[blindkid] gifted testing

Fri Nov 18 14:42:58 UTC 2011

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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>
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