GT Screening Email

[Anonymous]

Parent of 2nd grader here. Just got a message about an upcoming GT screening test. Is this an email sent out to all families or just some?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of 2nd grader here. Just got a message about an upcoming GT screening test. Is this an email sent out to all families or just some?

It's sent to all. They'll be giving your kid the COGAT test. But then they don't use the COGAT test for anything (not even selection to the elementary school magnet CES), so it's pretty much a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

They do GT screening for all second graders.

[Anonymous]

What is the point then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

+1 This is correct as I understand it. You'll see that MCPS likes to do a lot of testing and then not use it for decision making. MCAP will take 4 academic days of instruction a year, and the scores don't come til months later, they aren't well-explained and they aren't used for anything--they're not incorporated into grades or even considered for eligibility for selection into programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

What a messed up system!

[Anonymous]

Keep your expectations low. It’s the literal Hunger Games in MCPS for any instruction on your child’s level besides compacted math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

What a messed up system!

I don’t work for MCPS but fixing the gifted policy so that they actually used the COGAT scores for something seems like something they could easily do. Lots of school systems use COGAT for placement into accelerated programs but MCPS chooses to only focus on MAP which is a test of how much exposure a kid has had to a subject area.

[Anonymous]

It would be better to cut the testing that McPS isn’t using and assign those funds to reduce class sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

What a messed up system!

I don’t work for MCPS but fixing the gifted policy so that they actually used the COGAT scores for something seems like something they could easily do. Lots of school systems use COGAT for placement into accelerated programs but MCPS chooses to only focus on MAP which is a test of how much exposure a kid has had to a subject area.

You do know that MCPS used to use COGAT for placement, right? They stopped using it during the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

The bar for gifted is very low in second grade. The percentage deemed gifted is very high and MCPS only tests due to a state requirement. If the results were meaningful (like id'd the top 3%) then I would be more upset with mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

What a messed up system!

I don’t work for MCPS but fixing the gifted policy so that they actually used the COGAT scores for something seems like something they could easily do. Lots of school systems use COGAT for placement into accelerated programs but MCPS chooses to only focus on MAP which is a test of how much exposure a kid has had to a subject area.

You do know that MCPS used to use COGAT for placement, right? They stopped using it during the pandemic.

Why wouldn’t they start to use it again? Difficulties analyzing more than one data point from testing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

I think someone explained at one point that Maryland requires schools to test for giftedness, so MCPS is complying with that. COGAT is a test of giftedness. MAP is not a test of giftedness, but MCPS uses that as selection criteria for everything.

But Maryland doesn't require MCPS to actually use the giftedness data in a meaningful ways. So your child may be tagged for giftedness (and that tag remains throughout their school career), but that tag has little relevance because MCPS does not consider it at all for magnet admissions for CES, middle school magnet or HS selective programs or Compact Math acceleration.

You do get a letter in ParentVue saying that your child has been designated as gifted and the info about the score...

What a messed up system!

I don’t work for MCPS but fixing the gifted policy so that they actually used the COGAT scores for something seems like something they could easily do. Lots of school systems use COGAT for placement into accelerated programs but MCPS chooses to only focus on MAP which is a test of how much exposure a kid has had to a subject area.

You do know that MCPS used to use COGAT for placement, right? They stopped using it during the pandemic.

Why wouldn’t they start to use it again? Difficulties analyzing more than one data point from testing?

See who benefits the most using MAP vs when they used GOGAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the point then?

So you prep Larlo. sign up your little Larlo for an expensive test prep to prep them for this test. Larlo is way behind if you haven't already done so. "Gifted" my ass