Thank you to everyone who posted with great questions and suggestions! To clarify, my son is currently 10 and will turn 11 in October 2009. He will be entering the 6th grade this fall, which is at the middle school for our district. My husband and I agree with several people's statements...why the heck is our son moved up yet not placed in GT? We also agree with the post on choosing between being moved up and no GT or staying where he should be w/same-aged peers and being in GT - choosing the latter, most definitely. I do know this year, after I threw yet another fit, my son was tested via some IQ tests at school for their GT program...I was told he fell short of passing the IQ test in order to place him in GT. I was also told he was the first to have to test in order to get into GT! This explains to me why he has higher scores on ISATS (of course, I cannot locate his scores but he believes they are as follows: Language - 239 (advanced and at 9th grade level), Reading - 230, and Math - 235) and benchmarks than classmates currently in GT. Previous scores on ISATS for the 4th grade were all Advanced for Reading, Math and Language.
Regarding repeating the 5th grade, he would be able to be in advanced math and reading classes as he was this past year (6th grade math and reading), which he struggled a bit with on the math, so should challenge him a bit still. He is actually kind of excited to be with same-aged peers in class as well as sports, which he absolutely loves to do!
Does anyone have any suggestions on alternative testing areas? I'm not sure where to even begin. Thanks again so much for your comments.
