Your experience sounds very similar to the experience we had last year with testing (just as much testing, and many of the same tests, actually). Yes, we also had DD take the EXPLORE, with the greatest difference being that she did this before she took the WISC.
For us, the EXPLORE results were a wake-up call. They shook us out of any last remaining "gifted-denial" we were in and gave me the courage to talk to DD's school (the actual results of those talks are still uncertain). We also went ahead and then had DD take the WISC...which was a further wake-up call. All in all, lots of testing last year, but those last two tests told me that I can no longer be complacent about DD's education (to the extent that I was complacent
).
Out-of-level testing results were unlike any of the other test results we had to that time: seeing how DD, 8 at the time, performed against 8th graders, was eye-opening. In terms of using them for advocacy, they are useful only if your school personnel are capable of understanding the results and if they care to actually do so - so YMMV.
