Hello & thanks, in advance, for any advice to this newbie. Apologies for long post.
DS2 was given WISC-IV at school in spring 2010. He was 10 yrs, 5 mos. Testing occurred in sessions over approx 3 weeks and school psych administered.
During the testing period (and for entire year), DS was the subject of bullying, likely due to his young age when compared to classmates. He had originally been grade-skipped from K-1 (at the school�s strong recommendation), but was never given an IQ test nor put in the GT program over the years, despite superior class performance & consistent MAP scores of 98/99% in both reading & math. While DS had many school friends until the end of 3rd grade, his 4th & 5th grade experiences were vastly different. While coping with these school pressures during the testing period, he was also faced with the potentially serious illness of a sibling. It was an extremely intense time in our household and in his young life.
The school psych gave our DS2 a 134 GAI, using his VCI of 144 and his PRI of 117. I do not think he was given the other sections of the WISC IV or, if he was, those sections did not appear on the report. At the time, our school district�s GT cut-off was 130 and I was told more than once that DS �barely made it� into the program since his IQ is �just� 134. This year, our district has raised the GT criteria to 133 and there is serious talk of making it 135, due to budget cuts impacting resources.
So here�s my question: Given that DS was in such a stressful environment last year, both at home and school, and since he is borderline-gifted by our district�s guidelines, should we have him re-tested privately this spring, after the one-year waiting period has passed? Paying for a private test would be difficult but we�re willing to do it if there is a decent chance he could score high enough to stay in the program. My impression was that the district�s testing was rather on-the-fly and DS was removed from class whenever the psych had time for him, so perhaps another setting would yield different results?
This year is going much better for DS. Everyone is healthy & we kept DS in 5th grade to align with children his own age. He is much happier now and has made several friends. He continued on to 6th grade math, where he performs at the top of the class (per his teacher) and bullying has stopped because DS is in advanced math & the bullies aren�t. The GT program has also made a huge difference because that teacher is putting forth so much effort to differentiate for him and make it an enjoyable, productive learning year. (He spends at least an hour a day with her, often two.) If he is not allowed in the program next year, it will be a real disappointment to him. He is only now regaining a positive self-esteem, so I�m also very concerned about how his removal from GT would impact that. And he loves everything about the GT program and the kids in it. He has finally found a place where he �fits.�
Any advice is welcome and appreciated. I suppose re-testing is a given, but cost is a significant factor right now, especially considering that he still might not make the cut-off if given a new test.
