Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Has anyone rejected by DYS reapplied successfully?

We applied to DYS on behalf of DD7 last summer. Her "IQ" score--152/99.9% on the Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive made the cut-off, but her Broad Reading was 99.8% so we submitted a portfolio. She wasn't accepted.

I'm wondering if anyone has had the experience of re-applying and how it went? Did you submit another portfolio? Did you have testing done again and somehow it made the cut?

I'm on year two of "the lost year" at DD's school and after a principal meeting yesterday, have little faith that (a) he knows anything much about truly high ability kids and (b) that anything much is going to change. I could just use some support.

Thanks!

Not exactly, but we just applied in Dec and were given 6 months to submit more portfolio items. I asked a few questions and got some helpful answers as far as what they're looking for.

For what we submitted initially, I guess I was thinking it should be stuff she did spontaneously on her own. They said that kind of thing is very helpful of course, but if the child doesn't have much they've already done, you can assign them something to do. They said if we could get, for example, a workbook at or above 3rd grade level (she's in K) and give her that to work on, it could be helpful. They said videos of the child talking about an interest could be very helpful.

So, that's what we've been doing this month- DD hasn't been the most cooperative with being on video but it's actually better than I expected. I've felt a little weird giving her 5th, 6th & 7th grade reading passages and comprehension tests since I wouldn't normally do that, but she's surprising even me with how well she's doing with that.

We also took some video of her talking about something that interests her (black holes.) The first try didn't go so well and she lapsed into unintelligible baby-talk which is what she tends to do when she's uncomfortable. So we had her draw and write a bit of what she wanted to say, and told her to use that to show the camera on our next try and talk about what she made. That went better.

We also have some video of her working several grade levels ahead on EPGY in both math & language arts, which we signed her up for around the time we applied for DYS. They had told us a video of her working through her math is a lot more helpful than just a completed worksheet. So, on the video I'm asking her to explain how she figured out each problem. (Which she was also not super cooperative with but at least you can see that she's doing the work, and doing it quickly.)


So... I'd say you should write to DYS and ask them if they recommend a new portfolio or new achievement testing. It does seem to me like they're looking to see the child is already working 2-3 years ahead at a minimum, not just that they have the potential to do that. If you go the portfolio route, give her some assignments to complete that are at least 3 years ahead of grade level and keep going higher until she's no longer successful.

Unfortunately, we already did the portfolio "call-back" for more info. It wasn't right. They said we could reapply in six months, but I'm not sure if it would be worth it.

Shrug!

Would you mind sharing what kinds of things you included in both portfolios?

DD was in 1st grade when I applied. The first portfolio included a bunch of reading worksheets that I got off the web that were labeled as being fourth and fifth grade level (both fiction and non-fiction passages), along with a scan of a short story she wrote in after-care one day. I also had a video of her reading out of the Madeline L'Engle book A Wizard of Earthsea and answering questions about it.

The second round included a recorded conversation I had with her about the Ray Bradbury short story "All Summer in a Day." It also included artwork that she did, a long narrative recommendation from my husband, and her Woodcock-Johnson Achievement, which didn't qualify, but had scores over 99%.

I suspect that part of the problem is that a lot of what I provided was receptive and not productive-- comprehension questions, talking about what she read. But while I consider her to be verbally precocious to a certain extent, she's not excessively verbally creative, so there's not a lot of product in that area. I wish there was a way to capture her entrepreneurialism--when she wants to learn something, she just does it. She taught herself to sew at 6 because it was something she was interested in. She's sitting at the piano right now teaching herself to read music with a book I bought an hour ago. She's very interested in science, but more in a natural science sort of way.

Sadly, I think it might be easier if your child is a math/engineering/physics type kid.

We applied and had just barely there scores and were asked for to reapply with more information. My son was accepted the second time, when we added qualifying achievement scores AND more work samples.

For the work samples, I included a video of him playing Monopoly (age 5 1/2) and being the banker, making change etc. My husband purposefully picked a "fight" so that DS had to explain himself on the video and the math. We had a video of him giving a tour of our staircase, where he had created a very elaborate treasure hunt based on hundreds of Pokemon cards he had created. I had a page of multiplication worksheets from school, a couple of photographs of him doing strange things on vacation and a copy of NWEA scores, even though they are not "accepted" testing.

You'll do better following her around with a video camera, doing less academic but more truly engaging tasks I think. Let her shine talking about learning to read music or a favorite science topic (or doing an experiment) or some other project that makes her really excited and happy.

Just curious. With the working at least x grades ahead. If they are not allowed to work ahead at school do you teach them at home (or help them learn) or do they just pick it up themselves?

I don't know! That's totally what we struggled with when trying to find work samples. There were no samples from school, because her school is a "nice-but-terrible" K-8, at least as far as very bright kids are concerned. DD is reading at least 3-4 grade levels ahead, but that's with NO reading instruction at school since kindy. Math is all done lock-step, and there is little to no science and social studies.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ut_scores_in_perspective.html#Post134495

Perhaps you may want to get a different set of achievement tests to see if there has been improvement. That might be a better option than a portfolio again.

I have not reapplied again but I got zero helpful feedback after the rejection which kind of turned me off from reapplying in the future.