Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment HELP! WPPSI-IV & KTEA-3

My biggest hang up is that gifted kids are gifted all day -- not just tuesdays at 12, so I know a pull out program isn't sufficient. I just don't see what a classroom teacher can reasonably do to provide advanced material AND a faster pace - its like asking her to teach a whole separate class within her class. That is why I keep leaning toward a grade acceleration, at least that way she'll be closer. I just don't know if that is a reasonable request since I have no idea how to interpret her KTEA-3 scores into grade levels

To manage your expectations, it would be unusual for a school to require a kindergarten teacher to prepare a child to pass the first grade end-of-year exam as prep to skip 1st grade and go to second grade.

You might want to read several old discussion threads on the pros-and-cons of acceleration.

IMO, your goals should be prep for interfacing with the school:
1) Read up on everything provided in the links, and feel calm and confident in your advocacy skills.
2) Have many conversations with your child and spouse and/or child's other parent. Your family must be of one accord.
3) For your first meeting, practice listening, taking notes, asking questions, learning how things work at that school.

Thank you indigo -- you can tell my dander is up already lol. i have run up against the school on previous issues and my feeling is that they like to do what is required and not much more when it comes to accommodations. If pushed, they will cooperate, but not without some heavy parental involvement

Asking about differentiation is a bit like asking if we like lunch... lunch can be anything! Differentiation can be anything. You might want to read the buzzwords post.

I understand the concept of differentiation, I just don't understand the practice. If all the kids in class are working on counting to 100 and DD can count to 200 -- what could they possibly offer her that is of meaningful benefit? Surely the class does work as a whole and every item in her curriculum can't be adjusted to allow for something different just for my child.

Correct. This where being familiar with both state laws and school policies are necessary.

They may cooperate best if you learn and adopt effective advocacy approaches (as opposed to "pushing").

This is unfortunate. It may raise a question as to whether you may now be planning to weaponize your child's high test scores, for use against the school.

To manage your expectations, there is no requirement that differentiation be of meaningful benefit... just... different. Parents may wish to ask about the 5Ws: who, what where, when, why, how... to anticipate what their child's learning experience may be.

I will admit that advocacy is where I will struggle most. I tend to be a little stubborn. My husband is much more diplomatic. I will have to put my listening ears on at our first meeting.

According to PA law - Chapter 16 defines gifted education as:
(vi) Individualized to meet the educational needs of the student.
(vii) Reasonably calculated to yield meaningful educational benefit and student progress.
And goes on to state that the education provided:
(2) … is based on the unique needs of the student, not solely on the student’s classification.

so they do have to prove that what they are offering is sufficient

Apparently, I am late to the party...

1. Reaching a ceiling has different meanings. One sense is the discontinue rule, which means that the student had the number of items incorrect (usually in a row, or within an item set, depending on the test) needed to trigger the discontinue criteria for that subtest. Another is the test ceiling is too low, meaning that there is reason to believe that the student's abilities were underestimated/truncated by this instrument, because there were insufficient difficult items to spread the upper extreme of the population. Typically, this is indicated either by failure to trigger the discontinue rule (see the previous meaning of ceiling), or by obtaining the maximum possible scaled score (on the WPPSI-IV, that would be a 19 on the subtests).

Your child's subtest scores do not reach the ceiling in the sense of max obtainable score, but it is possible that the discontinue rule was not triggered prior to running out of items. That would be a question for your test administrator.

2. Score profile: It would appear that your child was given the WPPSI-IV subtests comprising the GAI only, which is reasonable in a GT assessment, but does not provide the fine-motor processing speed data that was mentioned above by Portia. As she points out, the BD score is noticeably lower than the other scores, and does suggest that further investigating her motor and/or spatial skills might be worthwhile at some point. She is also very young, and in her first formal school experience (it appears), so this may indeed also represent lack of exposure. I would keep an eye on it, though, especially as asynchrony in fine motor skill can be a key factor holding children back from various forms of substantive GT interventions, both in the primary grades, and much later on.

3. Achievement testing: with regard to the KTEA-3, it is a norm-referenced instrument, designed to provide information on one's standing compared to age- and grade-peers (depending on which norms are used). It does not comprehensively sample the skills expected for each grade level, which is why it cannot be used to determine grade placement (you would need a criterion-referenced instrument, or a curriculum-based assessment, for that). On the plus side, it does highlight the outlier status of your child, which can be helpful in advocacy for explaining that, for example, the child who is at the 98th %ile is one in 50, which means that, in a school with 4x25 = 100 kindergartners, there would be expected to be about 2 students available (including her) to make up a reading group for her. So no, "going deeper" on the existing grade-level curriculum materials probably won't meet her needs.

You may wish to share this discussion thread, and the links to resources, with your husband, so he may also read up on advocacy, acceleration, etc. It may be helpful for the pair of you to attend meetings together. This often helps ensure that the conversation stays focused on meeting the child's needs... while one spouse takes notes.

You may find that the school only needs to prove to the state department of education that the child makes reasonable yearly progress.

For example, the school may not be required to prove to you that each planned differentiation activity has meaningful benefit.

You'll want to learn how things work... in your school... in your state.

If thinking about acceleration, as a starting point you may wish to read up on the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS), and old pros-and-cons discussion threads.