Questions about MAP testing and Talented and Gifted Programs

[Country Girl]

First, a quick:D background:
In our state, homeschool students can participate in extra-curricular activities and take classes through the local school district for free. We were tossing around the idea of having my son join the TAG class at our local school to give him a chance to participate in an actual "class", rather than just the one on one learning he gets at home. We figured the TAG class would be interesting and the chances that he'd get along with the kids in this kind of class would probably be pretty good. So, this past spring, ds took the MAP test at the school to determine if he would qualify for their TAG program. He qualified so we met with the teacher to discuss the program etc. We liked the teacher and the class seemed to be more than just entering various TAG competitions (which is all the TAG class was when I went to school). In the classes, the students worked collectively on a project and were basically allowed to take it to whatever level they wanted and she provided resources and activities to correlate with and extend their projects. It seemed like a good class but nothing that we couldn't do at home, except for the group thing. However, after thinking about it over the summer we decided it probably wasn't a great fit for our family (too far to drive on too many days, not enough benefit to out weight the negatives, etc).

Now for my questions:
I just received a message from the school saying they are planning on having ds take the MAP test again this Sept. The only reason we took it in the spring was to see if ds qualified for the TAG class but if we aren't going to participate in that, is there any benefit to having him take the MAP test again? I did think it was better than the ITBS that he has taken but I don't know that I'm going to gain much new information from March (when he took it last) to Sept???? Does anyone have any thoughts?

Secondly, we were just informed that no other students in his grade (3rd) in the district qualified for TAG?!?!? Since there isn't going to be an official 3rd grade TAG class, the teacher wants to set up a time to talk with me about our options for ds. (Since school just started here, we haven't told her yet of our decision not to participate in the TAG class.) There is a combined 4-5th grade class but I don't think I want my ds working with kids that much older (5th graders have quite a bit more life experience than my hs ds IYKWIM). But now I'm wondering if I should come to her with a proposition of something that would benefit our ds and family but I just don't know what that would be. So I guess I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or if they have ever had their dc participate in a TAG class that they felt was really beneficial and worthwhile?

Thanks!

[Jill]

The only reason I would keep up the MAP test would be if it serves as documentation for further classes elsewhere that you or he might be interested. Example, there are summer programs at some universities that offer one or two week half day "camps" for accelerated kids. e.g., DS wants to take Trigonometry at Blank Center in Iowa. He needs a standardized test result that shows him working at or above a certain percentile for his grade. So we will do MAP in case he still wants to do it next summer when he will actually be old enough (if he's still interested and we can figure out how the heck to do it, etc...) So for us it is just to have that piece o paper just in case. It has the upside of having him be "used to" testing as in our state he will have to test at certain grades anyway.

[Country Girl]

Thanks for your thoughts Jill. We actually take the ITBS to meet state hs requirements but the MAP test was an extra test that was required to determine TAG eligibility. After talking with the school counselor, I think the only reason to have him take the MAP test again would be to maintain his eligibility for TAG if we want to do that in the future.

Thanks!