First the important thing is that the intelligence test teacher should be able to achieve highest level Cogat Score. And also the teachers of gifted students must meet the training criteria established by the Professional Standards Commission (PSC) in Georgia, USA. PSC Gifted In-Field endorsement approved intelligence test programs such as Cognitive Abilities Test are also listed on their Web site. Recent public school guidelines in the US need screening for all children suspected of having a disability and Cogat is one of the important psychological tests in this program. If screening detects a possible problem, an evaluation will be conducted by a multidisciplinary team that includes the following:
- Behavioral-developmental pediatrician
- School teachers and psychologists
- Speech and Occupational therapists
- School social workers
The assimilation and integration of numerous pieces of data by all specialists in a conference setting offers the most specific and accurate diagnosis. There is culture cold war in USA over education standards and techniques. One side says American kids are under-performing because teachers are not agreed upon criteria and so students don’t do as well as some other countries on international Cogat Norms tests. The other side says US kids are under-performing because the government has planned to ‘teach to the test’ so students do better on international standardized tests.
Both procedures are manned by teachers, educational institutions and unions. Are tests adequately predicting academic success? When American students attended the 1st international standardized test in the early 1960s, they came in next-to-last. But since then, those students have dominated globally science output and Nobel prizes. Such tests are designed to measure the knowledge and skills that students have acquired in school – what psychologists say “crystallized intelligence.” However, schools whose students have the highest Cogat Scores on Cogat Test do not produce similar gains in “fluid intelligence” – the ability to analyze abstract problems and think logically – according to a new study from MIT neuroscientists working with education researchers at Harvard University and Brown University.
Cogat Test helps in identifying the cognitive deficits of children and needs differential diagnoses. Some of Cognitive deficits are included the following:
- Metabolic derangements
- Adrenal disease
- Ingestions of toxic substances (eg, lead)
- Seizure disorders
- Subictal and infectious disorders (eg, chronic Lyme disease)
- Physical causes (eg, visual and hearing defects) that may impair cognitive development
- Genetic causes and congenital causes
Measurement of Cognitive Function
The descriptions of various screening Cognitive Abilities Test appropriate for pediatric office use are available at the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Online Community. In an analysis of nearly 1,400 eighth-graders in the Boston public school system, the researchers found that some schools have successfully raised their Cogat Scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). However, those schools had almost no effect on students’ Cogat Scores on tests of fluid intelligence skills, such as working memory capacity, quick information processing, and ability to solve abstract problems. “If you have a school that’s effectively helping kids from lower socioeconomic environments by moving up their scores and improving their chances to go to college, then are those modifications accompanied by gains in additional Cognitive skills?” says John Gabrieli.