Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment How often do you test?

Hi everyone, me with more questions. How often is it recommended to test your gifted child?

The reason I ask, I'll give a little background, DD then 5 started K last September, we had her tested (a MS through the school) to see if she needed a grade skip,she did. That was in November. We since have had an IQ and achievement testing. I was going over the achievement testing and noticed that she improved 2 grades in all subjects she had been tested in November, so 8 months ago.

At some point do they slow down? Or is this the type of learning speed she has a grade every 4 months? How often do you test? Or what is recommended? It almost seems like you need to test at least once a year to track their process and find out what type of materal should be taught. An example on that is in November she was tested at a 5th grade reading level so I was purchasing books for her to fit that, recently she's been telling me she wants different type of reading material, so I let her pick it out , she picked out a science encyclopedia, I purchased it but I thought might be too hard, It turns out now she reads at a 7th grade level so it makes sense she wants more complex material.

Thanks in advanced for you replies!

We have to test annually as homeschoolers in NC (it's about the only thing they require of us, so I'm not complaining!)... If we weren't required to I'd probably do it anyway, because a year does seem to make a big difference. More often than that would seem like overkill (not that I'm above overkill... LOL).

Actually DS took the Explore this past January, and the ACT a week ago... so we're officially in overkill. I don't expect a difference in scores so soon (unless it's an Explore ceiling issue) -- we just did it to compare them, and so the first ACT wouldn't be one that we had to send in to the state!

Oh and I should say (since I didn't answer your second question!) - I don't know if there's a predictable pattern of slowing down, but at some point the grade levels aren't the important measure. Once you get into high school material it's more about mastery of the topic (Algebra, Biology, US History) than about grade levels. And also about then it seems that test scores matter a whole lot less, and curriculum (transcripts) mean a whole lot more. At some point I expect DS will be bumping up against the ceiling of the ACT, and from then on we'll be testing only because of the state requirement... but we may do SAT subject tests and AP tests to show mastery (and substantiate "mommy grades") as we finish different courses.

My 11 year old son went into Kindergarten at age 5 reading at a 5th grade level. His favorite book to read at the time was a science encyclopedia. By the time he turned 7 it seemed like he could read anything but it was comprehension that he needed to work on. His comprehension also increased quickly because he loved learning the meanings of new words, especially words with multiple meanings, because he could use these in the jokes he made up. He got into the habit of looking up words that he heard but didn't know the exact meaning of. He had to because I didn't always know the exact meaning. He also started reading classic books with lots of rich vocabulary several years ago.
It wasn't a problem for him to do this because he homeschooled after Kindergarten.

I live in a state that doesn't require testing of homeschoolers and I couldn't really afford private testing. The only testing my son had until recently was the WIAT at age 7 and that was because insurance paid for it.

I had him signed up to take the Explore test once but he had a cub scout event on the day of the test that he didn't want to miss and I didn't want him to miss out on something fun. I would still like for him to try the Explore test before he has to take the ACT since he has very little testing experience.

Great information! Kar1200 I didn't want to do overkill either (I'm also not above it) because this was her first school year and even though we knew she was "smart" we just didn't get how smart, that's why we did all the testing and of course to do a DYS application. I was just a bit amazed with the progress. didn't seem like she really learned anything this year (to hear her tell it) but she must of.

And Lori, isn't it funny they love the same type of book (science) right now she has moved on from her princess, fairy, animal books and wants to know how everything works, the earth, space, human bodies ect.. thanks for your replies