Reading the CogAT Report. A Parent s Guide

Transcription

1 Reading the CogAT Report A Parent s Guide

2 Cognitive Ability Subgroups The CogAT Test measures the level and pattern of cognitive development of a student compared to age peers and grade peers. These general reasoning abilities, which start developing at birth and continue through early adulthood, are influenced by experiences gained both in and out of school. The CogAT measures three different cognitive abilities (highlighted on the sample report to the right): The verbal section measures a child s ability to remember and transform sequences of English words, to understand them and to make inferences and judgments about them. The quantitative section measures a child s understanding of basic mathematical concepts and relationships. The non-verbal section measures reasoning using pictures and geometric shapes. This section reduces the impact of language on the student s score. The composite score is a total score for all three sections.

3 CogAT National Age Scores The National Age Scores section of the report (highlighted on the sample report to the right) is dedicated to students age scores. Students are grouped by age in one-month intervals from 4 years 11 months through 18+ years of age. The first column in the National Age Scores shows the stanine scores. The stanine scale is a normalized standard score scale consisting of nine broad levels designated by the numbers 1 through 9. Stanines are provided to discourage over interpretation of small differences among student scores and percentile rankings. Thus, all students in the same stanine are considered similar. See the following slide for the stanine table used for the CogAT. The second column in the National Age Scores section shows your student s percentile rank for each ability subgroup and the composite. A percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the same age group whose scores fall below the score obtained by a particular student. For example, if your student obtains a percentile rank of 90 on the verbal ability subgroup, it means that 90% of students in the standardized sample scored below your student. A percentile rank of 50 is considered average.

4 Stanines A Deeper Look Stanine scores range from a low of 1 to a high of 9. Stanines are groupings of percentile ranks. A higher stanine equates with a higher level of cognitive abilities development. A comparison of stanines and percentile ranks are summarized in the table below to the right. Differences in percentile scores can lead to over interpretation of small differences in scores between individual students or among scores for the same student. For example, there will be no noticeable differences in the classroom between a student who has a percentile rank of 45 and a student with a percentile rank of 55. They would both show average levels of development. On the other hand, you would see noticeable differences in the classroom for students with more than one stanine difference in their scores. For example, three different students with stanines of 9, 6, and 4 will show clear differences in the ways they approach learning and problem solving tasks. Stanine Percentile Rank Description Very High Above Average Above Average Average Average Average Below Average Below Average Very Low

5 CogAT National Age Percentile Ranks The National Age Percentile Ranks section (highlighted on the sample report to the right) relates to your student s age scores. This is a graphic representation of your student s scores for each of the ability subgroups and the composite score given in the National Age Scores section to the left on your student s CogAT report. Scores for each section of the assessment are indicated by a diamond shape within the black score band. The score band represents the confidence interval. The confidence interval shows the possible error in scores for each student. Errors in scores can be caused by: A student responding inconsistently to items in the same ability test. For example, the student missing easy items but correctly solving difficult items could cause an error score. A student performing well on one subtest in an ability section of the test, such as the verbal section, but performing poorly on another subtest in the same battery, again in the verbal section, could cause an error score.

6 CogAT Raw Scores The Raw Scores section (highlighted on the sample report below) has information about the number of questions in each section of the test, the number of questions attempted by the student, and the raw score, or number of correct responses. Possibly, footnote symbols may appear next to the raw score on particular section of the CogAT report. Below is a guide to these footnotes and what they mean.

7 CogAT Grade Scores The Grade Scores section of the report (highlighted on the sample report to the right) is dedicated to students grade scores. The first column in this section shows the stanine. The stanine scale is a normalized standard score scale consisting of nine broad levels designated by the numbers 1 through 9. Stanines are provided to discourage over interpretation of small differences among student scores and percentile rankings. Thus, all students in the same stanine are considered similar. Please review the previous pages for descriptions of stanine scores. The last column shows the percentile rank for each section and the composite score. A percentile rank indicates the percentage of students in the same grade whose scores fall below the score obtained by a particular student. For example, if a student obtains a percentile rank of 90 on the verbal battery, it means that 90 percent of students in the standardized sample scored below that student. A percentile rank of 50 is considered average. Due to differences in ages of students within one grade level, National Age Scores are more reliable and accurate when reviewing data among groups on students. Therefore, when identifying students for the Highly Capable Program in Kent School District, National Age Scores are used as one piece of evidence to determine placement of a student.

8 CogAT Written Description The highlighted section on the sample report to the right is a written description of how to interpret your student s score report.

9 Questions? If you have questions on how to interpret your student s CogAT score report please feel free to contact Kent School District Assessment Department. Karen Forsloff Assessment Administrative Assistant Karen.Forsloff@kent.k12.wa.us Carol Johnson Data Analyst Carol.Johnson@kent.k12.wa.us Dr. Razak Garoui Executive Director of Assessment Razak.Garoui@kent.k12.wa.us