GT Letters came home today

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got a letter and my child was not identified gifted. Which is fine, I'm not concerned. What concerns me is the disparity in the testing, he scored a 90% in onw test and a 20% in one test. I tried to google and couldn't find ANYTHING about the testing. I was told the test was given all in one day which could allow for this kind of disparity, but still, that is a HUGE range.

As I recall, my child had some disparate scores (though not that disparate) and was recommended for rescreening in third grade. And was admitted to an HGC for fourth grade.

I agree that the actual effect of the GT classification seems to be zero, or close to it.

[Anonymous]

We got ours and scores were interesting but confusing. My DD had 60%tile on quantitative reasoning but over the 90%tile in everything else. I find this interesting because according to the neuropsych that was done when she was having significant difficulty in receptive and expression language, quantitative reasoning was her strength with verbal reasoning being quite low. oh well. It really doesn't mean much anyways. Just not sure how much faith I have in the screening.

[Anonymous]

Nothing here yet, Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing here yet, Anyone else?

Nor here.

[Anonymous]

I have heard that some schools send it home on the last day of school.

[Anonymous]

Last year we got the letter in the mail after school let out for the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got a letter and my child was not identified gifted. Which is fine, I'm not concerned. What concerns me is the disparity in the testing, he scored a 90% in onw test and a 20% in one test. I tried to google and couldn't find ANYTHING about the testing. I was told the test was given all in one day which could allow for this kind of disparity, but still, that is a HUGE range.

FWIW, this kind of disparity would be a major red flag for me -- I would want to check why and see if there are any other indications that there might be an LD or ADD involved.

Write a letter to the principal. Tell the principal that you are requesting to see a copy of your child's answers and the test and that you have a right to do so under FERPA. You may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The school will tell you no, but persist -- it is your right. I would look at the test and see what answers my child got wrong. Is there a pattern? Certain types of questions? Maybe they didn't understand what to do? Did most of the answers come at the end of a section, then maybe attention is playing a role. Ask questions about how/when the test was administered -- time of day, all sections in one sitting, were directions self-read or read aloud by proctor, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got a letter and my child was not identified gifted. Which is fine, I'm not concerned. What concerns me is the disparity in the testing, he scored a 90% in onw test and a 20% in one test. I tried to google and couldn't find ANYTHING about the testing. I was told the test was given all in one day which could allow for this kind of disparity, but still, that is a HUGE range.

FWIW, this kind of disparity would be a major red flag for me -- I would want to check why and see if there are any other indications that there might be an LD or ADD involved.

Write a letter to the principal. Tell the principal that you are requesting to see a copy of your child's answers and the test and that you have a right to do so under FERPA. You may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The school will tell you no, but persist -- it is your right. I would look at the test and see what answers my child got wrong. Is there a pattern? Certain types of questions? Maybe they didn't understand what to do? Did most of the answers come at the end of a section, then maybe attention is playing a role. Ask questions about how/when the test was administered -- time of day, all sections in one sitting, were directions self-read or read aloud by proctor, etc.

good lord. My DD had similar disparities. She scored very highly on one or two of reading tests, but then was in the 30s and 40s for the quantitative reasoning. I have absolutely no concern that she has an LD or is ADD. She just doesn't like math so I'm sure she panicked a bit and maybe zoned out. I don't know. I think these tests are somewhat useless and since I assumed she wasn't going to get the GT label, I wasn't all that upset when I was proved right. She's a great kid who loves to learn, and tests don't really capture that. It is frustrating, however, how the letter is worded in ridiculous, garbled jargon, which makes it basically impossible to interpret the results. The only thing I got out of that letter was that my 2nd grade DD is reading at an end-of3rd-grade level and that she's at her appropriate grade level for math. Blah blah blah blah.

[Anonymous]

My DS got labeled as Gifted as he got awesome percentile in all five areas: 99,99,95,91,91. So, there are no disparity in the score and this test is not useless. I am happy he would not go through the basic instructions in Grade 3 that will save his lots of time in learning more advanced stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS got labeled as Gifted as he got awesome percentile in all five areas: 99,99,95,91,91. So, there are no disparity in the score and this test is not useless. I am happy he would not go through the basic instructions in Grade 3 that will save his lots of time in learning more advanced stuff.

What do you mean? The test does not mean that your child will not be in an accellerated curiculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS got labeled as Gifted as he got awesome percentile in all five areas: 99,99,95,91,91. So, there are no disparity in the score and this test is not useless. I am happy he would not go through the basic instructions in Grade 3 that will save his lots of time in learning more advanced stuff.

What do you mean? The test does not mean that your child will not be in an accellerated curiculum.

The test means he will be doing more challenging work in his classroom as compared to other kid who are not GT labeled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The test means he will be doing more challenging work in his classroom as compared to other kid who are not GT labeled

I'm not sure that's true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The test means he will be doing more challenging work in his classroom as compared to other kid who are not GT labeled

I'm not sure that's true.

I am 100% sure.
Please click below for more info.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The test means he will be doing more challenging work in his classroom as compared to other kid who are not GT labeled

I'm not sure that's true.

I am 100% sure.
Please click below for more info.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/enriched/

You must be new around here. Advanced and enriched instruction can be offered to any child, regardless of GT designation, as long as the child demonstrates an ability to do it (and the school is committed to doing it). My kid has been getting small group reading and math instruction up to her ability level for 3 years, and our gt letters haven't come out yet. If your child hasn't been getting enriched instruction yet, don't expect the gt label to make a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS got labeled as Gifted as he got awesome percentile in all five areas: 99,99,95,91,91. So, there are no disparity in the score and this test is not useless. I am happy he would not go through the basic instructions in Grade 3 that will save his lots of time in learning more advanced stuff.

Well, that was very thorough of you to include his actual percentiles. I bow down.