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

Hello. My child just finished third grade. In our school district, there is no gifted program but there is a class for children that need to be pushed at a faster rate. They have changed their admission policies this year to base ELA acceptance solely on CogAT verbal, CogAT nonverbal, and MAP percentiles. For CogAT, they use the grade percentile now, NOT the age percentile. My child is younger in the grade. Her CogAT age percentile for verbal would have allowed her acceptance, but her CogAT grade percentile for verbal, which was two percentile points lower, is holding her back from the program.

Does anyone have any experience or insight as to age versus grade percentiles? Everything I have read has stated that kids younger in the grade will likely have a higher age percentile than great percentile and kids older in the grade will likely have a higher grade percentile than eight percentile. That hardly seems fair.

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

That is correct: students who are young for grade will have higher age percentiles than grade percentiles, and students who are old for grade will have higher grade percentiles than age percentiles.

Fairness is another issue. On the one hand, it may be more equitable to make the adjustment for age, if the program is selecting based on native ability/presumed rate of learning. On the other hand, using grade percentiles levels the playing field based on instructional exposure, which might make sense if the program is more focused on pure achievement. Or one could use either or both as a selection tool, which would cast the broadest net. So it depends on the objectives of the program and resulting selection process.

My DD10 has taken the CogAT twice (several years apart, as it is normally scheduled) and we never found out the age vs. grade on her second test, but we did see both for her first. DD is on the young end of her grade. For Q & N, her age percentiles were very slightly higher than the grade percentiles. For the V and the composite, however, the percentiles were identical.

I understand why it doesn't seem fair, but I think whether it is a good plan on your school's part really depends on the program and what it is attempting to do. Let's face it - our "younger" kiddos received some "extra challenge" the first day they walked into school and were learning the very same thing as the "older" kids. If the goal is to identify gifted kids and challenge them, then your school's plan is poor - they will miss some "younger" gifted students. But if the plan is very utilitarian - to challenge those who the regular school program is not already challenging...more of those needing challenge might just be the students who are already older for their grade.

I feel your frustration!

Our district also uses both the CogAT and MAP scores. For the CogAT, our district uses the Local Percentile (Local grade score, they don't report the regular grade percentile) rather than the age percentiles. If the age percentiles were used, DS would easily qualify but he didn't get in because the Local Percentiles were as much as 15 percentiles LOWER!

DS's CogAT Quantitative was at the 97% for age but only 82% for local grade. His Math MAP score was at the 97%national/92%local (only need 85% local MAP) but the LOCAL quantitative CogAT is keeping him out of the advanced math. Never mind that he already knows everything (and more) that they will be teaching next year.