Chino Valley Unified School District GATE testing and NNAT® guide.

GATE is the district’s Gifted and Talented Education program, and the NNAT® is the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, a visual reasoning assessment that uses shapes and patterns instead of reading passages, vocabulary, or math computation.

This guide is written for parents in Chino, Chino Hills, and the broader Chino Valley Unified community who want a practical view of what to confirm, what the test asks, and how to help a child prepare calmly before the testing window arrives.

What Chino Valley Unified says about GATE identification

Which test a district uses for gifted screening varies from district to district. The three most common are the NNAT, the CogAT® (Cognitive Abilities Test), and the OLSAT (Otis-Lennon School Ability Test). Chino Valley Unified’s GATE page says the district gives the NNAT3: 48 multiple-choice visual questions completed in 30 minutes, using shapes and patterns instead of reading or writing.

The district describes two ways a child can be screened for GATE:

1. 2nd grade screening for everyone. All 2nd graders are screened unless a parent or guardian declines.
2. Referral in grades 3 through 8. A teacher or a parent can ask for a student to be considered, and a school staff member then screens the student.

The district says GATE is for students who meet “a specific set of criteria,” but it does not publish those criteria or a qualifying score. It also has not published whether the test is given on paper or on a computer, when results go home, or a set grade for retesting. Ask your school about each of these.

Sample question

Try an NNAT® practice question

Choose the piece that continues every line and color across the empty window.

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ABCDE

A real GateBuddy practice question.

Choose one of the five answers.

Choose an answer

Practice preview

Let your child see the format before test day.

GateBuddy introduces the visual reasoning formats used on the NNAT® through short, age-appropriate practice with clear explanations.

• Built around the four NNAT® question types
• An explanation after every answer: what changed and what stayed the same
• Short adaptive sets plus full, timed practice tests
• A live view so parents can follow along

Try free questions

Real GateBuddy practice questions, one of each NNAT® question type.

What GATE gives your child in Chino Valley Unified

The district’s GATE page and its GATE brochure (revised July 2026) describe these services:

1. GATE cluster classes in grades 3 to 6. A small group of GATE students is placed together in a regular classroom and gets lessons with more depth and complexity. The brochure says these classes are available at all schools.
2. Services usually start in 3rd grade. Each school can decide how to serve identified 2nd graders, but the district says most schools begin formal GATE services in 3rd grade.
3. Enrichment. Schools may add part-time pull-out groups, before- or after-school activities, Saturday enrichment, or academic competition teams.
4. District-wide programs. GATE students may take part in programs such as Odyssey of the Mind teams and competitions.
5. Junior high and high school. The district lists junior high GATE/Honors courses and, at the secondary level, honors classes, Advanced Placement (AP) classes, acceleration, leadership experiences, and classes on a college campus.
6. A yearly parent meeting. The district says each school hosts an informational GATE meeting at the start of the school year.

The district does not say whether GATE identification is required for junior high GATE/Honors courses. If that matters to your family, ask your school how GATE status is used when students are placed in those courses.

What 2nd grade students should expect from the NNAT®

The NNAT® is different from normal classroom work. A child is not asked to read a story, solve arithmetic, or remember vocabulary. Instead, each question asks the child to find a visual rule using color, shape, direction, position, rotation, symmetry, or folding.

At Level C, which corresponds to 2nd grade in the NNAT® level structure, students can encounter all four major NNAT® formats: Pattern Completion, Reasoning by Analogy, Serial Reasoning, and Spatial Visualization. If those words sound technical, the parent version is simpler: children need to spot what changes, what stays the same, and which answer follows the same visual logic.

For a parent-friendly overview of the formats, start with our guide to the four NNAT® question types.

Why the early timing catches families off guard

Late September to October is early in the school year. Many second graders are still settling into classroom routines, homework expectations, and fall activities when the window opens. A family that waits for the testing notice to come home before thinking about the format may not have much runway left to build familiarity with it.

The goal is not to cram. It is to make the test feel less foreign. A few short, focused sessions can help a child recognize the layout, learn how to compare answer choices, and understand that these are visual puzzles with findable rules, not a pop quiz on something they were never taught.

Elementary schools in Chino Valley Unified

In most districts, a gifted-screening window applies across the district, while each school handles the practical details inside that window. For Chino Valley Unified families, that means the late September to October window is the planning window, and your child’s campus is the place to confirm the exact day, make-up instructions, and reminders sent through school newsletters, classroom messages, or the front office.

Chino Valley Unified elementary schools include:

• Alicia Cortez Elementary
• Anna A. Borba Elementary
• Butterfield Ranch Elementary
• Chaparral Elementary
• Country Springs Elementary
• Doris Dickson Elementary
• E.J. Marshall Elementary
• Eagle Canyon Elementary
• Edwin Rhodes Elementary
• Gerald F. Litel Elementary
• Glenmeade Elementary
• Hidden Trails Elementary
• Howard Cattle Elementary
• Levi H. Dickey Elementary
• Liberty Elementary
• Michael G. Wickman Elementary
• Newman Elementary
• Oak Ridge Elementary
• Rolling Ridge Elementary
• Walnut Avenue Elementary

If your school sends a testing notice, save it. It may include the exact date, make-up testing details, whether anything needs to be returned, and who to contact if your child is absent.

Questions Chino Valley parents should ask

1. What date is our school giving the NNAT3 to 2nd graders, and what is the make-up date?
2. Will my child take the test on paper or on a computer?
3. What criteria and scores does the district use to identify GATE students, and what else besides the NNAT3 is considered?
4. When and how will results be sent home?
5. What GATE services will my child get in 2nd grade and in 3rd grade at our school?
6. If my child does not qualify, how does a teacher or parent referral work in grades 3 through 8?
7. When is our school’s GATE information meeting this year?

Our broader questions to ask your school guide can help you turn those into one clear conversation with the office or program contact.

How to prepare effectively for the NNAT

Short, steady practice works better than cramming. Practice teaches your child what the questions look like and gives them ways to approach and think through them, so test day feels familiar instead of surprising. A simple plan:

1. Learn the format with explanations. Start with the four NNAT® question types. After each question, talk through the rule: what changed, what stayed the same, and why the right answer fits. For example, “the shape turned a quarter turn” or “the pattern keeps going behind the missing window.” GateBuddy shows an explanation after every question that names the rule, and it can read instructions and explanations out loud, which helps a child who is still building reading skills or simply learns better by hearing it.
2. Practice 10 to 15 minutes a day, for as long as you can. Reasoning skills build like a muscle, a little at a time. A few weeks of practice helps, but months of short, steady sessions build much more.
3. Spend extra time on the weakest question type. Notice which type your child misses most and give it a little more practice. GateBuddy’s practice sets do this for you: each set of five leans toward the question types your child has seen least and adjusts how hard the next questions are based on recent answers. You can also pick one question type and a level (easy, medium, or hard) to work on a weak spot.
4. Take full, timed practice tests: at least two, and more is better. A full test is where your child learns pacing and how to work alone against a clock, the way test day works. Every GateBuddy plan includes eight full, timed NNAT® practice tests, so your child can take several along the way and still save the last two for the final few weeks as a dress rehearsal. While your child works on their own, GateBuddy’s Live View lets you follow along from your own phone: how many questions they have answered, the answer they just picked, and how many they have right so far. Your child gets the independence of test day, and you still see everything.

Our guide to how to prepare for the NNAT® walks through this plan in more detail.

Where practice fits

Practice helps most when it makes the format familiar before test day. A child who has already seen these visual reasoning questions can spend more energy solving the puzzle itself, instead of trying to figure out what the page is asking.

For Chino Valley families with a 2nd grade student, the early timing makes a short first look especially useful. Five questions is usually enough to tell whether the format already feels familiar or still feels new.