Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Got our letter

Yippee Tammy,
go get your achievement scores and get those numbers in. Especially if the Gifted lady is saying how quick your dd is in comparison to the kids who have been there 3 months. OK, so the gifted teacher knew better than you did what your daughter can do, that's a floor, not a ceiling! Get those numbers, ok?
It's worth it for the chance once a year for your DD to talk to other girls who are "like her."
Trinity

For those wondering about substitution of portfolio for one of the tests. My DD7 WISC IV FSIQ score is above 145. I had no achievement tests done, so I submitted work supported by two pretty strong letters of recommendation from her piano tutor and chemistry teacher. I was also sent the letter requesting achievement testing. If I had to do it again, I would probably spend the time arranging for achievement testing in lieu of agonizing about what to include with the portfolio....FWIW.

Peace,
Incog

Good to know, Incog. Thanks!

"The tester seems to think that sky high achievement scores are a given in this population and this age group."

Sorry, but I'm curious about this!

We're talking about percentile rankings, right? When he says "in this population" ... what, the HG/EG/PG population? Well, shouldn't their scores be "sky high"?

Of course, I'm woefully ignorant on how these tests are normed. Can anyone enlighten me? I'm assuming it must be an ongoing process, but I certainly could be wrong. But if they're refined enough that some children will score in the 99th percentile and some children will score in >99.9 percentile, they must be good for *something.*

Like, say 5.5+? (As my DS was when he took the WJ achievement.)

It doesn't sound like you need to second-guess with your DS, Dottie! I think you just need to get over that right now!

I just wrote in another thread that the more time I spend home schooling DS6, the more accurate I'm feeling his WJ scores were, though when I first saw them, I thought they were skewed crazy high. Now that he's challenged, I see things in him that I was missing before, when he was apparently bored both at home and at school, so the scores seem about right.

(Whether the YSP committee will see it that way or not is another question...)

Ugh. How do you think she's likely to handle this situation? How's she likely to feel? What's she going to do?

I wanted to thank the folks who posted about not being accepted to DYS. When we weren't accepted back in February, I came to the boards to see if other people had been in the same boat (and to reassure myself that we weren't alone) and mostly I found people who had gotten in. While I suspected that there were people who hadn't gotten in but didn't want to talk about it, not finding anyone else was a little isolating. But I didn't want to be the first to mention it. So thanks for breaking the silence!!!

Acs - and there are those of us who are just too intimidated to apply to DYS! We've only taken the NNAT, which does not qualify even though he hit the ceiling on part of the test. My son is along those lines achievement wise, but to get the test scores and put a portfolio together just sounds like WAY too much effort - physically and emotional. I'm happy to live in a metro area that has a fairly healthy gifted community, so I'm not sure there would be a huge draw for us anyway. So good for you for getting your act together and getting the paper work in and giving it a try!

(((hugs acs)))
t