Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment WISC-IV vs. Stanford Binet

The main qualification criteria are two out of the three: qualifying IQ score, qualifying achievement score, and portfolio. The IQ score doesn't have to be really close, or even submitted, if one has a qualifying achievement score and portfolio, but I'd submit it anyway.

Yes, you only need either IQ or achievement if you have a good portfolio.

And I think a portfolio just means a few samples of a kid doing something as good as a kid a few years older. But they want something the kid does, not something you told them to do so they know they weren't just following directions. Some common items I've seen mentioned are things like original writings or a video of a kid describing their favorite subject.


Eta: I googled. A portfolio needs 4 pieces of something 2-3 years advanced and it can include assigned work as long as they did it theirself.
http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx

It's interesting that for the Epilson Math camp the minimum score on the SB5 is 140 while the minimum score for the WISC is 145.

http://www.epsiloncamp.org/who_is_eligible.php

This would suggest that they do not agree that mathy kids score higher on the SB5

I'm too lazy to look this up, but I think DYS requires you to send any and all IQ tests taken, whether or not you are using it to get into the program. Anyone know for sure?

That's my current understanding. But it's fine if all of the information isn't over the cutoff, as long as 2 of 3 are.

Smiles,
Grinity

I know for sure that it's not true at least in all cases, because we weren't required to do that. DS6 had a disastrous first testing experience with the school psychologist on a subset of the DAS II prior to our finding a great outside tester.

The full report from the outside tester referred to the school psych's testing, but we weren't required to submit scores from it at all (we didn't have a full report anyway, just some subtest scores with scatter from well below average, including some zeros, to 99.99999th+ percentile, and a note that not much could be drawn from the results). We also mentioned the prior testing in our application.

The difference in our case might have been that it wasn't a full test, but I don't know. I don't recall the extent to which his scores might have qualified him from that test based on the selection of parts administered either. In any event I think it's not a bad idea to submit whatever one has.

My DYS took the SB-5 at 4 years 9 months old and the WISC-IV at 8 years 9 months old and the FSIQ was the same for both tests. He is a pretty mathy kid.

It was interesting to be able to see the different areas that each test tested. On the SB-5 the Quantative Reasoning was the highest subtest along with Working Memory. The WISC-IV show strengths in Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory.

We also used the same tester for both tests so I am fairly certain that we have a good idea of his IQ.

In my opinion having both tests done might give you a more accurate assessment. However I do feel that the tester could play a role as well.

I found very little info on the DAS-ii on this forum or elsewhere. Are there other reasons why to take it over the SB5 or WISC? Does it conceptualize 'intelligence' any differently?

Sometimes it is easier to find a tester who is credentialed to do the DAS than the SB5 - so it's an option for 5 year olds if you can't find a tester to do SB5.