about previous testing (though not always with reliable memories). Granted, parents may go so far as to prep their children not to mention previous testing, but I think they are probably risking optimal performance by doing so, as the child now has to be on guard throughout the whole evaluation, while simultaneously attempting to benefit from prior exposure. I often ask children if they have had testing experiences before, mainly to gauge what I need to do and say to put them most at ease (some had negative experiences, and will need reassurance that this will be more positive, and some have had no experience, and need information and warm-up tasks to take the edge off its novelty; older and more inquisitive kids may want to understand the purpose and design of testing, which I am happy to explain in general terms). Even the occasional child who has been instructed not to talk about previous (or current!) outside testing tends to reveal the information before I have finished the evaluation, at which point I discontinue the repeated instrument, contact the parent, and discuss alternative instruments with them/sharing of preexisting test data/obtaining a real picture of a child's learning profile. (Of course, there's pretty strong selection bias here, as I wouldn't know about the ones where they successfully concealed testing from the school system!)

bluemagic, I think in your situation I'd mention that your ds had testing this summer and you don't have the full results or report back yet, but that they did find areas that were potential areas of challenge. I looked back through your previous thread and I think you mentioned that one tester suggested your ds was borderline but not quite a clear ASD diagnosis? Is this part of what you're waiting to determine from his psych testing this week? This is just my opinion - but from my perspective I don't think it will hurt you either way to either share that your ds is being evaluated for ASD (or whatever) or to *not* share. Same goes for any verbal recommendations you have for accommodations etc - it's ok to let the school no, but you're also not concealing anything that will hurt you down the road if you don't. When you have the reports you can share the information. Chances are the school staff isn't going to act on any accommodations/etc without the reports, but the fact that you've pursued testing and that the initial findings showed concerns with potential x,y,z might help encourage the school counselor to hold true to the promise of hand-picking your ds' class schedule.

Hope that makes sense! And I hope you have the reports back soon - waiting can be very hard!

Best wishes,

polarbear

@aeh, good to know! Hopefully raising awareness of this will discourage parents from unethical practices to game the system.

Thanks. I think what I am in confusion about is the ASD diagnosis since I am already fairly sure I'm going to have contradictory advice on this issue. The crazy thing is I should WANT this diagnosis, since with it I could get the testing covered partially by insurance and would have little problem getting a 504 for my son.