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Our school district does use the RTI and not the discrepancy model. They use the terra nova to determine achievement. DS will probably do the EXPLORE test this year through TIP.
He has what the Eide's call the "stealth dyslexia". His cognitive abilities are so high that he is able to compensate and read at average SS99.

Deep down, I want our education system to work for these 2E children and at least in our situation -it is not.

Ohhh moonbeam -- I'm soooo sorry. This sounds like a horribly frustrating situation. I don't have any real experience with LD, but in my brief wonderings if DD has some LD with reading and writing, I've encountered the same school position. Since she's above grade level in reading, her teachers have literally laughed at me when I suggested I thought she struggled with it. When I suggested that her verbal IQ scores indicated her reading achievement test score should be higher than it is, it became rapidly apparent that I knew more about this than they did, and I don't know much!

I believe the DYS folks can be great allies to you in this situation and point you to the resources you need to advocate effectively for your kiddo. But in the meantime . . . . I'm really sorry that this has been so difficult. It just shouldn't have to be this hard. ((((hugs)))))

Here are some internet resources that might help:
www.wrightslaw.com
www.uniquelygifted.org
http://gtworld.org/gtspeclist.html (listserv for parents of 2E kids)
http://2enewsletter.com/

I know that many states don't even include the category of gifted under special education services. In order to qualify for special education and get services your son would need to meet the specific entry criteria for a category of eligibility (such as specific learning disorder). But it seems to me that the issue for you is that they don't recognize that he's gifted OR LD because they don't have or won't accept the scores that say so. Sounds like you just need to keep advocating and presenting them with the data that supports his needs.

Hang in there and welcome to the board. Good to have you here!

Good luck, moonbeam, and welcome. I had sent you a PM, and then deleted it, b/c I saw that your schools don't use the discrepancy model. Sorry I couldn't help.

hi again gratified:

DD8 is in a similar boat. Her reading comprehension scores don't jive. This can be indicative of a LD, such as a processing issue. Spelling that doesn't seem to match up with what you would suspect would strengthen that assumption.
In DD's case, though, she whips through the test because they are easy. So easy she actually loses interest while she is taking them!
I've attempted to teach her test taking strategies.
Also, sometimes the answers to multiple choice tests seem illogical to a highly intelligent child. Have you ever seen those questions? Who writes that stuff?

Moonbeam,

I can't help you with the law in your state, but I can offer some other advice.

Somedays, it's really good to laugh. A good, big belly laugh.

Often you find that around here, so stick around.

We are in MO. where gifted education is not funded.

His WIAT was done several years ago, but his math reasoning was 127 and his numerical reasoning was 153.
His current WJ shows Calculation 152,Fluency 120, and applied problems and math reasoning was 130. We have used the EPGY program for math for 4 years and have been happy with it.
He does have dyslexia and I know word problems throw him.

I only discovered this site this summer and I have been reading a lot of the older posts; I wish I would have found this site 4 years ago. My life would have been easier if I had. It is comforting to know there are other folks out there dealing with similar situations. We felt very blessed when our children were accepted into the DYS.
It affirms what we knew about their abilities and intellect, now we have to convince our school they are not just average kids with normal general education needs.

Are you a tester by chance? In reading other posts, I notice you seem to understand what all the subtests are truly about and what the numbers mean. I remember the first time that I saw DD12
WISC4 results that all I could wonder about was why are there so many spikes in the graph? I have learned so much over the years simply reading and researching on my own and I still cannot figure out if the school system truly doesn't get it or is it simply that they cannot acknowledge because then they will have to do something aabout it.

Thanks for your insight.