Math Placement Letters APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

If kids are meeting the other metrics they are not keeping them out of advanced math due to cogat. If Collette is low and other scores are low, obviously you’re not getting placed in intensified math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I don’t think all middle schools do them after 7th grade. My kid has not gotten a math placement letter since 7th grade. Never got one for intensified vs regular math.

[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.

As an IQ test it is normed on a particular environment and that is not the environment that the post-covid kids got so it's not a reliable result. Because my kid was identified as having learning differences, we had her tested. Her CogAt was 95 with a mask on and her IQ was 127 about a year later in a normal testing environment. I've forgotten at this point but isn't there a short and long version and doesn't APS use the short? If yes, missing one question has a greater impact.

Anyway, got my 7th grader's letter in "documents" today.

[Anonymous]

If you want real fun, FCPS dropped the bomb that they are piloting 6th grade Algebra 1H two weeks before school started. Schools and parents are scrambling.