Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cogat question

Hi. My child's school used the cogat as part of her testing to enter the gifted program. She came back a 9e (n-) with 99 q, 97v, 69 nonverbal, 98 composite. They used the new cogat.

This fall she was retested with a different cogat test with her peers. Her scores this time were 98q, 98nonverbal, 79 verbal 98 composite. Her profile was 9b (v-).

This confuses me. I asked the school how her verbal and nonverbal could flip flop like that, and was told not to worry, she did awesome.

An aside: her profile says she should be working several grades ahead in math. Her school does not use the profiles and her teacher had never heard of me. . I asked about this at an RTI meeting and was told "oh yes, she could do it. She excels in math" but that the school preferred not to do it, because the higher grade class tended to not accept the younger learner as their peer. Any thoughts here? She is the youngest in her class already, as she is a. Preemie with an August birthday (adjusted birthdate would put her in the grade prior).

The CogAT is a SUPER SHORT group test. Missing a single question can lower your score by several percentage points. It's pretty easy for their scores to fluctuate on that test.

If you feel the school should be doing something different/more with her, I'd encourage further testing with a test that can give you more information - the WISC, Woodcock-Johnson, the Kaufman tests, etc.

ITA with amy, and will add that the CogAT is also a timed test - that may be why you'd see the lower scores. I'm not sure if you can get the info, but you might want to ask if your dd attempted all the questions or ran out of time.

Re math, one thing you can ask the school about is differentiation within her grade level. They might not like you asking, but I'd ask if there are any other students with similar profiles who could be working ahead in math if they had the opportunity. I am guessing that in a gifted program there should be at least a few of those kids Having a small group of students id'd as needing "something more" may give you the momentum to push for differentiation or other options.

Best wishes,

polarbear