Could use some public school advice on testing? - 09/09/08 05:22 PM
Hi, my name is Michael.
Hello everyone this is my first time posting, but hopefully not my last. I'm writing today in respect to my son who is six years old and attends public school in the state of Florida. He was tested for being gifted in October 2007. We were notified that he was administered the Kaufman Brief Intelligence test, second edition. He obtained the following scores 123 verbal, 133 nonverbal and an overall IQ composite score of 132.
In June of 2008, He was administered, the differential ability scales (DAS-II) a second edition test in order to get an estimate of his overall cognitive ability. On that test, he performed very well in certain areas. He performed very high in the verbal ability cluster having a standard score of 133 in the 99th percentile. In the spatial ability cluster, He measured a standard score of 124 in the 95th percentile and on the nonverbal reasoning test; he received a slightly lower score of 107 in the 68th percentile.
Upon summary of those two evaluations, the school psychologist at that time found that my son's general conceptual ability is in the high range of cognitive functioning. He also goes on to state that when the results of this evaluation of been received by the school, a student study team meeting should be held. It should include the child's parents, and the purpose would be to review the results of this evaluation.
While the summer of 2008 came and went our son began first grade, with the promises of enrolling him in a �gifted� program. We then receive a document dated August 28, 2008 attended to by a SECOND psychologist which plainly states the state of Florida requires full-scale IQ of 130 or above to be eligible to participate in the gifted program, and at this time our child does not meet this criteria.
Now we are not supposed to include large or heavy images and documents in these posts. So what I've done is I've built a webpage to show these documents I hope you don't mind, but I've blocked out a bit of a personal information simply because it's the web. What I really need or what would really help us would be someone who has experience in these matters taking a look at these documents perhaps and helping to determine if I have cause to go against this.
My issues stand as this. Why were two psychologists needed to examine the same test? His current enrichment teacher from last year is on our side fighting that he should be in as much enrichment as they can provide for him. The signatures at the bottom of the minutes from the meeting include the school guidance counselor (that he has never met). His first grade teacher whom he's only known for five plus days and his enrichment teacher as well as the new school psychologist (#2)(that has also never met my son), and staffing resource specialist, whatever that means.
The budgets in our local schools were cut last year to the point of having to fire several teachers over the summer. I seriously hope that this has not affected the enrichment or the availability of enrichment for my child. And I hate to think that these tests may be altered or that a second psychologist was brought in for what I could only figure to be a second opinion.
Like I said we could use as much help as possible from people who have more experience in this field than we do and don't want to go to the school and make a fuss if I have no reason to. It�s very difficult as a parent who has no experience in these tests to determine whether they've been given or handled accurately and whether my son�s best interests have been adequately represented.
My wife and I were never informed that this meeting was taking place nor were we invited to it.
The documents are located at: Http://www.mrmrepair.com/test/
-Michael
Hello everyone this is my first time posting, but hopefully not my last. I'm writing today in respect to my son who is six years old and attends public school in the state of Florida. He was tested for being gifted in October 2007. We were notified that he was administered the Kaufman Brief Intelligence test, second edition. He obtained the following scores 123 verbal, 133 nonverbal and an overall IQ composite score of 132.
In June of 2008, He was administered, the differential ability scales (DAS-II) a second edition test in order to get an estimate of his overall cognitive ability. On that test, he performed very well in certain areas. He performed very high in the verbal ability cluster having a standard score of 133 in the 99th percentile. In the spatial ability cluster, He measured a standard score of 124 in the 95th percentile and on the nonverbal reasoning test; he received a slightly lower score of 107 in the 68th percentile.
Upon summary of those two evaluations, the school psychologist at that time found that my son's general conceptual ability is in the high range of cognitive functioning. He also goes on to state that when the results of this evaluation of been received by the school, a student study team meeting should be held. It should include the child's parents, and the purpose would be to review the results of this evaluation.
While the summer of 2008 came and went our son began first grade, with the promises of enrolling him in a �gifted� program. We then receive a document dated August 28, 2008 attended to by a SECOND psychologist which plainly states the state of Florida requires full-scale IQ of 130 or above to be eligible to participate in the gifted program, and at this time our child does not meet this criteria.
Now we are not supposed to include large or heavy images and documents in these posts. So what I've done is I've built a webpage to show these documents I hope you don't mind, but I've blocked out a bit of a personal information simply because it's the web. What I really need or what would really help us would be someone who has experience in these matters taking a look at these documents perhaps and helping to determine if I have cause to go against this.
My issues stand as this. Why were two psychologists needed to examine the same test? His current enrichment teacher from last year is on our side fighting that he should be in as much enrichment as they can provide for him. The signatures at the bottom of the minutes from the meeting include the school guidance counselor (that he has never met). His first grade teacher whom he's only known for five plus days and his enrichment teacher as well as the new school psychologist (#2)(that has also never met my son), and staffing resource specialist, whatever that means.
The budgets in our local schools were cut last year to the point of having to fire several teachers over the summer. I seriously hope that this has not affected the enrichment or the availability of enrichment for my child. And I hate to think that these tests may be altered or that a second psychologist was brought in for what I could only figure to be a second opinion.
Like I said we could use as much help as possible from people who have more experience in this field than we do and don't want to go to the school and make a fuss if I have no reason to. It�s very difficult as a parent who has no experience in these tests to determine whether they've been given or handled accurately and whether my son�s best interests have been adequately represented.
My wife and I were never informed that this meeting was taking place nor were we invited to it.
The documents are located at: Http://www.mrmrepair.com/test/
-Michael