What SAT score is indicitive of a gifted middle school child?

[Tammi K]

Title says it all.

 

It's been suggested that ds take the SAT at the end of the year to determine eligibility for some gifted programs. 

 

However, this isn't a concrete 'Take this test and see if he qualifies' type of thing - but more of a 'Programs use the SAT to identify gifted middle schoolers, so why not take it.'  What I can't seem to find is what scores are generally consider to indicate a gifted student.

 

Can anyone point me in a direction?

[quark]

I personally hesitate to use SAT scores to indicate giftedness but I also understand the need to find a ballpark gifted score.

 

The Davidson Young Scholar program (for the profoundly gifted) uses the following cut offs:

http://www.davidsongifted.org/youngscholars/Article/Davidson_Young_Scholars___Qualification_Criteria_384.aspx (scroll down to talent search scores)

 

Here are some qualifying middle school scores for JHU's CTY program:

http://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/apply/eligibility.html#Grade_7_and_above

[allyphoe]

Eligibility to participate in talent search is usually based on some sort of gifted identification, although most programs also accept high achievement in on-level testing and/or parent identification. What criteria schools use to suggest that kids participate isn't clear to me - my DD said that there were only a handful of kids invited, but at least 30 kids were gifted-identified by the last year of elementary. In any case, the SAT isn't an IQ test, and is less of an IQ test than it was 20 years ago, so there's no SAT score that would indicate high IQ, any more than there's any mass-measuring scale that will tell you whether your kid is tall.

 

The talent search isn't looking for gifted kids so much as a subset of high achieving kids, and the cutoffs they use vary from program to program. Duke TIP is the talent search that covers the area I live in, and you get state recognition for a section score above 500ish, and national recognition for a section score above 650ish. There are two summer camp options, one with a cutoff of 500 and one with a cutoff of 570.

 

If your kid likes testing and is unlikely to be bothered by a very hard test, there's certainly no harm in it. But maybe no benefit, unless your child is interested in one of the programs. My DD was interested enough to want to keep her options open.

 

The SAT will change in 2016, so middle school testing using the current test is unlikely to provide significant practice benefit. Because of that and the guessing penalty, my DD took the ACT for talent search.

[regentrude]

. If your kid likes testing and is unlikely to be bothered by a very hard test, there's certainly no harm in it. But maybe no benefit, unless your child is interested in one of the programs. 

 

The bolded is not necessarily true.

A good middle school SAT score can be beneficial to negotiate early dual enrollment in college courses.

[In The Great White North]

Middle school SAT scores drop automatically from their record, so if they have never taken a standardized test before, 8th grade is a "safe" year to take it.  There are still some schools that want to see all SAT scores (as opposed to score choice) but only high school scores are maintained and sent by the College Board.

 

If they do really well, you can request the College Board to save the score but you have to ask right away - I think it was by June of the year they take it.

[allyphoe]

Yes, if you have a middle schooler who needs dual enrollment, testing is likely to need to be part of that process. In my state, the cutoff for early dual enrollment is set by law for public schools, but private schools can obviously make their own rules. In my area, none of them care about middle school scores per se, so a kid who barely meets the cutoff as a 10th grader would be accepted, but a kid who missed by 10 points as a 7th grader would not be accepted the following year without a higher score, negotiations or no.

[mathwonk]

I was puzzled that some of those Davidson verbal cutoff scores are higher than I would have thought realistic, based on my experience taking the SAT in about 1959, and my kids taking it in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  Then I read this, which says the verbal scores were raised by 70-80 points in April 1995:

 

http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124397818883378713?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB124397818883378713.html

 

So bear that in mind if comparing with scores obtained 20+ years ago.  I also see now that Davidson program is for profoundly gifted.  So it all depends on your definition of gifted.  Having taught college for years to students who thought they were doing well with math SAT scores around 500, I think any middle schoolchild with scores over 500 or especially 600 is pretty special.

 

Still thinking of the SAT test from 20+ years back, I seem to recall they removed the one section that was most sensitive to measuring what to me is a key indicator of "intelligence", namely the analogies questions.  Those were the questions that actually required thinking and reasoning.

 

 

I don't know if the SAT measures giftedness or intelligence, but it does measure preparedness.  To avoid discouraging a kid, I would suggest purchasing an actual book of old SAT tests and taking them before the real thing.  In my day, there was very little in the way of formal preparation, but I think those of us who were on the math team for instance, and who thus spent a lot of time taking similar tests had a huge advantage.  

 

But in any case there is now no need, and I think little reason, to take it without knowing in advance roughly how you will score.  I.e. taking the test is not a lark, but a number with consequences, so it benefits one to try to control that number.

 

 

Somewhat related if peripheral, is there real money available for high scoring kids today?   In the 1960's the merit scholarship was based on SAT scores and paid very generous college stipends, more than 100% of Harvard tuition for example.  Maybe we could advocate for wealthy companies to resuscitate these scholarship programs.