We use these assessments to help us identify our gifted students combined with additional data collection.
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WCPSS looks specifically at the Age Percentile Rank for identification in the gifted program. Scores of 95th percentile and higher on the CogAt and/or IOWA automatically qualify students for gifted services. Verbal scores correlate with reading while Quantitative and Nonverbal correlate with Math.
About the CogAt Test:
About the CogAt Test:
The CogAT measures general thinking and problem-solving skills and indicates how well the student uses these skills to solve verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal problems. The skills and abilities measured by the CogAT develop gradually throughout a person’s lifetime, but individuals vary in the rates at which they develop the skills. Because these abilities are closely related to an individual’s success in school, test results may be used in planning effective instructional programs. In combination with other relevant information about a student, scores can be used to adapt instruction in ways that enhance the student’s success in learning. The CogAT is one assessment of many that will assist school personnel in instructional planning.
The CogAT is comprised of three batteries. Scores from these three batteries yield a partial composite and composite score (total of the three subtest batteries and indicates the overall variety and strength of the student’s cognitive resources for learning). A brief description of each battery follows:
- Verbal Battery: The three subtests on the Verbal Battery appraise verbal inductive and deductive reasoning skills, as well as flexibility, fluency, and adaptability in working with verbal materials and solving verbal problems. This cluster of verbal reasoning abilities plays an important role in developing skills in reading comprehension, critical thinking, writing, and virtually all verbal learning tasks.
- Quantitative Battery: The three subtests on the Quantitative Battery appraise deductive and inductive reasoning skills as well as flexibility and fluency in working with quantitative symbols and concepts. Successful performance on these subtests requires that students have a variety of strategies for working with quantitative materials. The reasoning skills appraised by this battery are significantly related to high-level problem solving not only in mathematics but also in other disciplines.
- Nonverbal Battery: The three subtests on the Nonverbal Battery present the most novel problems to students. The items on these subtests use only geometric shapes and figures and require no reading and no outside fund of knowledge. All these items appraise general inductive reasoning skills as well as flexibility and fluency in using and adapting cognitive strategies.
Your child’s performance on this assessment is compared to that of other students in the same age group. The standard age scores represent your child’s performance in each of the subtest batteries and in the composite.
About the IOWA Test:
About the IOWA Test:
The Iowa Assessments (Iowa) consists of a number of educational achievement subtests designed to measure growth in fundamental areas of school achievement including reading comprehension and mathematics. The purpose of measurement is to provide information that can be used to improve instruction and learning. Assessment of any kind has value to the extent that it results in better decisions for students. In general, these decisions apply to choosing goals for instruction and learning strategies to achieve those goals, designing effective classroom environments, and meeting the diverse needs and characteristics of students.
The Iowa Assessments Survey Battery was administered recently to your child and enclosed is the profile of scores for your child.
Reading: The Iowa Assessments Reading test contains passages that vary in length from a few lines to a full page. Both literary passages and informational passages are included. Many of the passages are excerpts from previously published works. A significant number of questions may require students to draw inferences or to generalize about what they have read.
Mathematics: In the Iowa Assessments Mathematics test students must demonstrate an understanding of Mathematics concepts, relationships, visual representations, and problem solving. The questions deal with number sense and operations, algebraic patterns and connections, data analysis, probability, statistics, geometry, and measurement.
Your child’s score profile shows the percentile rank in both of the achievement areas. The percentile rank is a national percentile (NPR) showing your child’s performance on each subtest as compared with that of other students in the same grade level across the nation. The NPR is the score most often used to reflect your child’s performance and to assist with educational planning. The graph to the right of the scores provides a visual display of your child’s performance on each test relative to the other test areas. The NPRs for the various scores permit identification of the student’s stronger and weaker areas of achievement.
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