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About the Cognitive Abilities Test
As part of CFCI’s universal screening and gifted identification processes, the CogAT will be administered to all 2nd graders in the spring of each school year. This assessment indicates the level and pattern of cognitive development of a student in comparison to their grade and age-level peers.
Cognitive ability refers to a student’s readiness to learn in different situations and environments and demonstrate creative problem-solving skills. Unlike a traditional achievement test, which measures how well a student has mastered the curriculum, the CogAT shows us how well a child can reason abstractly and identify patterns and relationships in the world around them.
The CogAT measures reasoning in three areas that are based on the most important ways students and teachers communicate in the classroom: Verbal, Nonverbal, and Quantitative. Students take three subtests in each domain and are given a specific amount of time to work though each subtest independently. The entire CogAT takes a total of about three hours to administer and is typically scheduled over three days (approx. one hour each day).
CFCI has explicitly chosen to universally assess for aptitude with the CogAT Level 8 in 2nd grade because this level of test consists of images and figures, with instructions that are read aloud by a teacher. Students choose an answer for each question from a selection of images, therefore not requiring students to read as part of any of the subtests. This level of test thus provides more equitable access for all students, particularly our twice-exceptional and multilingual learners.
Following testing, families will receive their child's CogAT score report. The test results show your child’s ranking within the national percentile for verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning. A percentile rank is not the same as the percent correct (i.e. percentile rank of 60 would mean that the student scored at or higher than 60% of students who are the same age).
A CogAT ability profile captures both the patterns and level of a student’s scores on the three CogAT batteries. It includes a student’s median age stanine (their median level of reasoning ability), score pattern indicator, and relative strengths and weaknesses. The ability profile assists with locating specific instructional suggestions for helping the students learn based on the student’s CogAT scores.
For more information on how to interpret your child’s Ability Profile, please visit the Interactive Ability Profile Interpretation System. At this website, you can input your child’s score profile and then read a brief description of their learned reasoning abilities as well as instructional suggestions.
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