Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment I think he rushed through the CoGat and blew it!

I've known kids that
a) Haven't score high enough on Cogat, and did the next time
b) That haven't scored high enough on COgat, but a psych administered WISC and the child was DEFINITELY gifted
c) Hit high 90's on one section and 4% on another section.

A child may or may not do well with Cogat. I wish schools offered another option like portfolio.
Tammy

Our county does this, although I don't think they regard it as a separate option. There is a rubric something like '2 out of 5' areas they collect info in have to show exceeds peer group by 2 grade levels or deviations depending on whether they are looking at school work achievement tests, iq tests or outside-of-school work samples collected. And then I think at least one other area has to show exceeds, but not as high.
I know some places this is not true, but it certainly pays to ask. And keep asking until you are really speaking with the folks who know: the gifted teachers and assessment folks and program administrators.

Last year my ds came very close on some testing, scored really high on reading assessments and I was offered the option of sending in more info to support their assessment for the k-3 program. I brought in a bunch of his outside 'creative' work in and this does seemed to have helped his situation. Some of it was "real" writing, but also a bunch of drawings, paper constructions and other stuff, it all had a sort of story-telling theme going on.

Anyway, I like to share this in case there are folks out there wondering about this fuzzy area of id'ing.

My son has some amazing drawings and writings... I like the idea of a test to screen kids who might not be seen as gifted, and I like the NNAT for that. I was a Visual spatial kid and kind of languished in school for awhile (middle school?).

But I also think that individual IQ tests should be done by the school. My goodness, the kids will be there forever, why not invest a bit in our kids and find out about them?

And portfolios... as a third option/ piece of the pie.

I think I can appeal if he didn't do well on the test. I'd like to not have to do that, but I will. I wonder how long it takes to hear back from them?

Thanks for all the replies! It helps to hear that other kids didn't do well on this test.

Merry Christmas! Here are your test scores!!! We got the COGAT's and I should be beaming but am a little disappointed. I can say this out loud here. She only got a 135 in the Verbal section. I am surprised. Here nonverbal scores we much lower - 128 and 126. The overall was 132. She clearly did very well but.... My DH reminds me that she was sick that week and we considered keeping her home and probably would have but retesting is a MAJOR hassle so we figured what the heck. So we now have a NNAT of 135 and a COGAT Verbal of 135. Should be enough to get her in - fingers crossed. Now I can start worrying about the SCAT I signed her up for

Thank you Dottie. As I said fingers crossed. I have heard the cutoff for this year is 134 so we should be good. Happy Holidays!

I think 135 on the CogAT is pretty good. The CogAT is just a screener and it is not at all good at distinguishing between MG and HG+, as I understand it. I mean, it makes the WISC and the SB-5--which aren't really intended to distinguish--look like fabulous tools for it!

I don't think you need to be disappointed in anything but the test itself on this! Her performance is strong.

The cogat is a screener only and whether he rushed it or not, did well or not does not help determone if he is gifted. My 158 IQ son scored in the 25% in his last Cogat. He, on the full WISC was in the 99.9%. We had to fight them on that due to his visual processing LD, he will never do well on a Cogat or any other group standardized test. Be careful of results on things like COGATS, they mean very little for some kids.

Well, they didn't mail out the results of the test, but something about him qualified for TAG. I don't know if it was his work samples or teacher recommendation, or his test scores, but he is in the TAG program and now it is time for IEP.

Thanks for the support! Now we go on to stage II and either stay at this school if they can step up and meet his needs, or switch schools.

Wonderful news! Thanks for the update and congrats to DS! Here's hoping TAG ends up meeting his needs.

Neato

Yes, congrats! We are supposed to get cogat results at the end of this month, I think. It would be sweet to just get a letter stating ds was 'in' instead, but I *bet* it won't go that way. I am pretty sure they collect data/work samples throughout the year and send any program updates in the summer for our county.