So, here's the frustrating part -- they recently told me that she doesn't test into their gifted program because of her performance on the OLSAT. I don't know anything about that test. And, they have yet to give me her actual test scores on it.
Hoagie's website says it best:
The most common group intelligence tests, OLSAT and CogAT, are used successfully in districts and programs across the country. Notable gifted professionals recommend them for screening potentially gifted children. However, a small study noted a potential problem with the OLSAT and very gifted children. While the correlation between group and individual intelligence tests is quite high for average scores, in this study that correlation almost disappeared for gifted scores. This means that while an average child will score very similarly on a group IQ test and an individual IQ test, a gifted child may not score similarly at all. And the study suggests that this group test may even result in a negative correlation for some gifted children: the more gifted the child, the lower the group ability test score! ["Investigations of the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test to Predict WISC-R Full Scale IQ for Referred Children" by Anna H. Avant and Marcia R. O'Neal, University of Alabama, Nov. 1986, ED286883] Though this study is no longer available from AskERIC, it can be obtained on microfiche from most education university libraries.
Any kid can have an off day and get an score on any test, IQ, 'scholastic ability' or otherwise, that doesn't give an accurate picture, but the OLSAT and CogAT are infamous for underestemating highly and beyond gifted kids.
Try to get a copy of the school's and any state or district guidelines as far as how a kid can qualify for a gifted program. Usually there is some understanding that no test is perfect, and some kind of provision for a alternate route into the gifted program.
Also - you may want to check into the nature of the gifted program before you decide if this is a battle you want to fight - if it's less than 90 minutes once a week, and not causing a social problem for your dd to miss it, it may not be worth it.
But yes, I do agree that if the gifted program exists your dd belongs in there.
I would also 'check' if the your DD was 'graded' based on her grade or her age, and ask if there were any 'math errors' in grading her score.
Love and More Love,
Grinity
