Oh Grinity,
*insert tears of fear here*
I am very grateful for your response as I feel like I�ve been groping around in the dark for the past several months. As mothers, when something is placed on our hearts, it�s important to pursue answers - albeit rather scary when we honestly don�t know what we�re doing!
The tester we sought out is highly respected in our metro area gifted community and is �tops� on the list for our private gifted schools requiring independent testing for admittance. She�s been evaluating children for over 30 years and is a professor at the university teaching educators in the area of gifted education. My caveat for moving forward was whether or not she would be able to provide direction in the area of schooling & programs that might be a good fit for DD given test results. The answer was an absolute �yes�.
With respect to our teacher and school response - I asked DD�s teacher at our last conference if she felt DD was putting forth effort commensurate with her ability as well as, being challenged in class and she replied �yes�. I told her DD had mentioned �boredom� with reading the SRA�s (had those when I was a kid!) and the teacher said she felt that was an excuse. (?) When DD�s OLSAT came back at 99-9 the teacher did perk up a bit and ask me if her score was that high last year but that was the end of the conversation. I don't blame her teacher - she is fantastic and seems to challenge her class in the realm of academics but without formal training in gifted education, I wouldn�t expect her to see anything more in DD than simply �a bright girl� � particularly if DD isn�t applying herself.
During that conference I told the teacher we might consider independent testing and her response was �you don�t want your kids to be in the same grade, do you?� Our DS is in 3rd grade. From my observation and that comment � grade skipping seems to be the only course of action the school can provide for children of certain abilities. DD appears to be introverted in large groups and often enjoys playing alone on the playground however, when her peers come over to play �one on one� � she�s engaged and plays typical �little girl� games without hesitation or issue. My first guess would be that grade skipping isn't the answer for her but I can�t be certain. In addition � it could be problematic for both kids to be in the same grade and could be an issue from the school�s perspective.
I will take your ideas to heart and see what we can do to identify her areas of passion. I have already been working on some fun �learning stuff� for summer and realize it may take several attempts to identify areas of true interest. In addition � perhaps a tutor would help give greater perspective on academic ability and I�ll ask the school for suggestions so that we can leverage that connection if necessary. Thanks for the link on determining level of giftedness � will take a look.
We'll plan on doing the WISC but should I consider the SAT "good enough" with respect to her content achievement and pass on the fee for the WIAT? I'm not sure what other achievement type tests might be out there for a lesser cost.
Honestly, (and as misguided as this sounds) I was hoping the professional evaluator could just �tell us what to do� as I feel somewhat lost for answers. Thanks for reading my ramblings and taking time to reply. This is going to be a journey� and I am so glad to have found this forum and the support of those in similar situations! Hopefully, I can give to the community as well.
By the way � how do you �block quote" content from the previous post to include in a reply?
