Hi MON,
Glad you are going to JHU for testing. And I do like the idea of simulaniously getting the school to test also - because my son really loved being pulled out of class for 1-1 interaction that was challenging and interesting.
I call it "Testing and Accomidating" all in one.
I think it's worth spending the cash on private testing so you know what your child might need from the school. As for getting the school to 'accept' what the tester said - lets just say that we BTDT parents have met with a variety of results.
I don't know if this is true, but I remember one of us saying that a school admin told her, "I really hate it when the parents go for IQ testing, because then when the numbers are hight, the parents think that their child is gifted!"
I would guess that lots and lots of school folks distrust the IQ numbers because what they are looking for in a student just isn't well measured by an IQ test. In our district an Admin tolds us during elementary school, that 'in the middle school we have handfuls of kids just like yours.' That tells me that our 'very-high-up' District Administrator doesn't understand much about gifted or about Math.
In elementary school it's all about concrete learning, and many highly gifted kids will look 'just like' bright kids or average kids when it comes to penmanship, spelling, math facts, and taking turns on the playground. If elementary schools believed that children could process abstract information, then elementary school teachers would be in a much better position to 'see' what's different about our kids. Some 'gem' teachers do anyway, but they tend to be few and far between.
Best Wishes,
Grinity
