Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment School secretive about tests?

Is it unusual for an elementary school to refuse to disclose the tests they use? My DD7 tested in January and was just admitted to the gifted program. I find it odd that they would keep the test names a secret even after testing is complete.

Yes. You have the right to know everything in your child's file. It's even possible, though I didn't dig hard enough to find out for sure, that they would have been required to get your written permission for the specific tests ahead of time.


(from http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.26.htm)

They wouldn't even tell you which tests she was given? Yes, that is unusual and you are definitely within your legal rights (federally and it looks like state too) to know which tests she was given, all her scores, and (this I am less sure about) probably the criteria by which placement was made. I find their lack of transparency a little strange and frankly suspicious.

For my DS's recent placement, I was given his national percentiles on the Iowa Assessments for all subcategories given (although no raw scores, but I feel that I could get them without much hassle if I asked) as well as scores and age/grade percentiles on the CogAT. In addition, we were given a detailed letter beforehand stating what testing would be done and what its purpose is.

This is their story. Apparently, in previous years, they did disclose the test names. One year a parent purchased all the tests and coached her child on them in advance. The young child showed up for testing and says ,"These are the tests Mommy taught me."

The child was instantly ineligible for the program for his entire school career in our district. Now they don't share test names either before or after in order to prevent this situation.

It depends on the administration of the school.

Many schools do not want to disclose what tests are administered for giftedness identification. Their reason was to prevent the parents preping for it. But it is a known fact in big city like New York (and they do prep to get in Gifted programs) and I believe administrators in smaller towns are more secretive. Some schools are doing this to meet the requirements and the less the parents know, the eaiser their job will be.

We were told that the kids are in the program but no other info available such as LOG (percentile, test scores, etc..). But when we met at the meeting, all the data were shared. I would have quoted Title 2 that Nautigal wrote and escalate to the school district if needed to.

Do reference your State code and the administration will hate but respect you and easier to push other things like differentiation (if your DD needs it).

Thank you all for your feedback. I did meet with the gifted team. They provided some basic scores but no detailed raw data and no test names. DD7 was admitted to the program so I'm not looking to rock the boat too much at this point. It seems to be a valuable program with accelerated and compacted math and reading targeted at the kids with both 98%+ IQ and achievement scores required. I just thought the secrecy was odd.