Eligibility

Often when a family is asking this question, the student has scored above the 95th percentile on the i-Ready or ITBS, but not on the CogAT. Many of our students are high-achieving, but do not demonstrate the kind of abstract thinking and reasoning skills that indicate a student is gifted/highly capable and in need of different instruction than that provided in our general education program. The abstract reasoning assessed by the CogAT is correlated to giftedness and success in the Highly Capable Program and students who are high-achieving are not necessarily highly capable.

Reasoning skills, especially abstract reasoning skills, develop gradually throughout a person’s lifetime and at different rates for each individual.  Many of our students in early grades have not developed these abilities yet. The CogAT measures this type of thinking as it is a good predictor of success in the Highly Capable Program, but is not an achievement test and does not measure what students have learned.  The CogAT also does not measure factors such as effort, attention, motivation, and work habits, which also contribute significantly to school achievement.

If your student is performing at grade level in other assessments or school work and teachers feel your student is learning well and making progress, your student is likely not in need of any support to succeed in the classroom.

If you are interested in strengthening abstract reasoning abilities, providing visual or spatial puzzles, working on making connections between ideas, and recognizing patterns are all activities that help develop this type of thinking.

Many students have inconsistent score profiles. This indicates that a student has a strength or aptitude in one particular area. This is not uncommon, and it is why Shoreline now identifies and serves students in a single area.

For younger students, their cognitive development may be proceeding more rapidly in one area than another and may become more consistent as the student continues to grow and develop. Many of our younger students have higher scores in one area than in the other or have higher scores on academic achievement tests than on the CogAT. Developmentally, high-achieving students may not have developed the ability for abstract reasoning yet.

The appeals process is designed for families who believe that there was a specific circumstance that prevented their student from performing up to their ability during the testing session. Families receive information about appeals when they are notified of their student’s eligibility for services.

Any family can choose to have their child participate in the winter testing window. Registration for this testing typically occurs in December and can be found on the Highly Capable section of the district website.

Families of students with uneven score profiles or whose student qualifies in only one area often retest the following year.