Error in my child’s enrichment criteria for magnet consideration. What can be done?

[Anonymous]

I got the email that my child wasn’t identified for enrichment from MCPS and therefore not part of the pool. This is an error as they literally meet every single criteria - grades, above average reading designation, and locally horned MAP R scores well above the minimum.

What can be done at this point? I’m so angry. I’ve sent a note to the DCCAPS office to understand what is going on and what can be done. Any insight?

[Anonymous]

DCCAPS? Ha! Is this for middle school? Who runs that shitshow these days?

[Anonymous]

That’s the address I was given to contact. Is there another point of contact?

[Anonymous]

As you don’t know what the minimum MAP-R score was, you do not know whether they meet the criteria or not. From past experience, all the parents I know that raged at MCPS for leaving their kid out of the pool find that they did not, in fact, met the criteria.

Of course if they did make a mistake they will be added to the pool for any waitlist places, but that’s unlikely.

[Anonymous]

I would just reach out to them to see what the local normed MAP score was, and go from there. This, so that you know your kid will get the enriched classes that are available.

[Anonymous]

Share the details here - scores and whether the school is low, medium or high poverty and we’ll tell you whether it’s possible that they made a mistake.

[Anonymous]

This happened to my kid a few years ago. An error kept them out of the pool initially. I inquired with dccaps to verify the problem, then submitted an appeal. Kid was placed in the lottery at that point, but did not get a spot. It was frustrating, since the odds are better of being selected in the first round of the lottery than in later rounds, but there was no other recourse.

[Anonymous]

How do you know your child met criteria? Were you sent a letter? Do you know what the criteria are?

[Anonymous]

They “locally norm” the scores. What that means is that they separate out schools into 3-5 different groups based on the FARMS rate at the school. They take the students in each group and recalculate all of the scores against those peers to find the top 15 plus percentile students. What this means is that if you go to a school with very few FARMS students, there are lots of kids with very high scores and the kids in the top 15 percent usually have MAP scores in the 99/98/97/96 percentiles. Kids with scores lower than that do not meet the criteria. In schools with high FARMS rates, they recalculate those scores against those peers and kids whose initial score was in the 70th percentile in some years are among the top 15 percent of students and get into the pool.

The intent behind local norming research was to find “diamond in the rough” students at higher FARMS schools and add them to the mix. It was NEVER intended by researchers to eliminate access for non FARMS kids by norming their score down. MCPS misunderstood the research and also has institutional priorities related to proportionality so they use the algorithm against kids.

At our middle school, they review the data to include kids like yours in the enriched courses but you may need to reach out to advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my kid a few years ago. An error kept them out of the pool initially. I inquired with dccaps to verify the problem, then submitted an appeal. Kid was placed in the lottery at that point, but did not get a spot. It was frustrating, since the odds are better of being selected in the first round of the lottery than in later rounds, but there was no other recourse.

This happened to us for CES. Super frustrating because your best shot at a seat is in the initial lottery draw. We never got a seat.

They should tell people whether their children meet the criteria before they run the initial lottery so they can process appeals before the initial draw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happened to my kid a few years ago. An error kept them out of the pool initially. I inquired with dccaps to verify the problem, then submitted an appeal. Kid was placed in the lottery at that point, but did not get a spot. It was frustrating, since the odds are better of being selected in the first round of the lottery than in later rounds, but there was no other recourse.

This happened to us for CES. Super frustrating because your best shot at a seat is in the initial lottery draw. We never got a seat.

They should tell people whether their children meet the criteria before they run the initial lottery so they can process appeals before the initial draw.

They have been told this for years. It is beyond me why they have not made this very reasonable adjustment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got the email that my child wasn’t identified for enrichment from MCPS and therefore not part of the pool. This is an error as they literally meet every single criteria - grades, above average reading designation, and locally horned MAP R scores well above the minimum.

What can be done at this point? I’m so angry. I’ve sent a note to the DCCAPS office to understand what is going on and what can be done. Any insight?

Honestly, the magnet programs have now been watered down with the lottery and the local norming-they're not the gems they used to be-they're smart kids but not the top 1% like they used to be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I got the email that my child wasn’t identified for enrichment from MCPS and therefore not part of the pool. This is an error as they literally meet every single criteria - grades, above average reading designation, and locally horned MAP R scores well above the minimum.

What can be done at this point? I’m so angry. I’ve sent a note to the DCCAPS office to understand what is going on and what can be done. Any insight?

Honestly, the magnet programs have now been watered down with the lottery and the local norming-they're not the gems they used to be-they're smart kids but not the top 1% like they used to be

Still waaaay better than what you get in local schools. If the commute works, I can’t imagine not taking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As you don’t know what the minimum MAP-R score was, you do not know whether they meet the criteria or not. From past experience, all the parents I know that raged at MCPS for leaving their kid out of the pool find that they did not, in fact, met the criteria.

Of course if they did make a mistake they will be added to the pool for any waitlist places, but that’s unlikely.

My child’s score was well above the stated minimum.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure your child was not absent for any of the MAP tests?