Let's pretend money's no object: What tests should I order to best assess my kid?

[kubiac]

Argh.

 

Enrolled DS6 in Montessori elementary so that he could work at whatever level he's at in a variety of subjects. "Follow the child" and all that.

 

First academic thing he reports to me is that his teacher (it's "science camp" now, not "real" school) says he can only read books on the first-grade shelf. I asked her about classroom reading and she told me first graders are limited to non-fiction ("who and what books" in her parlance) during their main reading time, and that "he knows what shelves he can pick from."

 

As far as I can tell, Harry Potter and Hardy Boys are probably off-limits, even though the whole reason I was excited about the "one-room schoolhouse" approach is because I knew DS would want to work "up" to compete with the big kids.

 

I can live with the non-fiction thing. I take that as a personal challenge, and biographies and memoirs are delightful, and I will defeat her system, BUT ANYWAY...

 

He's currently being "allowed" to read Secrets of Droon in the classroom because it's summer. He'll easily finish a book a day, or four books a day, it just depends on his motivation and schedule. He's read all the Magic Tree House and A to Z Mysteries already. I think overall I'd peg him at no less than a fourth-grade reading level, but when I asked about matching reading levels to kid she told me "Well, I go by what Scholastic says the book is." (Hold on a second, I have to collapse on the floor sobbing...WHAAAAAAAAA...deep breath....deeeeep breath.)

 

ANYWAY, I would like to get DS6 professionally assessed by an outside educational psychologist so I can go into a meeting about this prepared. I haven't priced private testing in SoCal, but let's pretend we want to go bananas. 

 

What testing should I request?

 

Some options:

* Reading level/vocabulary assessment

 

* Weschler IQ (qualifying exam for local private gifted school)

 

* Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (qualifying exam for GATE at our home school district)

 

* OLSAT-8 9 (qualifying test for GATE at neighboring massive metro school district in case we ever move there?)

 

Thank you in advance for any wisdom you have to offer.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I have absolutely zero experience with testing, so I can't comment on that at all.

 

But, I am a trained Montessori teacher in 0-3 and 3-6 and I've had two of my own children go right through Montessori primary (ie up to age 12). 

A few things you mentioned don't sit right for me.

 

I don't know where you live, but here in Australia there is no governing body to accredit Montessori schools - this means that ANYONE can slap a Montessori banner on their front door. Parents can think they're paying for the real deal and it's really just not. I hope this isn't the case for you.

 

This just may be something to keep in mind also when you head into your meeting.

 

Good luck!

Edited August 2, 2016 by chocolate-chip chooky

[Arcadia]

An achievement test and an IQ test would be minimum. My kids did the OLSAT, it is a convenient screening test but not useful otherwise. My kids did the wisc-iv which was more useful to us (parents).

 

Davidson Young Scholar program requires one from either option 1 or option 2. But if you are willing to spend, I would do one from option 1 list and one from option 2 list.

http://www.davidsongifted.org/Young-Scholars/Qualification-Criteria

 

I was quoted $1300 and beyond for a full evaluation which would have included the achievement and IQ tests.

[JenneinCA]

I agree with the previous poster. I would get an achievement test and an iq test. My personal preference would be Woodcock Johnson for the achievement test and the current version of the WISC for the iq test. But that is because I am familiar with them.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[wapiti]

How irritating.  First, at what point will the teacher test reading level?  Can you ask her to check it?  (e.g., my kids' montessori charter uses the same tests as the other district schools.  I'm not sure how often they check it, but it's more than twice per year, usually at least right before parent conferences.  And, I was always able to ask for a reading level check if I had concerns.)

 

On the non-fiction, that's very odd, though like you said, probably not a hill to die on.  I'd ask about the reasoning.  That has nothing to do with Montessori, in my experience.  My kids' lower el classrooms had loads of fiction on the shelves.  They could choose whatever.  I got a bit annoyed on one occasion, when one teacher wanted to steer one of my kids to an easier shelf based on the kiddo's actual reading level, but the teacher was just trying to prevent frustration in that case.

 

For testing, I like the WISC plus an achievement test (probably the WIAT).  How much that will cost might depend - if you need a full analysis and report with recommendations, if you suspect additional issues, etc., or if you just want the scores.  Around here, both tests with a full report will run more than $1200 but I'm out of the loop on how much more.  It's been from $1200-1600 for many years, for an ed psych, so I suspect the price will have gone up when we get around to more testing.  What I don't like about the full reports we got was all the personal background info - not stuff I wanted to present to the school even though professional psychs like to include it.  In the future, I'd really just prefer a summary of the results plus the list of recommendations and then a separate full report just for me with more detail on the subtests.

 

In general, when you approach the school, I advise being as specific as you can be with regard to what you are requesting.  Make it easy for them.  If the teacher has to think about it too much, you're less likely to get what you want.  From your post, I'm not sure I'm clear on what you want either, though my biggest concern would be whether the teacher's attitude on grade level carried over to other subjects, math above all.  Math is where the Montessori classroom ought to shine but yes, we've had teachers limiting the kids, sometimes unintentionally.

[kubiac]

Thanks guys. IQ test and achievement test sound like a good starting point.

 

I have concerns (and a lot of emotions) about this, but like wapiti said, I'm not even sure what I want, so I need to sit with those thoughts for a while. The only thing that I know for sure is that I think age-based "grade levels" are absurd. I thought the one-room-schoolhouse Montessori approach was going to allow us to circumvent all of that, but apparently not. 

 

Pfft.

[wapiti]

Something to try to figure out would be whether this teacher's perspective is a school thing, top-down, what the principal thinks, or whether there might be a teacher who would be a better fit for your student.  Assuming this is a grade 1-3 classroom, it's much easier to change classrooms now at the very start of first grade than to change in a year. 

 

FWIW, we've had all kinds of perspectives among the teachers.  The most open-minded about advancement were the primary teachers though we did have a few gems in the higher grades, mixed in with a few I could never quite reach an agreement with; we got a lot of lip service, if you know what I mean.

Edited August 3, 2016 by wapiti

[Arcadia]

I thought the one-room-schoolhouse Montessori approach was going to allow us to circumvent all of that, but apparently not.

We were able to circumvent that only by going to public charters that are not B&M schools. My kids public school teachers were able to teach and have taught high school and community college levels for math so they could aid at whatever level my kids want to ask. They could get the Language Arts subject expert to help for english if needed.

 

What we found helpful was to get the IQ test done first since we weren't willing to spend more than $1k at one time. We find that skeptical people tend to think that we hothouse and game the achievement tests. It is harder to game an IQ test and it would sound accusatory/discriminatory if the school admin say we game the IQ test.

 

My kids schools did their own math and reading levels testing anyway so they didn't need an achievement test to tell them what they knew.

[EKS]

Agreeing with the others who said the current versions of the WISC and WJ.