Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment CoGat Question

We recently moved cross county and DS9's new school district has a GATE program. I thought this would be a great opportunity as he had few opportunities for enrichment in school back in Southern CA.

He was tested with WISC-IV when he was 6 when we were trying to figure out why 1st grade (public school) was causing his intense distress. Long story short- we grade skipped him that Fall into 2nd and it was a fairly successful solution to the problem. He still complained about "challenge," but his overall feelings about school improved. After the skip, he continued to perform at the top of grade level expectations.

Fast forward to 5th grade in a new state. The WISC-IV scores from three years ago are not valid. For consideration into the GATE program, they administered the CoGat and Naglieri.

I haven't seen the results, but the program coordinator said his CoGat scores were Verbal: 95% Quantitative: 92% Nonverbal: 92% (they are looking for score 96% or better for program)

Here are the questions:
Is the CoGat test age specific or grade specific? Would the grade skip matter in the results?

His GAI when he took the WISC-IV (when he was 6 1/2) was 143 (99.8%) with his PRI score 145 and VCI score 126. He succeeds academically with little to no effort and we certainly have dealt with many of the intensities and issues that are shared experience when raising a "highly gifted" child. To me, his CoGat scores do not seem to be a good reflection of his abilities? Have others had this experience with the CoGat?

He said there was a fire drill during the testing day- but other than that, nothing else seemed off.

There is a nearby university that has a psychology dept. that administers ability testing (WISC, SB) for reasonable fees. Is it worth getting an "up to date" WISC? I tend to worry about "over advocating" - but on the flip side, being a military family, our kids have to endure moves, breaks in education and lots of life challenges...

I don't want to stress over one test, however I'm a little confused over the results, especially if they are a factor that excludes DS9 from services. Thoughts?

You mentioned his GAI. I'm assuming that the WMI and PSI were significantly lower than the VCI and PRI. The CogAT is a tightly timed test, so a kid with processing speed issues could run into problems finishing. Also, if they gave the test at grade level (meaning the test intended for 5th graders), just a few silly errors will bring the percentile rank down below the cutoff.

A lot of us on here have kids whose WISC-IV scores are much higher than their CogAT scores.

Will your district accept a WISC result from an outside tester? Ours won't even accept one from their own psychologists--it's the CogAT or nothing.

I'd retest.

Last spring the school did the CCAT (the Canadian name for the CoGat) for DS for entrance into a gifted program and at the same time we did the WISC privately to follow up on some LD related issues. DS's scores were way lower on the CCAT than they were on the WISC. The WISC matches our experience and gut feel for him.

I don't have studies to back this up but I have heard that the CCAT was not the best for kids with lower processing speed and/or 2E kids so I wasn't shocked but there was another kid in the same situation that is more evenly gifted and not 2E and his CCAT scores were way lower as well. Luckily the program allowed them to use their WISC scores to qualify.

If you browse the forum, you'll find that many people have had similar experiences.

The CogAT is normally scored by age, so the grade skip should not have affected his standard scores/percentiles. However, it is not uncommon for children with high cognitive ability to perform lower than expected on the CogAT. This is why the publishers carefully call it an aptitude test, rather than a cognitive/intellectual ability assessment (despite the name).

If a WISC-V (latest revision) would potentially provide him with access to more appropriate services, then it may be worthwhile to your family to have one administered. BTW, it's not that the age 6 WISC-IV is no longer valid, more that it's not accepted by this program for admission. It is also true that scores from early childhood are less stable than those from his current age.

DD had slow processing speed on the WISC IV but her GAI was 150. Her CogAT scores were pretty terrible. She did well on the verbal section, because she finished it, but the other sections were not even close to complete (because the test was timed) and she was in the average range for Quant and Non-verbal. Meanwile her perceptual reasoning index on the WISC was 147 and her math achievement testing (untimed) that the school gives was well above the 99th percentile. The teacher took these results from the CogAT and concluded that she is a student with high verbal ability who needs greater challenge in reading, but she must be weak in math and non-verbal reasoning! The WISC had showed the opposite, she was 99th percentile for both verbal and non-verbal, but the non-verbal score was the highest.

We were given a score report which stated the number of questions attempted, number correct, etc. See if you can access that. If he didn't finish the test, then you have a case for him needing to be re-tested on a different instrument (esp. if he had slow processing on the WISC).

We decided to go for retesting with WISC-iv, mainly because I'm fine with advocating for him for academic services, but I like to have numbers on my side.

For those of us that like data, it should be interesting to get the results. He was tested in CA by a PH.D that specializes is gifted children. Today in VA, it was a doctoral student at a local university. It will be interesting to see if things vary over the three year span. He has studied music intensely the last three years and also the grade skip could have potentially exposed him to a more enriched environment. Logic would dictate that scores would remain in a similar range or slightly improve. However, I know that these types of tests are just a picture of ability and subject to variation. I will just have to wait and see.