Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Would you consider testing in this scenario?

DD attends a gifted magnet that starts in grade 2. It is a school within a school. This is not our zoned school, but because DD goes there, we can choose to place DS there for K and 1. He would automatically get into the magnet in grade 2--IF he tests as gifted. If he does not, we would then have to pull him and move him somewhere else. K and I are going to probably be okay, but not great at this school. IOW, the main advantage to putting him there for K and 1 is that both kids will be in the same place and he'll automatically have a spot if he tests in. They will test him sometime in late K, I think.

I am pretty darn sure DS is gifted too, but then, tests are imperfect and I could also always be wrong. DD did not test as well as we thought she would, and could have missed the cutoff had she missed a few more answers. It would really stink to put him there and then have to switch him out, both from a logistical and an emotional POV. In this situation, would you possibly consider private testing before K, just to be sure? Is it just completely wonky silly to test a kid at that age?

That doesn't seem silly to me. The two things I'd consider before testing now, though, would be whether the school would accept test scores from before K without needing to retest later and how much you can rely on scores obtained this young as being stable. If they come out lower than he'd need, it doesn't necessarily mean that they won't go up later.

Yes, I would definitely need to find out if they'd even take the scores. Somehow, I suspect this has been done before by other parents, but I don't know for sure. Cost is a factor, of course; I'd need to look into that.

FWIW, he is a winter birthday and will be 5 before K, so could be tested at 5. I don't know much about tests--can he take the WISC at that age?

If you are worried about one day possibly having to switch him back out and if you can swing the logistics, I think I'd start by trying him out at your neighborhood school for K and test if you want to but not stress out over it yet or wait until the end of K so he's a little bit older. (note - this is based on what you said re the magnet school's K/1 not being a great program - if it was a great program, better than your neighborhood school - I'd send him there).

We've had early testing go both ways with our kids - ds12, EG, has tested consistently over time (although his early scores did improve slightly at 7). DD10 tested 20 points higher overall on IQ at 5 than she did at 7, and has recently been tested again and the lower scores held up, as well as match where she's at in school. She's still a bright, happy, smart kid - but she doesn't have the scores to get into our district's gifted program, and honestly, she would have faltered had we sent her there.

If you do ultimately find yourself in a place where your ds doesn't qualify for the program your dd is in, we've found it actually helps having our kids in different schools because it gives each of them their own place to shine.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Neighborhood school is not an option--should have mentioned that. The magnet is going to be better, but not ideal. However, there are other options--in fact, quite a confusing array--but all are going to require major hassle in terms of logistics.

When DS was younger, I felt more unsure about his abilities. However, he's seeming more gifted the older he gets. He plays games designed for 7 and up, including chess (he can beat me, though I suck at it), can read and write (at about a mid-K level--he just turned 4), and is astonishing at fact retention. Still, since our experience with testing DD did not really give the results we expected based on the kid we see, I feel a little wary. I really would not want him to feel inferior because he didn't "get in" to his sister's school.

Hoping for a few more opinions on this--anyone else?

You could test now in K. If he makes it, great. If not, you can retest again in a year for first. That covers alot of bases.

I think more information is needed regarding the school's testing/selection process. If they will take the outside testing, then I would say yes, do it. IF you think he will cooperate, etc. The bonus is that you control those scores and can decide to show them to the school or not. The downside is that they may not accept them, so you definitely need to find that out.

If they won't accept them directly, then you'd want to know what their procedure for identifying gifted kids is. This is where it gets tricky because if they do it based on tests that are different from the private tester's, then even if he tests gifted privately, you don't know for sure that he will meet the school's criteria. If they depend heavily on the CogAT, for example, and your ds is one of the many gifted kids that doesn't score high on that test, then the private testing wouldn't really help with regard to getting in to the magnet school (assuming they won't accept those outside scores).

So, I think to give a good opinion on this, I would need more information about the school's procedures.

If they will accept the outside testing, though, for admission to the magnet school, then I would probably say go ahead and do it if you can afford it. In the long run, the money would be worth it to reduce the uncertainty.

This sounds a lot like the school that my daughter is in - CogAT is the qualifier, and they won't take private testing. I wouldn't test him now, but I would enroll him at the magnet school, just for the convenience factor. For what it's worth, DD had no real problems changing schools in 2nd grade - she had new friends within the first week. It's easier to do the younger you are.

On the other hand, if outside testing would actually qualify him for the program, I'd have him tested. But if you'd be doing it just for information, I wouldn't bother.