Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Help with WJ III scores

We have recently identified my oldest DS8 as gifted. Because of this, I've started to consider whether or not my younger children are gifted. I've always considered my children to be smart, but not necessarily gifted. Anyway, I remembered that my DS7 (1st grade)was given the WJ-III (or some portion of it) as part of the application process to a private school we were considering. He was given this rather quickly at the end of the day when he shadowed at the school. I am wondering how to interpret the scores. Here is what I have:

Math Reasoning Grade Placement 2.5 RPI 98/90 SS 117
Academic Skills Grade placement 4.1 RPI 100/90 SS 153
Letter Word Identification Grade placement 4.2 RPI 100/90 SS 137
Passage Comprehension Grade placement 2.4 RPI 99/90 SS 116
Calculation Grade placement 3.5 RPI 100/90 SS 144
Applied problems Grade placement 2.1 RPI 96/90 SS 108
Quantitative Concepts Grade placement 3.2 RPI 99/90 SS 128
Spelling Grade placement 4.7 RPI 100/90 SS 138

I have no idea what any of this means! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The first value (2.5 on the first line) is a rough grade equivalency estimate for your child's skills.

The second value ("PRI", 98/90 on the first line) is a relative proficiency index, where the first of the two numbers shows your child's percentage of mastery when others of the same age would be expected to show 90% mastery. Note that this is not a percentile. Note also that the second number's always 90 for this one. So, for example, your child shows 98% mastery of math reasoning when others his age show 90% mastery.

The last value on each line is the scaled score.

He's obviously on the bright side. Note that his math reasoning is not his strongest area here, but he does show some good academic advancement, along with good processing types of skills. I think it's impossible to tell whether he's gifted from a WJ subset given hurriedly by someone who may or may not be an expert on testing gifted kids, but he may well be gifted.

Thank you for the input. That helps me understand the scores a little better. He is definitely my "good student" except that he thinks he is smarter than the teachers and doesn't like to follow instructions...he wants to do assignments his way or will tell the teacher when he thinks she is wrong:(

I had my oldest DS tested because he was not doing as well in school as I thought he should be. I'm wondering if there is any real advantage to having DS7 tested if he is performing well at school? He is already pulled out once a week for math and reading enrichment.