Qualification
In November of each year, the State Department of Education provided testing for students in grade two to determine their eligibility for Gifted and Talented Programs. The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, an achievement test, and The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), and aptitude test, are administered. As soon as results are available in mid-January, parents are notified of their child’s performance on these tests.
Beginning in grade three, students who meet the state criteria may be placed in the academically gifted and talented program. This program is called "Challenge" in Greenville County.
At the elementary level, Challenge is a pull-out program. In third grade, students attend Challenge for at least 125 minutes each week. Students in grades four and five attend Challenge for at least 200 minutes per week.
Each school receives a Challenge teacher based upon the number of qualified students in that school. Students are taught in classes with a teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 20 or less.
To find out more about this wonderful program please follow this link to our district site:
http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/Departments/main.asp?titleid=acad_gifted
Qualifying Chart
Qualifying for Gifted and Talented in SC
All second grade students are given the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and the Iowa. (updated 10/07/2022)
A student may qualify for Challenge if the child’s composite aptitude test score is 96NP (National Percentile) or greater. In this case, no other scores are required. Otherwise,
● Student must have one qualifying item in two different dimensions (AB, BC, AC).
● Grades are not used until the end of elementary school. At the end of fifth grade, a student’s GPA of 3.75 (3 A’s and 1 B) or greater meets the criteria for Dimension C, Performance.
● Only students who are partially qualified (have a qualifying score in one dimension) will be retested.
● Private testing is not accepted for identification and placement of students for our gifted and talented programs.
● There are no parental overrides for admission into gifted classes.
● Students from another state who have participated in gifted classes must meet the state GT criteria for SC. There are several states from which students with documentation of GT service can enter our GT program: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, and Department of Defense Schools
Dimension A
Dimension B
Dimension C
Aptitude
Achievement
Performance
Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) or another approved aptitude test
APR is the Age Percentile Rank. This is the SC criteria.
MAP, Iowa, SC state testing (SC Ready) or another SDE approved nationally
normed achievement test
Performance Tasks Test
GPA at end of 5th grade and beyond
Composite (Total) 96% APR automatically qualifies student. Otherwise, 2 areas of the criteria must be met to qualify.
Math 94NP or higher (grade 2: Total Math; other grades: Math Problem Solving )
Grade 2: 16/20 in Verbal or Nonverbal
Verbal 93 APR or higher
Reading Comprehension
94NP or higher
Grade 3: 18/20 in Verbal or Nonverbal
Nonverbal 93 APR or higher
Specific Scores on SC Ready ELA or Math (to be decided each year)
Grade 4: 16/20 in Verbal or 22/28 in Nonverbal
Quantitative 93 APR or higher
GR ELA 2022 Math 2022
3 608 615
4 672 640
5 701 683
Grade 5: 18/20 in Verbal or 25/28 in Nonverbal
Composite 93 APR or higher
6 711 680
7 760 686
8 775 714
End of Grade 5 through 12th grade: GPA of 3.75 or greater in core subjects from most recent EOY report card