Need advice on ACPS TAG referral result

[Anonymous]

We did a self-referral for our kindergartener who has demonstrated some early signs of possible giftedness. We've never had her tested before and figured it would be good to know where she stands.

Mostly, we want to be sure her academic needs are being met. She is a very bright, verbal and curious child, reading well above grade level and showing some real artistic abilities as well. Seems to be grasping some more advanced math concepts too.

I haven't done a lot of research about the TAG program, but the assistant principal of the school just called me to discuss her results. Our daughter scored 97 percentile on the NAGLIERI and also in a very high category in some other test related to transfer tasks (sorry, my working knowledge of these tests is rather minimal!). To qualify for TAG in ACPS, you need to score in the "superior" range for 3 of 4 categories. She got superior for these two tests and then "highly proficient" for the two categories that are based on her teacher's evaluations (looks at more subjective areas like creativitiy, ability, motivation). Thus, she is not eligible for TAG.

The weird thing is that the teacher mentioned ourTAG referral at our last conference and it was almost as though she didn't believe in the TAG program and brushed it off as not being necessary in kindergarten. Maybe she is right and K is too early for this type of thing. Either way, I thought it was kind of interesting how the results came out.

Anyway, I understand there is an appeal process. Curious if others with more experience in these issues have opinions based on the information above. I kind of feel like it seems a bit odd that she would score so high on the two tests and then not score in that range on the other assessments. I know a lot of this is subject and there is no perfect system for assessing this type of thing. I also realize it's just kindergarten and she will probably be fine without TAG this year and I know they will reevaluate her next year.

If this were your child, what would you do at this point?

[Anonymous]

I'd do a more comprehensive evaluation and appeal.

97th percentile score on NNAT alone is probably a pretty good indicator of giftedness.

[Anonymous]

Agree with 8:15. Perhaps do more evaluation with an outside professional and submit the results with your appeal. If your daughter is gifted another test like the WPSSI will show it.

You could also consider moving to FCPS or private education.