WhatistheCogAT?
TheCogAT(CognitiveAbilitiesTest)measuresachild'sabilitytoreasonandapply
previousknowledgetonewsituations.TheCogATmeasureslearnedreasoningand
problemsolvingskills.
IngradesK-2,theteacherreadsallthesampleandtestitemstothestudents.Allofthe
questionsaremultiple-choicewithfourpictorialanswerchoices;therefore,noreading
skillsarenecessary.Studentsmarktheiranswersdirectlyintheirtestbookletsunderthe
picturetheyhavechosenforthecorrectanswer.TheCogATisnotatimedtestingradesK-
2.
Forgrades3-12,theteacherreadsthedirections,leadsstudentsthroughthesample
problems,thenthestudentsworkthroughthetestindependently,recordinganswerson
"bubblesheets."Althoughthetestistimedingrades3-12,enoughtimeisallowedformost
ofthestudentstocompletemostoftheitems.
IstheCogATanIQtest?
No,itmeasuresreasoningabilities.
IstheCogATameasureofachievement?
No,itisameasureofreasoningabilityinspecificaptitudeareas.
WhataretheareasintheCogAT?
VERBALBattery-
GradesK-2Grades3-12
OralVocabularyVerbalClassification
VerbalReasoningSentenceCompletion
VerbalAnalogies
QUANTITATIVEBattery
GradesK-2Grades3-12
RelationalConceptsQuantitativeRelations
QuantitativeConceptsNumberSeries
EquationBuilding
NONVERBALBattery
GradesK-2Grades3-12
FigureClassificationFigureClassification
MatricesFigureAnalogies
FigureAnalysis
HowdothethreebatteriesoftheCogATingradesK-2differ?
VerbalBattery:
IngradesK-2,theVerbalBatteryconsistsoftwosubtestswhichappraiseverbalreasoning,
problemsolving,andverbalcomprehension.Itisameasureofverbalabilities.
OralVocabulary:-measuresthesizeanddepthofastudent'sgeneralvocabulary.
VerbalReasoning:-measuresinductive,deductive,andgeneralverbalreasoningabilities
byusingsituationscommonlyencounteredbyyoungchildrenandrequirethemtomake
inferences,judgments,ortoremembersequences.
QuantitativeBattery:
Thetwoquantitativesubtestsappraisegeneralabstractreasoningskills,particularly
inductivereasoningandspecificmathematicalreasoningskills.Itisameasureofmath
abilities.
RelationalConcepts:Themajorityofquestionsinthissubtestrequirejudgmentsof
relativeposition,sizeoramount.
QuantitativeConcepts:Thistestrequiresstudentstosolvesimplestoryproblemsandto
completemathematicalseriesproblems.
NonverbalBattery:
ThetwosubtestsontheNonverbalBatteryareFigureClassificationandMatrices,andthey
appraiseinductivereasoningskills.Itassessesastudent'sabilityinspatialandabstract
thinking.Thisreasoningalsoreferstohowwellstudentssolveproblemsusingshapesand
figures.ThisbatterydiffersfromtheVerbalandQuantitativebatteriesinthatitdoesnot
requirethestudenttouseinformationgainedfromotherexperiencestosolvea
problem.
FigureClassification:
Studentshavetodetecttheessentialsimilaritiesamongthefigures,generatetheruleor
principlethatexplainstherelationship,andtoselecttheanswerpicturethatgoeswiththe
givenfigures.
Matrices:
Studentsaregivenafour-cellmatrixwithoneemptycell.Theydeterminetherelationships
amongthethreegivenelementsandselectthepicturethatcompletesthematrix.
WhenistheCogATgiven?
InEdgecombeCountyPublicSchools,theCogATisgivento3rdgradestudentsin
fall/winterofeachschoolyear.
HowistheCogATused?
TheCogATprovidesteacherswithinformationtheycanusetoadaptinstructiontothe
individualneedsofthestudent.
BasedonCogAT,ithelpsidentifystudentswhoseacademicachievementisnotwhere
expected,eitherhigherorlower.
Ithelpsinidentifyingstudentswhosepredictedlevelsofachievementdiffermarkedlyfrom
theirobservedlevelsofachievement(grades,benchmarktests,etc.).
Reasoningabilitieshavesubstantialcorrelationswithlearningandproblemsolving.
CogAT'smeasurementofthreedifferentcontentdomainsensuresthateducatorsreceivea
balancedviewofthechild,especiallywhencoupledwithmeasuresofschoolachievement.
TheCogATisameasureofeachstudent'slevelofcognitivedevelopment.
InEdgecombeCountyPublicSchools,itisoneoffourcriteriaforgiftedidentification.We
lookattheverbalCogATscorewhenconsideringstudentsforthelanguageartsareaof
thegiftedprogram.Whenconsideringstudentsforthegiftedprogramintheareaofmath,
welookatthequantitativeandnon-verbalCogATscore.