Recent news highlighted the exciting potential of the “Stretch or Support” (SOS) program to develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills using a strengths-based approach. By leveraging students' strengths and supporting areas of less strength, the program engages students in their own learning, enabling academic growth for students of all abilities – including our most highly able learners.
In the SOS program, students engage in games and activities aligned with different types of cognitive reasoning. “Stretch” days are when they choose an activity related to their area of strength, and “support” days are when they choose activities for an area of reasoning that is not as strong for them. At the heart of this program is the CogAT® Ability Profile™, which one of the districts in the article uses to identify students’ areas for needing support and those ready to stretch.
CogAT is unique in its design, providing separate scores for three components of general reasoning ability. While these reasoning skills—Verbal, Quantitative, and Nonverbal (figural)—may seem abstract, they can be measured. Research recognizes three broad types of reasoning that align to the three CogAT batteries:
The differences in the CogAT batteries may seem more obvious for the upper grades (Levels 9-17/18), where the content uses words for Verbal, numbers and mathematical operations for Quantitative, and figural content for Nonverbal.1 However, just having different types of content does not lead to measuring distinct reasoning skills. CogAT’s subtests were constructed to tap into specific underlying reasoning skills across different areas. For example, sequential reasoning using verbal content requires students to recognize conceptual categories or contrast multiple meanings to solve the problem. Quantitative content requires skills such as recognizing amounts and numeric patterns, or thinking on a number line. Nonverbal content uses figures and pictures where students use inductive reasoning to find patterns in two dimensions, such as the size or orientation of shapes.
The result of these test design features is that we can report an Ability Profile that captures students’ overall ability and indicates which of the three batteries (if any) show a relative strength or weakness.ii
The codes can look like:
In the K12dive article, the Charleston County School District uses each student’s Ability Profile to provide differentiated learning opportunities — not just for those identified for advanced learning services in the district. This is an important use for which CogAT is designed to help teachers make evidence-based decisions about instructional differentiation.iii, iv. Subsequent results in Charleston County public schools indicate that this approach results in real academic growth for students. By leveraging their ability strengths and building up areas of opportunity, students may more effectively bring these abilities to their learning in the classroom.
For more information on the CogAT Ability Profile and how to implement the Stretch and Support program for your students, please see our resources on CogAT.com
Author:
By Dr. Joni Lakin, Professor of Educational Research, University of Alabama, and Author of the Cognitive Abilities Test™ Form 8