Quick background - DS7 is in 1st grade Montessori but we applied to have him go to the full time public gifted elementary next year. He was identified as gifted by PS but recommended for the cluster gifted program at the neighborhood school. He wasn't even put on the waiting list for the GT school. Really surprised after seeing his scores. On the OLSAT he was 98th percentile (133) overall, 99th verbal (137) and 93rd nonverbal (124) and the NNAT was also 98th (133). While they don't use private tests, his GAI on the WISC IV (scattered as it was) was 129 and the WJ-III was 143. And that is with him being 2E (visual processing/sensory-motor). I'm fairly sure if his vision were working correctly his scores would be higher (his processing speed scores are very low b/c of his vision, I think).
We didn't have all the diagnoses when we applied for the school. We can appeal but I wonder if I am wasting my time? I'm almost positive the teacher "recommendation" and progress report (Montessori report card) killed it for him. That and he is not in the public school system so no one knows him.
His teacher made no effort to be positive on the form she filled out. It was basically all the negative things about my son, which I think are the result of him being 1) bored 2) in the wrong environment and 3) 2E. He takes f o r e v e r to get anything done, complains about having to work on anything, says he doesn't want to do it...not good when the GT school is looking for kids who are "motivated" etc.
I will be calling the school to see what I can find out about why he was rejected and if these 2E diagnoses will help him get in. He NEEDS to be there. I just don't know if this cluster environment will work. I don't understand how one teacher manages both the GT kids and "average" kids in the same room. These teachers are supposed to be trained in gifted ed and have the support of the gifted resource teacher in the school.
Never a dull moment, right?
