TAG, You're Not It (Again)

I swear I'm not recycling blog titles, it's just that the last two were appropriate for the subject. I've come to dislike IQ testing for Talented and Gifted (TAG) eligibility. At first I relished it as an opportunity to give some of the brightest students in my school the chance to receive an enriched educational experience. What has happened is that I've actually made pre-teens cry in my office during IQ tests. I figured out what it is. All of the students that I have tested have been smart enough to know what they don't know. It's one thing to be completely ignorant and think you're acing a test when in fact you're bombing it miserably. It's another to know when you are bombing it. This can affect performance, especially for a student who thinks that he or she is smart and now feels stupid because of what he or she doesn't know. It's difficult seeing the anguish on their faces. I try to be reassuring and tell them that they are doing well, but they're probably thinking, "Bull, I know I suck." I think what's worse for me is that I see how smart they are, but they don't qualify as gifted. That's what sucks. I don't want them to feel like failures, because they are far from it. But who knows what messages they tell themselves when they aren't accepted into the TAG program. I know that teacher recommendations are important, but I'm kidding myself if I think that the program is lenient when it comes to the IQ cutoff score which I believe is 130 in my district. If my district is strict about that number then the 2 students I tested this week aren't getting in.