Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Introduction and Questions

I am very glad to have found this forum and have read several pages of discussions already. I wanted to introduce myself to everyone and ask a few questions.

I have two children DD8 and DS2. DD has been identified as gifted in pre-K assessment and last year in 3rd grade. She was an early talker, reader and we call her the walking dictionary about biology and wildlife. She did well in mainstream classroom even though she was a year or more younger than others. Teachers usually gave her more challenging books and she wrote poetry when she was done with regular assignments.

Unfortunately we ran into problems last year (3rd grade). DD came home increasingly frustrated and her grades were dropping and she felt her teacher hated her. My first thought was that I had made a mistake in letting her start school early and it was coming back to bite me. One of her report cards had a long note from the teacher that said she wasn't applying herself, she was not concentrating and was at time disruptive in class. This was right around the time that 3rd grade assessments came back: her cognitive skills index (CSI) was 140 (exceptional range) and subject specific results were all in the gifted range 98-99th percentile. Her teacher was very surprised about this and all of a sudden changed her tune. Now DD was immature, and blamed her age. Finally she recommended DD to gifted math and all of a sudden she was not disruptive anymore. I felt that her 4rd grade teacher missed the mark by expecting her to just follow along with everyone else all year and didn't communicate with me about problems when they first started.

So now, we have just started a new school year and 4th grade. DD is in a new building and I am not sure how much each teacher knows about the children. DDs school has a cluster of 3-4 gifted students in a class of 24 students. She also has a new gifted teacher this year.

I would like to set up a meeting to discuss issues that arose last year and ways to prevent it. How should I go about doing it? should I wait until Nov. parent teacher conferences or address this right away. This year's teacher is notoriously great at accelerating students and utilizes the gifted teacher a lot. I have also considered the Explore test for DD, any thoughts on it's usefulness? Also, how do I speak to her school about gifted issues without sounding like a "stage mom" who overestimates their child's abilities? I don't feel DD should skip grades, but I do feel she has areas that could be accelerated or she will have those "disruptive" behaviors in the classroom again.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted you to know our background in order to answer my question. I appreciate any assistance you may be able to give me.

Jeni

Hi Jeni,

It sounds as if your daughter�s present teacher is pro-active and aware of gifted needs. She may also be familiar with the difficulties many gifted children encounter in a regular classroom. The judgments that the previous teachers made are quite classic which may be obvious to her as well. I don�t think you should mention the past issues unless they arise in her classroom also.

My inference regarding your mention of the CSI is that your school uses the Terra-Nova. My kids take the full blown version each year. I like that it is nationally normed and hasn�t been watered-down to �meet� NCLB standards. Your daughter�s scores DEFINITELY warrant above level testing! I agree with Dottie that the EXPLORE test results are very useful.

Here is a link to EXPLORE and ACT college readiness benchmarks.

http://www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/benchmarks.pdf

If your daughter meets these 8th grade benchmarks already, you may want to seriously consider a grade jump. Since I found this, I am second guessing our decision to keep our son in his present grade. Anyways, it really puts things in perspective!

Welcome to the forum!

Diana

My understanding is that if a child achieves the EXPLORE benchmarks in 8th grade, they are �on track� for the corresponding ACT scores at the customary grade (11th) and college readiness at HS graduation. The math and science benchmarks, in particular, are higher than the average scores for 8th and 11th grade.

My reasoning is if a child meets these higher than the mean thresholds as a talent search participant, it is extra proof and insurance that a grade skip is an appropriate choice.

Do you agree?

Dottie,
Your DS must have been one of the youngest EXPLORE participants! I absolutely agree, the lower the grade, the more impressive the same results. Aside from grade, I am also awed by a �really young for grade� child who achieves better than average as compared to �typical age for grade� talent search participants.

However, I am also impressed with a typical 12 yo 6th grader who achieves the 8th grade benchmark for science, especially if they are learning on their own while attending the average grade level classroom.

Here�s a link which shows what percentage of students achieve these benchmarks. Apparently, only 28% of ACT participants meet or exceed the science benchmark for college preparedness!

http://act.org/news/data/07/benchmarks.html

I am really interested and alarmed by this data! A local college professor offered to let my son enroll in his physics class (for non-technical majors) last year (when he was nine) because he felt that he had as strong a background in math and science as the high school graduates who attend (not a top 100 school)! I thought this professor must have been mistaken (about my son�s abilities) - maybe I had just overestimated the math and science skills of the average college students.

Jeni,

Sorry that I went off-topic!

What impression do you get from your daughter regarding her relationship with her teacher so far this year?

Thank you for all the responses. I've had issues with logging in even though I have been able to read the responses. I have decided to wait until November parent teacher conferences to discuss DDs education unless there are issues before then.

So far DD finds school easy but is excited by new classmates, teacher and school building. I am cautiously optimistic by it all, but if the curriculum continues challenging, that might be a different story. I signed her up for the explore test, but that is more for next year, I think since the scores will be sent in March.

Another funny thing I remembered about her teacher last year. She mentioned how she never would have though DD was gifted "because she was pretty and didn't look gifted". Does this happen to girls often, or is it just this teacher?

Again, thanks for the advice.

Jeni

Hi Jeni! Welcome!
comments like "pretty" are the reason why I like to see gifted kids get individual IQ tests, such as SB-V, are as many grade skips as they need to be actually academically challenged in school, not just "able to not act out."

Think about it - how would you like to spend hours a day with someone who "expected" you to be "pretty and sweet" - I wouldn't like it at all! I think at age 8 one is young enough that a skipped year doesn't mean that a lot of skills are being missed. The longer you wait, the harder it is to make new friends and to "catch up" with the missed work. The whole question is "is a grade skip actually needed by this individual child?"

If you aren't sure about individual testing, try Deb Ruf's book: Losing our minds, gifted children left behind. It's a good introduction to the range of giftedness.

Welcome, again,
Trinity

Trinity,

Thank you for your welcome and advice. Where can I find more info on the SB-V you mentioned. Is it usually administered privately and how would it be utilized by the school? DDs school is familiar with the explore test, but I'm not sure how they would respond to another test.
Yesterday DD taught herself origami from a kit. I was trying to figure it out from the directions and she was finished before I got half way through. She is really motivated to find enrichment outside of school this year. She is growing crystals, we have a fossil labeling project going on and she asked for more challenging math problems than what her homework was. I am so happy about her curiosity.

Jeni

Hoagiesgifted.org has more info on everything - try there. As for the school being able to use the SBV - they won't understand it at all - it for your family to have an idea what is going on, and to use the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual - which needs an individual IQ score, acheivement AND above level tests to give a good answer. I also like Karen Rogers "Re-forming Gifted Ed" to give you an idea of all the possible ways to meet a childs needs.

For managing the school, the Davidson Young Scholars website has an Advocacy Manual that you can download - http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/Article/Davidson_Young_Scholars___Guidebooks_375.aspx. It's a big topic, and varies from town to town and state to state. As more questions as the come up. Once you come up with a plan for what is needed, moving toward getting the plan to work is easier.

Good Luck,
Trinity