Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Explore results

My brocure thru the talent search says 4 to 6 weeks for results. 6 weeks is this Saturday. Hope this test will give us some more help with school understanding DS's needs.

Eeh, bummer! I hope that it isn't 6 weeks on the Feb. testing. Four weeks will be a long wait!

GS10 has just been identified as gifted in science based on the Standford Achievement tests, got the letter in the mail today. So, that makes math, reading/LA, & science. Nothing like getting one piece identified at a time. Ha, I just realized I could have used his Explore results from last year and got him identified across the board! Oh well, there was nothing to gain from it. I'm just waiting on Ooohhh, oooohhhh, I just checked our state website and see they have the rubric posted to identify a child as gifted in Visual & Performance Arts! GS10 loves to perform. He was quite good in several dramas at church and in some plays he did at a drama camp. Now I've got to ask the gifted coordinator if there's any advantage to having him identified as gifted in drama. Did I say he's quite good? That's not just grandma saying that either!

OHGrandma - how did the Standford Achievement test identify him as gifted? Was it given out of level? If so, how many levels? +2? +3? Isn't the SAT/10 content so it's not *gifted* per se, but rather academically advanced, indicating a need for advanced placement in school?

I'm not OHGrandma (obviously ) but the district dd#2 attends ids kids as gifted if they score btwn the 95th to 99th percentile on grade level achievement tests or advanced on the CSAP (NCLB test). In fact, they seem unwilling to take out of level achievement tests like the Explore for dd#2 in lieu of grade level achievement tests on which she is highly erratic.

How do they sort out the high achievers scoring at 95-99th on grade level tests, and truely gifted kids scoring at 95-99th on grade level tests who would also score 95-99th on a test 2-4+ grade levels up? Do they do further testing after that?

Nope, that's it. Gifted isn't about IQ according to both local districts; it is about high achievement. Kids with high IQs (like dd#2) but who underachieve don't qualify as gifted. Kids like dd#1 with both high IQ and high achievement are easily recognized. We do also know a lot of kids who are ided as gifted without any ability testing or who came out avg on group ability tests, but who get advanced scores on grade level tests.

our local district does this too. Teachers will "recommend" students who have high achievement but slightly above average ability testing for GT services. Parents are becoming more and more pushing about getting their high achievers into GT since the regular classroom materials are so slow moving thanks to NCLB. Most of the GT kids at our local school are high achievers. The school will take IQ testing into account but want achievement that is high as well.

Well I've been told by teachers and have read that the top of 10-15% of any class usually could be moved up to the next grade. Those aren't the gifted kids. The top 10-15% do just fine a grade up, working at a similar pace to before but just more demanding material. A gifted kid would need a faster pace (usually) more depth, and maybe 2+ skips. SO they are not distinguishing between those 2 scenarios.

I'm getting us OT again -- which seems to be my specialty . I don't think that we (or at least I) are talking about taking kids whose innate ability is in the 85th-90th percentile into GT classes. We have kids whose ability is totally unknown and even kids who test at the 50th percentile on ability tests in GT classes here. Some of these kids are older for grade, some have done a lot of outside tutoring, and some got in based upon behavioral scales that indicate that they have a lot of collections and are really sensitive (which are apparently characteristics of giftedness). I would assume that kids who test in the 95th percentile on a grade level achievement test are at least above avg, but I'm not sure. Some kids who aren't unusually bright are reading above grade level by a grade or two when they are in early elementary school. Does this mean that all advanced readers are gifted? I wouldn't make that leap anymore than I'd make the leap that all gifted kids are advanced readers. Our school system, however, does make that leap and, once you're ided as a gifted reader (even if that took place when you were 8 y/o), you are tracked into the accelerated literacy classes unless your parents agree to opt you out.