Magnet MS results - Takoma Park & Eastern - anyone heard today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been following this thread since it started, sneaking in every now and then to read posts and rejections. My DC is a Math kid, who gets the concept faitly quickly and can apply mental Math. Doesn’t spend more than 30 minutes on all HW, plays on devices, loves to acquire knowledge through electronic media, is in the highest reading group and the writing assignments get good teacher comments, and mostly A but is not a reading writing whiz. Very high MAP (250 Math and 242 english) and PARCC scores (5). Headed to North Bethesda MS.

Did pretty well on the magnet test and gave me quite a good detailed account of various sections, questions and if someone followed the threads on MS magnet test, I am the poster who made aware that there was a non scoring section in the beginning of the test and if answered smartly, it would basically be an essay on who should get in to the magnet program. DC did answer those questions very well based on what DC told me about the kinds of questions and the responses.
DCs cogat scores are all 99, and got accepted to TPMS. Just got the envelop. Did not get in to Humanities. If it matters, southeast Asian.

Is my DC a good candidate for TPMS program, honestly I don’t think so based on what I have heard about a strong curriculum at TPMS, and knowing my child’s strengths and weaknesses. So I now have a lot to think about, since we all have a responsibility to make sure what environment will be good for our children whether we pass the selection line or not on the magnet test.

Just curious, what does the non-scoring section look like?

There were multiple choice questions- 15 or so- that students were to answer. If answered intelligently, and responses put together from each student, would make an essay. The essay would be titled what Is a magnet program and who should be selected to such program. My fifth grader told me so and I believe my DC who loves to create online quizzes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haven't read the whole thread but DD got letter today--accepted to both Eastern and TPMS. 99th percentile both reading and math, home school Westland.

Congratulations! We are still waiting to hear. No word in today's mail. We live in Rockville, and our home middle school is Julius West.

[Anonymous]

Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been following this thread since it started, sneaking in every now and then to read posts and rejections. My DC is a Math kid, who gets the concept faitly quickly and can apply mental Math. Doesn’t spend more than 30 minutes on all HW, plays on devices, loves to acquire knowledge through electronic media, is in the highest reading group and the writing assignments get good teacher comments, and mostly A but is not a reading writing whiz. Very high MAP (250 Math and 242 english) and PARCC scores (5). Headed to North Bethesda MS.

Did pretty well on the magnet test and gave me quite a good detailed account of various sections, questions and if someone followed the threads on MS magnet test, I am the poster who made aware that there was a non scoring section in the beginning of the test and if answered smartly, it would basically be an essay on who should get in to the magnet program. DC did answer those questions very well based on what DC told me about the kinds of questions and the responses.
DCs cogat scores are all 99, and got accepted to TPMS. Just got the envelop. Did not get in to Humanities. If it matters, southeast Asian.

Is my DC a good candidate for TPMS program, honestly I don’t think so based on what I have heard about a strong curriculum at TPMS, and knowing my child’s strengths and weaknesses. So I now have a lot to think about, since we all have a responsibility to make sure what environment will be good for our children whether we pass the selection line or not on the magnet test.

Just curious, what does the non-scoring section look like?

There were multiple choice questions- 15 or so- that students were to answer. If answered intelligently, and responses put together from each student, would make an essay. The essay would be titled what Is a magnet program and who should be selected to such program. My fifth grader told me so and I believe my DC who loves to create online quizzes.

This is what my told me as well. In addition, he had to type at least a paragraph about why he was interested in attending a magnet school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is my current guess about what they did -- they took a lot of kids from schools where there wasn't going to be much of a cohort. They still took some kids from schools where there was going to be a cohort (W schools, but also Sligo and SIMS in DCC, among others), because they wanted some geographic diversity, but they didn't take the top-scoring kids from those schools. I I say that because we still haven't heard of those 280 Map M kids getting in, and I know for a fact that some lower-scoring kids, on all metrics and from UMC backgrounds so they didn't have a dealing with adversity bump, at least got waitlisted at my kid's school and a few of them haven't heard yet so I assume that means acceptances. I'd love to hear if my theory is wrong.

What would be the reasoning behind taking a few kids, but not the top kids, from the higher reforming middle school feeders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been following this thread since it started, sneaking in every now and then to read posts and rejections. My DC is a Math kid, who gets the concept faitly quickly and can apply mental Math. Doesn’t spend more than 30 minutes on all HW, plays on devices, loves to acquire knowledge through electronic media, is in the highest reading group and the writing assignments get good teacher comments, and mostly A but is not a reading writing whiz. Very high MAP (250 Math and 242 english) and PARCC scores (5). Headed to North Bethesda MS.

Did pretty well on the magnet test and gave me quite a good detailed account of various sections, questions and if someone followed the threads on MS magnet test, I am the poster who made aware that there was a non scoring section in the beginning of the test and if answered smartly, it would basically be an essay on who should get in to the magnet program. DC did answer those questions very well based on what DC told me about the kinds of questions and the responses.
DCs cogat scores are all 99, and got accepted to TPMS. Just got the envelop. Did not get in to Humanities. If it matters, southeast Asian.

Is my DC a good candidate for TPMS program, honestly I don’t think so based on what I have heard about a strong curriculum at TPMS, and knowing my child’s strengths and weaknesses. So I now have a lot to think about, since we all have a responsibility to make sure what environment will be good for our children whether we pass the selection line or not on the magnet test.

Just curious, what does the non-scoring section look like?

There were multiple choice questions- 15 or so- that students were to answer. If answered intelligently, and responses put together from each student, would make an essay. The essay would be titled what Is a magnet program and who should be selected to such program. My fifth grader told me so and I believe my DC who loves to create online quizzes.

This is what my told me as well. In addition, he had to type at least a paragraph about why he was interested in attending a magnet school.

Unfortunately, many kids at this age are not mature enough to be PC. Ds just wanted to be with her HGC friends who also plan to go. Obviously a not good enough reason for magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is my current guess about what they did -- they took a lot of kids from schools where there wasn't going to be much of a cohort. They still took some kids from schools where there was going to be a cohort (W schools, but also Sligo and SIMS in DCC, among others), because they wanted some geographic diversity, but they didn't take the top-scoring kids from those schools. I I say that because we still haven't heard of those 280 Map M kids getting in, and I know for a fact that some lower-scoring kids, on all metrics and from UMC backgrounds so they didn't have a dealing with adversity bump, at least got waitlisted at my kid's school and a few of them haven't heard yet so I assume that means acceptances. I'd love to hear if my theory is wrong.

Maybe, but... The higher the score on MAP, the less reliable it is according to MAP. So there's a zone where it's statistically reliable. Beyond that, is not reliable.

There is also the possibility that as kids get older, targeting practice of expected test content has less effect. Some, but less.

Also I'd guess there has been a presumption among many non HGC families that having kids in HGC meant no one else really had a chance at MS magnets. This year appears to have been a large increase in the testing pool. Invited to test was what, about 3,000 kids. So seems probable more kids will match or exceed scores of HGC kids than when fewer tested. Oh and change in test from past years so targeted preparation less of a factor in test results. Just some possibilities....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my current guess about what they did -- they took a lot of kids from schools where there wasn't going to be much of a cohort. They still took some kids from schools where there was going to be a cohort (W schools, but also Sligo and SIMS in DCC, among others), because they wanted some geographic diversity, but they didn't take the top-scoring kids from those schools. I I say that because we still haven't heard of those 280 Map M kids getting in, and I know for a fact that some lower-scoring kids, on all metrics and from UMC backgrounds so they didn't have a dealing with adversity bump, at least got waitlisted at my kid's school and a few of them haven't heard yet so I assume that means acceptances. I'd love to hear if my theory is wrong.

What would be the reasoning behind taking a few kids, but not the top kids, from the higher reforming middle school feeders?

Maybe, they looked at something else rather than the scores.. the non-scoring paragraph everyone had to come up with? Or maybe they really wanted home schools to have some top-notch students and, to that effect, denied them entrance to the magnet program;

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

Who is sharing this information?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my current guess about what they did -- they took a lot of kids from schools where there wasn't going to be much of a cohort. They still took some kids from schools where there was going to be a cohort (W schools, but also Sligo and SIMS in DCC, among others), because they wanted some geographic diversity, but they didn't take the top-scoring kids from those schools. I I say that because we still haven't heard of those 280 Map M kids getting in, and I know for a fact that some lower-scoring kids, on all metrics and from UMC backgrounds so they didn't have a dealing with adversity bump, at least got waitlisted at my kid's school and a few of them haven't heard yet so I assume that means acceptances. I'd love to hear if my theory is wrong.

What would be the reasoning behind taking a few kids, but not the top kids, from the higher reforming middle school feeders?

I don't really now -- maybe so the magnets have less of a range in terms of test scores? I can't really think of a great reason, but doesn't it seem like that is what happened? Some people with 99% are getting in, but I think a lot of people had 99% so that was not much of a differentiator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

?? Not sure if you intended this as tongue in cheek, but I'm the PP who posted a little while ago that child was accepted to both with 99 reading and 99 math, and home school is Westland, which is hardly low-performing, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

?? Not sure if you intended this as tongue in cheek, but I'm the PP who posted a little while ago that child was accepted to both with 99 reading and 99 math, and home school is Westland, which is hardly low-performing, LOL.

I meant we're personally starting to hear from friends of ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

?? Not sure if you intended this as tongue in cheek, but I'm the PP who posted a little while ago that child was accepted to both with 99 reading and 99 math, and home school is Westland, which is hardly low-performing, LOL.

So it looks to me that answering the survey questions probably is the key to differentiate the result? You are honestly the first acceptance I’ve heard so far that is Asian and in W clusters. Congratulations to your DC. Is he/she currently in the home ES or in a HGC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok starting to hear some acceptances. All from lower performing middle schools and not kids with straight 99s.

?? Not sure if you intended this as tongue in cheek, but I'm the PP who posted a little while ago that child was accepted to both with 99 reading and 99 math, and home school is Westland, which is hardly low-performing, LOL.

So it looks to me that answering the survey questions probably is the key to differentiate the result? You are honestly the first acceptance I’ve heard so far that is Asian and in W clusters. Congratulations to your DC. Is he/she currently in the home ES or in a HGC?

PP here--Home ES, and we're not Asian so confused as to why that assumption was made...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Cold Spring results are very interesting. Clearly it would be difficult to accept all 55 applicants into ms magnet. Some criteria must be established to decide. My understanding is that Cold Spring has many high performing kids. Hopefully, a strong peer group supported by strong teachers can provide a similarly enriching experience for all.

If true. About which I am doubtful. Were the fifth-graders running around at recess systematically checking off names on the Valentine's class name list?