Issaquah School District Highly Capable and CogAT guide.

Issaquah School District (ISD) identifies Highly Capable (gifted) students with three tests: the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), which covers verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal reasoning; the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), a picture-drawing test of creative thinking; and i-Ready reading and math. Every 2nd grader takes all three.

This guide is written for families in Issaquah, Sammamish, and the parts of Bellevue, Newcastle, and Renton the district serves.

What Highly Capable gives your child in Issaquah

1. MERLIN in grades 3 to 5: a full-day, self-contained Highly Capable classroom that goes deeper into the curriculum, moves at a quicker pace, and accelerates some subjects. MERLIN is at Apollo and Endeavour elementary schools, with one class in each of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. Families provide transportation.
2. SAGE in grades 3 to 5: the Special Approach to Gifted Education, at every elementary school. SAGE Math students work with the SAGE teacher about two hours a week, and SAGE Reading students about one hour a week, plus differentiated reading in class.
3. Middle and high school: Highly Capable students have counselor support for advanced language arts, compacted math, and two science pathways in middle school, and Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), College in the High School, and Running Start in high school. 5th grade MERLIN and SAGE students can take a spring placement test to start Algebra 1 in 6th grade.
4. It lasts: students identified in 2nd grade stay in the program through 12th grade unless they exit.

Why the 2nd grade tests decide MERLIN in Issaquah

MERLIN placement comes from the 2nd grade testing cycle. The district says students who do not place into MERLIN at that time are not eligible to retest for it. Students who qualify for SAGE in one area during 2nd grade testing also cannot retest for more services in a later September Referral. So the 2nd grade tests decide a child’s elementary Highly Capable path.

Issaquah also gives 2nd graders an advanced version of the CogAT: Form 8, Level 9, the full test with all three batteries. It is on paper, with answers filled in on an answer sheet, and it is timed: each battery takes 30 minutes, made up of three 10-minute subtests.

How Issaquah screens 2nd graders

1. TTCT, November 30 to December 11, 2026: three 10-minute picture-drawing tasks (Picture Construction, Picture Completion, and Lines) in class.
2. i-Ready reading and math, January 4 to 29, 2027: online, in class, during the district window.
3. CogAT, March 1 to 12, 2027: the full paper-and-pencil CogAT in class, over several days.

Private and home-based students who live in the district can take part. Families pre-register online from November 2 to November 30, 2026, and submit a birth certificate and proof of residency (plus vaccination records for home-based students). These students take i-Ready at the district Administration Building on January 9 and January 23, 2027, and the TTCT and CogAT at their neighborhood school.

How Issaquah decides who is identified

A Multidisciplinary Selection Committee (MSC) reviews each student’s results. Issaquah turns each test’s standard score into a matrix score and weights them:

1. CogAT: counts three times, because the district says it is designed to identify students who will succeed in a Highly Capable program.
2. i-Ready reading and math: count twice.
3. TTCT: counts once.

Issaquah uses standard scores, not percentiles, and does not publish a single cutoff. Families of students who qualify for SAGE or MERLIN are notified in June of the 2nd grade year, and services begin in 3rd grade.

See NNAT® vs CogAT® vs OLSAT® for how the CogAT compares with other gifted tests.

Appeals

Appeals are due within ten business days of the score notification and are accepted only for selection decisions, on three grounds: an error in giving the test, a misapplied or miscalculated score, or an extraordinary circumstance during testing, such as a death in the family or a serious illness. Screening and placement decisions cannot be appealed.

Questions Issaquah parents should ask

1. What dates is my child’s class taking the TTCT, i-Ready, and CogAT this year?
2. What make-up dates are available if my child is sick during CogAT week?
3. Which MERLIN site, Apollo or Endeavour, serves our neighborhood?
4. When in June will we hear the results, and by mail or email?
5. What would SAGE Reading or SAGE Math look like at our school in 3rd grade?

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 CogAT

1. Learn the format. Go through the three parts of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT): verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal, and after every question talk through the rule: what changed and what stayed the same, not just which answer is right.
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 type. Most children find one or two question types harder. Focus there once the basics feel familiar.
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. Take several along the way, and save the last two for the final few weeks as a dress rehearsal.

Issaquah gives the CogAT on paper, with each subtest timed at 10 minutes, so it helps to practice some question sets on paper, marking answers on a separate sheet, against a timer. The Level 9 test Issaquah uses for 2nd graders includes written Verbal questions, so reading practice matters too.

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.