Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment I Need Serious Advice! New

Wow! Great response from the director and you did a marvelous job advocating for your ds. Congratulations. Things should improve from here...

Excellent result! Good job advocating for your son.

I will keep you guys updated on the fight. It is still a fight. We have a slightly different fight with my oldest, but his is a bit easier to deal with.

I am just truly hoping that the director sticks to his promises. I am working on an email now that covers our discussion this morning.

Is anyone familiar with MAP testing for younger kids? Our distrct starts it in 3rd grade but my son will be taking it next week in 2nd.

Our school district starts MAP tests for Reading and Math from 1st grade. They tested 3 times at beginning, middle and the end of school year to monitor the progress for individual student. It is an adaptive computer-based test. So every time your kid take it, the problem set would remember the previous stage and adjust to suit her needs. There is no time limit that I am aware of for the test. And I don't know if the process speed would affect the test score, but they do show a timer on screen. If your kid is at advanced level, be prepared. The problems could be wildly challenging beyond her capacity. I knew one 4th grade girl cried out loud when she was frustrated by an math problem on infinitely nested recursive radical sequence.

Our school gave my son the MAP reading and math 3 times in first Grade. The School system was not using MAPs at the time so our son was a test for the test.
Using those scores they moved him into second grade reading and math.
The next year they subject accelerated him 2 years. In 3rd grade the NWEA's were a system wide test.

No time limit is a great thing in our case. Except for the fact if you keep getting question right they keep asking questions. My son says he is always the last one done and it usually takes longer then the time they give him. After a few years you have a nice little chart of progress if you pay attention.

Your story is very familiar. The reading comprehension especially.

If they follow MAPs guidelines everything should into place as well as can be expected.

JMO

The test should be the elementary version, which is usually given to 2nd-5th grades. (There is a K-1 version and a 6+ version as well.) Explain to your son that the questions will start easy, but will progressively get harder (and more interesting to most bright kids) if they continue to answer questions correctly. Also it is a computerized test, so if he hasn't had much experience on a computer, make sure you give him the basics.

I like the MAPs for early elementary quite a bit, as you get a great snapshot of what your kid knows when they take it. You can see where your child's score falls in comparison to other grades too, which is nice to know. (E.g, if your kid scores in the 99th percentile for grade level, is he also scoring 99th for the next grade level or two up, or is he more like 80th percentile for the next grade.

FYI - the score pops up on the screen when you are done with the test. I wouldn't recommend this for the first time your kid is taking the MAP if you think it will distract, but next time maybe say "Hey, try to remember the score at the end of the test." Usually a 3 digit number. Then you can look it up yourself on App. B here: http://www.nwea.org/sites/www.nwea.org/files/resources/NWEA_2011_RIT_Scale_Norms.pdf

ETA: Great job with advocacy so far. What an ordeal! Hopefully it will an eye-opener for the GT leaders in your district.

FERPA regulations require that the school district allow you access to information about the tests taken and their complete results (not just the summary they have told you). I am not sure who they would have given the tests to for scoring, but there should be some example test and a copy of his results that you have a right to see. (Most standardized tests like that send back an answer key showing which questions each child got right and wrong and what this means in terms of the tests' norms. If you want to know more about the test tell them you have a legal right to see whatever information they have about the test and his scores.

Group tests are a major pet peeve of mine but I've never seen studies of this sort. I'd love to see what these studies say as I've always contended that the group screeners are not only missing gifted kids but are also over identifying high achievers as gifted. Is there any way you could post links to these studies?

I can see what I can do about getting the studies linked.

I also looked through the Riverside Publishing guide the district gave me. I ended up writing a 4 page Word document and sending it to the director to show him all of the flaws in their testing.

My son has what's known as an "Extreme" profile with over 30 points separating his 3 scores on the CogAT. According to the paperwork from the publisher of the test, this makes the entire test null and void and mandates further individual testing. I am interested in seeing what the reply will be.....

I also found out that the state I am in requires school districts to pay for all further evaluation with a certified child psychologist. So, I am now working on that so I don't have to pay out of pocket.