Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cue the Tom Petty...

I took ds5 in for his assessment this morning for the same TAG program my dd is in. I can't even begin to tell you how nice it would be to have ds in the same school as dd. DS is (What I call) a defensive perfectionist. He doesn't do anything that he hasn't mastered. I emailed the tester to let her know this.

After the testing she let me know that she feels that ds doesn't read as well as I think he does. *sigh*

It would be super to have my defensive perfectionist underachiever in with students who know as much or a little more than he does so he would strive a little instead of coast a lot like he does now.

Nothing to do but wait...

Is the testing/admission based solely on achievement? Hopefully reading level isn't the something that will keep him out of the program especially if he underperformed in the testing. Hopefully that was the only area he underperformed too! Good luck.

Yes, it is all achievement based. However, since my dd has been at the school for 2 years they know my ds and the roller coaster ride that it is being in his life. We may or may not get special consideration.
The tester mentioned that he excelled at the rest of the testing just that she wasn't sure he could read.
Fingers crossed! We find out next week if it made it to the COGAT testing. He would need to score 98% to be accepted.

So, achievement testing and then, if he's high enough on that, a CogAT test as the final step for admission and 98th percentile composite CogAT or just one piece? Again, I hope that it works out for him!

Composite score for the COGAT.
I've become resigned to having two at two schools again next year. LOL! We'll see!

Out with the Tom Petty and in with the Air Supply albums...
I got a call from the school today saying that ds didn't make it in to TAG. He is 99th percentile in math and 73rd in reading. I knew reading was not his strong suit going into it.
Next year then. I am happy in a way that he will be staying at his current school. Excellent teachers and within walking distance of home. Plus, he will just be DS there and not DD's little brother.

bummer, it is surprising they won't do much with 99th in math!! sheesh, no wonder we're falling behind in math as a nation. Does he literally have to be 98th percentile in both to qualify?

Well, 99 percentile on math for five years old is not kind of cry for help, situation might change dramatically for the next two years. For example, my DS10 was an early learner and tested above 90 percentile for 4th grade math at age 5. OTOH, my DS7 was busy designing spacecrafts and building complex models. He had little interest in reading&math and was well below 50 percentile at age 5. But he made a couple of surprise leaps once he started reading and arithmetic in first grade, and now tested above 95 percentile. Both of them were in the regular school without gifted class option for K to 2.

I gather that the composite of the three indices (nonverbal, verbal, and quantitative) on the Cogat need to total up to a rarity of 98th percentile, not that both need to be there and also that he didn't make it to the CogAT testing b/c he wasn't high enough on the achievement testing. (That is, of course, assuming that I am reading this right!)

I know that I am biased as the parent of a 2e kid, but I also really think that the validity of GT identification (as in, are we testing what we proclaim to be testing: whether the kid is gifted) is really questionable when we rely to heavily on achievement and group tests that just don't seem to have great convergent validity with the WISC in particular.

I know that these group tests have been validity tested and supposedly line up well with IQ tests, but I've seen over and over not only underestimation of gifted kids, but overestimation of more average kids (not what I'm implying with the OP's kiddo at all and it doesn't even sound like he got to the CogAT piece). The publisher of the CogAT has addressed this issue a few times in what hasn't been a fully satisfactory manner at least for me. See, for example:

http://www.riversidepublishing.com/products/group/cogat6/pdfs/newsletters/CS_vol1_summer04.pdf

Yes, a composite of 98 on COGAT to qualify and high enough scores on the achievement to qualify for the COGAT. Next year he will only need a 96 to qualify. Hopefully, I can get his school to accelerate him in math next year.