I need help understanding scoring on the assessments given to my son by the school.

(A little background info: Son is 8yr 1mo, school has blinders on and seems to be focusing on my son's "lack of focusing issues" and is trying to tell me he has ADHD. I am seeing a Ph.D and he says my son has borderline traits of ADHD but believes if he was challenged more in school, those traits would probably disappear. The school refuses to take off the ADHD blinders and their focus on this, I believe, directly relates to the scores seen on the GES3 "test")

The school administered the NNAT test to the whole classroom and I received a letter from the school stating my son scored at or above the 95th percentile and they would do further testing to see if he qualified for the gifted program.

The school administered the following tests and his scores were (as reported on the letter):

NNAT: 95%

KBit2:
verbal: 77% (111)
nonverbal: 93% (122)
Composite: 90% (119)

ToMags-Primary: 84%

GES3:
Intellectual: 23%
Creativity: 22%
Specific Academic Aptitude: 12%
Leadership: 9%
Performing and Visual Arts: 10%

My problem lies within the GES3 test scores. I think these scores are based on opinions of the teacher and not facts from actual test scores. Can anyone explain the method of this test, what it is really testing and how it is linked to my son's IQ/abilities. I do not have the confidence in my son's school to give him the best testing atmosphere and I am wondering if I should seek private testing?

I am new to the world of giftedness. My son is struggling in the classroom and all I want to do is help him succeed. Any input is appreciated!

Thank you.
KTRK - Concern Mother

I believe the GES3 is a questionnaire, not a test.

http://hawthorne-ed.com/images/gifted/samples/swf_files/h04150sb.pdf

Do you know your district cutoff for the gifted program? Some districts are more inclusive and aim for the top 10 to 15%. Others (including ours) aim for the top 2%, so that would be a score in the 98th to 99.9 percentile. That would usually be an IQ score of 130 or higher.

I would not worry over the GES unless it is the one thing keeping your dw out of a gifted program you think he would benefit from. It looks like a form that is filled out by one teacher and could be heavily influenced by bias, plus it appears to be written with assumptions about the behaviors of gifted children when really gifted kids, like all kids, are very much individuals. My EG dw would most likely had a very very low score on this from his early elementary teachers.

I do think it would be worth pursuing private testing though if your dw us struggling in school or seems to not have his abilities recognized. The NNAT tests non-verbal ability and his score is high. On the K-BIT tee is a large split between his non-verbal and verbal scores - if the score split is real, it's possible that ties into struggles he is having in the classroom and might be frustrating him in a way that results in behavior that looks like difficulty focusing or ADHD.

Best Wishes,

polarbear

My son's school district has not indicated the cut-off level and I am so new to this, I did not think to ask...I will now.

Please help this greenhorn..what does dw stand for?

I have not ever seen any of these tests and the school is not explaining what each test actually evaluates. I know this will sound ignorant but I guess I do not understand what the difference is between verbal/nonverbal. Does it have to do with the way the test is administered or how my son has to complete his answer? If it is the latter of the two, the scores are completely backwards from what he shows. (bad at writing but will talk your ear off)

I need to do sooo much more research yet and every time I look up one subject I find another subject just as interesting and end up down a totally different path!

Thanks for your comments

KTRK

No worries! DW is "dear wife".

This is a helpful description of the KBIT verbal vs. nonverbal.

http://sch-psych.net/kbit

It seems to me questionaires often say more about the person filling them out. I only read some but would most teachers really have enough in depth personal interaction with the kids in their class to allow them to answer the questions?

Thank you for the link. It helped me understand the tests. I also learned more about the BASC-2 that my Phd gave to the teachers. I know he is listening to my concerns about how the school believes my son is ADD and nothing more! Hooray! The BASC-2 has an "F" scale which sorts out the "excessively negative" raters. I will help my sn no matter what it takes! Thanks everyone for your input!

KTRK