testing

December 30, 2004

Y'all are just being boring, that is all Kathy still has her family with

her and , well who knows- she's been quiet Do you want me to send Tim?

>

> I'm only got this email an no other posts. Is this an AOL thing again?

> , Kathy, ? Anyone have any idea what the heck is happening?

>

December 30, 2004

Y'all are just being boring, that is all Kathy still has her family with

her and , well who knows- she's been quiet Do you want me to send Tim?

>

> I'm only got this email an no other posts. Is this an AOL thing again?

> , Kathy, ? Anyone have any idea what the heck is happening?

>

January 8, 2005

In a message dated 1/8/2005 9:03:59 PM Central Standard Time,

rdill@... writes:

Testing is important. Even if you forbid all testing, it will

essentially go on because the teachers need to understand whether your

child is learning or not.

HI

I don't think there is a disagreement on whether a child should be tested,

just the tools used ...... the IQ test.

Now state assessments .............. these Id like to stop for Sara. Sara is

IEP driven and not curriculum driven so the state tests are a waste of time.

For a month they taught Sara to bubble the letter " C " (old rule ... when in

doubt bubble " C " ) and she showed them, she bubbled all " A " s lolol big joke at

her old school. Anyway Sara's IEP is an accurate measurement of her success

and her program.

Now Im not sure what you meant here ~~~~~~~>

" That aside, no one has suggested that our children test above their

ability "

Sara did score extremely high at age 6 and Im sure this was a fluke since

they used an invalid assessment on her lol before she reaches adulthood she

will have to be tested again to receive adult services here in TN. Scary but a

high score can lower services.

As with anything involving our children, do your homework. If the school

wants to test your child ask a lot of questions ........ why, what, when, and

with whom. You do have a say

Kathy mom to Sara 13

¸...¸ ___/ /\ \___ ¸...¸

,·´º o`·, /__/ _/\_ \__\ ,·´º o`·,

```)¨(´´´ | | | | | | | | | ```)¨(´´´

¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-.¸

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Josh. 24:15

January 8, 2005

In a message dated 1/8/2005 9:03:59 PM Central Standard Time,

rdill@... writes:

Testing is important. Even if you forbid all testing, it will

essentially go on because the teachers need to understand whether your

child is learning or not.

HI

I don't think there is a disagreement on whether a child should be tested,

just the tools used ...... the IQ test.

Now state assessments .............. these Id like to stop for Sara. Sara is

IEP driven and not curriculum driven so the state tests are a waste of time.

For a month they taught Sara to bubble the letter " C " (old rule ... when in

doubt bubble " C " ) and she showed them, she bubbled all " A " s lolol big joke at

her old school. Anyway Sara's IEP is an accurate measurement of her success

and her program.

Now Im not sure what you meant here ~~~~~~~>

" That aside, no one has suggested that our children test above their

ability "

Sara did score extremely high at age 6 and Im sure this was a fluke since

they used an invalid assessment on her lol before she reaches adulthood she

will have to be tested again to receive adult services here in TN. Scary but a

high score can lower services.

As with anything involving our children, do your homework. If the school

wants to test your child ask a lot of questions ........ why, what, when, and

with whom. You do have a say

Kathy mom to Sara 13

¸...¸ ___/ /\ \___ ¸...¸

,·´º o`·, /__/ _/\_ \__\ ,·´º o`·,

```)¨(´´´ | | | | | | | | | ```)¨(´´´

¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-.¸

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Josh. 24:15

January 8, 2005

is still learning too, and he will be 40 in a few hours. I

have noticed lately he has been rea ding over my shoulder when I am reading or

writing on here and he even corrects my spelling and grammar sometimes. We

keep the captioning on the TV all the time and he often watches it without sound

and just reads the captions.

I never refused to have him tested, the schools where he went didn't

do testing on anyone except normal testing like any school would do. What

bothers me is inept testers. A friend had the district send someone to her

son's

school to test him and it sounded like it was the wrong child. She mentioned

his glasses and he didn't even wear glasses at that time. The parents sent a

psychologist of their own choosing, and I read both reports. Didn't sound

like the same child. This is where much of the damage is done.

I was also a hearing officer in another case to partly determine

placement of 2 children with DS. A psychologist described the testing he did

with

the children, Mostly lnot standardized tests but in addition. I never heard

so much stupidity in one day before or since. There is so much prejudice in

these things.

`Jessie

January 8, 2005

is still learning too, and he will be 40 in a few hours. I

have noticed lately he has been rea ding over my shoulder when I am reading or

writing on here and he even corrects my spelling and grammar sometimes. We

keep the captioning on the TV all the time and he often watches it without sound

and just reads the captions.

I never refused to have him tested, the schools where he went didn't

do testing on anyone except normal testing like any school would do. What

bothers me is inept testers. A friend had the district send someone to her

son's

school to test him and it sounded like it was the wrong child. She mentioned

his glasses and he didn't even wear glasses at that time. The parents sent a

psychologist of their own choosing, and I read both reports. Didn't sound

like the same child. This is where much of the damage is done.

I was also a hearing officer in another case to partly determine

placement of 2 children with DS. A psychologist described the testing he did

with

the children, Mostly lnot standardized tests but in addition. I never heard

so much stupidity in one day before or since. There is so much prejudice in

these things.

`Jessie

January 8, 2005

I think that we all agree that the IQ test is an imprecise tool,

particularly for many of our children with down syndrome. That aside,

no one has suggested that our children test above their ability, so if

it is part of what is used to qualify for services, our children should

certainly qualify.

So IQ is imprecise and doesn't fully measure the abilities and deficits

of our children. If our children are to be best served, there have to

be tests and evaluations which uncover both their strong and weak

points, as well as ones which help find the best paths to teach them.

Testing is important. Even if you forbid all testing, it will

essentially go on because the teachers need to understand whether your

child is learning or not.

IQ testing for Jan was fairly consistent over they years although they

used a variety of forms of the test along with other evaluations.

Because she was consistent, it was really helpful when they tried to

tell us that it was time to back off on academics because she'd reached

her plateau in her mid teens. Today, Jan is still learning.

You can try to restrict testing, but it is probably better to work with

those doing evaluations to see that your child is well understood in

terms of both what they know and do now and also on what needs to be

done to move them forward.

Just one parent's view.

Rick

January 8, 2005

I think that we all agree that the IQ test is an imprecise tool,

particularly for many of our children with down syndrome. That aside,

no one has suggested that our children test above their ability, so if

it is part of what is used to qualify for services, our children should

certainly qualify.

So IQ is imprecise and doesn't fully measure the abilities and deficits

of our children. If our children are to be best served, there have to

be tests and evaluations which uncover both their strong and weak

points, as well as ones which help find the best paths to teach them.

Testing is important. Even if you forbid all testing, it will

essentially go on because the teachers need to understand whether your

child is learning or not.

IQ testing for Jan was fairly consistent over they years although they

used a variety of forms of the test along with other evaluations.

Because she was consistent, it was really helpful when they tried to

tell us that it was time to back off on academics because she'd reached

her plateau in her mid teens. Today, Jan is still learning.

You can try to restrict testing, but it is probably better to work with

those doing evaluations to see that your child is well understood in

terms of both what they know and do now and also on what needs to be

done to move them forward.

Just one parent's view.

Rick

January 9, 2005

Academic testing provides more insight into how to identify strengths and

weaknesses in a format that is useful for the teachers. I would ask the

professionals how the IQ testing would benefit the teacher in lesson preparation

or

curriculum adaption. It is rarely used that way, only for labeling.

If you are forced to give consent for IQ testing I would request the school

pysch be at the follow up IEP and have them interpret scores and recommend what

teaching methods would best serve child based on subtest scores for each

subject or content area. Could be a lengthy IEP meeting! ;-)

Cheryl in VA

January 9, 2005

Academic testing provides more insight into how to identify strengths and

weaknesses in a format that is useful for the teachers. I would ask the

professionals how the IQ testing would benefit the teacher in lesson preparation

or

curriculum adaption. It is rarely used that way, only for labeling.

If you are forced to give consent for IQ testing I would request the school

pysch be at the follow up IEP and have them interpret scores and recommend what

teaching methods would best serve child based on subtest scores for each

subject or content area. Could be a lengthy IEP meeting! ;-)

Cheryl in VA

January 9, 2005

In a message dated 1/9/2005 6:13:19 PM Central Standard Time,

wildwards@... writes:

If you are forced to give consent for IQ testing I would request the school

pysch be at the follow up IEP and have them interpret scores and recommend

what

teaching methods would best serve child based on subtest scores for each

subject or content area. Could be a lengthy IEP meeting! ;-)

Cheryl in VA

HI Cheryl

First I hope you are feeling better ................. I was thinking about

you when this thread started lol

When Sara was tested using the Stanford Benet the Physch did come to our IEP

meeting to discuss the evaluation results. Truthfully the Summary of the

test was right on target for Sara and very useful in getting supports like a

paraprofessional and visual tools. The summary was written in the positive,

talked about what she was strong at and how her strengths could be used to work

on her weakness. We were lucky this assessment was NOT used against her but I

can be a spin doctor at IEP meetings so when the neg. talk started I spun it

around and got support into her program from the language in the summary.

When she turned 9 and I informed them the DD label was going to have to

change, they wanted to add Mild to the MR. I said NO that no where in IDEA does

it say we have to do this and I insisted the plain old MR was enough. I wanted

more talk on her areas of need and explained MR is not a blanket of info

concerning Sara.

I have been lucky in my County, they don't push me far on certain issues but

I have heard that they are relentless on psych tests with other parents at

age 9 ................ again using invalid tests on the children.

Kathy mom to Sara 13 ................. hope you come back more often miss

you

¸...¸ ___/ /\ \___ ¸...¸

,·´º o`·, /__/ _/\_ \__\ ,·´º o`·,

```)¨(´´´ | | | | | | | | | ```)¨(´´´

¸,.-·²°´ ¸,.-·~·~·-.,¸ `°²·-.¸

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Josh. 24:15

January 9, 2005