CES Decision Letters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I remember correctly the “rejection” letters last year were kind of confusingly worded. Like “your child’s need for acceleration can be met at their current school” or something like that.

That actually seems pretty clear to me

[Anonymous]

I thought all the letters came at the same time but maybe that was because they mistakenly told all the wait pool kids and rejected kids they were in the wait pool.

They were centrally printed tear open postcards.

Then they sent out a corrected second mailing to the kids who were actually rejected but nothing more for the real wait pool kids.

Accepted kids got a letter at some point directly from the CES (i.e. Cold Spring, Piney Branch) with open house invites and an accept/decline form.

[Anonymous]

^^In a regular letter envelope with the school return address in case you wants real specifics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they send accepted and wait list letters only, or do they also sent "rejection" letters?

Rejections come first. The others come later.

Last year,I think they accidentally sent waitlist acceptance letters to the wrong group, and then a day later acceptance letters to the kids who were actually accepted... and a letter to the falsely accepted families explaining that they were not really waitlisted. That was unpleasant.

If your child is accepted, prepare for some serious weirdness from some other families. Most people could care less, but it isn’t good to discuss it too much.

[Anonymous]

I take that back. The return address was from some MCPS central office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If your child is accepted, prepare for some serious weirdness from some other families. Most people could care less, but it isn’t good to discuss it too much.

+1 about the weirdness. Best not to bring it up. Most parents didn't say anything directly to us but their kids were sure saying strange things to DD which I'm sure they heard from their parents. It was stuff about affirmative action, favoritism by teachers, speculation about why certain kids got in and other did not that has nothing to do with the real selection criteria. DD ended up staying at the home school and it still comes up every now and then because one of the kids who is at a CES is still friends with her friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If your child is accepted, prepare for some serious weirdness from some other families. Most people could care less, but it isn’t good to discuss it too much.

+1 about the weirdness. Best not to bring it up. Most parents didn't say anything directly to us but their kids were sure saying strange things to DD which I'm sure they heard from their parents. It was stuff about affirmative action, favoritism by teachers, speculation about why certain kids got in and other did not that has nothing to do with the real selection criteria. DD ended up staying at the home school and it still comes up every now and then because one of the kids who is at a CES is still friends with her friends.

I think that some parents have the completely understandable instinct to shield their child from the sting of rejection and in the tumult of the moment blurt out something like this in an effort to be kind to their own child. I wish none of the kids knew why they were tested or were ever told if they were turned down for the program. Or at least that parents would know to tell their child that the program just doesn’t have enough space for all the kids who could benefit and that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Most kids (including those accepted) are not at all excited about going to a new school. If you get accepted, remember that some people are really disappointed and try to keep your mouth shut.

[Anonymous]

This is true, but in an effort to be kind to their own child some parents seem to be saying unkind things about other children which is not okay.

I think schools/teachers need to be cautious about not feeding into this competitive atmosphere. One teacher last year announced the purpose of the test to her class which raised a lot of questions for those students. Another teacher, my child's teacher, didn't say anything and to this day my child has no idea that test was related to the CES program and does not care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true, but in an effort to be kind to their own child some parents seem to be saying unkind things about other children which is not okay.

I think schools/teachers need to be cautious about not feeding into this competitive atmosphere. One teacher last year announced the purpose of the test to her class which raised a lot of questions for those students. Another teacher, my child's teacher, didn't say anything and to this day my child has no idea that test was related to the CES program and does not care.

Sorry, didn’t mean that it was ok, just that it can be a particularly painful moment for some parents and they can misstep, not out of malice, but just in the shock of the moment. I knew parents who were genuinely perplexed and disappointed their child didn’t even get waitlisted into the program and they had absolutely no idea that their bright child wasn’t a clear choice for the program. If you have a kid in the top reading and math groups at school, you don’t necessarily know that there are several kids folded into those groups who should be doing much more challenging material. Not everyone tracks the stats on DCUM and they thought their kid was amazing for being a grade ahead. And this IS a great and wonderful kid in a million ways and a child who will surely do well in life. But this child would not have enjoyed the heavy reading load in the CES program at all. I also knew kids waitlisted who would have been really happy in the program.

So I guess I’m just saying that these letters arrive and some unexpected truths can come clear for otherwise super nice and sane people. And also, if your child is not selected, please remember that they will repeat your words and that making up reasons like affirmative action as a reason can actually make kids feel like it is somehow a terrible thing that they didn’t get in. Consider saying nothing at all because most kids have completely forgotten about the testing at this point. And please also note that the kids who did get in probably need the program desperately, you may have no idea, and they are also nervous little kids who are very worried that they are going to lose their friends. So have a heart all-around and let the kids ignore it as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

Last year was especially horrible because of the mistaken wait pool letters.

Many proud parents who might not have brought it up did bring it up because they thought their kids had achieved the honor of a spot in the wait pool and they wanted to congratulate them and prepare them for the idea of switching schools should they get off the wait pool. This made it a big topic of conversation at school when it otherwise might not have been.

[Anonymous]

Not to be a moron, but do you need to actually apply your kid for this, or is it automatic?

[Anonymous]

You don't apply (anymore.) There is universal screening. The first stage involves them recommending your child to take a test. If your child received a "gifted" designation in 2nd they will be recommended to take the test. You can opt out of taking the test or you can opt in if your child wasn't recommended.

From that pool of kids MCPS invites some kids for the program and puts others in a wait pool. There are stats somewhere with the number considered, invited, in the wait pool and not invited. Something like 6000-7000 "considered"/tested out of 11,000-12,000 total 3rd graders. Don't remember how many invited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If your child is accepted, prepare for some serious weirdness from some other families. Most people could care less, but it isn’t good to discuss it too much.

+1 about the weirdness. Best not to bring it up. Most parents didn't say anything directly to us but their kids were sure saying strange things to DD which I'm sure they heard from their parents. It was stuff about affirmative action, favoritism by teachers, speculation about why certain kids got in and other did not that has nothing to do with the real selection criteria. DD ended up staying at the home school and it still comes up every now and then because one of the kids who is at a CES is still friends with her friends.

In our experience, the kids were talking about it, but I didn’t hear of any “weirdness” like above. My DD did tell me a couple kids were admitted, and I approached the parents because I was hoping to talk about the decision with other people deciding, but the parents said the kids were waitlisted. I didn’t tell the parents their kid told my kid they were admitted and I didn’t tell my daughter the parents said they were waitlisted. The open house was pretty quick so then I just kept my mouth shut and waited to see who showed up at the open house. Most of the parents I know from my kid’s activities didn’t know she was admitted until the school year started and her carpool logistics were different. It has really not been a big thing at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't apply (anymore.) There is universal screening. The first stage involves them recommending your child to take a test. If your child received a "gifted" designation in 2nd they will be recommended to take the test. You can opt out of taking the test or you can opt in if your child wasn't recommended.

From that pool of kids MCPS invites some kids for the program and puts others in a wait pool. There are stats somewhere with the number considered, invited, in the wait pool and not invited. Something like 6000-7000 "considered"/tested out of 11,000-12,000 total 3rd graders. Don't remember how many invited.

So we'd already know if they'd taken the test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't apply (anymore.) There is universal screening. The first stage involves them recommending your child to take a test. If your child received a "gifted" designation in 2nd they will be recommended to take the test. You can opt out of taking the test or you can opt in if your child wasn't recommended.

From that pool of kids MCPS invites some kids for the program and puts others in a wait pool. There are stats somewhere with the number considered, invited, in the wait pool and not invited. Something like 6000-7000 "considered"/tested out of 11,000-12,000 total 3rd graders. Don't remember how many invited.

So we'd already know if they'd taken the test?

Yes. All current third graders were screened and parents received letters about whether they would be tested (with the chance to opt in or opt out). Testing happened at local schools in February.