If I were writing the IOWA, I would include a virtually impossible section that required scores from other kids in the area,
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Wouldn't that be a nice one to have?! I do think that, having seen how my kids perform in comparison to their grade peers, I have some idea of how they compare, though, and that did help guide my decision to agree to skip dd12. She has consistently stood out amongst the other kids in her schools. I am not sure on exactly her IQ but using the one WISC she semi-cooperated with at age 7, I am going to stick with around the 99th percentile. In her school of about 900 kids last year, I'd feel safe saying that there were about 5 or 6 kids who were as able as she (and one, who was in her grade, really should have been accelerated). With the skip and being 1-2 yrs younger than her grade peers, she performs in the top 1-2% across the board, is one of the top students in many of the classes, and is in the top 10-20% in her weakest subject (math) where she does earn As in the accelerated classes but is not, by a long shot, the top kid in the class.
Point being, even without being given access to the other kids' scores (if they've even been tested), you can sometimes ballpark it. Also, many tests like MAPS, CogAT (which I hate, but I know others don't
), etc. not only list national norms, but local norms. My dd who skipped always comes out at the 98th - 99th percentile on local norms post-skip and was always at the 99th (again, save for math which is/was mid 90s usually with a few lower outliers post-skip). If I was getting 98th national and 75th local, I'd be more hesitant to accelerate. How much the national and local norms diverge can give you insight into how many peers he'd likely have if he really is a 98th percentile kid.
And, I do have one who is in that range or so who won't be accelerating b/c her ADD is disabling enough for her that it doesn't matter if she's more able than 99th percent of the local kids, she isn't outperforming 99th percent of the local kids in terms of achievement. Her achievement level puts her in that "good company" spot within her current grade and accelerated classes. We do have accelerated classes, though, where the kids are grouped and it doesn't sound like you have that option.
