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

I guess there are old traumas coming into play again...
So far, DS is doing okay in his class, not super popular, but he's accepted for who he is (much more than I ever was at that age). But we have had a few odd snarky comments from parents already. I am worried that if the words "gifted", "grade skip", "gifted program" (I am not worried about test scores leaking, I do not think the numbers mean anything to most people) somehow come up in the parental gossip (it is unbelievable to me how gossipy these grown up educated pleasant women are...) parents who feel threatened by this might gang up on us and make their kids gang up on DS.
It's happened to me, and it was merely caused by a grade skip, no one even bothered about iq back then. I'm SO in the closet.
I suppose it's easier if you do not have a choice, if it's the school doing or demanding the testing and making the placement decisions. In my case, it is completely up to me to make the results relevant or not, as the case may be.

Just re-read this thread to see if it answered my question, since it was similar to the original post of this thread. And I don't think it did.

Are there situations where you HAVE to share the test results with public school in CA? My understanding is many of these tests (like the WISC IV) can only be run once per year? And that if school starts talking about testing I would need to show them the results. I do realize that my original plan in getting the testing done was to show it to the school, but I'm unsure how many details, who's report, and what timing to do this.

Part of my indecision is because I don't yet have a full written test results back. We are waiting for one last test that will be done this Wed. My son's psychologist (separate from the tester) will write up her own report based on the results and that will take yet more time. School starts in two weeks and I had plans to talk with his counselor this week to make sure she is "hand" scheduling his classes like she promised. I'm not sure if I should bring up that we had the testing done yet as I haven't seen the report and known the results. And I don't yet know which report I want to give the school or if I want to give them both. DS15 is due for a second SST about 3 weeks after the start of the school year. Although this makes little sense as the teachers will be all different, and he usually looks fine (if a bit shy) at the start of a school year. Partly this is because I am really skeptical of what the H.S. can really offer us in the way of support.

I do trust that the school staff will not reveal the testing to parents & or anyone who I don't give permission that isn't an issue. It's just that since I don't know the full results or recommendations. My instinct is to not say anything at all about it this week, and keep my wait and see attitude.

No. But if additional testing is in the offing, you have to tell them that you had testing, and what the instruments were, or you will end up putting your child through a slate of useless, invalid testing. (The re-test time for the same cognitive instrument is actually 24 months.) And if you want them to use the results of your testing, obviously you have to show them the testing. If you don't want them to use your testing, then they have to select different instruments to answer the referral question.

If you wish to wait and see, that is, of course, up to you, but I will just make one caution: how the school staff perceives and receives parent-initiated outside testing depends largely on the relationship between parents and school, and on the alleged referral reason. In my experience, when this kind of testing is not well-received, it is mainly because it feels a little deceptive, like you're being blindsided with a list of demands, when you haven't been given a chance to respond to the needs in a collaborative conversation. Now I realize that many of the families on this board have not experienced effective collaboration with the schools, nor seen evidence that personnel are motivated to do so, so I definitely see that there is a place for defensive management of information, but it is also difficult to feel collaborative when key information is withheld. Especially if the SST thinks that this process could be heading toward an in-school evaluation.

My inclination would be to mention that you've been having some outside evaluation done, for various reasons, but you don't have results back yet, and if anything turns up that might affect school planning, then you'll update them. Of course, the focus of your current meeting is scheduling, so I would view this more as a "by the way".

EDIT: Just re-read your post. I will qualify my comments by saying I have a lot of regard for intuition (in addition to facts and reasoning, of course!). If there is something about your situation that makes you feel waiting would be wiser, there is probably a reason for it.

aeh.. Thanks you are probably right about saying we are having the testing done but don't have the results back yet. The probability is the councilor would be too busy to do much with that information at this time anyway.

I am likely to share the results, but not sure if I want to share BOTH reports or what I have heard said yet. The tester isn't an expert at gifted kids and I really want to see what the both report say before sharing. I had really hoped I would be farther along in the process and that I would have had the report in hand by now.

Reports I haven't seen I frankly wouldn't mention yet. As long as you don't have them you're not withholding anything.
Our tester shares the report per email first and asks if there are any concerns with the wording. I have asked her to make a few changes but in tone rather than content. Haven't decided yet what to share myself but I want to make sure it's a ext I would to ind sharing as such.

I agree with the ethics of the situation, and parents ought to share which test(s) their child has been exposed to. Some may find it easy for things like this to (willfully) slip through the cracks. Overexposure to tests, and validity of test results, are serious concerns with far-reaching impacts on many people.

Prior to test administration, are parents required to sign a form attesting that their child has not been exposed to the specific test instrument(s) within a 2-year period?

Sadly, unless/until there is enforcement such as laws under which parents will be penalized for falsification of records related to withholding prior test information (resulting in their child re-taking a test within the 2-year wait interval), some parents may find this an expedient way to game the system in order to achieve a higher IQ score.

Unfortunately, there are currently no avenues for enforcement. I have found, however, that in the evaluation environment, children are surprisingly honest about previous testing (though not always with reliable memories). Granted, parents may go so far as to prep their children not to mention previous testing, but I think they are probably risking optimal performance by doing so, as the child now has to be on guard throughout the whole evaluation, while simultaneously attempting to benefit from prior exposure. I often ask children if they have had testing experiences before, mainly to gauge what I need to do and say to put them most at ease (some had negative experiences, and will need reassurance that this will be more positive, and some have had no experience, and need information and warm-up tasks to take the edge off its novelty; older and more inquisitive kids may want to understand the purpose and design of testing, which I am happy to explain in general terms). Even the occasional child who has been instructed not to talk about previous (or current!) outside testing tends to reveal the information before I have finished the evaluation, at which point I discontinue the repeated instrument, contact the parent, and discuss alternative instruments with them/sharing of preexisting test data/obtaining a real picture of a child's learning profile. (Of course, there's pretty strong selection bias here, as I wouldn't know about the ones where they successfully concealed testing from the school system!)

bluemagic, I think in your situation I'd mention that your ds had testing this summer and you don't have the full results or report back yet, but that they did find areas that were potential areas of challenge. I looked back through your previous thread and I think you mentioned that one tester suggested your ds was borderline but not quite a clear ASD diagnosis? Is this part of what you're waiting to determine from his psych testing this week? This is just my opinion - but from my perspective I don't think it will hurt you either way to either share that your ds is being evaluated for ASD (or whatever) or to *not* share. Same goes for any verbal recommendations you have for accommodations etc - it's ok to let the school no, but you're also not concealing anything that will hurt you down the road if you don't. When you have the reports you can share the information. Chances are the school staff isn't going to act on any accommodations/etc without the reports, but the fact that you've pursued testing and that the initial findings showed concerns with potential x,y,z might help encourage the school counselor to hold true to the promise of hand-picking your ds' class schedule.

Hope that makes sense! And I hope you have the reports back soon - waiting can be very hard!

Best wishes,

polarbear

@aeh, good to know! Hopefully raising awareness of this will discourage parents from unethical practices to game the system.

Thanks. I think what I am in confusion about is the ASD diagnosis since I am already fairly sure I'm going to have contradictory advice on this issue. The crazy thing is I should WANT this diagnosis, since with it I could get the testing covered partially by insurance and would have little problem getting a 504 for my son.