The Iowa Achievement test is given to assist teachers and administrators in determining at what level your child is performing based on national comparisons and for Gifted & Talented placement decisions. As an achievement test, Iowa assesses a student's relative knowledge at the time of assessment and compares that performance against peers across the nation (known as a norming group). Scores for the Iowa are generally noted as Percentile Ranks (NPR) and indicates how your student compared with students in the same grade who took the same assessment at a comparable time.
Unlike the Iowa assessment, which is achievement based, the CogAT is a school ability test. The Standard Age Score (SAS) is an age-based, normalized standard score with a mean (average) of 100. The student's SAS score is derived from the Verbal, Quantitative, Nonverbal, and Total scores. Like the Iowa, percentile ranks are also reported to indicate how your child performed in relation to grade-level and like-age peers who were assessed on the same measure at a comparable time.
Each year, Alamo Heights ISD assesses all students in grades Kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade.