Prepare your children for a standardized system early on

FORT BENNING, GA, UNITED STATES

09.01.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Lindsey Kibler 

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

FORT BENNING, Ga. - My child is something special.

The words every parent speaks about their sons or daughters, and it’s true. Children are special people and change your life in ways, before I became a mother, I never thought possible.

Once my son, Azrael, started school, I was seeing — and hearing — how truly special he truly is. It was only after I was stationed at Fort Benning, in November 2012, that he began to really excel in school. As a first-grader, he knew all 200 sight words by the middle of the school year. He started multiplication. He was reading chapter books about some silly guy in his underwear with a plunger or scary stories about haunted mansions and zombies.

Everywhere Azrael went, people complimented his vocabulary, his interest in how things work and his love of mathematics. As first grade came to an end, his teacher repeatedly reminded me to have him tested for gifted the following year and I agreed to. By the end of the year, he had scored in the Level T/U range on the Fountas and Pinnel reading chart and in the 900s for the Lexile scale, which equated to a fifth-grade reading level.

I was sure he was a shoo-in for the school’s gifted program.
Fast-forward three months and I open his student folder to find a letter from the school’s gifted teacher stating that, while he does appear to excel in certain areas he would, unfortunately, not be accepted into the gifted program. He would, however, attend enrichment for about an hour a day, one day a week.

I immediately contacted his first-grade teacher to break the news. She had always been a form of support for me and Azrael and I knew she would be just as shocked. In her response, she told me the one thing I never really considered — he doesn’t test well.

My son is an incentive-driven person and, let’s face it, the majority of us are. He will do most anything if it results in him being allowed to ride his dirt bike, play video games or do both, in that order. Despite my efforts to make learning fun — games, crossword puzzles, spelling races and library trips — I never prepared him for the one thing that our education system really emphasizes.

When you think about, nearly every academic assessment is administered using a standardized test — the SAT, ACT and, for higher education, the Law School Admission Test or Graduate Record Examinations. Even some employers require standardized test, most notably the Armed Forces.

Gifted testing, however, is controlled by each state and the requirements can vary. In Georgia, gifted testing relies on previously-administered test scores, such as those administered throughout the school year, but also on tests that measure performance in four different areas.

According to the Georgia Department of Education, “a gifted education student is defined as one who demonstrates a high degree of intellectual and/or creative ability(ies), exhibits an exceptionally high degree of motivation, and/or excels in specific academic fields, and who needs special instruction and/or special ancillary services to achieve at levels commensurate with his or her ability(ies).”

Students are referred to gifted programs based on test scores (automatic referral) or at the recommendation of teachers, counselors, administrators, parents or guardians (reported referral). Students must meet the criteria in three of four areas: mental ability, achievement, creativity and motivation.

But how can we, as parents, prepare our children for these types of tests? The short answer, from what I’ve been able to find, is nothing. At least, nothing specific.

Sure, there are advertisements on the internet. If you pay hundreds of dollars for seemingly-gimmicky, “100 percent satisfaction guaranteed” programs, your child can succeed in any gifted program. Maybe they work. I, frankly, don’t have the money to try them out, but it seems to me that simply talking to our children may be one of the best ways to prepare them.

My son doesn’t understand the importance of these tests. He sees them as a nuisance, just another thing he has to sit down and be quiet for. As a child diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, sitting still and taking a structured test is equivalent to being tortured in his mind. No matter how many hands-on activities I do with him at home, in an attempt to make learning “fun,” he doesn’t understand the value of standardized tests. At 7 years old, he may not but if I don’t discuss it, he may never know.

Teachers can be a source of information, as well. Since our children spend the majority of their weekdays in the classroom, teachers are able to see academic strengths and weaknesses better than we might be able to and may be able to provide activities that enhance their best subject and strengthen their weak ones.

After learning my son would not be accepted into gifted this year, I realized that being proactive is the best way to tackle the education system. Ask and you will be given answers.

For more information on gifted education and assessment criteria, visit the Georgia Department of Education website http://www.gadoe.org/curriculum-instruction-and-assessment/curriculum-and-instruction/pages/gifted-education.aspx.

• Date Taken: 09.01.2014
• Date Posted: 09.02.2014 16:02
• Story ID: 140980
• Location: FORT BENNING, GA, US
• Hometown: ALBUQUERQUE, NM, US