Comments on: Gifted Test – Why yes, I do have something to complain about….

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:43:09 +0000

Well, we too had only about a 1 hour 15 minute test – including a restroom break. My son related that he didn’t know what an apron was, but knew every other question, and yes, they did skip some questions. Then the scores came back – we selected Edison only (because we had a car pool at the ready), and his scores dropped from last year…and he wasn’t admitted. (My husband wonders if the fact that we turned down a Decatur placement last year had anything to do with it.)

I am happy to report that we found a Catholic school with a gifted pull-out in a neighboring parish, and when the principal saw his test scores (not the CPS ones, but the ones we paid for for the private gifted school), she didn’t hesitate to set up a private meeting with us and the teachers involved to set up a plan for his education. Additionally, she admitted up front that by the time he is in 5th or 6th grade, we would need to find a private tutor or a gifted school setting for him, unless some kind of great funding came through. Proactive and realistic – I am hopeful. The pull-out teacher emailed me today, and asked that I email her the test results we had, as well as give her a lead on some of Nick’s interests so she could begin planning his lessons – FOR NEXT FALL.

There is a great gifted school in DesPlaines, but we can’t afford it. So we’ll use the little Catholic school til 5th grade and save our money until then.

By: Marian Weber

Marian Weber — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:10:53 +0000

If your son or daughter is gifted, the school will indeed pursue you and let you know. When my son entered kindergarten, his teacher approached me about his unqiue abilities. He was tested/identified as gifted. He went to another school, and before his full academic record had been transferred, the new teacher called me about his abilities. We moved to another school, and they tested again, and had him skip a grade and be in gifted pull-out classes. Extreme work-load for gifted kids, and they don’t always fit in with other kids. WIth that being said, I would never consider having my other child “prep” for gifted or even yearly standardized tests. She is not gifted as my son, and I can’t imagine the stress she would be under to try and perform in gifted classes if she wasn’t naturally gifted. Gifted kids think ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from regular kids….I am an educated mother and yet my now 6th grade gifted son can casually throw questions my way for which I do not have answers. To be truthful, he has been able to do that to me since he was in pre-school…..like asking me why October is the 10th month, when OCT means the number 8….yes he threw this out at us at the dinner table SEVERAL YEARS AGO. Please do not pressure your kids to be in gifted classes. Can you imagine how inept non-gifted kids would feel in classes with the gifted? GIfted kids have problems of their own, typically socially. Nothing is perfect, and so accept your child as they are naturally.

By: Grandma Mary

Grandma Mary — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:45:01 +0000

I have bee reading this site, because a former teacher I have
found it intersting. It seems to show the anxiety that so very
many parents have over finding a suitable school placement
for their children However, this whole tier thing has me bewildered. If there can be no discrimination because of race, gender, religious affiliation, etc. How can you discriminate
agaiinst a child because of his/her address? Additionally
what athletic coach would stand for a similar method of
selection required of him when he chooses a team? Being
an old lady with all my chiildren raised, I have “no skin” in
this game, but I do question the present means of selecting
gifted or academicly advanced students. Perhaps the more
legally aware parents could explaing the system to me.

By: cpsobsessed

cpsobsessed — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 06:05:10 +0000

I don’t think any public schools in any city (with a few exceptions) are probably ideal for a child who is working that far ahead. There’s no way a system like CPS can always test accurately (especially at age 4,) nor handle kids like that… just a fact of a big system. It’s probably worth the search to find the right school and pay for it (and hey, maybe you’ll end up with a full college scholarship to make up for it!)

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 05:57:37 +0000

My son tested 153 for classical and 126 for gifted last winter… We wanted Edison – but got Decatur (3rd choice) I dread going through this again this year. Because we are looking at a few private schools we had his IQ tested with WSPPI-III. The report came today. The psychologist said if he didn’t get into our choice of schools there was something seriously wrong with the test. He is going into 1st grade next fall 2011- and reading at the 5th grade level with 4th grade math skills. Looking at the conversations on this blog makes me think about the outrageous private school tuition is worth it.

By: McDade Mom

McDade Mom — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:24:54 +0000

My daughter is in the 1st grade at McDade Classical. We love McDade but we’re now concerned with the school only going to the 6th grade. We submitted the application for both the classical and gifted tests and only chose Skinner and Keller for the schools.

She took the classical test on 2/12 and she said it was very easy. She scored a 130 on the classical portion when she was 4, so we’ll see what happens with her scoring this year. She was able to tell me almost everything that was on the test. It was math and reading only. They provided scratch paper to do the math problems. She said she used mental math for most of the problems…OH LAWD!! SOMETIMES SHE MAKES CARELESS MISTAKES!! The math consisted of bar graphs, one clock question, simple addition and subtraction and a few word problems. The reading was read a paragraph, answer the questions.

We decided not to take the gifted test which was scheduled for the next day. She only scored 112 previously so I was already contemplating not going the gifted route. She woke up with a nasty cold Saturday morning and that was my sign from above.

My questions are, does anyone have any insight on how many spaces will be open for 2nd grade at Skinner West? I saw an earlier post for open spots for 1st grade. And my take is, we won’t know if she gets in until later in the year as opposed to one week after the scores come out, right? I say this because the schools won’t know approximately how many spots are open until later. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks!

By: interesting

interesting — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:01:08 +0000

Heard different story about skipping pages. Sounds like they did couple pages then went to page 32. Not necessarily skipping around. Maybe the first pages were practice problems so kids knew how to bubble in answers. So possibly those were easy, more how to do the test.

Did anyone get feedback from their kid on tests classical/gifted being easier or more difficult than the other?

Our son said 1st one was easier (classical) than the second one (gifted). Funny because last year his gifted score was high enough to gain placement and classical ok but not high enough for acceptance.

By: KateH

KateH — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:30:16 +0000

We tested at ITT. The ladies room consisted of a single handicapped stall w/a waiting room — it took 10 little girls forever to finish! You should have heard the giggling, storytelling (w/a moderator in charge) …. very entertaining.

By: CPSnewbie

CPSnewbie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:50:52 +0000

My son said they skipped over pages as well and that the questions got harder once they skipped to the new section.

By: parent

parent — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:42:41 +0000

Our son tested yesterday too and they were in about an hour and 15 minutes. Heard about going ahead in the booklet on both classical and gifted, maybe they contain more than one test?? He told us another kid didn’t answer all the questions. We wondered how he would know and yikes what happens then?! According to him the child answered some questions then was thinking about something else so forgot to answer. They read the questions again. Always wondered if kids can ask for questions to be repeated.