[blindkid] gifted testing

Wed Nov 23 19:33:12 UTC 2011

Thank you for your responses.  Richard, they have always been accommodating and extremely helpful in trying to meet my daughters needs.They approached me and asked if they could do gifted testing.  However, my gut tells me that if I don't stay on top of this(find an adaptive test for them) they aren't going to pursue it. It's just my feelings, I could be wrong. 

I hope everyone has a great holiday.

Kathy

________________________________
 From: Carol Castellano <carol.joyce.castellano at gmail.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org> 
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] gifted testing

Send Dalmatian pix!!!
Carol

At 12:37 AM 11/18/2011, you wrote:
> I am now, Carol. We were watching RJ (Kendra's little brother, age 5) in the fall musical at his school tonight. RJ was a fine little Dalmatian in the show-- something of a Disney medley. 20 or so kid dancing about the stage in spotted costumes, what fun!
> 
> Kathy,
> 
> We did have somewhat of a fiasco getting Kendra into the gifted program, but the effort was surely worth it. It may be best to contact me off-list so I don't overwhelm the server with details, and please feel free to do so. I have some thoughts on this and my wife has probably a few more specifics as to what we did (I'm not the best at remembering what tests were used) though she has gone to bed already for tonight.
> 
> Briefly, Kendra who has no light perception was going the be excused from "required" testing because no adapted instrument was available for her in first grade. (And thus not be eligible to enter the program.) Stephanie (my wife) and I sort of explained this would be a nice opportunity for them because now they would be able to learn more about testing blind kids even as young as first grade. (Their position had been that they couldn't get an adapted test for kids pre-thrid-grade.)
> 
> The result of the adapted testing was sort of an "oh, gee, golly, we're so sorry your kid just missed getting in". (Oh, shucks!) Well, further research revealed that because of her birthday falling when it does, they were right, she had just "missed", but only because many, if not most of the kids she was being compared to were in second grade and she was in first. When her scores were compared with kids in the same grade as she was, she was WELL qualified. In fact, by that test same, I suspect she would also have fallen well into the "high achiever" level even for the grade above her.
> 
> As they say, your mileage may vary, but don't be surprised if you meet some resistance or at least reluctance on their part to get this started. We had people in the gifted program, including the county supervisory personnel saying they had no idea how to deal with a blind student in the program and asking what we thought our daughter needed-- that is to say, why would we "want" her to be in the program to begin with? That went over with us pretty much like a lead balloon. It got a little ugly and dragged out well into second grade, but they got her in, finally, and she does like it and she does do well in the class. In so many ways, blind kids are just like everyone else. Gifted blind kids need to be in places where they can interact with other gifted kids and when they are, they will generally excel. (Insert standard disclaimer here about proper adapting of materials and support.)
> 
> Let me ask you, and I apologize if I have overlooked this from other posts-- again, the dust has barely settled from tonight's show-- but are you hearing they are wiling to use alternative testing or meeting reluctance from them. It would seem rather clear that if your child is "officially" classified as blind already they would know they needed to accommodate the testing. Is this a situation where they are arguing that a low vision student should be able to use a printed test or something like that? For the future, you may want to start putting details about this into your child's IEP and adding to it each year to tailor appropriate accommodations. They way adapted tests and testing means and equipment generally get ultimately used is because they are allowed through students IEP's. A quick example would be an abacus in place of scratch paper. Details of how tests are taken-- with large print or braille. Will a scribe record answers? Will extra time
 be allowed? It can get complex.
> 
> The most likely thing you could run into is an argument that the adapted testing isn't properly-- I think the term is "normed" for blind kids because not enough kids have taken them, so they can try to argue against the validity of these tests. This is where hopefully common sense can prevail and they can realize it is more reasonable to use a carefully adapted test omitting visually oriented questions than it is to force the use of the standard test which the sighted kids take.
> 
> I'll make a point to ask my wife which tests were ultimately used for Kendra. BTW, we never forced this next argument because while it dragged out, it never got quite this far, but there are also listed in the official rules for our county alternative ways to qualify children so that fewer qualifying tests are required. Some mechanisms include a "portfolio review" where various schoolwork can be reviewed to demonstrate qualifications, and also grade can be used as evidence. Unfortunately, in our case, while Kendra had straight A's, the grade qualification was for kids a bit older-- I guess they wanted to see a  longer trend of the A's.
> 
> If you have not, you might go ahead and get a copy of the official rules they use to decide who is gifted. We found various people on the county apparently did not know their own rules. They kept telling is they were not allowed to do one thing or another and we'd reply with a quote from their own official policy, as filed with the Secretary of State here in Georgia that said otherwise. In some cases, they said the could not use certain tests in certain ways, while the rules on file said specifically the could do exactly what they claimed the could not, naming the exact same testing and evaluation instruments; there was no room for interpretation.
> 
> As to adapting a test, that is likely to be a real sticky situation because there will be issues of potential bias, but agin, some have already been adapted professionally so that is the way to go and I'll probably be able to get the name of at least one such test for you tomorrow. Again, do feel free to contact me off-list and good luck!
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
> On Nov 17, 2011, at 8:16 PM, Carol Castellano wrote:
> 
> > Kathy,
> > Stephanie & Richard Holloway's daughter was tested for a gifted program.  Richard, are you out there tonight?
> > Carol
> >
> > At 06:51 AM 11/17/2011, you wrote:
> >> Hi all-
> >>
> >> My daughter's mainstreamed in Kindergarten and they asked if she could be tested for the gifted program.  She didn't do too well because it was the standard, sighted test.  Do any of you know of a blind version or know how to adapt.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Kathy
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