Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment NNAT 2 scores for Ist grader

Hi Everyone,
I just discovered this wonderful forum and am learning a lot here. We just got my daughter's NNAT 2 score, the test was administered in Sept 2010 , her first month in first grade. Our school district has set a score of 130 for NNAT 2 for second grade for consideration for the gifted program and my daughter has 120 (in first grade).Her teachers always say she is above her grade in school work and she reads well above her grade. I am wondering if this is a discrepancy I should look into or are scores for first graders evaluated differently than second graders? I would really appreciate any light on this.
Thanks!

Thanks, Dottie! when I got the results, I also did not think they were off in any way but to know that you have to be in the 98th percentile to be considered for the program is somewhat daunting!!

She reads almost anything but is really into the junior classics, non fiction, nature etc. I am actually looking at resources for a good reading list. her class teacher introduced the kids to the Bailey School kids series! which she likes a lot but I am not a fan of...what do you think?

I too, just got my son's results back from his NNAT2. Our district's cutoff is 130 as well, and my son's score is 129. He scored in the 96th percentile, and the letter said he doesn't qualify. However, my friends daughter scored in the 97th percentile and qualified. Any suggestions?

Sad truth is that many districts feel 'we have to draw the line somewhere' while in truth the program should be about providing academic challenge that is too high for kids who are below the cut off, and that any kid who can keep up and make use of the higher challenge 'belongs there' by definition.

But that would mean that there needs to be a few levels and varieties of gifted programs, and most districts can barely wrap their heads around one!

Still most districts do have some 'alternative route' mechanism to allow kids in who have needs stronger than what the test shows. It never hurts to ask.

To me the more interesting questions are:
1) what are my child's needs?
2) are they currently being met?
3) is the child happy and learning how to learn? Are we seeing a lot of perfectionist or masking behavior?
4) what possible options are available that could be called into play to meet my child's special educational needs?
5) Does my child need a full, private psychoeducational assessment?

For kids in the 90-97% range, (if the scores are actually meaningful to the particular child) I like the book

For an alternative view, try
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/harm.htm

But remember that there is only one definition of left-handedness, while there is no official definition of giftedness, and ask yourself how extreme does giftedness have to be before it's the scary kind of giftedness?

love and more love,
Grinity

I like Grinity's numbered list and, to add to her above thought, 'how extreme does giftedness have to be before the needs of the child are being met to a significantly lesser degree than are the needs of the other children in the classroom?' That would apply to gifted kids in gifted programs -- if their needs aren't being met there then they need a different level of gifted services -- and to highly able kids in a std classroom -- is there enough being done to differentiate for those children and are there enough peers to make that viable?

The reality is that one point on a test is meaningless but the line is generally drawn in the sand somewhere. Can you talk with the school to see what, if anything, they do for highly able kids who don't quite make the GT program?

I was just thinking about that this morning - if a school was willing and able to provide 5th grade educational materials to a 1st grade child alone in the corner of the 1st grade room while all the other children were working together and being taught by the teacher, would you really want that? What's the metamessage?

Learning 1-1 with a tutor has it's advantages - one can run through the material at the right pace but if you had a choice, wouldn't you rather the child was with other kids of similar readiness to learn and get the experience of interacting with the other kids while they learned, and the mix of trying one one's own, and working together?

I don't judge anyone's solutions as long as they are working for that family. It's likely that we'll need a combination of 'all of the above' over the long term.

Love and More Love,
Grinity