Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment IAS Question

dumb question... what is the IAS? When I do a search I get all these civil service exams?

Thanks
Sheila

I thought the IAS manual states that the school is supposed to fill out the forms in a meeting WITH the parents. This isn't how it worked for us, but we did have several phone conversations that day the school counselor filled out the forms.

Iowa Acceleration Scale

frannieandejsmom, from their website:

"The Iowa Acceleration Scale is a tool to help schools make effective decisions regarding a grade-skip.

The IAS guides a child study team (including educators, teachers, parents, and other professionals) through a discussion of the academic and social characteristics of the student.

The IAS provides:

A more objective look at the student;
An analysis of the major factors to be considered in making a decision;
Guidelines for weighting the relative importance of the major factors;
Documentation of the student�s strengths and concerns
A numerical range to guide the discussion and decision of acceleration; and,
A standard of comparison with students who have had successful accelerations."

They are supposed to fill it out with you, but when they don't understand how to use it I figured we were better off to fill it out ourselves and answer the questions with conservative answers just to get a gauge if she would be a good candidate. I would love for them to work with us and use this book the way it is supposed to be used.

They use it as an assessment for their gifted program(I will be asking how since that doesn't make much sense after reading it) and they won't do any of the individual testing b/c they think 6 is too young. So it isn't the best way to use it, but I feel it still gives us some insight to if she is a good candidate. I answered all the questions with one lower answer than what I really thought(on the ones dealing with her behavior in school) b/c I am not in school to really know if she never turns down a challenge, or how her interpersonal skills are etc., but b/c this isn't our first meeting with them and have gotten their viewpoint on how she interacts with kids and responds to challenges that I have a pretty good indication to what they would answer.

I also know how she responds to challenges in the Saturday gifted/enrichment program she is in and have a letter from that instructor with her observations of dd in that environment.

Thank you. I am looking at the site now. This may be what I have been looking for!

Sheila

I think I will run out and do that tonight so we have a blank one to fill out and we can show them. Maybe they will even be willing to do it with us...that would be great!

I agree about the personal belief and I have a feeling this is where we may end up. I just have to try and know that I did what I could. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and since the principal has said she will be in our corner I am a little hopeful, I just hope she isn't talking out of both sides of her mouth...as I get that feeling from her.

For us, filling it out "WITH" us, meant we filled in teh non-school numbers such as outside of school activities the child participated in etc. They did it while we were there, but the teacher's filled out what they thought without us there, but we went over it with them..

The IAS blank forms come in a pack of 10 and they wouldn't give us a complimentary one. The school purchased the blank ones for us. We did the same thing, filled it out ahead of time with our numbers, conservatively, so we had an idea what they might come up with. We were low compared to what they actually scored it as, which helped!

I think it's wonderful for parents to use the Manual to figure out if there is evidence to support their hunch that their child would be well served by an acceleration. And then for the school and the parents to sit down together. For a PG kid the scale is almost a moot point - what is it 450 points for test results and 4 points for social stuff? Ok, I'm exaggerating, but I think the whole point of going through to process is to assure everyone of what is aready know:

A gradeskip isn't such a big deal, and avoiding a needed skip has it's own negative consequences. Every decision in life opens some doors and closes others. Kids need to learn at their readiness level, and some kids are way ahead of their age-peers. Socially a skip can be wonderful or terrible, but there is no way to predict this, and you can always make friends after school. Using afterschool time to 'catch up on learning' is a big drag.

((shrugs))
Grinity

That's just it Grinity, we also expressed that while not accelerating may seem like a "safe bet", we actually used evidence to support that it's just as damaging to do NOTHING, if not more damaging!