Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment School system doesn't use WISC-IV or SB-V...help?

The info I found online, if you've not already found it, is here:

http://www.ecasd.k12.wi.us/student_services/assessments/KABC-II.pdf

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/pai/ai/research/resources/interviews/AuthorInterviews.htm

I am wondering if your school system uses the KABC vs. something like the WISC b/c of the high population of low SES kids & minority kids that you mention. The links above indicate that the KABC doesn't wind up with as much variance in scores based on SES or ethnicity as does the WISC.

My apologies - I must have been confusing the KABC and KBIT.

Sorry for the multiple replies! I was just realizing, though, that if your ds was almost 8 within 60 days of the start of 2nd grade, that a good place to start might be asking them to screen him for a grade skip. Both of my kids didn't turn 8 until the start of 3rd grade, neither is in DYS (admittedly we've never applied, but I think that they're a bit below DYS level honestly), and one is grade skipped beyond that and has done very well with that. With a potentially HG+/PG kid who is older for grade, a grade skip seems like a very reasonable thing to be considering.

Silly you...thinking they have to test within 60 calendar day of school starting...it is 60 school days...the first nine weeks is 45 days...they tested shortly after Thanksgiving and were within the law. He turned 8 in late December. Cut off is Sept 1st so his birthday is almost 4 months after the cut off.

I'd still consider a grade skip even though he is more of average age for grade rather than older for grade as I was assuming. My one who is skipped was the youngest in grade, having made a 9/15 cut off by days and my other one missed the 9/15 cut off by two weeks so we started her in a different district to get around it.

I'm sure that the issues are different for boys with being younger, but my grade skipped one feels very strongly that it was a positive for her (she's a 14 y/o 10th grader & hadn't quite turned 14 at the start of this school year).

I'd really like to bring this subject back up. We've now had both our daughters tested and both times the tester used the KABC-II. After going through testing with DD9 and learning more about the different types of tests, I asked the tester to consider using the WISC-IV with DD8. Since we used a university grad student from one of the top colleges in our state, we were told they would discuss it with the supervisor. They came back with the decision that the KABC-II would be the most appropriate test to use. Their explanation was that it is a pretty fun test to take and because of her age(7 at the time)it would be the best test to hold her interest, etc.

This university surely has the latest information on tests in order to teach their students and they have been very detailed in their reports, so I understand the KABC-II sub-tests and they seem appropriate in determining IQ.

I've read some studies and did a little internet research comparing the KABC-II to the WISC-IV and they seem to be very similar tests that result in similar scores.

So here is my question - why is the KABC-II not used more, and more so, why does Davidson not accept it as one of their qualifying tests? What am I missing here?

My son now has both scores and no...the k-abc was much higher than the WISC score. K-abc was PG level and WISC was HG.

Can I ask - how far apart and at what age were his tests? EDIT - I see now where he was almost 8 when he had the KABC-II. When was the WISC-IV?

Both our girls were 7 when they were tested (DD9 was end of 1st grade almost 3 years ago and DD8 was just this past Fall). I really don't want to have to pay out of pocket for someone to give them the WISC-IV, but that may be the road we are going down.

K-abc almost 8....WISC was 8 years 4 months (I thought we might apply for dys)

9 pts? I would have to look to be certain.