Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment qualification criteria for grade 6 and below

Hello

I have a 7 year old who we feel is gifted and has been tested by MENSA and found to be gifted. In his present school he feels he is not challenged enough and is bored.
We came across Davidson Academy and we want to see if he can fit in there. Can anyone tell me what is the qualification criteria for grade 6 and below. Right now my son is in grade 3. I understand from the Davidson Academy website that scores from the Explore test and an IQ testing report is needed. What is Explore test. Can my son take it if he is grade 4 or grade 5.
I also took a look at the Explore test website looks like the test if for grade 6 and above. so iam confused what he should do submit for the admission procedure.
Also if someone can give me an idea about Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - IV (WISC IV). if there is a website or any sample papers for me to take a look.

pls help
Thanks
Jai

I don't know much about the Academy per se, and there are some on this board who know a lot, so they may chime in. I do believe, however, that it is for kids who are doing middle school level work, so unless your son is already working at that level, it might make sense to wait a few years.

You can take the Explore through your regional talent search, such as the Duke Talent Identification Program. There are other talent searches as well. When administered to younger students, it is considered an out of level test. It is normed for eighth graders, but talent searches administer it to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I believe that some talent searches will let a 3rd grader take it. The test is given in January and February only.

Here is a link to various talent searches, some of which offer the Explore:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10260.aspx

The WISC must be administered by a licensed professional, usually a psychologist. You can look around for a qualified tester in your area, and you may want to look for someone who has experience working with gifted kids.

It isn't ethical to look at sample questions, although unscrupulous people may have posted them somewhere. The test is meant to be completely novel to the testee, and the materials themselves are supposed to be available only to licensed administrators. Exposing a child to sample questions before he or she took the test would render the results invalid.

If Davidson Academy doesn't work for your family right now, there is a lot of good information on this board about advocating with your current school to get a better fit and more challenge.

Davidson academy is for 6th grade and above but your son can start with Davidson Young Scholar which you still need IQ test, achievement test or talent search test(such as EXPLORE) and or portfolio showing advance level of your son's work.

You can check which IQ test your son has taken with MENSA and see if that test is one of the accepted test. He may do WJ III or WIAT III if he can't take EXPLORE yet.

http://www.davidsongifted.org/young...holars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx


I would probably wait to take EXPLORE. (very cheap compared with achievement testing).

As a Gifted Youth Coordinator for my local Mensa group, I know that Mensa does not do any testing for anyone under age 14 and the testing that Mensa administers for individuals ages 14+ is solely for admission to Mensa. It correlates with IQ, but it is not an IQ test so it likely would not be usable for anything else like admission to a gifted program or the Davidson Academy.

If the testing your ds had was for Mensa admission, it must have been something done privately and that might be something that would work for a DYS application if the score was in the 99.9th percentile+. The criteria posted by Peter above is probably the best place to start to see if he has qualifying scores on the types of tests that DYS takes.