Riverside Unified School District GATE testing and NNAT® guide.

GATE is Riverside Unified School District’s Gifted and Talented Education program. 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 for RUSD families who want a practical view of the January screening, the referral path for older students, and the district’s retest limit.

What Riverside Unified says about GATE testing

All 2nd graders are screened each year. Parents receive a non-participation letter and only need to return it if they do NOT want their child tested. The testing page describes it as a general intelligence test that does not require reading, and the district’s program page names the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) as one of its measures.

Students in grades 3-5 can be tested when a teacher or parent requests it. Parents should contact the school, and permission forms are sent home. A student can be tested at most twice in grades 2-5: once in 2nd grade and once more in another elementary grade.

RUSD describes identification as multi-faceted. It uses local and site norms and a student case review that can draw on referral, background, impact factor, and behavior checklist forms. Measures include NNAT performance, a Teacher Inventory of Gifted and Talented Characteristics and Behaviors, 3rd to 5th grade CAASPP English Language Arts and math scores, and special considerations. Only students who are identified are contacted.

Private testing, transfers, and services

RUSD does not accept private testing results. It does accept testing from other school districts, but a new student’s prior results are reviewed against RUSD requirements before GATE placement. Riverside Virtual and Summit View students can sign up for testing at Grant Education Center.

In grades 3-6, GATE students are placed in cluster classes, regular classrooms with a group of identified students. In grades 7-12, GATE is not required for honors, accelerated, AP, IB, or dual enrollment courses.

Questions Riverside Unified parents should ask

1. When will my child’s school test 2nd graders this January?
2. If my child was not identified in 2nd grade, is it worth using the one remaining test in grade 3, 4, or 5?
3. How are local and site norms used for my child’s school?
4. What does the teacher inventory look for?
5. Since only identified students are contacted, how can we learn our child’s result?
6. Which schools have GATE cluster classes?

Our broader questions to ask your school guide can help you turn those into one clear conversation with the teacher, GATE coordinator, or principal.

How to prepare without adding pressure

With testing starting in January, fall is a good time to begin. Keep practice short and calm: about 10 to 15 minutes a day is plenty for a young child. Start with format familiarity, showing your child the kinds of shape and pattern puzzles the NNAT® uses, then talk through the reasoning after each question instead of only marking it right or wrong.

Once the format feels familiar, add at least two full timed practice tests so pacing on test day is not a surprise. Practice will not change a child’s underlying ability, but it can make the format and the time limit feel less strange. Our guide to how to prepare for the NNAT® lays out that progression in more detail.