Hi all,
I�m desperately seeking a perspective check regarding my dd9. We have not done IQ testing, and I don�t necessarily foresee that changing (too much money, lack of apparent interest by school to justify the money, lack of confidence in test administration generally, etc).
The two pieces of data we have in common with some of you are the Explore test and the SRI, both of which she took for the first time this year (4th grade, age 9�late summer b-day, beat the K cut-off by 6 weeks
).
I've been talking with school for years, and response has been �no big deal�. If that�s the case, I can easily live with it and take the�we-have-a-lot-of-kids-like-her� at its face. The problem is, the responses (from school) are vague enough to make me wonder, her EXPLORE scores surprised me given what the school has been saying all of these years, and the statistical analysis we received through NUMATS left me thinking that her scores were suggestive of some real strengths. So, I�m hoping that those of you who have a better sense of where your child falls, and who have experience with these measures, can help give me some perspective. I know without doubt that our dd is NOT at the PG level. What I don�t know is if these scores are typical of MG? HG? NoG?
This matters to me in terms of evaluating her school's response to us.
I understand that I can�t extrapolate EXPLORE to IQ. However, my DD has had almost no ongoing guided instruction since 1st grade (large group or independent work--no small group with teacher leading). This leads me to assume that relative strengths are due mainly to innate abilities. For the last three years she has had a LOT of independent work and very little systematic feedback or instruction. Given her lack of real enthusiasm for math, this has meant starting Singapore 4A in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade, without ever finishing it. I got fed up this October and sent her to school with 5A (which she actually finished, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y...)
Given the absence of ongoing guided/directed insttruction, I didn�t expect much on the EXPLORE. I mainly signed her up for it so she would build some test taking skills (state assessment was way too easy).
Now what I don�t know is this. Do her scores just look good because the pool of out of level testers is actually not what it purports to be (therefore above the mean is not so meaningful?) Or are her scores actually similar to those of children her age who have been identified as gifted by multiple measures? Sorry this is so long. I'm trying to allow for the possibility that the school may be responding the way they are because these scores really aren�t atypical for generally �bright� kids in her grade level.
So�here are her scores:
English�16 (11/12 grammar; 6/12 rhetoric)
Math�16
Reading�24
Science�17
Composite�18.
SRI scores (if anyone has experience with that) 1233 in January; 1350 in May
Help?
