Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Sharing Test Scores with School

What are the reasons / advantages of NOT sharing private testing scores with a child's school? Because we felt my DS's school was not really understanding him (mostly due to 2e hiding gifted abilities and gifted abilities hiding areas of challenge), we chose to share everything with the school. They were very receptive and have been trying to work with us to appropriately challenge and accommodate my DS. So far they haven't been able to, but they are trying. I'm wondering if the decision to share his scores could have negative consequences down the line.

I'm sure others will comment later but to start with when you go to private testing it appears to be undermining their authority. Like you're "one of those parents". You said they were very receptive so why haven't they done anything? What gives you the impression they are trying? You mentioned the school wasn't understanding him but they were trying to accommodate. That would seem to me a contradiction in itself.

It's complicated.

Our situation might be different, because we do not have known 2e issues. Our fear with our present younger DC's scores is that: 1) the scores were done privately, not at the school (so we are not sure how they will be interpreted or valued by the school); 2) obviously, our DC is much, much more than a test score, and we'd like the teacher to get to know DC first; and 3) potentially immediately label us as "Tiger Parents," not allowing for other productive conversation.

In our situation, I just don't want to share "out of context." That is, if the school/teacher is LOOKING for a read on our DC, I'd be more apt to go ahead and share. I think it's more "when and how," for us - not that we are trying to withhold information (although absent the 2e issue, we also face having to possibly explain WHY we had the DC tested).

The problem with the school/teacher NOT having the information is that we are not on the same page. I think the challenge we face at the moment is HOW to broach the subject of our child having different needs, and then WHY we believe that this is so.

In the upper grades, where testing is rampant, this is honestly, less of an issue. The school does quite a bit of its own testing. DD's school also has her out-of-school scores and these were shared in the context of placement for this upcoming school year.

Brainstorming possibilities with no sense of liklihoods:

1) One reason not to share would be that the school or a teacher may use it for an artificial lens against their achievement. That could make them look unfavorably at 2E impact areas as lazy underachieving whilst ignoring the 2E aspect.

2) There could also be catch-22 situations where some standard test A is required to access a program which is a similar test to B, but since they have B scores they don't do A and that option is unavailable.

3) In regions where scores are too commonly obtained under suspect conditions, the school may make an assumption that private scores are way over-representative of actual aptitude.

4) Some people seem hardwired to look at the negative, and they may fixate on the lowest subtest with total disregard to the overall meaning. Like if there is an average processing speed score, they could argue that the kid couldn't keep up with a gifted class despite having reasoning scores out past three standard deviations.

Again, no idea how these weigh out compared to advantages. To me if I had to thrust them upon the school, I'd expect worst case results. If they were eager to see them, then I'd anticipate a more positive reaction.

It is bit of a long story, but the short version is that we had my DS tested privately because his public school recommended it.

The longer story... Toward the end of kindergarten, we asked the school to do an OT/PT eval. They agreed, and the results were what we were somewhat expecting -- while there are gross and fine motor issues for him, he is "close enough to normal" that by law he doesn't qualify for services. This was not really surprising to us because since he was young we saw issues, and in fact his preschool teacher asked if he could be observed when he was 2 because of her concerns. The results out of that preschool observation were the same -- definitely difficulties, but close enough to normal to not need services. After the OT/PT eval in kindergarten, we met with the Asst Principal and his K teacher to go over the results. The school therapist suggested we have him privately evaluated for OT/PT and get services outside the school since they couldn't help him. After this meeting, his K teacher pulled us aside and suggested that we have him tested for giftedness because some of the other problems he was having (social stuff) and behaviors she observed in him could be due to being highly gifted. I thank this teacher every time I see her for doing this because she opened up our eyes to really understanding our DS.

We had the WISC-IV and an OT/PT eval done the summer between K and 1st grade. We decided at that point not to go with the full neuro-psych eval because we thought a shorter eval would be enough; we were trying to save money; and we did not expect to get the results that we did. We shared these results with his 1st grade teacher, but not the whole school (Asst Principal, etc.) at that point. Our school doesn't start gifted programs until 3rd grade, and we were told any differentiation would happen in the regular classroom.

A third of the way through 1st grade we felt it necessary to finish the complete neuropsych eval. We then had a meeting with the neuropsych, his private OT, the school psychologist, the Princiapl, Asst Principal and his 1st grade teacher. Everyone except his teacher got it, and they got him. In fact, at one point the Asst Principal said "By law we don't have to do anything, but we are going to." We are in a state that doesn't have a gifted mandate. Very very quickly after this meeting they started to work with my son. They ordered a ball chair for him to use and set up a "writing station" for him to use. The school psychologist and another aide came in and worked with him to setup other supports such as creating a "work list" with breaks. My DH and I were extremely happy with their response and effort. We still aren't sure if they will be able to accommodate him, but they are absolutely making an effort. Where it all broke down was his teacher. She was not able to follow through with the supports and suggestions made by the school -- they weren't even coming from us. She just didn't get him. In fact, she made comments to me (luckily in private) that we could have sued the school for. I told the principal about these comments, and to say he was upset was an understatement. This teacher didn't seem interested in changing her teaching style for any child -- not just my DS. It wasn't that she was singling him out.

So this past year was a really big year of learning for my DH and I as well as the school. I feel like it took us a whole year to all get on the same page and understand what my DS needs. The supports they were putting in place they understood probably wouldn't make a big difference for 1st grade as it was near the end of the school year when they really started. The school was really looking forward to 2nd at that point to make sure he can hit the ground running this year.

My biggest concern right now is around academically challenging him as the school didn't have as clear of a plan in place for that as for helping him with the issues around DCD. He was never differentiated for academically in 1st, even though the teacher said she would. This school year the district is adding a K-2 gifted resource that will be at our school once a week. Our school administration seems very excited about this program. I think they are still working out what this is going to look like since it is new. It is only once a week, but it is something. I am hoping that she will work with his classroom teacher to differentiate his work on a daily basis.

At this point, we have a very positive, cooperative relationship with his school and those working with him. Again, the big question is if they can really meet his needs on both ends of the spectrum. It also seems to really come down to teacher placement. All the other support staff at the school who are working with him have been fantastic, but if the teacher doesn't follow through it doesn't really matter. I met with the principal at the end of the school year, and he apologized that it was such a rough year and was very hopeful that this school year will be better. We don't have teacher placement yet, and he wouldn't tell me it at that point. However he said that he thinks we will be very pleased, and that they are grouping him in class with some other kids who need more challenge like him.

For your child's performance, do you have an overall goal, toward which progress is measurable? Do you have a plan or strategy to advocate for specific steps toward that goal?

The recent posts here and here may be of interest... the threads in which they are posted may also provide more ideas and resources for you to leverage.

Thank you for the resources, indigo. I will look at them more as we are preparing for school to start. I hope to meet with the new asst principal and his teacher next week before classes start.

For his performance, we don't have a formal goal or plan right now. We have identified with the school where he needs extra help and that he is advanced academically. We are letting them take the lead now as we want to continue with the idea that we are all a "team" working together to support my DS. We want them to feel like they are running things and that we have confidence in them because at this point we do. Because they are making a definite effort, I don't want to push too hard and become a parent they see as a problem and thus don't want to work with me. However I did learn my lesson last year that I won't wait so long to push for something different if what they are doing isn't making a difference. For most of last school year it was really just his ineffective teacher we were dealing with. Now there are many more people at the school aware of DS and what he needs, and I expect they will be keeping an eye on him because of all the advocacy work I did last year.

BlessedMommy, we've always shared scores with the school rather than purposely withholding them, but we share with purpose, and to be honest, IQ scores haven't ever really meant much to our school and haven't been terribly useful in advocating - outside of our using them to illustrate the 2nd "e" aspect (disability) and explaining the size of the discrepancy in abilities. Re differentiation, acceleration, gifted programming etc - the piece of the puzzle that teachers and school staff were more interested in has been, almost always, achievement testing administered by the school, or an achievement test that is the same as the achievement tests administered by the school (TerraNova, MAP, etc).

It sounds like you have a good path forward with your school and a good working relationship - I don't hear anything in your post that sounds like you *need* to share private test results at this point in time. If you find that the promised differentiation doesn't happen as you get further into the school year, you might want to reference the test scores when you have a team meeting - but I'd be sure to include work samples and any type of school testing that you have also.

Best wishes,

polarbear

We didn't share scores with DS7's with his school- I wish we had because his teacher said he was inattentive and he was claiming that he was bored because he didn't understand the material. She was completely unwilling to entertain that he was indeed bored and it contributed him being inattentive.

In her defense, I think that she found the simplest and most likely answer for DS's issues in her class- if I had provided his IQ scores and subsequent achievement test scores, at least she would have had a complete picture. I don't know what the result would have been, but we got the worst possible outcome without sharing- a wasted academic semester at a hefty tuition price and we changed schools.

We were much more direct (although polite, modest and diplomatic) with DS's new school. So far, so good.

Oh, cammom - that is a good, cautionary tale. May I ask how you managed to communicate with the new school (and I agree that being polite, modest, and diplomatic is key)?

I think if you have a kiddo who is 2e, they are so frequently UNDERESTIMATED, that I would be more apt to speak up and freely share. It is a little trickier with a non-2e kiddo, I think, although the reason for testing is usually the same - the parent often doesn't feel that their DC's needs are being met.

But just raising the issue that one felt the need to go outside the school to have their DC assessed, could be met with defensiveness.

I feel like I'm tiptoeing through broken glass with these: on one hand, I can see where the achievement data could be VERY relevant to the teacher (for example,suggesting a DC is functioning pretty comfortably above grade-level); also, the IQ data could remove the concern that a DC has been hothoused into this level of achievement. On the other hand, the school might not react positively to a family who privately went to have a DC tested. Still, just when/how/what to share? That's the tricky part.