Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment GATES-MacGinitie

Of course, it is in their interests to say this, if they think that a consequence may be that you leave him where he is and so they continue to get fees for him. I'm not saying they are falsifying the test results, of course; that's most unlikely. However, (a) they do have an incentive to be rigid about not looking for a way round this problem (b) it would be naive of the state GATE programme to accept *only* recommendation from current school as a way in, because of the conflict of interests. So I would think that talking to a human being at the GATE programme, other test results in hand, might be a good thing to do (in addition to asking the current school what on earth happened in this test).

Are you thinking of enrolling him in public school full time, or are you trying to enroll him in a public gifted pull-out but leave him enrolled in the private school?

If you're looking to leave the private school, I would wonder about the same thing ColinsMum mentioned; if you're trying to get him into a part-time pull-out, I might wonder if the teacher doesn't want to deal with having him absent from the classroom once per week (issues like having to make up work missed etc).

I also meant to add to my previous post but forgot - ask if the test is normed against grade or age, because that can make a difference for an accelerated student.

It sounds like the real issue isn't this test though - I think from what you've said the test isn't required by the GATE program, the teacher's recommendation is required. It sounds like you aren't going to convince this teacher to make a recommendation - so I'd move on and talk to a live person who is a part of the selection team at the GATE program.

polarbear

AHHHHHHH. this life is so complicated with these kiddos. I got some more info regarding this test and I beg.. if anyone can help me it would be great.
He is in 2nd grade and is grade skipped 1 year younger then peers.
Test given was the GATES MACGINITIE LEVEL 3 FOR 3RD GRADERS
His scores:
80 pecentile Stanine 7 vocabulary
77th percentile Stanine 7 comprehension

What would those scores be if normed by actual age...
these scores places him in the "middle" reading group.... where it is SOOO far behind the "high" group it is scary.

DS and DD were 7 when they took the Gates-MacGinitie during the spring of 2nd grade. I think that nationally 7 is the normal age for 2nd grade. In any event, this test is grade-normed and not age-normed, which makes sense, since teachers don't usually differentiate based on age in the classroom. However, your DS actually took an above-level test since he took the 3rd grade version rather than the 2nd grade version. Wouldn't the public school program be based on at-level test scores?