A student may be referred for gifted/talented screening by a teacher, counselor, parent, or administrator. A referral for gifted/talented screening is made by contacting the school counselor and requesting a Gifted/Talented Student Referral Form, which must be completed and submitted to the counselor. The screening/assessment process is offered once per school year and consists of three phases. Phase I, the screening phase, Phase II, the assessment phase, and Phase III, the identification phase. Specific requirements must be met in order to advance to Phase II, the assessment phase. Please note assessment opportunities are made available at least once per school year.

Screening and Ability Assessment Instruments: Cognitive Abilities Screening Form (CogAT)

The Cognitive Abilities Test Screening Form is the assessment given for screening. It is the short form of CogAT and measures students’ learned reasoning abilities developed through in-school and out-of-school experiences. Students are assigned a stanine score that ranges from 1 (lowest) to 9 (highest).

Cognitive Abilities Test Form 7 (CogAT)

The Cognitive Abilities Test Form 7 is designed to assess specific reasoning skills that correlate strongly to academic success. More specifically, the CogAT measures cognitive development, the ability to learn new tasks, and problem-solving abilities. Because much of its content is nonverbal, the CogAT is also very useful for testing students who are not native English speakers.

Phase I: Screening

▪ All students in Kindergarten and 2nd grade, who are not identified as gifted/talented, are screened using the Cognitive Abilities Test Screening Form (CogAT) [Fall]

▪ Students new to the district referred by teachers, counselors, parents, or other interested persons are screened using the Cognitive Abilities Test Screening Form (CogAT) [Fall/Spring]

▪ The following student groups are also automatically screened and assessed with the Cognitive Abilities Test Screening Form (CogAT) [Fall]

o Students scoring Masters Grade Level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and End of Course (EOC) assessment not already identified as gifted/talented

o Students scoring in the 85th percentile on BOY MAP assessments not already identified as gifted/talented

o 7th graders and 9th graders enrolled in advanced courses not already identified as gifted/talented,

o Emergent Bilingual Students enrolled in Dual Language, Spanish for Spanish Speakers, and Advanced Placement Courses and are not already identified as gifted/talented

▪ Campus-based staff will send home CogAT screening results and letter home with students [Fall/Spring]

▪ Multiple sources of data will be utilized to determine additional assessment opportunities

Phase II: Assessment

▪ Students scoring a grade stanine of 6 or higher on the CogAT Screening Form are further assessed using the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) Form 7

▪ Campus designees will complete a student G/T matrix and collect data to send to the district’s Advanced Academics Data Quality Team

Phase III: Identification

▪ Student data (quantitative and qualitative data) from the screening and testing phase will be reviewed by the district committee.

▪ Quantitative and qualitative data are collected.

▪ District Identification/Selection Committee meets to review and discuss student data.

▪ Notice of assessment results for students will be mailed to home and sent to campus.

▪ Students qualifying for the gifted/talented program are coded in eSchool by the Advanced Academics Data Quality Team.

▪ A Notification of Change form will be sent to the campus

Post Identification

▪ The campus G/T Coordinator will provide a G/T roster to campus based-staff.

▪ The campus leadership team (Administrator, Counselor, G/T Coordinator) will ensure all identified gifted/talented students are receiving services aligned to the district’s service design.

▪ The campus G/T Coordinator will verify the teacher of record has or is in the process of receiving gifted/talented training (by the end of the semester according to the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students).