Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment lausd- poss gifted 5yo son bored w/ kinder. help?

CCN- be wary as in be VERY wary when they say they haven't lost a child! i know of many instances here in lausd where they certainly have! it's all on the hush hush...

i became friends with an autism advocate who has many stories to tell, her own son being one of them! something about unsupervised playground time and him getting a haircut by another older student who sat on top of him while cutting his hair, when questioned the staff etc could offer nothing. the parents had to investigate themselves and then the school offered no apology and no reprimands to the child who did the cutting, or to the staff who were supposed to be supervising. that went all the way up the ladder to the superintendent and that AP and then later principal (after another similar incident) was replaced.

i blame this post on the coffee. i've had too much.
have a terrific day

CCN, I'm not in LA, so I'm not familiar with your school district choices - but I was curious about the programs, so I took a quick look at the magnet website for LA. It looks like there is an option of "OR" if you don't have teacher sign-off on all 4 areas as required - rather than the teacher sign-off a student can qualify through achieving greater than 85th percentile on a standardized test score. I'm guessing your ds is too young to have been through CA state testing yet (?) but you might have two other options available for achievement testing: 1) through the school district - if your ds goes through the IEP process this would be part of the standard testing (at least it is in most school districts)... and 2) if you can afford to pay for it, you can most likely find someone privately to administer a nationally-recognized and normed standardized test which you could request the school accept.

One thing that is interesting to me though is the 85th percentile on an achievement test cut-off, and then no other options until the Highly Gifted 99.9th percentile on an IQ test for the HG schools. That's a *huge* difference in student populations, and I suspect a lot of kids who would test as MG or HG (but not 99.9th percentile HG) are going to be bored in a magnet school which has an 85th percentile cutoff... unless there is true differentiation going on.

polarbear

I think it's a good idea to be wary when a school staff member says "we've never" to any question! We've heard that "never" word used in many instances when the school staff member was simply trying to brush off parents rather than deal with something. Another of my favorites is "We can't possibly".... and later after hearing that we've found out that the school does in fact do exactly the same thing for another student.... or better yet... find out that it's actually in writing in the school district policy manual that they *can* do that very same thing... sorry to digress! I clearly have some lingering issues with my own school district

polarbear

hahaa thank you polarbear, and it is cc6 you are replying to not ccn *i was replying to ccn myself...
ok, well yes you are so RIGHT re the "we've never" and the "can't possibly" !!!!
in los angeles? lausd & iep's???
they give us parents *nothing*! if we don't know it, they don't tell us! we can look right at them in a mtg and say you'd like something done, and they will say sorry we don't do that. i learned quickly that you don't ask- you demand. as a result my son's iep from last nov is awesome! i demanded alot of speech therapy- working on pragmatics. but i also said why- because he is showing success in every area. everyone wants to be on a winning team? idk but again, great iep.

now at new school- they have a LOT of special needs kids and the speech therapist basically told me she didn't have time for my son because there were other kids there with greater need. that her concern was not pragmatics but how does his speech impact his learning? and she says his speech is advanced. i'm like really? you know this from 1 session? w/o testing? really???
then i conceded that "i am sure there are kids with greater needs, but unfortunately i can only advocate for my own child and his iep says *&^&^%(&^ and i expect that is what you will do." period. she blinked.

anyways. i suppose concerned parents all have stories.
whether it is because of a LD or giftedness or whatever... we want what is best for our kids and it is sad we have to fight (literally) to get it....
you'd think they would want our kids to succeed.

f/u-
today, i had appointment with the coordinator at a highly gifted magnet...no space period, and will be a wait list for next 2013/14 schl year, with admittance based on points (if meet admit criteria which my ds5 does.) because my son has no "points", he will most likely NOT get in %/

i also met with science magnet principal today,
this magnet is not for gifted but for kids with interest in science- my son loves science! however, they DO cluster the gifted kids, and differentiate the curriculum to their level.
i was so happy about this!
i will attempt to get my son into this science magnet for the upcoming 2nd semester, which wcomes up in january 2013. he will go into 1st grade, he can easily do the academics, but i admit i am worried regarding the social...

*YAY! i may not need current teacher in kinder to fill out any form for lausd e-Choice program for getting into magnet schools! so happy. today i learned that when the principal of transitional kinder filled out form june 2012, verifying that my son met the 4criteria for giftedness-as stated by lausd- that while this doesn't necessarily IDENTIFY him as gifted=still need test for this= it is acceptable, and still qualifies him into gifted magnets, including the "highly gifted" magnets which after 1st grade require a 99.9% on the IQ. i don't need it filled again.so relieved. it also seems strange he could slip into the highly gifted magnet with it!

i asked what happens if later he takes IQ and is NOT PG or HG but just MG or maybe just average!?? and they said, if he is in, he's in! and if he can keep up the academics then he stays. they can't kick him out. interesting i thought....

(i have known a lot of ppl with avg IQs who because they were huge over acheivers- they excelled and sailed thru life... seeminly)

*the other thing learned----he can't be tested at lausd until he is 6yrs 9mos. which is why they "verify",
AND no psych eval/IQ test i get on my own will be accepted...

well i feel some relief.
in meantime, i am trying to decide how to handle next 3 mos.
-currently thinking i will "afterschool" him. he will continue in his current kinder program and i will go thru 1st grade curric with him, 2nd if needed. i am going to "pretest" him as go along to make sure i am starting him at approp level. idk what books i will use? but starting with singapore math-saxon.
thanks everybody

How about the project-based learning schools? They may not be considered "highly gifted" but "alternative" or "one of a kind" instead. Have you checked out those other categories on the LAUSD site? We are in the district for K and I see now that our neighborhood charter is an SAS school, but DD5's kindergarten class is not full of gifted kids...

My (perhaps overly optimistic) idea with project-based learning is that there is no limit for learning - you can take any subject to the hilt with self direction.

Here is the list, but surely you are familiar with this:

http://echoices.lausd.net/Mag/Default.aspx

and the school selection tool:

http://echoices.lausd.net/Magnet/programinfo.aspx

LOL you can never have too much coffee

Sorry I should have been more clear. By unsupervised recess I meant that the teacher does not come out with them - not that there's no supervision. They have outside supervision staff for all the breaks and a, um, "unsolicited haircut" would never go unnoticed. They (there are at least 3 plus the principal, and there are only 325 kids) scan and watch for incidents, fights, injuries, etc.

What I was worried about was that my son would slip away unnoticed, which couldn't happen now because a) now he wouldn't leave and b) they all know him. Back in KG, though, he was a serious flight risk and not all the sups knew him. It just made me nervous.