Rasch Investigation of the CogAT Form 8 Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal Domains in Grades 3 Through 5

This study investigates the CogAT Form 8, which is widely used to help determine student eligibility for gifted education programs in K-12 schools, using dichotomous Rasch modeling to determine the psychometric properties of the test items. Scores were collected from 1,689 students in grades 3–5 from a large urban public school district in Texas in the 2022–2023 school year. Results indicate strong but preliminary evidence supporting the validity and use for assessing cognitive abilities in this diverse student population. On average, item difficulties were slightly lower than the person measure distributions, which aligns with usage in gifted education programs. Item fit statistics were acceptable for most items, and the person and item reliability indices suggest the CogAT supports consistent inferences about student ability across domains and grade levels. Overall, the results of our Rasch analyses support the continued, but cautiouse of the CogAT with similar student populations.