Fairfax County Public Schools
No public cutoff; central holistic portfolio review
Open district facts → Scores explained
Gifted testing scores explained without fake cutoffs.
A score report can feel final. It is not. Score types tell you how a test result is reported, while district policy decides how that result is used.
Score Report Decoder
What does the number on the report mean?
Pick the test, then type any one number from the report: the standard score, the percentile or the stanine. The decoder fills in the other two, shows where your child sits among 100 children, and lists questions to ask the school. Its conversions are estimates from each test’s published scale (mean 100, SD 16 or 15); your child’s report is the authority.
What score type is on the report?
Percentile ranks, standard scores, stanines, and ability profiles answer different questions. A percentile rank places a score within a comparison group. A standard score shows distance from a publisher scale center. A stanine is a broad 1-9 category.
A parent should not treat those score types as interchangeable. A 90th percentile, a stanine of 9, and a standard score of 120 are not three ways to say the same thing.
What does a high score mean?
A high score means the child performed strongly within the named comparison frame for that score type. Program placement still follows the district process.
Qualitative bands can be useful for parent interpretation, but this page does not publish norm tables or all-district eligibility thresholds.
The Score Report Decoder above estimates the other two numbers from the one you type, using each test’s published scale: mean 100, with a standard deviation of 16 (CogAT SAS) or 15 (NGAT). Those are estimates. The numbers printed on your child’s report come from the publisher’s norm tables, so the report is the authority.
Are there gifted cutoff scores?
Sometimes a district publishes numeric criteria, referral triggers, or placement bars. Sometimes it explicitly uses holistic review without a single public cutoff. Sometimes a number opens a review but does not decide eligibility.
How a score is used depends on the district: "FCCPS publishes criteria bands" is very different from "every district uses this percentile."
What verified districts publish about cutoffs
These rows use the same checked district facts as the district pages. Each cutoff or no-cutoff statement links to the official district source for criteria.
Loudoun County Public Schools
No current live cutoff; eligibility described as holistic committee review
Open district facts →Arlington Public Schools
No public cutoff; holistic case-study committee
Open district facts →Montgomery County Public Schools
No rank-order cutoff; CES candidate pool uses lottery when seats are limited
Source: www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org ↗
Open district facts →Alexandria City Public Schools
Publishes referral triggers, not a final eligibility cutoff
Open district facts →Falls Church City Public Schools
Publishes numeric criteria bands, but no single score is decisive
Open district facts →Howard County Public School System
Publishes percentile criteria for some placements; Accelerated Math has a higher bar
Open district facts →Prince William County Public Schools
No public cutoff; holistic committee profile
Open district facts →Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District
Publishes screening benchmarks (NGAT composite 116, or MAP "89%"), not a final eligibility cutoff
Open district facts →Beaverton School District
No single TAG cutoff; Summa (grades 6-8) publishes percentile charts by entry year
Source: www.beaverton.k12.or.us ↗
Open district facts →Tahoma School District
Achievement and ability tests plus observed strengths; the top 5-7% Discovery description is not a cutoff
Open district facts →Asheville City Schools
Grades 3-8: 2 points in the area within two years; point routes include 95th-percentile scores
Open district facts →Woodridge School District 68
Panel review of a profile; names a 93rd-percentile local achievement level, not an NGAT cutoff
Open district facts →Alamance-Burlington School System
Talent pool from the 80th percentile, then several pathways; the district page and plan give different bands
Open district facts →What the publishers say about each score
CogAT SAS
Riverside describes CogAT Standard Age Score as a normalized score with mean 100 and standard deviation 16.
NGAT standard score
MHS says NGAT standard scores are standardized to mean 100 and standard deviation 15.
Percentile rank
Publisher report materials define percentile rank as a comparison rank, not the percent of items correct.
Parent questions
What is a good CogAT score?
There is no universal answer. Riverside defines CogAT score types, but districts decide how CogAT scores are used in screening or placement.
Is percentile rank percent correct?
No. Percentile rank compares the score with a norm group. It is not the percent of questions answered correctly.
Can I convert SAS to percentile myself?
You can estimate it. The Score Report Decoder on this page converts between SAS, percentile and stanine using the publisher’s published scale (for CogAT SAS, mean 100 and standard deviation 16). The percentile printed on your child’s report comes from the publisher’s norm tables, so the report is the authority, and district policy decides how the score is used.
Do gifted programs use one cutoff?
Some publish criteria or referral triggers, but many use multiple measures or holistic review. The district source controls the answer.
Sources used for this guide
- Riverside Insights - CogAT score descriptions info.riversideinsights.com
- MHS Help Center - Scoring options help.mhs.com
- Pearson Support - Score report sampler support.pearson.com
Naglieri General Ability Tests™ (NGAT) is a trademark of Multi-Health Systems Inc. (MHS); CogAT® is a trademark of Riverside Assessments, LLC (Riverside Insights); NNAT® and OLSAT® are trademarks of NCS Pearson, Inc. These names are used here only to identify the tests. Reasonwell Press is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or licensed by these publishers or the tests' authors, who were not involved in our materials. Our practice items are original, not actual test questions, and do not guarantee any score or placement.