Loudoun County Public Schools To Pilot New Test For Identifying Gifted Students

ASHBURN, VA – Loudoun County Public Schools will pilot a new assessment designed to help identify gifted students whose abilities might not be recognized through other tests, the district announced.

This fall, LCPS will pilot the Naglieri General Ability Tests (NGAT) with second-grade students. The district says it is exploring additional ways to reveal students' abilities and is evaluating whether the NGAT can strengthen LCPS’ gifted identification process and ensure more students have the opportunity to be considered for gifted education programs.

According to LCPS, the NGAT measures general reasoning skills and is designed to assess students across different reading levels and language backgrounds. The NGAT website says its new tests are designed to identify high intellectual ability without necessarily requiring extensive body of knowledge or vocabulary.

The pilot will take place from Nov. 4-24, and second-grade students will complete three online assessments over three consecutive school days.

The scores from these tests won’t be used to identify students during the current school year but will be assessed as to their utility for future gifted identification processes. LCPS also says the pilot won’t replace the current Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), which will continue as part of the division's established gifted identification process.

The district says the families of participating students will receive additional information about the assessment and that individual score reports will be available through the ParentVUE app in spring 2027.

More information can be found here.