Lake Washington School District Highly Capable Testing

Lake Washington School District’s gifted and talented programs are called Highly Capable Services. The Lake Washington Highly Capable program is available to students in Kindergarten through 12^th grade. Programs are broken down into four age groups:

Kindergarten
Elementary (1^st through 4^th)
Middle School (5^th through 8^th)
High School (9^th through 12^th)

Early Entrance Kindergarten

LWSD offers Early Entrance testing for children who miss the cutoff date for kindergarten (August 31^st) but turn five before October 1^st. This testing includes five areas: cognitive, fine motor, communication, perceptual motor, and social/emotional. The testing session takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. Parents are not allowed in the room during the assessment.

Area	Type of Skills Tested	Qualifying Scores
Cognitive	Think critically Follow spoken directions Draw relationships between objects	95^th or higher percentile
Communication	Receptive Language: Understand and use conversational skills Understand different words and sounds Expressive Language: Use words socially and to express information Understand and use simple grammar rules	95^th or higher percentile
Fine Motor	Small muscles control (especially in the arms and hands)	75^th or higher percentile
Perceptual Motor	Combine fine motor and perceptual skills to complete tasks	75^th or higher percentile
Social/Emotional	Behave and react like a typical 5-year-old	Typical 5-year-old range

Highly Capable Testing

FastBridge – Given to all children in Kindergarten – 7^th graders. The Fall FastBridge is not a screener, but all children scoring at or above the 85^th percentile will be sent invitations.

CogAT Screener – All students with a completed application will be administered the CogAT Screener (approximately 30 minutes). The CogAT Screener covers Analogy questions in the Verbal, Nonverbal, and Quantitative Batteries. All students who score at or above the 95^th percentile will continue in the eligibility process.

Iowa Assessment and NNAT – The final step in the eligibility process. To qualify for reading the student must score at or above the 95^th percentile in reading, at or above the 95^th percentile in math, and at or above the 95^th percentile on the NNAT. Please see the LWSD Scoring Matrix for a full breakdown.

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High School Programs

The high school programs include honors classes, advanced placement classes, Running Start program, and college in high school. Students are recommended for the classes by their parents and teachers. Students and parents then work with the school’s counsellors to chose which program best meets their academic needs.

What are the different Lake Washington Highly Capable Programs?

Kindergarten Early Entrance is an opportunity for children who turn five between September 1^st and November 30^th to show that they have the ability and social maturity to begin Kindergarten. Children are tested on a variety of skills and if they qualify, they begin school with other kindergartners in September.

K5HC Services are offered once a week to children in K-5^th grades whose test scores qualify them for the program. Students meet with a teacher in small groups for 30 minutes each week. They focus on reading and/or math hands-on activities that encourage creative and critical thinking and leadership skills. The program begins in late September or early October.

Pull-Out Quest is offered one day a week to children in 2^nd-5^th grades whose test scores qualify them for the program. Students are in a self-contained classroom that day. The students focus on project-based learning with social studies and science themes. They work on higher-level thinking skills, cooperation, and presentation skills. The program begins in late September.

Full-Time Quest is a self-contained classroom the children attend 5 days a week. Second and third graders are in a classroom together and fourth and fifth graders are together. The focus is on advanced academic thinking, communication, and collaboration skills. The program starts at the beginning of the school year.

Middle School Quest consists of a 2-period integrated language arts and social studies block, 1 period of science class, and 1 period math class. The remaining 2 periods are available for required and elective classes. The program starts at the beginning of the school year. (All 5^th graders who finish in full-time Quest will automatically transfer into middle school Quest.

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