Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cogats score

Hello,
I just received my dd9 Cogats scores in the mail. Her scores significantly dropped since the last time she was tested in first grade. She is already in a gifted program based on IQ testing and I know this shouldn't effect anything, but I was really curious to know how that could happen.
Last time she tested she was in the well above average range and in the upper extreme in non-verbal. Now all her scores are in the above average category.
Anyone have any ideas?

We've seen wild fluctuations even in IQ scores with my dd9. Her CogAT scores also are above avg (about 1 SD or so), but extremely far below her IQ scores and she had totally different strengths and weaknesses btwn the two tests.

I think that the more important questions are:

Why did they retest her on the CogAT? Does it matter for anything in terms of school placement, etc.?

and

How is she doing with her current placement? If she is performing well in the GT classes, I'd assume that it is a good fit regardless of one score saying that she is not qualified. If you think that she needs more than the programming she is in (acceleration, etc.), then I'd look at doing above level testing for achievement to see what she knows.

I do believe that ability matters. Children who don't have gifted ability probably shouldn't be skipping grades for instance, but some children are just inconsistent on tests. I've been told by at least one GT professional that it is better to assume that the higher score is more accurate b/c you are less likely to guess well enough to test beyond your ability than you are to have a bad day and test lower than you are able.

The school tests everyone in 1st and 3rd grade as part of identifying children for the gifted program..although barely anyone makes it in. I think she has 4 kids in her gifted pull out class. She is doing fine in her placement. Her grades are good except for below average spelling and pretty average reading ability.
She does not need acceleration. Her strengths are artistic mostly and show in her creativity.
She has had issues with Anxiety and I was worrying (LOL) if maybe that effected her test results.

The CogAT undergoes a huge format change between first and third grades.

The first grade test is untimed, the teacher reads the entire test to the students (there are no words to read on the test), and students mark their answers directly in the test booklet. The second grade test is also like this.

Starting with the third grade, the test is timed (and pretty tightly timed), requires reading, and the students mark their answers on a separate answer sheet.

Do you have the actual score sheet? If so, it says how many questions were on the test, how many were attempted, and how many were correct. If she wasn't able to finish the test, that will have a huge impact on her score even if she got every question that she answered correct.

Can I just chime in here that I don't like the Cogat? My DYS daughter takes it every year (stupid school) and has ranged from the 85% to the 95% while her IQ is clearly above the 99.9.
For the H/PG population, it does not seem to be a good test.

Kai, I don't have the actual score sheet.
Elizabethmom, I think I am beginning to hate this test too! My son scored really high in 3rd grade and I had to fight to have him IQ tested for the gifted program at school. His IQ scores came out only a little above average even though he started doing multiplication, division, neg numbers, etc in kindergarten. My daughter who was in 1st at the time scored a little below him on the cogats yet when her IQ score came back she was "gifted". They had 2 different psychs test them. I know usually siblings are pretty close in IQ but their scores were pretty far apart. I think they were off either that or one of the dr.s were off.
Now she gets only a slightly above average Cogats and I start to wonder...Our district puts so much importance on those tests. They use those results to determine who should be IQ tested for the gifted program. If she hadn't tested high the first time on the cogats she never would have been IQ tested.
I am just venting. My son seems to be content at being in the top of his class and not in the gifted pull out and my daughter seems to be getting that little bit extra that she needs from the gifted program.
I am just confused by these tests that don't seem to synch with the kids.