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

For example, earlier than gifted pull-out was available for DD, the teacher was assigned a high-achieving cluster for math and that cluster worked above standards when possible. Meaning, the teacher had a topic unit for the class, had a brief instruction period to the class, then the three groups rotated stations (group meet with teacher, work independently, and group work on project or game). She looked at the standards rubric for standards mastery one year ahead, and provided material at that level to the top group. She was unable to fit in a full year ahead of material, but DD did get to work above level, along with doing some more engaging logical thinking challenges. It wasn't perfect, but it was above-level differentiation. This year, we have a different arrangement due to different circumstances. In fall, her school assessments (MAP, which goes above level) show her scoring in math in the mid-90s percentile for those two grades ahead. It really depends a lot on working with and supporting the teacher.

For reading, in our school, they also break out into small group book clubs at different levels. At times they go to a different classroom for one teacher to instruct that higher level to students from multiple classrooms. General literacy isn't very differentiated, though, which can be frustrating. DD would complain about having to pick out the main idea of a three sentence paragraph and wanting to have more detail to read.

Yes! Making an advocacy binder is recommended in the meeting prep links listed in the advocacy tip sheet.

YIKES! None of the advice from the forum suggested peppering the school with e-mails.

Unfortunately, you may not yet be well-prepared for interfacing with the school. (Prep goals would include reading the materials provided, discussing/agreeing with spouse on advocacy goals/approach/strategy, and being mentally prepared for calm listening, asking, note-taking.) Please be cautious not to contribute to the creation of a "toxic" learning environment in which your child will not be able to flourish.

indigo - I don't want to worry you lol. My spouse is a teacher and I have had to advocate for DD in the past due to medical issues. My concerns aren't with my interaction with the school so much as they have been with what my expectations should be in the schools willingness/ability to provide for her different instruction.
The phone call went very well. I asked a bunch of questions and they were very helpful and informative. What a great place to start! Most of the accommodations she mentioned were about offering more advanced materials during "centers" for math and reading. She did mention the ability for these subjects to span grade levels, which was reassuring, but if I am looking for a whole grade acceleration I may have some resistance. She also agreed to more testing for her PLEP - which in previous emails she was against so that's great news! Especially if it supports my case for acceleration. I would be willing to let her stay within grade for instruction up to about 1 year above, but after that I think she would need something more. As is I know this is true for reading and I am unsure about math. She also mentioned that she did hit the ceiling on the Information segment of her WPPSI as well as indicating that she believed a lot of her strengths would be in subtests that they did not administer, so if we wanted to pursue more testing for DYS in the future she would be open to that. I'm thinking that should wait until she is old enough for the WISC so that we don't run into ceiling problems again

As a teacher, does he have experience with gifted pupils, being part of a school team for advocacy meetings, and facilitating classroom differentiation, grade skip, etc? Possibly he could provide his expertise...?

So often the two are related... and you earlier mentioned a concern that the school would bully you into accepting what it wanted to offer... hence the posts offering advocacy guidance.

Excellent! ...and you followed up with a friendly e-mail documenting the agreements? next steps...? timeframes...? etc

It seems this anticipated time frame would be in June 2017? In general, schools are not often fully staffed in the summer months... so advance planning may be needed unless the testing is to wait until the fall of the 2017-2018 school year.

Wishing you all the best.

Thanks indigo! I just had just sent my email when I checked back in on the boards lol.

aes - or anyone lol
looking at the DYS application it requires a 145 on two indexes or one GAI or full scale. Currently DD has a 140 in VCI but she did hit the ceiling on the Information section. My question is, do you think that her GAI could increase if more tests were added to the current score? Would adding Picture Naming help raise the VCI and would Picture Concepts elevate her FR enough that it would be worth considering? I don't want to make her or the school continue testing if she is too far outside of the range, but if she is close it might be worth looking into. Would doing a full scale test raise her scores or is the GAI relatively stable with just the 4 simple subtests she was given. If it is worth pursuing, when should I do that? Now? when she turns 6 on the WISC-V? As soon as she turns 6 or later? Are they scaled to age -- meaning would they know the difference between scores on a kid who just turned 6 vs 6:11? Thanks again for helping decipher all the craziness!

There is nothing you can add to raise the VCI on this administration of the WPPSI-IV, as it is composed of the two subtests that were administered. That she did not trigger a discontinue (which I assume is the meaning of hit the ceiling that you are referencing), suggests that it is reasonable to conclude that information is a low estimate of her true ability, so that testing with a higher ceiling (such as on the WISC-V) may produce a higher VCI. The FRI was not calculated, as it requires both matrix reasoning and picture concepts, but I suspect that she would need at least an 18 on picture concepts to reach 145. In any case, since the VCI is below 145 (though I would not want you to think of this as "only" 140, since that is still extremely high!), it probably makes more sense for DYS purposes to wait a bit, until she is more likely to generate stable test scores, and until she is age-eligible to be assessed with a test with more headroom. Also, the FSIQ would be higher than the GAI only if she scored very well on the WMI and PSI subtests, and her lower block design score suggests that this would not be the case at the moment, at least for PSI, which is fine-motor-involved.

The stability or instability of her scores is more a function of her age and the developmental variability intrinsic thereof, than it is the number of subtests (though the FSIQ is the most psychometrically-stable score, it doesn't add enough to likely raise her score by 11 points).

The WISC-V, like the WPPSI-IV, is normed by age, so yes, it would distinguish between a child age 6-0 and one 6-11. If you choose to do so, when you re-test will depend partly on how much support you end up getting from her current placement (and thus how urgent the need for advocacy backup), and partly on her development and improvement in testability.

aeh - thank you so much! I had a feeling this was the case but I don't always have the knowledge to back it up. We will wait for the WISC-V and see how supportive the school is before pushing our luck We have plenty on our hands at the moment anyway lol.