Reply to 2014 AAP Appeal/WISC Scores

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Reply to "2014 AAP Appeal/WISC Scores"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not going to post WISC scores because I'm surely going to get flamed. Lowest I've seen so far. 
My kid's FSIQ got pulled down 15 points by low processing speed and there are a lot of DCUMers who have said that Fairfax county doesn't count GAI. 
So instead of identifying my kid by his WISC FSIQ, I do want to say that the FSIQ is still just one data point. 
Besides, there is no published FSIQ cut off. There are cut offs for the NNAT and the CoGAT but DCUM was the one who determined the cut off for the WISC.

Here are other data points: 
CoGAT and NNAT- below benchmark and the reason that we decided not to refer in 2nd grade. We loved our base school and was happy to stay there after having our first kid go through gen ed. 
Grades- the standard 3s and 4s. Nothing impressive but good. Oddly enough, very similar grades to his best buddy who failed 2 SOLs. 
SOLs- All pass advanced. One perfect score. Rest were near perfect. 
Teacher support- teacher was non-committal so we figured she wasn't going to support him. Also said that he wasn't a great math student. 
AART support- was not warm and fuzzy so we didn't count on that either. 
GBRS- 10. Seeing the lack of support from teacher and AART, we can see why this was the score he got. Yes we were initially disappointed but after talking with our kid, we understand why he got those ratings. He agreed with 2 of the 4 ratings. 
Work samples- the school's work samples were not good. We did submit work samples from home.

WOW, great story.

Data from the kid:
Motivation- Was not satisfied with school at all and said it was too easy. Didn't want to do homework. Or just did them then didn't turn them in. Said he was bored (I just heard DCUM gasp). 
Personality- once he is given a challenge, he totally excels and motivation goes way up. Told us he loves math and that he's good at it.

I can already feel all the eyes rolling.

We told this kid to behave himself in class, suck it up and do his homework and to keep himself busy so he doesn't get bored. 
He's such a know it all on top of all that. I'm sure he's really irritating in the classroom. Behavior problems, right? When he said he hated school, that's when we knew we had to figure out what was going on.  He is the sweetest, most easy-going kid and his school behavior was so different from how we was in his other activities.

Other data we collected: 
1) Achievement Tests- as administered by a psychologist. Showed he is functioning 2 and 3 grades above his current level in Math and Reading. 
2) Above Grade Level tests- Kid took the the SCAT and as a 3rd grader, ranked in the 99th percentile of 5th graders in Math and Verbal Reasoning. The test required for him to answer 55 questions in 22 minutes on a computer. He finished the computerized tests with lots of time to spare but yet scored really low on processing speed on the paper and pencil WISC. The WISC tester did say that he didn't position his pencil correctly, but still, the result was a not impressive FSIQ.
3) Independent math assessment from a private company- it was actually our older kid's (who struggle's in math) tutor who clued us in to this kid's talents. They gave him a 4th grade math assessment at the beginning on 3rd grade and he passed it with a grade of an advanced 4th grader. This private company has AAP kids in there and the teacher has told us that while the AAP kids are book smart, our kid excels at reasoning and application.

While we don't know if this kid will "water down" your AAP classroom, we know for sure that he's bored in general ed because he's way too advanced for it and Level 3 is such a joke. 
So knowing that there's data that shows his ability, why would we not advocate for this kid? We did look into private schools but do not want to spend that 30K a year. If AAP doesn't work, then we'll look into it again. But for now, we are pleased that the committee did take a holistic approach in accepting his appeal.  I personally know someone whose kid got in the first round with below benchmark CoGAT and NNAT. We provided a lot of data, did our due diligence, and got to know our kid very well through this whole process. I'm pretty sure he won't have trouble keeping up with the 140+ FSIQs.

IQ is a potential- it's kind of like your income potential. Doesn't mean that you'll be making that money at some point in the future. 
Achievement scores? Your paycheck shows you are making that money. 
Ability scores? Who knows what the ceiling can be? Wow, you are able to make even more money and yeah, keep your skills up to stay ahead and so you can make more money.

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