My child's school uses locally normed CoGat scores as the qualification for entrance into the gifted program. The requirement is 93% local scores. I have friends with children who made the program (1 or 2 years ago) with national age scores of 98%, the score my child received in both verbal and quantitative this year. This year, however, those national scores only translated to a local score of 90%. I imagine the school feels this year's test was "easier" locally and thus it is fair to exclude students who have the same scores as admitted students from years past? My initial reaction is that seems unfair, but I truly want to hear and consider other perspectives on this!
Also, am I correct in thinking the local norming is done by figuring how many local students score 99% nationally, and then, for example if it is 3%, those students all receive a 97% local score? If 6% score 98%, then their local percentile would be 91%? Is that correct? Any insight as to how the local percentile is calculated is appreciated!
