Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Cogat interpretation needed.

Hi.

My second grade daughter recently tested at Verbal: 129 and NonVerbal: 130 for her Cogat. She is in the school's gifted program, but I'm wondering if I can do more, as she said that school is boring.

She has a gentle and compliant nature, so I don't see her rebelling at school (yet ) but I thought I might get her tested again. She takes piano lessons with me and this provides her with a good challenge.

She loves to read (Harry Potter, the fifth book, for e.g.), and invent/build things out of stuff she finds round the house.
I know her scores indicate she is only moderately gifted, but she is still way beyond most of the kids in her grade!

Thanks

What are you hoping to do more with school? at home activities?

I don't really know yet. I was hoping someone could tell me what percentile of kids her scores are in. Then I'll be able to make an informed decision.

I doubt I will be able to do more through her public school, though it's supposed to be pretty good.

Actually, the CogAT isn't able to distinguish levels of giftedness very well; in fact, a lot of the time it isn't even able to identify giftedness at all (but that's another topic).

Thanks Cricket,

Your info was very useful. Has your daughter been identified as gifted? Are you getting help from your school?

Kai, thanks for the input. My daughter's preK teacher, who has a PhD in education, identified her as gifted when she was 4 and reading at a fourth grade level. That was the first I heard of it.

My daughter was adopted from a Russian orphanage at age 9 months. Her Cogats and other indicators are even more remarkable when you consider she pretty much had no stimulation the first year of her life. I have no doubt that my daughter is gifted, I just want to figure out how much.

Any thoughts as to what testing I should proceed with? Or should I just continue to give her advanced books, piano lessons at home? What do you do with your kids? I am a single mom raising two adopte daughters -- we are not financially well-off, and as a gifted kid myself with the extra compassion quotient, I give alot of money to charity (more than 10%)!

Hi Cricket,

Thanks for sharing all the personal info about your DD -- I guess that's all I want to do: share and compare. I don't think I'll do further testing, though I guess she could try for the EXPLORE in another year.

My daughter is somewhat bored by regular schoolwork and enjoys her pull-out work (she gets pulled out for reading and math) more. She got into a gifted and talented camp last summer, and doubtless will be invited back this summer.

Most likely we will wait until middle school like you. Another possibility: online learning through Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development. It starts as early as third grade.
The courses sound like a lot of fun!

I have thoroughly researched this test when my DD took it last year and most schools rely more heavily on this test for identification than most other standardized tests. If you research, you can find out the correlation of the accuracy of this test compared to many other tests. The important thing to remember is that the CogAT is NOT an IQ test. It does give you a score that is similar to an IQ, but it is NOT an IQ. For one, it is a group administered test. In fact, the child would probably score BETTER on an individual test, vs. a group one, so you most likely have accurate, but slightly lower scores that you'd expect from a one on one test. Each subtest has a stanine associated with it. Some school may give you the whole report, some schools may give you part, and some schools won't give yu the results at all unless you go in an ask to see them with the prinicipal, and even then, may only tell you partial info. there is a lot to learn from the results of this based on the child's learning needs and how they learn best, however, I sorta feel like many school don't really utilize the imformation as well as they should.

I'm a different "cricket" so as not the confuse -- hopefully ! My youngest dd had radically different scores on the CogAT vs. WISC. She was tested twice on the WISC with IQ scores in the 99.9th and the 97th respectively. I don't know why those were so divergent. On the CogAT, she was in the mid 80s (I don't recally the exact percentile) for the composite score.

It seems that dd's confidence level makes a big difference on how she tests and the teacher who administered the CogAT didn't think that dd was that bright -- she told us so regularly. They also had people walking in and out of the room during the test which I imagine was a distraction. The second lower WISC was given right after that bad school year. Although I can't see testing the kiddo on IQ tests over and over, I suspect that she'd come out higher if she were retested after a better school year.

In your instance, her CogAT scores probably sound to the school like she is a moderately gifted type of kid (98th percentile), which is the type of kid they expect to be able to serve in a gifted program. This is probably why they don't think that she needs anything different. However, as others have mentioned, the CogAT really should be viewed more as a screening tool than an identification tool. She is gifted, but how gifted is unlikely to be ferreted out by the CogAT. Further testing on an IQ test or achievement scores that indicate where she falls may give you better evidence as to what she needs to be engaged.

I think that the EXPLORE may be a good idea as well b/c it is cheap and may give you some idea as to what she can do with hard, above level achievement tests.

Dottie, I'm curious. I know that individually administered IQ tests are not multiple choice like the CogAT. Your comment about "like any test... can probably also score high," do you believe that one can score too high on an IQ test as well (assuming no tester error)?

You guys are awesome; I "weally weally appweciate it" -- thanks!

Cricket2: re: testing lower with an unsympathetic teacher. DD8 was tested orally for reading in first grade with a teacher she did not hit it off with (the teacher said she fidgeted too much in class, and DD8 SHRINKS from people who do not like her) and her teacher started giving her easy-peasy first grade books to read. I gritted my teeth and finally got her retested, at which point she moved onto a different level (still too easy, but better than before). Then she was tested on the Naglieri, and started getting pulled out for math and reading. (Do not know those scores; our school district only tells you if you made it into the G&T program or not).