Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment should we contact district Gate coordinator

Hello,

I have been reading so many posts here leading up to my DD6 being tested last Saturday, trying to understand whether her behaviors and characteristics are indicative of a gifted child. We had her tested because prior to reading books on gifted children, I had moments when I believed she had Oppositional disorder or even Bipolar on the worst of days. In a nutshell, she is a sweet loving child who is incredibly intense, has major sensory issues and a overwhelming need to figure things out for herself. Although she started reading simple words when she was about 4 years old, her reading only has just taken off, primarily because she loves having older chapter books being read to her. I was surprised at how quickly she went from simple easy reader books to chapter books and reading difficult words. She also can do simple multiplication and division work and understand basic fractions, but is definitely not a math whizz, like I see how some young children on here are. Her verbal ability and her ability to conceptualize abstract thoughts and make complex connections have always amazed us but having a bright 8 year old sibling, we weren't really aware of her capabilities.
So you can imagine our surprise when we received WISC IV results.

(Scores removed)

I literally started crying from disbelief and realized this gives a small glimpse into why she behaves the ways she does. I also feel guilty that I haven't done more to advocate for her in school. She was born on Christmas, so she did not make the cutoff for Kinder when she was 4 turning 5. The problem I am having with her kinder teacher is that she just doesn't understand or see her as a gifted child. While she acknowledges that she is bright, our entire time at her parent/teacher conference was about her impulsivity and speaking out. I even had to point out to her that on her report card, she marked down that she needed to improve on many classroom behaviors such as speaking out and working ahead of others, but marked her "meeting" all her academic goals. Only after I pointed out that she basically knew all that was being taught in class, she offered to change the meet to exceeds. However, she will not differentiate her work at all, aside from worksheets she is given when she finished her work quickly. I have been wondering why she hasn't offered to pull her out for reading or math but I haven't asked previously because she just seemed so oblivious to her abilities.
The educational psychologist informed us to try to get her grade skipped as soon as possible but to also start thinking of homeschooling her since, as she put it, traditional classrooms will not meet her needs despite grade skips. That really scared me!

My husband had a brief discussion with her this morning and gave her and the principal a copy of her report to request a meeting. Bearing in mind that our school district does not start GATE identification until 3rd grade, should I contact our district's Gate coordinator to discuss DD's results? I would really appreciate any input regarding how this is typically handled, particularly in California. Thank you!

Did you get achievement testing along with the WISC? That would really help with your talks w/the school.

Has the school done any testing yet? When you approach them they will likely want to do their own. I'd start with the teacher and administrators at your local school before you bring in the district GATE coordinator (might be seen as going over their heads.)

Thank you epoh. We did not get any achievement testing done. If the school will not provide that, we will go back to the psych. to get that done as well. Is that what the schools most want to see in students, particularly in the early elementary years.

As you suggest, I think we will see how our initial meeting goes with the teacher and principal.

Wow. Those are really, really high scores. Did she hit the ceiling on any of the subtests? If so, were extended norms done? Also, they're ALL really high which will be really helpful for your dd as she goes through school.

It sounds like your kindy teacher is either boxed in by her administration by what she can offer your dd, or by her own prejudices and misinformation. It's a shame your dd gets marked off for "working ahead" of others. I'm so tired of hearing about gifted kids being made to wait for others to catch up, meanwhile getting virtually no instruction adequate enough for their own growth that I could spit fire.

So, yes, I would look into achievement testing if only for DYS application. She already has the ability which more than meets DYS requirements.

I'm afraid your long, uphill battle has only just begun.

And FWIW, we were surprised by our ds12's (tested at 11) WISC IV results as well. I think it may be quite common.

Welcome!!

Lending support about the personality traits you mentioned and suspecting they may be related to a bright child. I can completely relate to your story and your reaction to the test results. My DC is "incredibly intense" and was misunderstood by some teachers when younger, and also and was sometimes criticized for speaking out and being bossy. I myself have done quite a bit of reading about ODD - the good news is, DC did much better with "intensity" at school as DC got older. Unfortunately, we still see it at home all of the time and it is EXHAUSTING. Eventually, testing confirmed my suspicion that DC was quite bright indeed.

Well, the teacher no longer has to "believe it." You can show her. I think some teachers still think bright kids all "sit quietly" and do exactly as they are told. Some of them expect them all to be extreme people pleasers - and that is NOT the case.

Lending support...

If your school doesn't have a GATE Coordinator, I'd contact the district coordinator for fact finding. Odds are slim that someone at the school has encountered more than one kid at your daughter's level; whereas the coordinator should have wider exposure and hopefully training in the topic and be able to tell you the options both in your school and outside of it; that's a key piece of their job.

When needed, I find people get it a bit better when I translate the scores to ratios... in this case you could say (based on GAI) that fewer than 1 in 10,000 kids score in that range, or for the FSIQ, fewer than 1 in 1,000.

I think I am getting an idea of the uphill battle. I believe the school will be testing her later this week with end of year 1st grade assessments to gauge her abilities and are recommending pull outs. We suggested putting her in the combo kinder/1st grade class next door, or possibly staying in her class then going next door for the 1st grade portion when the kinders leave that classroom. Don't think that will be happen, the principal told us that that will not be so easy to accommodate since we are so far along in the year (school ends end of May).

DD did hit ceilings in block design and matrix reasoning in the PRI subset but she did not do any extended norms. I was pleased at how well rounded she is, but wasn't surprised at the lower WMI..mental math is not her strong area. I think we are going to have to go for the assessment with the private ed. psych. after all. Thank you for your input and welcome!

Thank you for your support! I can commiserate with you 100%, she is pretty exhausting, not only because of her intensities but she just needs stimulation ALL the time and talks and moves nonstop, unlike my son who can be occupied by himself on current obsession and be holed up in his room. Great to hear that your DC is doing better with it at school!
Thanks again!

So DH called the district coordinator when he was at work today and I he was pretty livid with her response. It was pretty much "and soo...what can we do for you?" after he explained the situation. She stated that our school district does not recognize gate students until 3rd grade and that it's pretty much up to the school to decide if they will accelerate or skip. She did say why not put her in the district's magnet school for gifted and advanced students which my son attends but they do not accelerate, only enrich. This school is a good fit for my son, but the edu. psych. strongly believes this school will not be enough for her even with the grade skip (which I find really hard to even believe at this present time! I mean really? Will she likely be that capable??). No mention of support at all from her department. I was really surprised and angry to hear that she didn't offer any guidance and basically slammed the door in our face because DD is not in 3rd grade!
Thanks for your input regarding likely occurrence of her scores in the general population. Yes, the principal looked at her numbers and told my DH she didn't know what those score correlated to.

Do you have an option for changing schools to another district? They may be more cooperative if they think your child may move (not necessarily, but sometimes). We only received offers of accommodation after contacting the district superintendent. I wouldn't have thought to do that (it seems like something that might annoy principals and teachers and make things difficult). However, the testing coordinator told me to call the superintendent after she saw my daughter's scores and the superintendent told the curriculum specialist to work something out. Part of the reason may have been that we had decided to move DD to another school, but we were offered some substantial accommodations at that point.

As far as not starting until third grade, I think many schools say the same thing. It doesn't mean they can't do anything earlier. They often start standard pull out programs then, but those often don't offer that much anyway. My DS is in kindergarten in a district that doesn't have GT until third grade, but they have brought in the GT coordinator to consult for him. I think that is reasonable when you have clear evidence that something more is needed. One thing I was told, which seemed helpful in explaining the scores, was to say that a child with an IQ of 150 was as different from average (100) as a child with an IQ of 50. Would they be comfortable having a child with an IQ of 50 in a regular classroom without accommodations for learning differences?