Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Another meeting Thursday...would love suggestions

We are meeting with the school again on Thursday. Now that they have dd's map test results and she was observed by the curriculum director and the school psychologist.

Even though they were supposed to be doing enrichment with her already this time they are writing a goal plan for her that will be carried over to next year. I spoke with the principal earlier in the week and she said she would be behind us with a grade skip(from k this year to 2nd next year) and that she thought dd was a good candidate, but after speaking to the curriculum director it sounds like they would fight us on that if we went that route.

I already know they are against subject acceleration( I mentioned it at the last meeting. It is too dificult to take her in and out of classes and if she is taught the higher grade where would she go the next year) They also feel she is too young for any further testing that they do besides the map.

When we spoke yesterday the director said that she was too young for the IAS. They do have the IAS, but use it to evaluate kids for gifted not grade acceleration. I don't want to fight with them, but of course I want what is best for dd. I am not 100% sure I want a grade skip, but they were already supposed to be doing enrichment and that has yet to be seen. So I feel like in a sense it is the best way to gurantee she will have work that is somewhat challenging.

I feel overwhelmed still and just want what is best for her. She comes home from school frustrated and actually cried the other day b/c she didn't want to do her homework. When I asked her what she is upset about she said that they were supposed to be giving her harder stuff and it is too easy. I just hate seeing her being upset.

I have printed out a few articles on grade acceleration to bring with, but any articles on acceleration/enrichment or other materials you can recommend to bring in would be great. I am going to bring in some of her work. Including some work from the Saturday enrichment program she is doing. I was looking into that DI link that was posted b/c they said if I had any ideas for enrichment to bring it in. I thought that might be nice, but any more info on that would be great too.

Thanks for all the help. All the suggestions from everyone so far have been great and just reading others stories and their success makes me hopeful we will get a good plan in place eventually.

That makes absolutely no sense at all. The IAS is a scale that is filled out specifically to evaluate a child for grade acceleration. It isn't a test and is not supposed to be used to determine if a child is gifted. Having been through an IAS process with one child when she skipped 5th, I can tell you basically what it looks like.

First, it asks about the child's willingness to skip a grade and a few other critical pieces such as whether a sibling would be in the receiving grade, etc. It has a section for test scores: achievement scores from grade level tests, IQ (although I understand that group ability tests can now be used), and above level achievement if you have them. Then there's a piece on factors like the child's age in relation to grade peers, size in relation to grade peers, etc. The rest of it is somewhat subjective and filled out by the teacher indicating how motivated the child is, how he gets along with younger kids, older kids, age mates, teachers, how well he completes classwork, etc. Finally there's a section on support from the school and family for a grade skip.

I don't even see how they could be using something like that for a GT determination! It makes one's head spin!

I guess in your situation, I'd do some real introspection as to whether you think a grade skip is the best route for your dd. If you come to the conclusion that it is, I'd go in with A Nation Deceived's executive summary, the support from the principal, her MAPS scores and a letter stating that you take full responsibility for the outcome of the skip and then push for it.

If you're not sure on the skip, think about what else would really work for her. If they are ruling out subject acceleration and GT pull-outs, what else can they do for her? I've never been highly impressed with the in class enrichment approach when it was used with my girls.

Oh, and in regard to enrichment ideas, if you decide to give that route another try, any of the following are good:

Caesar's English (study of root words, Greek/Latin and it has worksheets)

They could try some of the free lesson plan from the Mensa for Kids website: http://www.mensaforkids.org/school_template.cfm?showPage=school_pt_resources.cfm

Let her work online on something like EPGY or Athena's Advanced Academy (http://www.athenasacademy.com/) in replacement of the regular curriculum

Some of the curriculum from the College of William & Mary Center for Gifted Education: http://cfge.wm.edu/Curr_listing.html

Thanks for all of your ideas.

I don't get the whole IAS thing either. I actually found online a sample of the questions and I didn't get how they could use it for GT either, but I didn't want to argue with her over the phone. I think I am just going to bring in more information on it and ask how they use it.

I think what is the most frustrating is I have only been really reasearching this topic for a short time in comparison to her years in the district and I feel like I know more about the tests, research etc. It almost is embarassing for them to keep giving out misinformation.

The principal told me she would be surprised if they have dealt with a more informed parent(a lot thanks to you guys), but honestly I feel like I have hardly scratched the surface of what is out there information wise.

I think my dd would be fine with a k-2 grade skip. The private preschool she went to actually went up to 8th grade and they always had her with the year higher. They wanted her to start K last year and we considered just keeping her there for the one year to bump her up for the public school, but they said they wouldn't honor it. That she would have to complete first grade for them to take the placement. I knew that two years of the tuition wasn't possible so we decided not to bump her up then.

At this point I feel like that is the only option that could really work. I don't know if I trust them b/c the first go round has failed with the enrichment and if she goes to 1st next year and it is as bad as this year I am afraid how she will be doing by the end of the year.

I am going to bring in these websites. I already have her doing the EPGY so maybe she can continue with that in school.

I have a hard time dealing with GT teachers or district coordinators who don't know what they are talking about. It seems to me that, if you are going to be in that type of position, you'd better have your info straight b/c you should be planning to deal with at least some smart parents. We considered switching dd10 from a school of choice to our neighborhood school earlier this year but the GT teacher was a big drawback. She didn't have any idea what an IQ in the upper 140s was and seemed to feel that her other kids with 95th percentile scores on part of the CogAT were right at the same spot, had never heard of the EXPLORE, the WIAT... She was at least new to the job. For the district coordinator with year of experience to be that lacking in knowledge is a real bummer.

If the school says they use the IAS for GT id, I might be inclined to be skeptical that they know what it is or are using it appropriately. Our school has said something similar in the past about IAS being an achievement test. We cleared that up after we just got a copy of the guide and scored it at home before. There's nothing on the IAS that you as a parent could not approximate how the school would respond as long as you have some IQ and achievement test scores.

yeah...the A does stand for "ACCELERATION" right?

We are very luck to not run into too many folks within the gifted program that are not up on what really works and makes sense in our school system so far. I can not really say the same for the teachers.

We haven't had the full testing done. I was trying to hold off, but we may have to do it. The only testing we have had done is the Map through the school. She was also tested for the CTD gifted where they did the KTEA where she scored a 98% in reading and 99.6% in math and the KBIT with Verbal 91%, nonverbal 99% IQ composite 98%. I know those are much quicker assesments than the full testing would be, but not sure if they are still a good indicator to the school that she needs a lot more than she is currently getting.

What about just moving her to 1st after spring break until the end of the year on a trial basis to see if she's ready for 2nd in the fall?