This year, the Howard County Public School System will be administering the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) to all students in grades 3 and 5. The CogAT is a group-administered abilities test that measures students’ reasoning abilities, which they develop through in-school and out-of-school experiences. It is not designed to test a student’s academic achievement, but their potential.

The test is made of three batteries – Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal. Each battery takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. The CogAT helps educators understand a student’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses and assists with adapting instruction to meet the needs and abilities of each student.

All students in Grades 3 and 5 will participate in the testing. The CogAT will be administered on December 11th and 12th. No special preparation is required. Just send your child to school ready to learn as you do daily.

The Gifted and Talented Education Program will use the data from the CogAT as one criterion for placement into fourth grade Gifted/Talented mathematics classes and middle school Gifted/Talented content classes. Students’ individual scores will be reported to parents in late February/early March.

Please contact me if you have any questions about your child’s involvement with the CogAT assessment.

Sincerely,

Deborah Holmes
Principal

Gillian Spivey
Assistant Principal