Tahoma Highly Capable and NGAT guide.

Tahoma School District in Maple Valley identifies Highly Capable students using the Naglieri General Ability Tests (NGAT), given by district staff. In fall 2025 the district announced it was moving to a Naglieri test as its universal screener, describing it as a language-free measure of reasoning with patterns, shapes and spatial problems.

Washington requires every elementary student to be screened twice before 6th grade. Tahoma does this in grades 2 and 5.

What Tahoma says about identification

The process has two rounds. First, all 2nd and 5th graders take the universal screener, which the district names as the Naglieri Nonverbal General Ability Test. Families do not need to do anything to take part, and can opt out with the district's Highly Capable Screener Opt Out form. Every family is told whether their child will continue.

Students who qualify on the screener then take the full Naglieri General Ability Tests, which add verbal and quantitative tests. A Multi-Disciplinary Selection Committee makes the final decision using ability tests, state and district assessments, and observation of student characteristics.

For the full-day Discovery program in grades 3 to 5, the district says selected students are typically in the top 5% to 7% of their grade on a variety of measures. It does not publish a cutoff score.

Because the screener is the NGAT's nonverbal test, it is the step closest in style to the NNAT®: shapes, patterns and matrices with no reading. The second round adds verbal and quantitative tests that NNAT practice does not cover.

Referrals, move-ins and private school students

Outside the grade 2 and 5 screener, parents can refer students in grades K-7 during the November 1 to December 31 window. In middle school, the NGAT is given to 6th and 7th graders who are referred. Families who move into the district after the window closes can submit a move-in referral form once the student is registered.

Second and fifth graders who attend private school or a home-based program and live in Tahoma's boundaries can also take the screener. Contact the Highly Capable office in the fall of that year to enroll.

How to prepare

If you want your child to be comfortable with the format, keep it short: 10 to 15 minutes a day of pattern and shape puzzles, plus at least two full timed practice tests before the screener so the length is not a surprise. 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. Our guide to preparing a young child covers how to keep it low pressure.

Questions Tahoma parents should ask

1. When will my 2nd or 5th grader take the screener this year?
2. What score on the screener moves a student to the full NGAT?
3. When will we hear whether my child continues to the second round?
4. For a referral in another grade, when would testing happen after the December 31 window closes?
5. What is the difference between the Explorer cluster and the Discovery program at our school?
6. If my child is not selected, can we refer again next year?

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