Some of you may remember my previous posts about DS8. Last year (1st grade) was a nightmare resulting in a midyear classroom change. 2nd grade, fortunately, has been a completely different story. He has been really flourishing and his teacher is much better. Looking towards GT identification though, he completely bombed the CogATs so I was pretty sure he wasn't going to get in. But, imo, the CogAT scores did not describe him well and his strengths showed up as significant weaknesses. The profile just didn't seem to match what I know about my kid (I probably posted about this a few months back). I was hesitant to discuss my concerns with the GT teacher because I didn't want to be "that parent" you know? But I finally did and she assured me that the CogAT was only one piece of the id process. But I figured he still probably wouldn't get in, but at least I had done my best to advocate for him.

She called me Friday to tell me that the committee had agreed that given his super high achievement scores (I haven't seen them yet), his grades and teacher observations, as well as her own observations (she leads a math enrichment) that they agree that his CogAT scores are not a good representation of his abilities and that he did get in based on the other factors! I was thrilled, not just that he got in, but that she recognized that the CogATs weren't accurate for him. Her words "some kids fit nicely into the boxes we expect, and some don't. (DS) is clearly an out of the box thinker and the kind of student we want to make sure we don't miss. And those kids are the most fun for me!"

I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear someone at that school recognize these qualities in DS and go the extra mile to make sure he is being properly placed. It may not be perfect, but next year he will get 200 minutes pull-out gifted enrichment plus accelerated math.

And, if I'm honest, I also feel a bit relieved that I wasn't wrong about my kid. After those CogATs I was questioning my perspective wondering if I was wrong. It's so hard, especially when its your oldest, to know what is unusual for a kid his age.

Thanks for reading, there is no where else I can discuss this without worrying that it sounds like bragging, so I really appreciate this board both in the bad times and the good!