Math Placement Letters APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not a equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not an equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

Your kid did not get a pass advanced on the SOL and has a lower COGAT they probably shouldn’t be in intensified. That being said if you want him in there APS will cave.

[Anonymous]

If the cutoff for placement really is 421 that’s nowhere near advanced pass (at least for incoming 8th graders). Tho I don’t think all schools are following that metric- my kid has above that and I think will be placed in regulate algebra. Don’t know yet because even the letter hasn’t come (even tho it said it would be out Friday).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not an equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

Your kid did not get a pass advanced on the SOL and has a lower COGAT they probably shouldn’t be in intensified. That being said if you want him in there APS will cave.

Uh but he did get a pass advanced. That's my point. APS is clearly not following its own rules. And the situation at Hamm shows that it is absolutely not equitable. So my student is learning that we don't always get to be in the intensified class and that it doesn't really matter at all. It's not a real reflection on who we are as a student. But all of that said, how many people from Syphax does is it take to sock puppet on here? Like do you all take shifts? Is there a bingo board?

[Anonymous]

Can someone please share the prealgebra cutoff scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not an equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

Your kid did not get a pass advanced on the SOL and has a lower COGAT they probably shouldn’t be in intensified. That being said if you want him in there APS will cave.

Uh but he did get a pass advanced. That's my point. APS is clearly not following its own rules. And the situation at Hamm shows that it is absolutely not equitable. So my student is learning that we don't always get to be in the intensified class and that it doesn't really matter at all. It's not a real reflection on who we are as a student. But all of that said, how many people from Syphax does is it take to sock puppet on here? Like do you all take shifts? Is there a bingo board?

Oh please. No one from Syphax is commenting on this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please share the prealgebra cutoff scores?

No, because the letter doesn’t give them. It has something vague about how you might be ready for an advanced math class if you have certain scores, then tells you which advanced class your kid is in. But it doesn’t distinguish cut offs for Math 6 advanced vs pre-algebra for 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Schools have different cutoffs. My kid had higher scores and was moved from Pre-Algebra where she was placed a few weeks ago to Math 6 Advanced (thankfully). Some of her friends going to a different middle school had lower scores and were placed in Pre-Algebra. Definitely depends on the school. You can't offer Pre-Algebra if very few of your students score at or above the decision rules so you have to lower the cutoff. I work at a title 1 school in FCPS and we had to mov kids who scored a 401 in 5th grade into Math 7HN (which is our version of Pre Alg for 6th graders) because otherwise we wouldn't have any kids in the class that the state is requiring us to offer.

[Anonymous]

Are the letters out? I don’t have one for my 8th grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools have different cutoffs. My kid had higher scores and was moved from Pre-Algebra where she was placed a few weeks ago to Math 6 Advanced (thankfully). Some of her friends going to a different middle school had lower scores and were placed in Pre-Algebra. Definitely depends on the school. You can't offer Pre-Algebra if very few of your students score at or above the decision rules so you have to lower the cutoff. I work at a title 1 school in FCPS and we had to mov kids who scored a 401 in 5th grade into Math 7HN (which is our version of Pre Alg for 6th graders) because otherwise we wouldn't have any kids in the class that the state is requiring us to offer.

I don’t think this can be right. I know in the past some APS middle schools have very different numbers of kids in advanced math classes compared to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the letters out? I don’t have one for my 8th grader.

They've been out for a while. They're in documents in ParentVue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are the letters out? I don’t have one for my 8th grader.

They've been out for a while. They're in documents in ParentVue.

Huh- not in mine. Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not a equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

The CogAt is an IQ test that tests intellectual capability. It's not an achievement test. So it would not be impacted by Covid disruptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not a equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

The CogAt is an IQ test that tests intellectual capability. It's not an achievement test. So it would not be impacted by Covid disruptions.

My kid was really uncomfortable with all the covid rules when they first returned and I know that impacted their ability to focus on the Cogat. It wasn't a normal testing situation. Kids also hadn't taken a standardized test in years and weren't familiar with testing at that point.

APS also only offered a cogat screening test to those returning 3rd and 4th graders. For an accurate score, kids over a certain score were supposed to be offered a full test but that never happened. So that placeholder score has pretty big error bars. It's not as reliable as a real cogat score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is telling your 8th grader that they can't take "honors math"? What school? Are you even in APS? APS doesn't use the term honors math.

Dhms, my kid was moved from intensified algebra to regular algebra (along with a “large number of kids” according to the counselor). 97th percentile on his nwea map, high b+ in prealgebra, 485 on the 8th grade sol. His grade is actually really high if you factor in his teacher — we actually met with the principal about his experience— the teacher didn’t give any credit for homework that was turned in and graded because she just didn’t like him so he essentially got a 100% in the class if you factor that in. The cutoffs in his placement letter say you have to have a cogat of 120+ to be in intensified math. I might be misreading the letter though.

It’s not that big a deal (assuming the class is rigorous enough that he passes the algebra sol), but my kid is devastated. We’ve emailed the school a couple of times so hopefully we can get him moved. Or maybe THEY can explain how he did badly on an iq test in either second or third grade.

You should be able to patent place him, per APS policy.

Ugh. I have so many thoughts about this specific situation at DHMS, the response, and using the COGAT given during the first year back in the classroom from Covid as anything other than scrap paper (our 8th grader took it in the 4th grade ... gold stars to kids who excelled that year, but most did not). I will say that my kid is one who will be in the non-intensified algebra and after a little hit to his ego, he has had a pretty good handle on his response in that he has other intensified classes, he also had a real jerk of a science teacher last year (same issue with assignments not being graded), and he wants to spend 8th grade working on things he likes. I would say, though, and this is taking the discussion in a whole different path, it does royally piss me off how kids are getting left behind here. We also advocated for our student a ton last year. Not all kids have that privilege. We even know a kid who was very strictly disciplined at home because of the grading situation. It was not and is not a equitable system, and one would think that the whole SOL cut off thing would itself be equitable. But nope.

The CogAt is an IQ test that tests intellectual capability. It's not an achievement test. So it would not be impacted by Covid disruptions.

My kid was really uncomfortable with all the covid rules when they first returned and I know that impacted their ability to focus on the Cogat. It wasn't a normal testing situation. Kids also hadn't taken a standardized test in years and weren't familiar with testing at that point.

APS also only offered a cogat screening test to those returning 3rd and 4th graders. For an accurate score, kids over a certain score were supposed to be offered a full test but that never happened. So that placeholder score has pretty big error bars. It's not as reliable as a real cogat score.

This exactly. The cogat score that they are using for this placement letter was from covid— it has a composite score but no other scores. He never took a full cogat. Honestly if I had realized that it might be important one day I would have gotten him independently tested.