Another day, another test

AJ came home this week with scores from the NWEA MAP testing that all kids third grade and up take in the fall and spring. The MAP is a self-leveling achievement test. The students take the test on a computer and the computer adjusts the questions based on the students answers. As more and more answers are correct, the questions get harder. The tests are used for K-12, so there are a lot of levels. This is the first time AJ has had a chance to take what I'm learning is called an "off level" test, meaning there is less of a problem with hitting the test ceiling, as he did with the WISC-IV. The MAP, however, is a very different kind of test

AJ felt like the reading part of the test was hard, mainly because a lot of the questions dealt with vocabulary, which he either knew or didn't. The math he thought wasn't hard at all. On both parts of the test, he scored in the normal range for an 8th or 9th grader, or at least that's what the charts tell me. This seems wildly high to me, but when I looked at the breakdown of what subjects are covered, they seem like things he probably knows how to do. Am I overestimating what kids know? I'm not sure. I'm also not sure this really means that AJ is performing 5 or 6 grades ahead of his level. But maybe he could be. I'm not really sure.

AJ also came home last week with a brochure from the gifted coordinator about Northwestern University's Midwest Talent Search -- an opportunity for a true off-level test. For AJ's grade level, the youngest eligible grade, that means the EXPLORE test developed by ACT (for older kids, it means the SAT or ACT), which is designed to be administered to eighth graders and used as a high school entrance exam. AJ is really interested in taking it so, as he put it, "I can see what I"m up against," but I'm not so sure what the point is. There's been a lot of testing around here in the last five months. He doesn't need the scores for anything. He qualifies for every program he might need to qualify for with the scores he already has. But if he really wants to do it, should I let him?

This brings me back to my ambivalence about testing in general. I hate that I had to cave to it last year, because I feel like his test scores shouldn't matter if he's demonstrating in class that he needs extra material. But the system is so score reliant. I've been good at getting around a lot of things in the public school system, but not the reverence for test scores.

But even feeling as I do about testing, I can see how it's useful. I'm a teacher myself, and although I don't use standardized tests with my college students, I know how important some kind of systematic evaluation can be. But at what point do you cross the line into lab rat status? And does it make a difference that AJ himself is initiating this? I don't want him obsessing about scores. Am I crazy to worry about this stuff so much?

Game Set Match

"To the Parents of AJ Spy:

Your child, AJ, meets the requirements ot participate in the XXXXX School District Gifted Education/Academically Talented Program in the areas of:

x Language Arts x Mathematics

Identification for the Gifted/Talented program is based on school ability and achievement test information as well as teacher recommendation derived from a checklist of gifted characteristics.

Students identified for this program are placed in a heterogeneous classroom. The classroom teachers work with the Gifted Resource Teacher to support students through the use of enrichment activities, increasing the level of expectations, and requiring the use of higher level thinking skills.

Students identified in math will be placed into an accelerated class beginning in fifth grade. A new identification process will determine gifted placement in seventh and eight grades.

For students identified in Third and Fourth Grades:

The Gifted Resource Teacher will collaborate with your child's classroom teacher to provide alternative curriculum or enrichments according to student or curricular need. In the area of math, this may mean pre-testing, contracts, more complex problem-solving or enrichment packets. Students might read and study alternative, though related, novels or enrichment activities, if identified in language arts. The Gifted Resource Teacher may introduce new concepts to students as scheduling permits. Attempts will be made to schedule Junior Great Books or other intensive studies on a semi-regular basis."

So I guess being a persistent pain in the ass pays off (although I'm underwhelmed by "Attempts will be made...") There is a family orientation in September (a month after school starts). I am so relieved about this.

Scores are in

We got the full results of AJ's WISC testing today. He hit the ceiling. Take that, stupid school gifted program policy that ignores the obvious! Ahem. Please excuse me if I'm feeling a little childish about this. It's been a long haul and I've mostly been very polite.

Also, AJ reports that during his ITBS testing with the gifted teacher yesterday that she remarked, "Wow, you have a very large vocabulary." Well, duh!

I promise I will stop sticking out my tongue at everyone by the next post.

Rules and regulations

AJ's taking the first part of the ITBS tomorrow. Because of the problems he had on his last standardized test, the OLSAT, we printed out a practice test from the internet. My intent had been to just talk through it with him to make sure he understood the questions, but he loves tests and sprinted on through it. The only two questions he missed were both errors from excessive speed. So we came up with three rules to help him tomorrow.

1. Read the directions carefully
2. Take your time
3. Check the question number and make sure it matches the answer sheet number every time you color a circle.

He's looking forward to it. I'll be glad when all of this stuff is over.

Waiting some more

First of all, I would like to apologize for the ads that are appearing on this site. I'm not sure how they got there or how to move or eliminate them. Until I have time to figure it out, you'll have to put up with them. On the plus side, they earned 6 whole cents last night. Just doing my part for the economy.

A couple of more things have happened on the testing front. We have an appointment with the school principal, but not until Friday. I don't want to talk to anyone at the district level before I talk to him, so having to wait a few days will slow us down, but hopefully not too much. I think maintaining the goodwill of the school is too important to mess around with, so we're back in waiting mode. I've also contacted a psychologist about testing. Depending on the cost of the tests, we may just go ahead and do it. Or we may wait and see what we can accomplish with the school. Either way, though, I'm going to talk to the district about waiving the minimum scores. I feel that the weighting of the test as compared to other methods of evaluation is problematic and it doesn't do what the state statutes aim to set up, which is to give students with test-taking disadvantages (the state is particularly concerned with disadvantages caused by language barriers and socio-economic class, which often fall along racial lines) an alternate route in. It would appear that the weighting will probably maintain the status quo -- a gifted program full of wealthy white kids (While we're not wealthy, we're not impoverished either. Despite my own opinions about my personal finances, I count us in that category. We have the know-how and means to find private testing. Not everyone does).

We did talk to AJ about the situation last night. He brought it up. He knew we'd met with the gifted teacher. He also knew something we didn't -- his friend got an envelope from the gifted teacher in class yesterday and he didn't. AJ, probably rightly, assumed that it was about getting into the gifted program and he wanted to know why he didn't get one. So we told him the whole story. We emphasized that the test was not a good test for him, that it wasn't a problem with the way he took it, but with the test itself and the way the school made decisions about it and we assured him that we and his teachers were doing our best to make sure he got into the program. But he still felt bad, like he did something wrong. "Why was it so easy for him?" he asked about his friend at bedtime last night. "Why did he get in just like that and it's so hard for me?" It was a sensible question. AJ often works with his friend, but AJ is working at a level above him in both math and reading. We talked about how people's brains work differently. How comparing yourself to others doesn't really work that well. AJ's friend is quiet, a good listener, and a follower of instructions. AJ is loud, easily distracted, and a questioner of everything. They both belong in the program, but they are not going to get there by the same road.

But I am worried about the toll this may be taking on AJ. He has always been called "the smart kid." And no matter what we say, he's not feeling like the smart kid right now. He is a kid who needs a lot of outside validation. He is suspicious of reassurance. He thinks it means we're hiding something. Before we keep going, I want to make sure he's up for it. He says he is, but I'm not sure if he's thought about his options. And I need to figure out how to help him trust himself to give himself his own feedback. He's been going through a very difficult time lately -- getting argumentative at home and disobedient at school. I want him to be confident and challenged, to know his abilities even if others deny them. If I had the formula for that, I'd be a wealthy woman.

Mixed Results

So. The meeting. It was about what I expected. Maybe even a little better, although not as good as I'd hoped. Here's the rundown.

The Bad:

We got a lot of information, but unfortunately, we were not able to get much of a breakdown of AJ's scores -- just a verbal and a math. No explanation. AJ really did not do well on the OLSAT. Or at least that's how it looked to me, although the gifted teacher said that for most kids, these would be really good scores. They're just not good enough for these purposes. And here's the weird part. The thing he really didn't do well on was the verbal section. In every other test he's taken, including the previous aptitude testing, his verbal scores were off the charts high -- 99.98-100th percentile on everything. That I was not expecting, and it speaks even more to the fact that this was a bad test-taking experience. I don't trust the scores at all.

Unfortunately, the school district thinks highly enough of the test that the scores on the OLSAT count twice as much as teacher recommendations and work portfolio (the other components of the "matrix" used to determine admission candidacy) combined. AJ missed the cutoff for the program by one point in both math and language and it's solely based on the OLSAT. Even if he has the maximum scores in all other areas (which have not yet been determined), which seems likely, he will not meet the qualifying numbers. So while the school district is following the letter of Illinois law, which states that gifted programs must use at least three different methods of evaluating each child for the program, the weighting of the test means they are not following the spirit of the law. There is no way to counteract a bad test.


The good:

The gifted teacher is on our side. She is not a fan of the OLSAT for this purpose, she thinks AJ belongs in the program, and she wants to help us.

Next year, he will take the COGAT, which is a much more in-depth and reliable test. Unfortunately, that will not happen until spring. A lot of kids in the past have not qualified via the OLSAT but have qualified on the COGAT (shouldn't that be telling the district something about the testing cocktail?), so AJ would definitely not be alone.

The school district can't retest (there is a narrow window for administration of the OLSAT), but they will accept Stanford-Binet or WISC scores from private testing in place of the OLSAT.

Time is not a big factor. All AJ's teachers and the gifted teacher think this is a glitch and that he belongs in the gifted cluster. The teachers have a lot of say in the classroom organization so we have all but a guarantee that he will be in the right class. Even if we are unable to get done what we need to until the next school year starts, they can add him to the program as soon as the paperwork comes through.

The plan:

However, if we don't deal with either the district policy or the testing, he won't get the pullout program, which is an hour a week each for reading and math and supplements the regular curriculum. The gifted teacher can't fight the test scores. The best she can do is make sure he maxes out every other category, but because of the way the test is weighted, it's not enough to reach the cutoff because of the weighting of the test scores. I can see why AJ's teacher said she'd never known a kid who didn't meet the minimum OLSAT requirements get into the program. It's not mathematically possible.

So we're going to pursue this on two fronts. I will talk first to the school principal (who is probably not going to be able to help, but who needs not to be leapt over) and then to the district director of curriculum about waiving the cutoff, hopefully tomorrow. Since AJ's only down by one point and we have a lot of other evidence, that might work. However, the gifted teacher, after looking up the aptitude test that AJ took last year, which she had not previously heard of (Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test or KBIT-II, done in conjunction with KTEA-II) didn't think it was comprehensive enough to replace the OLSAT scores, so if they're not willing to waive the rules, the only way we can get him into the program is if he has qualifying scores from another test. This means time and expense on our part, but it's worth it if we have to. So I will also be making an appointment for AJ with a psychologist Siren recommended for additional testing.

We still haven't talked to AJ about this. We're going to have to eventually, I think. But it doesn't seem the right time.

The Question:

So if AJ's kindergarten, first and second grad teachers all recommend him without reservation for the program, as does the gifted teacher -- the people who actually work with him regularly -- why can't the school district make an exception?

Because they're still bureaucrats at heart, I guess. More fun and games ahead.

I am feeling a little more rational about everything today (or perhaps I have just temporarily channeled my irrationality towards the government for making the annual filing of taxes so arduous and incomprehensible). Those of you who have commented and emailed have all helped immensely. This post will address your comments and finish with a plan of action.

My Kids Mom asked about the possibility of the school retesting. I'm not yet sure what the answer to that is. The classroom teacher says that they will retest. She thought they'd retest before the next official spring testing period, but she wasn't sure. She was, however, reasonably sure that they would not retest before the start of the next school year, which, in my opinion, is too late. I'm also skeptical of retaking a test that didn't work the first time. But in that regard, we'll do what we have to.

Jill and Eleanor, I agree that some gifted programs are largely a waste of time. However, so is the regular curriculum a waste of time for AJ. Some gifted programs are better than others and I'm not at all sure that a pull out program is the best way to go. However, in my own personal experience, pull out programs -- even bad ones -- kept me from total school shutdown on more than one occasion. I wouldn't have survived the second grade without one. AJ has been getting a great deal of curriculum intervention in the classroom for the last three years. That may not continue at the same level once he hits third grade and there is a policy for gifted students that doesn't accommodate him. That would be deadly for AJ, who is already struggling with boredom-related behavior issues. Moreover, while the school should be looking for ways to include AJ, there are a couple of reasons why they might not be. The first is practical -- it is an underfunded, overcrowded school in a semi-rural, largely blue collar area with a huge ESL population. They are looking for ways to cut down on programs, not expand them. The second is that I think AJ doesn't fit their idea of a gifted kid. As Siren said, his brain is wired differently. He doesn't necessarily do better at classroom work than his peers. It depends on what it is and whether he thinks it's important. And like many very gifted kids, he is a pattern seeker and often sees options others don't. This means he doesn't perform as well on multiple choice tests as you might expect. He doesn't know how to sift through the many options that sound correct to him and figure out what the test is likely to be looking for.

If he's not a good fit with their idea of gifted, does it matter if he isn't in the program? Maybe it's for the best. But there are several reasons why I think it is still important that he be included in the school's gifted program.

1. As Jeanne mentioned, identification is important. It sticks with a kid through school. He can get into the program later, but it would be better and easier for him to get in sooner and stay there. Regardless of the nature of the program, identification keeps doors open for him.

2. Self-esteem. Readersguide put this well in her comments. He is used to thinking of himself as gifted, as "the smart kid." And while he is very ambivalent about the label, there is no question that being in the gifted cluster class without being in the gifted program would negatively affect his self-esteem.

3. Peer contact. The gifted pull-out sessions is the only time AJ would be able to be in a group with other gifted kids. It's something he looks for and doesn't get nearly often enough. When we were on vacation and met a friend's daughter, he asked later, "Is she gifted? Because she seems like she would be gifted." And I had to agree. As Siren put it on the phone yesterday, "smart people can smell other smart people. (Or, as her son, listening in, put it, "Scientists can smell other scientists -- because scientists are smart people.").

4. We can't afford private school and Mr. Spy has made me promise not to homeschool.

5. It's where he should be.

Lass, regarding yoru mom, I think I'll hold off on that until after Monday's meeting. I want more information. But if she has any general advice for this situation, I'd love to hear it. And thanks for offering.

Jeanne, I will definitely talk to his teacher further. I would also like to talk to his first grade teacher, although I want to tread carefully so that I don't upset a balance of power. I was pleased to see that in her reply to my request for a meeting, the gifted teacher had cced AJ's classroom teacher and the school principal. This really needs to be bigger than me one-on-one with the gifted teacher.

Freshhell -- I think (hope) you're right about AJ doing okay either way. The ADA part I know about at least. I filed the special services request form for AJ last year and I'll do it again for next year. If nothing else, it provides some continuity in paperwork.

Siren, I've been on the fence about being direct about AJ's giftedness with him. I think we mostly have been direct. But I'm so uncomfortable with the label, that I tend to balk at it. We have not talked to AJ about the test scores. I don't plan to talk about them with him before Monday. I want to find out what it's going to mean for him before we have that discussion and I don't want him to be feeling discouraged. He is exceptionally hard on himself in such situations and he has been going through a difficult time lately where he is constantly feeling like he's not good enough at, well, just about everything. I don't want him to think I care too much about the test scores too much, because I really don't. What I care about is that they might not reflect who he really is and what he can really do.

And so, the plan. I am assuming the test scores are a huge problem, because that is what this short conversation with AJ's classroom teacher has led me to believe. But I don't really have all the information. I will on Monday. So part one of the plan is to get as much information as possible. That means talking to everybody I can talk to and finding out what the options are. It means putting together a portfolio for AJ for our Monday meeting. And it means giving some thought about what we will do if the school tries to shut us out.

The next part of the plan is wait and see. Wait and see what comes out of the meeting. Then we'll be able to evaluate any necessary course of action.