GATE is an acronym for Gifted and Talented Education.
The term means different things to different people.
Your school district may use the term GATE in reference to a test or group of tests administered to see if a child qualifies for the gifted program.
The term may be used to refer to a school or enrichment program where gifted children are educated.
The term GATE isn’t used everywhere.
Many school districts have a specific name for their gifted program (like Prism, Spectrum, or Enrichment) or refer to it by the name of the school the special program is provided at.
In some school districts the GATE test is a specific test (usually the Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test (
NNAT), Otis-Lenon School Abilities Test (
OLSAT) or Cognitive Abilities Test (
CogAT)).
In others Gifted and Talented Program entry involves passing a series of steps which may include parent recommendation, teacher assessment (perhaps informal or perhaps using a checklist of attributes), achievement testing to ensure a high level of math and reading competence, and cognitive ability testing.
Some school districts test children as a group.
The
OLSAT and
CogAT are group timed tests of verbal, non-verbal and quantitative reasoning.
The
Ravens Progressive Matrix and Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test (
NNAT) are group tests of non-verbal reasoning ability.
Some school districts test children one on one with a school psychologist using a full scale IQ test like the WISC or Stanford-Binet.
If your child is going to be screened for GATE program entry the best place to get more information is your local school district’s website.
They probably have a page or two devoted to their gifted program and explain the process they use for qualification. As an illustration here are links to the information provided by a couple of different
California school districts
Once you know the tests your child will be given come back here and browse my recommendations. The products sold on this website were chosen because of their ability to boost cognitive abilities. Choose something that your child will enjoy doing and you can’t go wrong. If you want just one book then the place to start is Building Thinking Skills. Your child's reading age rather than grade level is usually the best place to start. One thing the various tests used for gifted screening have in common is the inclusion of questions ranging in difficulty. The intent is to identiy children working 2 or more years above expectations for their age. The most difficult questions on the test will be at this level.
