Help! gifted 11 year old

[freemanfamilyof6]

I have known for many years my 2nd DD is gifted but I haven't quite known how gifted. We decided to do standardized testing this month. ST isn't required in my state. I have had my dd working one grade level above her age since Kinder.

Anyway, her Stanford 10 results are beyond what I anticipated. Can I get some recommendations on how to move forward schooling a gifted child? She's only 11 but tested Beyond high school in more than 1/2 the test. She completed 6th grade work this year (age wise though she is 5th). She's a hard worker and very creative. She's musical and plays both guitar and piano. She's also very athletic and plays soccer 4 days a week.

Where do I start in this process for her?

[Dmmetler]

I'd suggest doing Talent search testing through NUMATS or Belin-Blank next year (Belin-Blank doesn't charge a registration fee, so if you want to do the ACT, that's a good place to go). An out of level test will tell you more, and those two have additional score reports with more information than the SAT or ACT ones. I think it's too late to register for the June date for an under 13.

[Mike in SA]

I think it matters which test.  One thing that is often surprising is how the "grade level equivalents" are calculated.  On most of them, it represents the grade level at which average performance on the exact same test matches your child's (i.e., it's not an above-level test).  It doesn't mean a child is operating way above level, but it does mean that they score way above level.  It's a pretty good evidence that the child is gifted, and likely operates above level.

 

On above-level tests, the student is compared to a different population.  Our favorite (of those) is the Woodcock-Johnson, because it tests through increasing levels until the child misses six straight.  That is compared against a representative sample across many age groups.  The SAT or ACT, as mentioned above, are also good examples of this.

 

The reason it matters is that "beyond high school" on the former means more testing is warranted and recommended.  "Beyond high school" on the latter means the child is already accelerated beyond expectations.

 

Are you comfortable sharing the test used?  If it's something like the WJ, then acceleration only requires brief reviews and shoring up of weaknesses.  It will move quickly.  If it's one of the other tests, and your child is content with her education, then there's no need to do anything other than what you already are - just keep an eye out for boredom and be prepared to change course as appropriate.

 

(edited for typo)

Edited May 11, 2017 by Mike in SA

[SoCal_Bear]

Just to clarify Mike's comment. This is what it means: If your 5th grader scored 10th grade in reading comprehension for example. This only means that your 5th grade student tested like the average 10th grader taking that 5th grade reading comprehension. Does this make sense? While it tells you that your student is performing above grade level expectation, it doesn't tell you more than that. Stanford 10 is a grade level assessment tool.

Woodcock Johnson (for example) tells you a lot more since there are no ceilings on that test. The standard score in particular was very helpful to me to nail down how many SDs (every 15) from average (normed at 100) my son scored. That's when I got much clearer idea of how gifted he is. I think something like that would be a lot more helpful to you. It certainly made me rethink so things I am doing right now.

 

This is Hoagie's list of tests. They mention the 3 most commonly used to assess giftedness. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/tests.htm

 

Edited May 14, 2017 by calbear