Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help with advocacy...

It might be helpful to gently and tactfully remind the school that it is generally accepted that no one test event should be the diagnostic determinant of whether or not a child has some learning difference. Just as school achievement data, teacher observations, classroom performance, parent reports, and outside testing should be considered when looking at eligibility and placement decisions regarding learning disabilities, they should be taken into account when looking at the possibility of other learning differences that require different teaching approaches, such as giftedness. Your child has reams of data, much of it more reliable than the CogAT, that support that she is both capable of achieving at a high level and that her reasoning abilities are more advanced than her typical age peers and fall well into the gifted range, 2.5 to 3 standard deviations above the mean.

If it were me, with a child with these scores, I'd probably push for both a skip *and* inclusion in the GT program - it isn't as if she is going to stop being "gifted" just by virtue of being in a class with kids a few months older than she is. You have achievement data from the EXPLORE that shows she is already achieving at a higher level than the average 8th grader, after all.

What are her NWEA MAP scores? (I mean the actual scores, not the percentile ranks.) Because they can be compared across grade levels,and relate directly to skills being taught, they are frequently helpful to make the case that a child should be placed into a classroom with peers who have comparable scores.

I'd also suggest using the Iowa Acceleration Scales to provide an objective way of determining whether she is a good candidate. Then it is not so much you pushing against the school for a skip, but the school acting on objective data that support this educational decision.

Do any of her index scores meet the Davidson Young Scholars requirements? If she qualifies for the DYS program, they will help you advocate with the school.