Two things come to mind:
1. In order to receive full credit on the WISC-IV verbal subtests, you need to generate responses of sufficient specificity and complexity. On a multiple choice test, you can have an idea of the meaning of a word adequate for recognizing the correct response, without being able to produce it.
2. There are few contextualized verbal tasks on the WISC-IV, whereas the reading passages you describe would all have to be in meaningful contexts. Context and meaning often help conceptual learners.
And school doesn't use much in the way of high visual-spatial ability, especially before higher math. Although they should watch out about skipping the nonverbal cognitive scores in screening, as that's usually the one measure that keeps district TAG programs from being slammed for discriminatory practices against CLD kids.
