I think Cogat can be fine but not as a stand alone test for identification. Many schools try to use it as their Identifying test for GT programs. It should only be one piece of the puzzle to make decisions.
I believe that our arguing with the district was what changed their policy about the CogAT being the one ability test they would take. Without it, that one district wouldn't id a child. The other district locally has always been much, much more liberal substituting things like parental scales for the ability scores. We were told by more than one person at dd10's prior school that her CogAT scores, which were high-ish, but not GT, proved that multiple IQ tests were wrong and due to good guessing. This district has now moved the way of the other one using all kinds of things, including IQ scores, as possible substitutes. It seems to be too much one way or the other though -- seriously strict gate keepers who think that the CogAT is a better identifier of giftedness than an IQ test or very liberal in the definition and taking everything from rating scales to signs of leadership as qualifying for a GT id.
I don't doubt that there are some very, very able children who test well on the CogAT. My dd's combo of ADD, anxiety, and out of the box thinking didn't play well into what it was testing. Like mentioned, she'd see the kiwi over the carrot for some reason that seems very valid when she explains it but which cannot be explained on a multiple choice test. I know that there are those here who disagree with me on this one, but I do still question whether it is testing intellectual or academic ability. Just b/c some gifted kids test as gifted on the CogAT doesn't mean that it is testing giftedness. It may just correlate well with the type of "g" some gifted kids have and not the areas of "g" possessed by others. I still hold to my belief that there are kids who are getting scores in the 90s on parts of the CogAT who would not test nearly so high on an IQ test and not b/c the IQ test is an underestimation.
