Advancing GATE December 2, 2025

We hope you had a wonderful, relaxing week of eating, sleeping, and doing what fills your bucket.

Please make sure to set aside time to read Advancing GATE each week. Important updates will always flow through this channel. Reach out if you have any questions or needs!

This is your section for all things Spring Testing. This will act as a resource hub and calendar to utilize throughout the testing window.

Please see important testing dates below. *Please note that this procedure is different from years past. You can train your teachers now, but they cannot submit any UCTs until January 5 as the list of 90th percentile and above students will be provided on December 12. Please emphasize this during your training.

In Progress

• Dec 2–Jan 16 GATE teachers train teachers on the UCT to recommend students for testing. *No submissions will be accepted prior to January 5.

Up Next in Testing

• Dec 12 August 90th %tile lists are uploaded to Teams (download these lists for distribution to your teachers)
• Jan 5–16 UCT submission is open for grades K-7. Teachers recommend students for GATE testing who were not already qualified through FastBridge scores.
• Jan 16 Teachers provide draft testing schedules to principals for approval using the Testing Calendar Template.
• Feb 2–Mar 5 GATE Teachers test K–G7 students. Grades 3 and 4 will be prioritized earlier in the window. See Spring Testing Guidelines for details.
• Mar 16–27 Early Learning Center (ELC) CogAT Testing for PreK.
• ~May 18 PK–7 decision letters will be sent to families.

Links to support your work

• Spring Testing Guidelines
• UTC Power Point for Training Teachers
• Testing Calendar Template to complete with your schedule

You will note a new slide in the UCT Training which asks teachers to cut and paste the 190 student ID numbers and student first and last names directly from Infinite Campus. In order to turnaround all testing before Spring Break, it is essential that we create these matches directly. Please reinforce this during your training. Schools with lists of mismatched students will be returned to you for corrections.

The following schools will complete NAEP Testing in the Spring for Math and Reading in grades 4 & 8. If you serve any of these schools, please connect with your building test coordinator to determine testing dates so you can schedule your CogAT testing on alternative days.

• McMurray Middle

• Sylvan Park Elementary

• Tusculum Elementary

• Haynes Middle

• Lockeland Elementary

• J. E. Moss Elementary

• Thurgood Marshall Middle

Beginning in January (fingers crossed!), we will be shifting to a centralized distribution of newsletters directly to families, using this same platform. You should see a "Translate" button at the top of this newsletter, so families will be able to engage in any language!

You can continue send home your own local newsletters and upload them into your sharepoint folder. Once that process launches, you can include a link to the GATE Hub Newsletter in your local version to make sure they are received.

But alas, it is December! So, linked here is a folder to the December newsletters, translated into multiple languages. You will need to open and download the versions that support the home languages of the families you support. If you are not sure where to find that information, please ask an administrator at your school.

Thank you for supporting families!

Downloadable files:

Do not send direct links as families will not be able to access them!

• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Arabic.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Burmese.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_English.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_French.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Karen.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Nepali.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Spanish.pdf
• December 2025 GATE Newsletter_Vietnamese.pdf

Please make sure that you enter absences on the absence form for any time you are away from the building. This includes partial days, professional development, training, personal days, sick days, etc.

Teacher Absence Form

GATE Shared Folders

December 5 - January 16: GATE Teachers train school staff on UCT

January 16: Teachers submit testing schedules to principals and GATE office.

January 16: Last day for teachers to submit UCTs.

January 21-22: Professional Development @ Robertson

February 2 - March 5: K-7 CogAT Testing
February 10-11: Professional Development CANCELLED

March 16: Professional Development @ Martin

March 16-27: PreK CogAT Testing

May 11: Professional Development @ Martin

November 19, 2025