Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cogat & Nxxt Steps

Hi all,

We are just beginning our G & T journey with our DS9 (2nd grade). We just received his Cogat scores which has him Profile 9A, 140 SAS and stanines of 9 on all of the test batteries. Unfortunately his parochial school has no GATE curriculum at all. They only use the scores to benchmark their own curriculum and identify struggling (low scoring) students. He�s having behavior issues at school (bothering classmates, not raising his hand, not completing his work, reading when he should be listening to the teacher, etc.). When I ask him if any of his schoolwork is difficult or challenging he says �It�s all incredibly easy.�

Last year his teacher told us in a candid moment that she was worried at some point he was going to outgrow the school�s ability to teach him. I think that moment may have already arrived. So we�ve scheduled a meeting with a psychologist who specializes in working with gifted and talented children. We�ll have to see what comes out of it but I assume there will be more testing (first meeting is Tuesday w/o DS) and hopefully some advice on how best to educate him. Our �bright� DD9 is thriving at the same school so it�s sad to see him struggle like this. He really gets down on himself when he has these issues at school. Personally I think it�s not constructive for him to color pilgrims for Thanksgiving homework when he could be doing more challenging work. But the teacher insists that he has to complete all of the assigned work before she�ll even consider giving anything extra. I understand her position but I also think he�s bored stiff.

I think the only option at his current school is to skip a grade which is fine since he is very social, super athletic and has many pals in 3rd and 4th grade. But I don�t think the teacher will recommend this option since he she constantly has to keep on him about finishing assigned work (like coloring pilgrims ).

Not sure what will happen next but I wanted to make sure we�re heading down the right track. Getting an outside non-biased assessment seemed to be a good first step. Should we be doing anything else at this point? Most of the literature I�ve read focuses on working with the school�s GATE coordinator after scores come in but this isn�t an option for us since his school doesn�t have one.

Thanks for listening!

Al

Welcome Al
If the principal of the school is willing he or she might be willing to play the roll of Gifted Coordinator.
I would try and do a birthday comparison and see how your son's birthdate compares to the kids in his grade and in the 3rd and 4th grades. If that doesn't work I would read the book. 'Iowa Accleration Scale Manual.'

Thanks Grinity. Never thought about comparing birthdays but that's definitely worth a look. I doubt the principal would make an exception for him. They have a "testing coordinator" but it's clear that she's only concentrating on bringing the low scores up. We will have those conversations with them though just to make sure everyone is on the same page. If we have data from the assessment, it'll help us determine what next steps are. Thanks for your $.02! Will definitely read the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual.

Welcome Al
If the principal of the school is willing he or she might be willing to play the roll of Gifted Coordinator.
I would try and do a birthday comparison and see how your son's birthdate compares to the kids in his grade and in the 3rd and 4th grades. If that doesn't work I would read the book. 'Iowa Accleration Scale Manual.'

I agree with the birthday comparison - in our district, a just-turned-9y-old would normally be a 3rd grader, and a 9y4m-old would be a 4th grader.

Are there other schools in your area that might be a better match?

The age struck me as well. In a sense, he is actually be taught a year BEHIND what most 9 year olds are, so that has to be contributing to the issues here. A grade skip to 3rd would just be corrective IMO and for a "real" grade skip he would need to go to at least 4th.

I'm guessing that maybe your ds' age as listed above is a typo? Since your dd is "also" 9 years old?

If it's not a typo, why is he in 2nd grade?

FWIW I think you're headed in the logical direction, getting an outside assessment. While waiting for the assessment, I'd probably check into what other school options are available where you live, if you're willing to consider a school change if you find it's something your ds needs. When your ds has his assessment, it's possible the provider may have knowledge of local school programs/staff personality etc and might be able to give you advice re what to do next for your ds.

Oh dear, how embarrassing. It is a typo (and after I proof read it several times). He is 8 (just turned), not 9. Sorry for the confusion!

For some reason my replies aren't making it through but DS9 is indeed a typo (so much for proofreading!). He just turned 8. Tomorrow is the first meeting with the doctor who will do the assessment. We'll see what happens but it looks like we are heading down the right path. Appreciate the replies.

Al

That makes sense and was good of polarbear to read closely enough to see that you'd have two 9 y/os if that wasn't a typo.

I have a couple thoughts.

1) It sounds like he is still on the older end for grade depending on where your cut for K entry falls. For instance, where I live, kids have to turn 5 by as late as October 1 to start K (each district has its own cut off date and many are earlier than that). Where I grew up, the cut was 5 by December 31. Granted, there is a ton of redshirting, but I'm guessing that he missed the cut off for starting K by a few months.

Skipping a grade shouldn't make him drastically younger than the other kids unless, like my area, redshirting is terribly common. Our youngest, who made the K cut by three days, is as much as 18-19 months younger than some kids in her grade due to redshirting of other kids. I'd strongly consider a grade skip.

2) With an older sibling who is, presumably, only one grade ahead you may run into some resistance on a grade skip, however. I haven't seen the most recent version of the Iowa Acceleration Scale, but when it was being used for my oldest to consider a grade skip having a sibling in the same grade into which the child would be skipping was an immediate disqualifier for consideration. The other things that ruled out considering a grade skip were an IQ that didn't at least hit around 130 (or 115 if the kid just missed the cut date for K by days), or the child being unwilling to skip.

One of the board members who no longer posts here frequently if at all did have a child who skipped into the same grade as a sibling successfully, though. Just be aware that you'll probably have a more uphill battle on your hands with the school especially if they take the IAS literally on every point. How do you think your kids would handle being in the same grade?

I do know that it has increased self esteem issues for my youngest to have her older sister be three grades ahead of her in school when they are almost exactly two years apart, but I couldn't do wrong by my oldest just to assuage her sister's feelings and keeping my oldest in the grade she was in really wasn't working.