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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was the poster at 4.01. Thank you all for your responses.
Just answering your questions on this post

[b]Where do you inquire about testing for other than WISC tests? Someone mentioned a Woodcock Johnson test,[/b] 
You can inquire with the testing center at GMU or any private psychologist that does testing.

[b]inquiring about the Lever III services (are these part-time, as in like the same as a 'guest' in the program?) [/b]
The level III services at our school was one hour per week.  We had inquired with the AART about Level III services and it turned out that our kid's teacher from the prior year had already put a referral for him.  As a parent, you can do a referral for Level III services.

[b]Our school has Level IV services and we have a designated AAP Center as well. How to go about inquiring (with the AART or with the Principal directly) either about 'guesting' in the program or part-time services? [/b]  
You can inquire with the AART but if your school does principal placement at your LLIV, I am guessing that the principal makes that decision with the AART's input. 
My kid is in a center and from what I've seen in the data, out of about 380 kids, there were only 3 principal placements who were not in my kid's grade level.

[b]I understand there could be re-testing done for CogAT at the school itself, once in the 3rd-7th grades (so once in those 5 years). Does anyone know when that can be requested or is it school-specific?[/b]
Your school will let you know when they are doing the retesting. It's usually in the Fall. 
Once they give you the date, you can request the retest.

[b]It seems that my best bet is to hope for a high WISC score. I do not want to prep my child as my intention truly is to see how capable he is - the testing needs to be novel to him. I will also want to manage my expectations - a good point from the earlier poster - about WISC. Perhaps my child excels in only 1 area and that is fine and he may get advanced services in that area. If we do not get into AAP, the life will go on and we will make sure our son matures. 
[/b]
Good for you for not prepping your kid. As other posters have commented, you might want to "chill out" a little. I know it's hard and I totally understand. If this is your first child, it's even harder to chill out because you have no point of reference. I do think that 2nd grade is too early to find your kid's strengths and that's why we waited till 3rd grade to refer.

[b]Someone noted offering him extracurricular opportunities - he has done that consistently since K, taking a variety of school enrichment programs. I am told his chess club instructor thinks he reasons and strategizes really well. He is on a swim team and his coach is impressed with his dedication. I assume letters from extracurricular activities like this should be helpful in the appeals package. BUT a lot of discussants also say that this is an ACADEMIC not extracurricular placement and what matters ultimately and above all is STRONG math and STRONG writing/reading. We are strong in math and we read above grade level. How did that translate into GBRS as low as 6 is completely stumping us.[/b]

I think the recommendations from the extracurriculars don't hurt but since they aren't hard, measurable data, I don't think they help that much. 
If your child excels in Math, I'd recommend going to a Kumon, a Mathnasium or other academic center like that and get some kind of evaluation. Is your child ahead? How far ahead? Can he do Math that hasn't been taught at his grade level?  These are good things to know. The WISC will tell you strengths but being able to quantify how advanced your child is is a good data point.

[b]Can someone please post a few examples of what they have done on appeals if their scores were SIMILAR or IDENTICAL to ours? (NNAT 104, CogAT 111, GBRS 6 (he is clearly not the teacher's favorite student); WSIC testing pending).[/b]
I have never posted my kid's scores and I still won't do it here. But we basically had our kid thoroughly tested (and within ethical guidelines)- WISC, Stanford Binet, Woodcock Johnson, and also tested at a Math center.  All these tests corroborated with each other, but not so much with the testing done at school.  He also tested on the SCAT which also had the same results but we didn't include that in his packet.  I'm sure it sounds like overkill but it was so incredibly helpful in understanding his educational needs.

[b]Did they do WISC and other tests and if the latter, where and with what testing and results turnaround? What WSIC score did they get? Were they successful with the appeals process?[/b]
We went to a private psychologist who was also testing our other child for ADHD.  We got the results back within 10 days. Yes we were successful with the appeals. I think the key point is to have the hard data.  We were in the middle of pursuing an IEP for our other kid and it's always like defending your case with proof of everything. Our other kid also took the same tests and other additional ones. It was really expensive but worth it.

[b]I was also shocked at the samples the school selected for the screening file. My child spontaneously produces much better samples at home. I do plan to show strong samples from home but wonder if the central committee will see them as 'controlled' since the will come from home.
[/b]
Yes the work samples that were submitted for our kid were horrible. There was a Math worksheet that he came home with where he had explained fractions really well. His explanation was correct, insightful and showed advanced thinking but the teacher had marked it wrong so we couldn't submit it. We had it verified at the Math center and the director said that he doesn't see kids his age being able to explain a concept like that so well.  We did submit work samples from home.

Thank you all for your input.[/quote][/quote]

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