Thank you for your responses and welcome.
I guess I need to clarify a little here....They did not use MAP at the school in CA, but I do remember that his lexile level put him at a 10th grade reading level. (Which was challenging, BTW, to find books at his reading level which would have been appropriate for a 4th grader). His current lexile score is equally high, but I suppose that Lexile is not an assessment tool for gifted programs. He is currently reading and really enjoying the Hunger Games series. They are tested every 2 weeks here (Reading Counts), so he has been keeping up with his reading. In CA they were required to read 20 minutes per night, but were not tested on it. I think that the extra work here really stressed him out, and possibly caused him to score lower than he would have under different circumstances.
He is currently in the gifted program at his school. To qualify for the accelerated cluster they require at least 2 96's (Olsat and MAP) and no scores below 94 at all. It is pretty competitive, and, yes, space is definitely limited in these programs. My DS was quite surprised that the majority of kids from his Quest (the gifted program for elementary school) class will not be attending the gifted program in middle school. The poor guy thought he was the only one in his class who did not qualify!
We did meet with his teachers earlier in the year. His Quest teacher suggested a reading program to get his scores up, but we felt that he was under enough pressure as it was at the time, and decided not to pursue that. His MAP reading score (# and percentile) went a few points lower with each of the 3 tests this year.
His main teacher told me a few days ago that he will have significantly less homework next year. Go figure! So...I'm glad that he won't be under so much pressure, but still do worry about him being challenged. My concern is that the middle school gifted programs feed into the high school level programs. I'm just sorry to see him get off of that track. I guess we will have to re-assess (if this is possible) next year after he adjusts to middle school, and in the meantime hope that his new school offers him an appropriate challenge.
Thanks again for your responses.
