Transcript The Ability Prong for gifted Education Identification

San Luis Valley Gifted Education
Network Meeting
October 17, 2013
 Ability
tests are designed to measure the
general reasoning abilities of students
including memory, sequencing, patterning,
making connections, and analyzing simple
and complex ideas.
 “These
abilities reflect the overall efficiency
of cognitive processes and strategies that
enable individuals to learn new tasks and
solve problems.” (Score Interpretation Guide,
CogAT 7, 2013, p. 3)
“
Scores that the tests yield are strongly
related to school achievement.” (Helping All
Gifted Children Learn: A Teacher’s Guide to
Using the NNAT 2, Naglieri, Brulles and
Lansdowne, 2008, p.5)

“Because these abilities are closely related to an
individuals success in school in virtually all
subject, CogAT results are helpful in planning
effective instructional programs and adapting
instruction to enhance the student’s chances in
success in learning” (Score Interpretation Guide,
CogAT 7, 2013, p. 3)
 Individual
 Group
 Paper
and Pencil
 Online
 Tests
with Verbal, Quantitative and
Nonverbal items
 Totally Nonverbal items
 The
different types of ability tests are
different ways to measure the general ability
of a student. They are not measuring
different kinds of intelligence.
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Verbal tests use words to measure problem
solving skills
Quantitative tests use numbers to measure
problem solving skills
Nonverbal tests use pictures to measure problem
solving skills
 Review
these samples from the CogAT 7
http://www.riversidepublishing.com/product
s/cogAT7/pdf/CogAT7SampleItems.pdf
 What
are the thinking skills required to
complete the various types of items?
 Are the thinking skills particular to that type
of item or are they the same among the
different item types?
What thinking skills are required to solve this type of
question? Are they the same or different than the
other item types ?
 K-BIT
2 - Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test
Verbal section – vocabulary
Matrices – nonverbal
Given individually by a person with testing
experience
 Samples
of many of these tests can now be
obtained online by anyone who want to pay a
fee for training materials.
 Know
your population and use ability testing
information always in conjunction with an
entire body of evidence.
WISC-4 Weschler Intelligence Scale for
Children
KABC II - Kaufman Assessment Battery for
Children
Stanford-Binet 5
The psychologist will help choose the test
which best meets the needs of the student.
These tests are usually used when students
are being considered for both Special
Education and Gifted Education.
 An
ability test should be a piece of evidence
that is in a child’s identification portfolio.
 A whole grade can be tested with an
instrument appropriate to the general
population as a universal screener. This can
be done at several grade levels in your
district to assure that students who develop
later cognitively are not missed in the id
process.
 A select group of students or an individual
can be tested at anytime to gain more
evidence for the identification process.
 When
using an ability test as a universal
screener select a test that best represents
the nature of the population you are testing
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Does your population have a large number of ELL
students?
What kind of socio-economic background is
represented in your population?
What is the ethnicity of your population?
How old are the students being tested?
 Use
other pieces of evidence gathered about
the student to determine which type of test
to administer
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What is the strength of the student?
How old is the student?
Is the student an ELL student?
What kind of economic background does the
student come from?
Is the student also being reviewed for Special
Education services?
 All
ability tests contain some form of testing
bias.
 If
students lack academic experiences, come
from low socio-economic or minority groups
use a test that has been proven to be
reliable and valid with those students’ group.
 Use
the correct level of the test for the
student(s) being tested.
NNAT 2 – p. 3 of directions of administration
Level
Grade (s)
A
K
B
1
C
2
D
3,4
E
5,6
F
7,8,9
G
10,11,12
 Use
the correct level of the test for
the student(s) being tested.
CogAT 7 – See handout and use the
average category even when testing
for high ability students
 When
testing K-2 students with paper-andpencil tests, use consumable booklets to
avoid any errors the student might make in
recording answers on an answer sheet
 Examiners
should be know how to and be
experienced giving standardized tests.
 They should read the directions for
administration before giving any test.
 Time limits for tests should be strictly
followed if present.
 All test materials should be stored securely
in locked locations.
 The test environment should be prepared so
students are not disrupted during the testing
process and so that the proper lighting and
heating is provided.
 Many
of these tests require complicated
steps to correctly score them. We are
recommending that unless you are trained to
score tests you submit them to the publisher
for scoring.
 Many
of the online tests are scored as soon
as they are taken and results are available
immediately.
 The
raw score on this test is converted to the
SAS – Standard Age Score – compares
student’s score to others of the same age
 Age Percentile Rank – national rank based on
the SAS – this is where we are looking for the
95th percentile
 Review the scores for each battery
separately – verbal, quantitative, and
nonverbal to see strengths and/or
discrepancies in the individual types of items
 Use the age scores not the grade scores to
avoid any confusion for accelerated students
‡ Inconsistent Response Pattern found in the
items or subtests
 Targeted (Chance) Scores –very low raw
score that could have resulted from
guessing or random marking of test items –
do not use these scores for instructional
decision-making
Λ Many items omitted – but a high score on
the items attempted – can occur when a
student is perfectionistic – check p. 7 of
Score Interpretation Guide
 On
the nonverbal battery Sam marked 45 of
the 56 items correct and he obtained a raw
score of 30 items.
 56-45=11 omitted items on the battery so a
percentage calculation is needed
 30/45 = .667 x 100 = 66.7% of the items that
he attempted he got correct
 66.7 % is less than 80% so this score is
probably a good estimate of Sam’s ability
 In
the CogAT 7 reporting system an ability
profile is determined for each student.
 The Ability Profile is determined by using the
median stanine of the student’s three scores
and then looking at how the three scores
compare. The scores can be the same,
relatively the same, or extremely different.
This gives more information about each
student. The Score Interpretation Guide, pp
12-14 explains more about ability profiles .
Kim or Linda can help you interpret this
information when you get the scoring
reports.
 The
raw score on this test is converted to a
scaled score based on the level of the test
administered.
 The scaled score is converted to a Naglieri
Ability Index (NAI) based on the child’s age.
 A percentile and stanine score can be
obtained from the norms tables of NAI
scores. (Here we are looking at the 95th
percentile for identification)
 The mean scaled score on this test regardless
of age is 100.
 Helping
All Gifted Children Learn: A
Teacher’s Guide to Using the NNAT 2
will provide strategies to use to adapt
programming to meet the needs of their
gifted students.
 Instructional
decisions should never be made
using only one score alone.
 The ability test used should allow students
the best opportunity to show what they
know.
 While ability test scores are linked to success
in school, CogAT publishers caution that
making predictions about success should not
be made for more than 1-2 years and to be
especially careful making these predictions
from scores obtained in the primary grades.