Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion gender distribution in gifted programs?

DD is in a program for "highly gifted" where they require CogAT composite scores over the 98th percentile plus math or reading above-level achievement scores that are around the 98th percentile (preferably both math and reading above the 98th percentile). DD's class is made up of 2/3 boys (and it's a large class--we're not talking 15 kids, I think it's 25-30). I think that the other classes are like that as well. Can anyone think of why this would be? Do boys do better on the CogAT in 2nd-4th grade (when most of these kids took it)?
I would have expected it to be the other way around, with more girls being the high achievers at that age, since they require high achievement scores. It just seems strange, and not particularly fair. They want to now do away with the non-verbal section of the CogAT, or at least not put nearly as much weight on it as the other two sections, and I wonder if the gender imbalance has something to do with it.

Do they give the Cogat to all the students or just those recommended for the program by teachers or parents?

Our G&T program also uses the CogAT, as well as other testing. It also seems to be surprisingly boy-heavy. All students are given the grade-level CogAT, and it is used as part of a screener before a second level of testing. Our program also already gives, but doesn't use/puts less weight on the non-verbal section of the CogAT.

According to some old Auburn University study I saw boys do better than girls on the CogAT between 2nd and 4th and after 6th grade. Between 4th and 6th grade girls do better. it did also say boys do better on the non verbal section of the test.

Our program admission is cog + achievement. Our program used to be heavily girls when cog score came from the Test of Cognitive Skills. They changed to the InView a few years ago, and DS's class is now 11 boys and ONE girl. They know there are problems with the selection process (but no one will tell me what the current ratios are across the district).... and so are contemplating a switch to CogAT.

I'd love to know if there are data on gender difference in identifying the 95+ percentile range on the CogAT.

Is this the link to the Auburn study:
http://www.auburn.edu/~jml0035/index_files/Lohman_Lakin_BJEP09.pdf

Interesting details in that one especially looking at the upper and lower stanines. The following study also addresses the question of gender discrepancies in performance on the COGAT, again looking at the tails.

http://www.academia.edu/7561923/Sex...ve_reasoning_distribution_have_increased

In our district, the gifted program used to skew toward having many more males than females in the lower grades--using similar selection criteria (COGAT + achievement). The principal at the time attributed this gender bias to the idea that bored boys tend to be more disruptive than bored girls, which leads the parents of the disruptive boys to choose to enroll them in the gifted program. She also thought that parents were more comfortable busing their young sons to the other side of the city to enroll in the program. By 5th grade, the gender ratio in the program tended to be more balanced. The program now seems more equally split between males and females, but that might be due to the fact that it is now located at multiple sites in different areas of the city.

howdy, they give it to those who are at achievement scores of 91st percentile or above, although they want to move this percentile up to include fewer kids. They also will do testing if a parent or teacher recommends a child, since if they get a high enough score on JUST ability/IQ testing (well over the 99th percentile) they don't need achievement scores.
Basically they are giving the CogAT because they are getting money from the State for identification purposes, but they want to give it to as few kids as possible. Then they have rigid cut scores for entry into the highly gifted program.

I wonder if this non-verbal gender difference exists on the WISC too? I wasn't able to pull up the linked report. I think the quantitative section of the CogAT is really dumb and they are just going to identify kids who are fluent with their math facts.

I don't know how your program works but if it is something that kids/parents choose to attend I have a possible theory based on my experience with my DS and DD.

DS clearly doesn't fit well in an average classroom and when he doesn't have a good fit he doesn't hide it. We have had many, many discussions with teachers about his behavior over the years. I would move mountains to find a better fit for him and have him ride a bus across town, rearrange my work schedule and give up him going to school with the neighborhood kids (which is something that is pretty important to us).

Now I don't have scores for DD but we've had more comments about her being smart/gifted than we've ever had about DS. School is way too easy but she handles it in a completely different way. Knowing what I know about gifted education I would probably move her if I could but I don't have the same urgency that I have with DS. I could easily see many parents in the same boat not choosing to move their kid to a program if they are compliant teacher pleasers such as my DD.

Now I realize that not all boys are like my DS and not all girls are like my DD but I know quite a few others that would follow the same general pattern. Perhaps there are more girls that qualify but simply don't attend?