A Multidisciplinary Placement Committee (MDPC) made up of teachers, specialists, and administrators reviews multiple indicators of a student’s aptitude and achievement, not just test scores, to determine whether the student is in need of Highly Capable Services. Shoreline School District does not use “cut scores” to determine eligibility. Data reviewed for students in grades 1 and above includes scores from the CogAT, DIBELS, i-Ready math and reading, previous cognitive test results, state testing, teacher recommendations, and any supplemental information submitted by families. The committee looks for a consistent pattern of performance across BOTH achievement and aptitude indicators that is in the top 3-5 percent of students across the district.
The CogAT is a different type of test than achievement tests like the i-Ready. The i-Ready measures the math and reading that a student knows and can do, whereas the CogAT is a cognitive test with problems that do not look like other math or reading questions the student may have encountered and does not measure what the student has learned. The CogAT also does not measure such factors as effort, attention, motivation, and work habits, which also contribute significantly to school achievement. The CogAT, instead, measures mathematical/quantitative and verbal reasoning in a more abstract way. The MDSC looks at both the overall Grade Percentile Ranking of the CogAT and the individual raw scores for each of the three subtests to help determine eligibility in ELA and/or math.