Above-Grade-Level Assessment
A valuable tool for understanding abilities, guiding acceleration decisions, and planning for talent development
Programs
Enrichment and credit-bearing, accelerated programs designed for students at every age and stage of talent development.
Talent Identification
How does above-grade-level assessment help advanced students?
Understanding a student’s academic potential and current level of achievement is an important first step in the talent development process. Assessments help determine a student's need for enrichment, acceleration, or supplemental programming, but grade-level and computer-adaptive tests can provide limited information for advanced learners. We can get more information from tests designed for older students, which use more advanced learning benchmarks. When administered to younger students, these tests provide insights into academic ability and potential and allow CTD to recommend pathways for talent development and resources for instruction and programming.
CTD has expanded it's above-grade-level assessment options to include the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), the Iowa Assessments (School-based), the SAT®, and the ACT®. With CTD, students can take these nationally and internationally recognized tests to receive in-depth information about their strengths and inform decisions about their schooling.
Assessments Administered Remotely (Online)
The following assessments are administered at home through a remote proctoring system and are taken online using a computer or tablet.
"Who knew that waking up early on a Saturday morning to take a test would change my life?" - Above-Grade-Level Assessment Participant
Assessments Administered In-Person
The following assessments are administered at a physical location.
Assessment for Talent Development
Above-Grade-Level Assessment Options for Schools
By using above-grade-level assessments, CTD helps schools gather a more nuanced profile of advanced students’ learning needs. When given as above-grade-level assessments to high-achieving students, the tests used by CTD reveal the type of content students are ready to learn and assess readiness for acceleration, allowing educators to differentiate instruction to the appropriate level and make well informed decisions about programs and services. But more importantly, CTD Assessment helps schools:
- Analyze and understand the data to address students' learning needs,
- Determine the level of differentiation or acceleration required for students' growth,
- Plan programming to support talent development, and
- Measure the impact of programming.
Need Help Getting Started?
If you would like to work with a CTD staff member to discuss your child’s strengths, interests, or talent development pathway, consider setting up a consultation.
Looking for Grade-Level Assessment Options?
If you have a young child, a student new to standardized testing, or an test aligned to grade level content or benchmarks, consider a grade-level assessment.