Fort Worth ISD gifted and talented (G/T) testing and NNAT® guide.

Fort Worth ISD calls its program Gifted and Talented, written G/T, run by the Advanced Academics and Gifted & Talented Department. The NNAT® is the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, a visual reasoning test that uses shapes and patterns instead of reading or math. The district gives the Third Edition, the NNAT3, as a timed, 30-minute online test.

This guide is for FWISD families, especially of 1st graders, who want to know how the screening works and what happens after the test.

What Fort Worth ISD says about G/T testing

Two groups of students take the NNAT3: every 1st grader, as a universal screener, and any student who has been referred for G/T screening with parent permission. The district says the point of screening a whole grade is to find gifted students at every campus and in every population.

For anyone else, the process has four steps: refer, assess, select, notify. A referral can come from a parent or a teacher. Students in the top 10% of their grade level and population on MAP are nominated automatically. Before any student is screened, a parent or guardian must give permission, which can be done online through the district's 2026-2027 Parent/Guardian Permission form.

The NNAT3 is one data point

Fort Worth ISD is direct that the NNAT3 is not the only thing that counts. The district also looks at MAP and STAAR scores, teacher feedback, parent feedback, and student work. Students with permission can build an online G/T portfolio of open-ended challenges meant to show traits like creativity and persistence. In kindergarten and 1st grade, the portfolio comes from planned classroom experiences instead.

A committee of gifted-certified teachers, campus teachers, a campus administrator, and the campus G/T contact reviews all of it. The district does not publish a cutoff score. Every student who takes the NNAT3 gets a home report showing a national age percentile rank.

Questions Fort Worth ISD parents should ask

1. When will my 1st grader take the NNAT3 this year?
2. If my child is in another grade, has our permission form been received?
3. Is my child in the top 10% on MAP, which would mean an automatic nomination?
4. What goes into the kindergarten or 1st grade portfolio?
5. How should I read the national age percentile rank on the home report?
6. How do appeals work if we disagree with the decision?

Our broader questions to ask your school guide can help you turn those into one clear conversation. The district's G/T team can be reached at gt@fwisd.org or 817-814-2580.

How to prepare without adding pressure

For a 1st grader, short and consistent works best: 10 to 15 minutes a day. At the 1st grade level, the NNAT® uses pattern completion, reasoning by analogy, and serial reasoning, as our NNAT® question types guide explains. Talk through the reasoning after each question instead of only marking it right or wrong. Before test day, do at least two full timed practice tests so a 30-minute timed test feels normal. 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. See how to prepare for the NNAT® for more.