DD has similar WISC scores and similarly bad CogAT scores in 2nd grade because of her ADHD and processing speed issues. Do you have an actual report from the CogAT? Our district mailed out a report and I was able to see that the problem with the CogAT was NOT that she was answering questions incorrectly, but that she did not finish the test. For the Quant Section, for instance, she only attempted 32 of the 60 questions. She was very accurate on what she DID do, leading to an average score, but obviously leaving almost half the questions blank is not going to lead to a score in the 98th-99th percentile. When I talked to the people in the district I kept emphasizing that the test was UNFINISHED due to her ADHD and speed issues. Ultimately they used outside WISC scores. Since their encounters with me, they now apparently offer modifications to kids who have IEPs or 504s, such as no time limit, testing individually rather than in a group, circling answers in the booklet rather than bubbling, etc. If that had been an option back when DD was tested, I think she would have done fine. Except for the fact that she had no 504 because the teacher thought she was "perfect" and the school refused to write one saying that she wasn't impaired. But that's another story. I also noticed that on the CogAT report, her ability profile was listed as 7E which indicates huge gaps between scores. The district should flag profiles like that and immediately offer alternate testing, but they do not. They just want something to plug into their system and flowchart. Luckily, DD's verbal score was high enough (since she finished that section) that they DID actually identify her as gifted, but not gifted enough to get in the "highly gifted" program, so that's why we had to have the WISC.
I would never again allow the CogAT testing on DD if it is timed because I don't think there's any way to get her speed up enough to get an accurate result. Whenever there is any kind of timed test she actually slows down more due to anxiety.
