Why should I feel guilty that I prepped my kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know this focus on "natural ability" is so weird. How can you really even define it? We know that we are such a complex combination of our genetics and our envioronment.

Say you have a kid that scores a 135 on the cogat without any prepping. He is born into a stable family that emphasizes school success and has provided an enriched environment during his infancy, toddlerhood, preschool and early grade school years.

Let us now take the same kid but change the circumstances. Let us keep his genetics and upbringing constant but say that his dad gave him a workbook with sample cogat questions a week or two before the test to familiarize him with the type of questions, and the kid gets a 140.

Now take the same kid but change his life history. Suppose his family fell on hard times after his birth and he grew up in a higher stress environment. Family was too stressed to do "enrichment" stuff and school and learning are pretty low on his list of priorities. He takes the cogat and scores a 120.

What is this child's "natural ability" score? Should the first kid be defined as "gifted" but the second have an asterisk next to his gifted designation? Should the third child automatically be disqualified from the program even if the classroom teacher can see his potental?

I really do like Ffx county 's whole child evaluation methodology because intelligence is not a simple number and assessing it isn't easy.

very intelligent post - there are very few controlled studies on twins who have same genetics and are matched or crossed-over to tease out upbringing or environmental factors - the idea that environment doesnt affect MEASURED aptitude is a mirage --> hence effectiveness of prep

BUT then the you are choosing "prep" as the main environmental driver od success - so you and your children have to be happy/comfortable with this strategy throughout assuming aap doesnt provide all the needed environmental backup itself once you are in the program - so that's where the "culture" issue plays a factor - you need to feel it is natural to "keep doing prep" as a strategy - many cultures are totally fine with approach while other families would feel this is "faking it" throughout their education ' there is no right/wrong here

+1. The issue of cultural and environmental bias/testing is really fascinating (in my opinion). Especially when it comes to reasoning and logic.

I have never administered the COGAT, but my first grader and I love doing logic/puzzle type exercises together, and we can often find more than one possible correct answer to different problems OR encounter problems where she cannot answer because the book I have was written many years ago and assumes background knowledge about things like record players. To me, a true identifier of intellect is not "Being Able to Identify the Answer the Test Creator Was Thinking of" (which can be taught and which is a skill I possess) but "Being Able to Explain Clearly and Reasonably Why the Answer You Chose Makes Sense"-- if YOU can see a potential solution that the test maker missed, and why it is reasonable, doesn't that put you ahead of the test creator? Or, if you've never encountered records and cassette tapes (for instance), and thus cannot see the logic of what belongs in that particular group, does that make you less able to reason and think flexibly?

I assume the COGAT does not have lines on the test to explain your answer and make your case, or a little button like I have on DuoLingo to report potential flaws on the test, but I think seeing the most logical answer according to the minds of the adults who devised the test is a poor way of assessing cognitive abilities. However, it may be a very, very good way of assessing school performance as long as school performance is being able to see the "right answer according to the teacher" and respond with it.