My experience was that the school psychologist was not as skilled (or schooled?) in analyzing scores anywhere close to as much detail as the private psychologist. But, as the private psych said, my kids are "complicated."
I should add that my experience with a few school psychs was in the context of special needs rather than for giftedness. They really didn't do anything close to the level of detail of the private psych's analysis, subtest vs. subtest, and, as it turns out, didn't really come up with anything useful. One had no answer at all when I asked why his achievement scores were so much higher than his IQ scores. In contrast, the private psych took great pains to figure it out. The private psych was expensive, but she earned her fee in our kids' cases. Both times we did private testing we walked away with a lot of information we hadn't had before. Both times we did testing through the school (albeit through the special needs department), we didn't learn anything that we hadn't already known.
Accordingly, it seems to me that if your child has any 2E issues or may be borderline, it may make sense to test privately.
Last edited by snowgirl; 04/09/10 01:11 PM.
