Is the WISC worth it for an appeal?

[Anonymous]

It's a lot of money. With the current de-emphasis of test scores, would this really make a difference in an appeal or is it better to focus on compiling better work samples, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a lot of money. With the current de-emphasis of test scores, would this really make a difference in an appeal or is it better to focus on compiling better work samples, etc.?

Just my opinion, but I think a WISC would only make a difference if your child's CogAT results seemed inaccurate for your child, or you suspect that your child has an undiagnosed LD that the WISC might help identify. Like, some kids who are great with verbal skills do poorly on the CogAT verbal because they're confused by the pictures. In that case, the WISC VCI might be a lot higher than the CogAT verbal. Some kids with ADHD tune out during the CogAT, but stay more focused in one-on-one testing. They also may be given a GAI score that excludes a couple sections on which ADHD kids tend to underperform.

If your kid had a high CogAT, then scores weren't the thing that kept your kid out of AAP. The WISC would be useless. If your kid got a lower CogAT than you wanted, but nothing seemed off, it's likely that the WISC score would be pretty similar to the CogAT one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a lot of money. With the current de-emphasis of test scores, would this really make a difference in an appeal or is it better to focus on compiling better work samples, etc.?

Just my opinion, but I think a WISC would only make a difference if your child's CogAT results seemed inaccurate for your child, or you suspect that your child has an undiagnosed LD that the WISC might help identify. Like, some kids who are great with verbal skills do poorly on the CogAT verbal because they're confused by the pictures. In that case, the WISC VCI might be a lot higher than the CogAT verbal. Some kids with ADHD tune out during the CogAT, but stay more focused in one-on-one testing. They also may be given a GAI score that excludes a couple sections on which ADHD kids tend to underperform.

If your kid had a high CogAT, then scores weren't the thing that kept your kid out of AAP. The WISC would be useless. If your kid got a lower CogAT than you wanted, but nothing seemed off, it's likely that the WISC score would be pretty similar to the CogAT one.

+1. My kid is a verbal kid and the cogat claimed his best subject was math (quant). For a bit I thought there was some mixup. I took him in for a wisc and they found his verbal 30 pts higher than the cogat (146 vs 115), which brought up the composite score quite a bit as well (136 vs 119). Quant and non verbal sectons were almost identical, fwiw. He did get in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

Similar to above. My child had 140 Q and 119 V on CogAt. Did the Wisc and had verbal as the highest at 145, got in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks. I can't be sure whether DC's CogAT is a fair assessment of DC's ability. But I am now quite curious. Might just go ahead and hope for the best.