About My Child's Assessment
NEISD Gifted & Talented
What kind of data was used to determine services?
North East ISD uses multiple sources of data to determine the educational need for gifted and talented services including qualitative and quantitative data, as required by the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students.
Quantitative data includes verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal ability, reading and math achievement, and spatial reasoning, if needed.
Qualitative data includes teacher checklists and a parent checklist.
Very careful consideration was given to each referred student by qualified, professional educators. The Gifted & Talented Placement Committee consists of a minimum three district personnel who have been trained in the nature and needs and identification of gifted students. This committee could include the campus GT teacher, counselor, administrator, district GT Instructional Specialist, and the Assistant Director of Gifted & Talented.
Ability versus Achievement
Ability
Ability shows us how students learn.
Influenced by all learning opportunities.
Requires novel problem solving and reasoning processes.
Also called aptitude or student potential for learning, provides insight into students’ readiness to demonstrate creative problem-solving skills and learn in different situations and learning environments.
Achievement
Achievement shows what students have learned.
Influenced by more formal education
Requires well-practiced skills and crystallized knowledge
Reflects academic achievement
Examples of achievement testing: MAP Growth, STAAR, ACT/SAT, subject achievement test, end-of-unit tests, etc.
Achievement tests show growth over time.
All A's, high MAP and/or STAAR scores are excellent, but that is not always an indicator of giftedness.
Important Terms
Percentile (APR = Age Percentile Rank): This score, often shown as %ile, shows how a student scores compared to other students with the same age. For example, a score of 95%ile means a student scored better than 95 out of 100 his or her age (example: 7 years 5 months) who took the test.
Percentile vs. Percent: A percentile is not a percent. A percentile is a ranking comparing a value to all the others. Percentile ranks are an easy way to compare your child to other children his or her age. For example, if your doctor tells you child falls in the 80th percentile for height, it means that 80% of other children are shorter than your child and 20% of children are taller than your child.
Ability Testing
North East ISD uses multiple tests to determine the need for gifted services. Different tests measure different things.
Ability Testing
Chances are you already have an idea of what your students have learned. You have seen MAP testing, STAAR results, End of Course exams, quizzes, unit assessments, etc. But do you know how your student(s) learn?
Ability, also called aptitude or student potential for learning, provides insights into students' readiness to demonstrate creative problem-solving skills and learn in different situations and learning environments.
Reasoning skills develop gradually throughout a person’s lifetime and at different rates for different individuals. Reasoning abilities are good predictors of success in school and are important outcomes of good schooling. Ability testing does not measure such factors as effort, attention, motivation, and work habits, which also contribute importantly to school achievement.
Students with different patterns of scores have different learning styles. By knowing your child’s learning preferences, teachers and parents can help students achieve greater success in school. Our teachers will be able to use results from this test to tailor instruction to match how students learn, identify student readiness for greater challenges, and discover gaps between student achievement and ability.
Ability testing measures three different cognitive abilities:
- The Verbal Battery measures students’ abilities to reason with words. These reasoning abilities play an important role in reading comprehension, critical thinking, writing, and virtually all verbal learning tasks.
- The Quantitative Battery measures students’ abilities to reason with quantitative symbols, numbers, and concepts. These reasoning skills are significantly related to problem solving in mathematics and other disciplines.
- The Nonverbal Battery measures students’ abilities to reason with geometric shapes and figures. To perform successfully, students must accurately implement strategies for solving novel problems.
The three separate batteries provide a broad perspective on each student’s learned reasoning abilities, identifying cognitive strengths and weaknesses.
Achievement Testing
MAP Growth
NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) Growth is a computer adaptive test —which means every student gets a unique set of test questions based on their responses to previous questions. The purpose of MAP Growth is to determine what the student knows and is ready to learn next.
MAP Growth tracks student growth over time – wherever they are starting from and regardless of the grade they are in. For instance, if a third grader is actually reading like a fifth grader, MAP Growth will be able to identify that. Or, if a fifth grader is doing math like a third grader, MAP Growth will identify that, too. Both things are incredibly important for teachers to know so that they can plan instruction efficiently.
Did you know...
- MAP Growth tests are administered three times a year in NEISD: fall, winter, and spring.
- MAP Growth tests are adaptive: as the student answers correctly, questions get harder. If the student answers incorrectly, the questions get easier. By the end of the test, students will have answered enough questions to inform a teacher about what they know and what they’re ready to learn.
- MAP Growth is grade independent, which means teachers and parents can see where a child is performing relative to grade level – not merely if they are at grade level or not.
- MAP Growth tests are untimed. Students can take as much time as needed.
- MAP Growth data helps us see how a child is learning in the classroom and if there is an educational need for enrichment beyond the standard curriculum.
IOWA Assessment
The Iowa Assessment, if administered, is an achievement test which measures a student's knowledge in subject areas that students have learned in school, such as reading, written expression, and mathematics.
National Norms: All scores are reported as nationally-normed percentiles. Testing scores are nationally-normed which means an individual’s test performance can be compared with the test performances of other students throughout the nation who are the same age. A national percentile rank score of 50 is average on a norm-referenced test.
Qualification for Services
NEISD GT services are designed to meet the educational needs of students performing well above peers of the same age, experience, and environment.
Elementary GT is a pull-out program, in English, where identified students are pulled from the regular classroom to receive services once a week for approximately 2-5 hours a week.
Beginning in 6th grade, students that show an academic need for GT services may participate in one or more the Secondary GT services - GT Math and/or GT English. We also have an elective, GT Interdisciplinary Studies, at some high schools.
Qualification for Services
Those who meet the criteria for GT services must earn exceptionally high scores on a majority of assessments.
Percentile scoring compares students nationally and by age versus percent correct scoring. Average scores range from 50-60th percentile.
To qualify, students must demonstrate an academic need for GT services and perform at a remarkably high level when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment. Students who score in this range are typically 2-3 years ahead of their peers and have the ability to do the level of work set by the Gifted and Talented Curriculum.
Approximately 5% of students qualify for gifted services. Very bright students may not qualify. Early readers, all A’s, high MAP scores, and high STAAR scores are excellent, but that is not always an indicator of giftedness.
High Achiever vs. Gifted Learner
Remembers the answers
Works hard to achieve
Answers the questions in detail
Memorizes well
Gets A’s
Comprehends at a high level
Performs at the top of the group
Gifted Learner Characteristics
Poses unforeseen questions
Knows without working hard
Ponders with depth, multiple perspectives
Guesses and infers well
Isn’t motivated by grades
Comprehends in-depth, complex ideas
Is beyond the group (2+ years)
Unique Characteristics of Gifted Children
Asynchronous (uneven) development
Emotional sensitivity
Not always an all A’s student
Overexcitability
Can be intense
Loves Learning, often dislikes school
Twice Exceptional (2e) - can be identified gifted and have a learning disability.
Ways to Help Your Child at Home
Reasoning with Words
- Crossword puzzles
- Scrabble
- Apples to Apples
- Boggle
- Scattergories
- Bananagrams
- Word Letters
- Taboo
- Triads
- Wordle
- Code Names
- $100,000 Pyramid
- Wheel of Fortune
Reasoning with Numbers
- Ken Ken
- Sudoku
- Prime Club
- Countdown
- Seqence
- Dominoes
- 24 Game
- Farkle
- Equate
- Junior/Advanced Tile Set
- Flip 4
- FlashMaster
- Math Dice by ThinkFun
Abstract Reasoning
- Set or Set Jr.
- Rush Hour
- Origami
- Genius Square or Genius Star
- Rubik's Cube
- QBitz
- Qwirkle
- Chocolate Fix
- Tetris
- Pictionary
- Mastermind
- Blokus
North East ISD Gifted & Talented Department
Lisa Watson, K-12 GT Instructional Specialist
Website: neisd.net/gt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neisdgt