Hi everyone,

I am pretty new to this site and am trying to wrap my head around my son's recent test results and recommendation by the dr. who completed his testing.

We decided to have my 7 year old son privately tested as he has expressed some boredom this year and the work he is doing seems quite below his ability level. His teacher this year said she would differentiate for him based on his MAP scores but that never happened and my husband and I feel we need to talk to the school to ensure a better fit next year in 2nd grade. We thought the testing would help clarify for us where he stood and help us figure out how to approach the school. I should mention he was tested for the gifted pullout program last year in K but did not get in based on his CogAT scores which were in the low 120s with 132 being the requirement.

His testing was done by a psychologist with over 30 years of experience testing gifted children (she was actually recommended on this site) and my son had a great experience with her.

His scores are as follows:

WISC IV
VCI: 124
PRI: 139
WMI: 138
PSI: 126
FSIQ:140

WIAT III
Oral Language: 136
Total Reading: 134
Basic Reading: 146
Written Expression: 125
Mathematics: 142
Math Fluency: 125
Total Achievement: 137

The psychologist recommended placing my son in a gifted magnet school at a neighboring district that offers self contained classes for highly gifted children. This would require that we move to be able to attend this school. Besides the fact we would need to move, the minimum FSIQ required for admittance is 140 and though my son meets that requirement I am concerned that his VCI is his lowest score and I have heard that score most highly correlates with academic achievement and I wonder if he would really be a good fit for this type of school or would most of the children be working at a higher level if that makes sense?

If we keep him where he is at, our neighborhood public school, we will have to make some changes but are not really sure what we need to do. He was tested again for the gifted program this year but we have not gotten the scores back. If his CogAT scores are not high enough we can probably appeal with his WISC results but the gifted program is a pullout program of only a couple hours per week. The tester said that would not be enough for him and I tend to agree. I think he needs quite a bit of differentiation or acceleration and needs to work at a faster pace if that is possible.

I am just not sure what to do at this point. I feel a little overwhelmed. I just want to make sure he maintains his love of learning and that we do the right thing for him. He has things he enjoys about school, art and music, and seems to do well socially.

If anyone has any opinions based on his scores and what you would recommend I would really appreciate it. I plan to talk to the school next week and I am trying to figure out what I should say and ask for.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I appreciate any advice.