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SBU Evaluators:
Samantha Arias, Nicholas Perillo, Jessica Allen
A. Student Data
1. Student Name: Zach Luce
2. Date of Birth/Age: 11/9/2004, 10
3. Current Placement: Zach is currently placed in a 4th grade inclusion classroom at
Allegany-Limestone Elementary School. All four core subject areas (ELA, math,
science, and social studies) are instructed in the students inclusion classroom. The
school district also requires students to receive 40 minutes every MWF of literacy
instruction and 40 minutes every TTH of math instruction. There are 21 students in
the class ages 9-10. There are 7 students in the classroom who have classified IEPs
and 3 students who receive enrichment services. Instruction is taught primarily by the
general education teacher, although there is a full time special education teacher
present in the classroom.
4. Date(s) of Evaluation: The evaluators administered sections 1 and 2 of the SAGES-2
assessment as well as the vocabulary section on an IRI on 3/25/15.
B. Referral Information
1. Describe:
a. Zach enjoys being challenged and retains information quickly. He is a creative
thinker with a sharp memory and long attention span. He is very creative and likes to
think outside the box. Zach has been referred to the enrichment program based on state
and local test scores as well as a teacher recommendation. The teacher supports many of
Zachs mother views. She believes Zach is academically advanced because of his higher
level thinking skills, academic abilities and the maturity he displays in class.
b. Schooling is very important to both of Zachs parents. He was enrolled in the
Montessori Childrens House of Olean when he was 3. His parents wish to see this
evaluation benefit Zach in a number of ways. They want his curiosity and creativity to be
challenged and would consider acceleration for Zach or an early college program in the
future.
2. Zach has not been identified as gifted or talented, but he has been identified as a
student requiring extra challenge. Zach participates in an afterschool Alternative
Learning paths enrichment
3. *See attached referral form and intervention history.
C. Background Information
1. Family History:
a. Zach has 1 older sister who is in 6th grade. Both of his parents are teachers in
the Allegany-Limestone school district. His mother works at the elementary
school while his father works at the middle school.
for 2 hours. The evaluators first observed Zach in his literacy block.
He was asked to write a haiku. While given independent time to work
on the poems, Zach was heavily focused and concentrated on his work
while his other peers seemed to get distracted from other commotion
going on in the classroom. Zach demonstrated his long attention span
as he was focused on directions given by the teacher and his work
throughout the entire class period. During the afterschool enrichment
program, Zach would frequently be the first person to raise his hand
when the teacher ask higher order thinking questions to the class. He
was very attentive and seemed eager to challenge his knowledge.
Zachs responses were always very in-depth and not a typical response
I would expect from his average peers. His peers would give shorter
responses to questions asked by the teacher while Zach would
constantly elaborate further on subject matter. The evaluators saw this
was typical in both math and ELA. I could see Zachs creative mind
shining through as well as his ability to think outside the box.
b. Student Interview
i. Zach has a very strong interest in math. Zachs father is a math teacher
at the middle school and Zach likes to be just like his dad. He
acquired this adoration at a very young age and asked his dad to teach
him math in his early elementary years. Zachs mother, gen. ed.
teacher, and enrichment teacher all suggest that Zach is gifted in
math which is also what the evaluators believed after working with
Zach for a few days. The evaluators have also decided to further
pursue to see if Zach is gifted in reading as well. Zach would prefer to
work independently. He feels that he can accomplish more and work
more efficiently when working by himself. Zach is incredibly creative
and enjoys designing his own versions of things. Zach stated that he
struggles in reading because his grades are not as high as his math
grades. He says his grades fluctuate between 90s-100s one week and
60s-70s the next. The evaluators inquired about what type of testing
Zach was taking when he was receiving the lower grades he described
a reading comprehension evaluation. He also mentioned that he
sometimes finds himself bored during math instruction because he
already knows most of the material. Zachs general education teacher
mentioned that she often provides Zach with more challenging math
work as he masters the 4th grade common core curriculum with very
little, if any difficulty. This is a typical behavior of a student who is
gifted in math. Zach plays on both a travel soccer and hockey team. He
is social and is well-liked by others which makes it easy for him to
make friends. Zach works hard on schoolwork, but also enjoys free
time watching television and playing video games. Zach said that if he
Normal
Gifted
Time Sampling
Scorer
K-3
Mathematics/Science
Languages Arts/Social
Studies
Reasoning
88
91
97
99
87
91
97
92
93
93
95
97
4-8
Mathematics/Science
Language Arts/Social
Studies
Reasoning
94
91
92
97
94
92
86
91
90
85
78
95
o Validity
The validity that the test contains is a correlation performance
based on total score. The test is made up of age differentiation,
group differentiation, subtests interrelationships and item validity.
This provides the opportunity to have good discriminating among
scorers. The SAGES-2 is considered to be an unbiased test that is
valid predictor of aptitude and intelligence. The selections of
literatures were selected based on how familiar students are with
the reading being used. The mathematics is closely developed to
support the Curriculum and Evaluations Standard for school
Informal Assessments
Rationale
Zachs classroom teacher mentioned that Zach
was reading well above grade level. By giving
Zach an IRI, it will allow the evaluators to see
where his vocabulary, reading fluency, and
reading comprehension place Zach academically
in these areas. An IRI is going to help the
evaluators identify if Zach is gifted in reading.
Rationale
Mid-module Assessment
Grade 5 common core mathematics
module 2
subtests entirely depending on their academic ability. Most subtests will take
around 15-20 minutes each.
o Zach will be assessed in a quiet room with little distraction. All three of the
evaluators will be present when administering this assessment.
Reading Passage/Comprehension Questions
o Zach will be given 15-20 minutes to complete this assessment.
o Zach will be tested in a quiet, distraction free room.
SAGES-2
o All subtests should be administer in order (1-3). Time length for the entire test
varies. Zach will be given 30-45 minutes to complete each subtest.
o Zach will be assessed in a quiet, distraction free room.
Part II
E. Test Behavior & Results
1. Test Behavior
When Zach was taking the SAGES exam during the beginning position of the text the evaluators
noted that he was very calm and relaxed. He seemed very concentrated and confident in his
ability because he was answering questions very rapidly. When Zach was answering question 13
the evaluators noted that he was struggling with answering the question. He skipped question 14
but quickly realized and answered the question. During the process of the exam the evaluators
noted by his facial expression and his hand gestures he was progressively getting more
frustrated. Although this was occurring Zach continued to remain claim. By the 18th question
Zach asked to get a drink of water. When Zach completed the second part of the exam he is claim
and relaxed. After about ten minutes the evaluators observed that he seemed to struggle with this
section more than the math and science portion of the exam. When Zach was distracted by the
clock and when he was being frustrated with the questions that could have influence the accuracy
of the results.
a. During the exam there were times when Zach became distracted and he started
to look at the clock. He will look out the door to note where the noise was
coming from. During the end of the exams the evaluators noted that he started
to take longer on each question and he reread each question. The evaluators
noted when he started a new part of the exam he started the process clam and
relaxed.
b. Zach cooperated very well while he was being tested. He followed every
direction given during an appropriate time. He didnt ask any questions during
the process of taking the exam. Zach did ask permission to use the bathroom
and get a drink of water.
c. Zach and the evaluators had great rapport with each other. Zach reacted in a
respectful manner when he was provided with an exam. When Zach became
frustrated his facial expression was very intense. The evaluators noted that he
started to reread the questions and he was flicking his pencil around. When the
evaluators noted that Zachs was frustrated we informed Zach that he should
take a break by walking around or getting a drink of water. He immediately
took the offer.
d. Zach was tested during afterschool and the evaluators believe this may have
influenced his scores. The evaluators tested him before the standardized
exams and we believe that could have affected his anxiety because of the
workload being provided in school. During the days Zach was tested it was
sunny outside. The evaluators on those days noted that Zach was eager to be
finished with the exam. These are all factors that could have effected Zachs
performance.
2. Results of Individual Assessments
a. Formal Assessments
i. Report Scores
1. SAGES-2 includes 3 subtests in the areas of mathematics/science,
language arts/social studies, and reasoning. Zach was assessed on
the mathematics/science and language arts/social studies subtests
only. Both the mathematics/science subtest and language
arts/social studies subtests sample achievement in the specific
subject areas, or what knowledge a child has acquired through
formal and informal educational experiences. The child is required
to complete 30 multiple-choice format questions in each subtest.
There is no time limit. Items included focus on recall,
understanding, and application of ideas and basic concepts in these
content areas. Questions in the mathematics/science subtest are
more logical and technical in nature while questions in the
language arts/social studies subtest are more linguistic in nature.
For the SAGES-2, s standard score is referred to as a quotient.
Zach received a quotient of 115 compared to the normative group
and a quotient of 100 compared to the gifted group on the
mathematics/science subtest. Zach received a quotient of 106
compared to the normative group and a quotient of 96 compared to
the gifted group on the language arts/social studies subtest. A
percentile rank is a percentage of scores that fall below a given
score. Zach's performance on the SAGES-2 overall
mathematics/science subtest suggests that he is functioning at the
84%ile compared to the normative group and the 50%ile compared
to the gifted group. Zachs performance on the SAGES-2 overall
language arts/social studies subtest suggests that he is functioning
at the 66%ile compared to the normative group and the 39%ile
compared to the gifted group. Using a bell curve, Zachs
mathematics/science percentile rank represents that Zach is
functioning at the average standard deviation compared to the
gifted group, but he is functioning 1 standard deviation above the
his peers. This article also mentions the use of the technique
called Mastery Learning Strategy. This strategy allows students
to be exposed to teacher presentation, individual worksheets,
formative testing, and corrective activities. After being quizzed,
students who have mastered the material were engaged in
enrichment activities. Then the last strategy from this article is a
combination of the two strategies previously listed. This
combination treatment has students work cooperatively on a
worksheet and help one another to solve the given problems.
Then students are quizzed indidviually and those who mastered
the tasks were asked to help others remedy their difficulties
(Mevarech, 2001). I think this technique would be very beneficial
to help Zack enrich his mathematics abilities.
The second article found was called Curriculum Compacting:
An Essential Strategy for Working with Gifted Students by
Joseph Renzulli. This article tells the reader that curriculum
compacting is a great way to enrich the talents of gifted
students. Curriculum compacting is just what it sounds like. It is
basically when a teacher takes the entire curriculum and
scrunches it down into a smaller window for instruction. This
would be beneficial for a student like Zack so that he would not
become bored with his math work seeing that he is gifted in that
area. If his teacher would fit more information into a smaller
time period he would benefit. With this being said, this does not
mean that the teacher should throw the entire curriculum at him
at once but due to his high abilities in the subject are he should
be learning at an accelerated pace rather than the same pace as
the rest of his classmates. This will keep him learning and
engaged.
The third article we found is called Opportunities to learn
fractions in elementary mathematics classrooms by Maryl
Gearhart, Geoffrey Saxe, and Michael Seltzer. This study was
concerned with the implementation of two of these units for the
upper elementary grades, Seeing Fractions (Corwin, Russell, &
Tierney, 1990) and My Travels With Gulliver (Kleiman & Bjork,
1991). These units were designed to support students'
involvement with mathematical problem solving and enhance
their conceptual understandings; using these resources, teachers
can provide students with multiple models for understanding
Sources
Maryl Gearhart; Geoffrey B. Saxe; Michael Seltzer; Jonah Schlackman;
Cynthia Carter Ching; Na'ilah Nasir; Randy Fall; Tom Bennett;
Steven Rhine; Tine F., S. (n.d). Opportunities to Learn Fractions in
Elementary Mathematics Classrooms. 30(3), 286-315.