Magnet Middle School Thread: MAP scores and results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS to 98 percent is 90 percent in MCPS. We are such a large district we have to revert towards mean.

You get MCPS scores and National scores in your Map reports. We all know there is a few percentage point difference with MCPS scores being higher.
If you have a child in 5th last year you got MCPS scores for your SES and national scores for Cogat. There is a huge gap between MCPS scores and national percentiles in the highest SES group. DC was 99th percentile nationally but only 95th in MCPS for that group. A friend had 98th percentile scores and I think her parent said it was 90th for MCPS for that group.

I'm looking at my child's MAP Progress Report. Can someone tell me where it shows the SES? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

It doesn't show SES. Why and how would they know your income???!

If they partnered with Google or Amazon, they'd know all your secrets!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS to 98 percent is 90 percent in MCPS. We are such a large district we have to revert towards mean.

You get MCPS scores and National scores in your Map reports. We all know there is a few percentage point difference with MCPS scores being higher.
If you have a child in 5th last year you got MCPS scores for your SES and national scores for Cogat. There is a huge gap between MCPS scores and national percentiles in the highest SES group. DC was 99th percentile nationally but only 95th in MCPS for that group. A friend had 98th percentile scores and I think her parent said it was 90th for MCPS for that group.

I'm looking at my child's MAP Progress Report. Can someone tell me where it shows the SES? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

It doesn't show SES. Why and how would they know your income???!

There seem to be a couple of misconceptions here.

For the past few years, when kids have taken the CogAT for CES and MS magnet admissions, MCPS has reported the raw score as well as two different percentiles - the national percentile and the "MCPS percentile." The MCPS percentiles showed how your child's scores compared to the scores of kids attending MCPS schools with similar SES profiles (not kids whose families have similar SES profiles to yours). They don't specifically tell you which SES band your school is in, and no one knows exactly how the schools are grouped. The best guess I heard is that the three groups are Title I, Focus, and everyone else. The MCPS percentile is the one used for admission to ES and MS selective programs. This process did not happen this year because CogAT was not administered.

The MCPS percentile has never been calculated for MAP tests, although the MAP report will show both the national and district averages for your child's grade level.

MAP report show only 4 point spread btw district and national avgs - raw points, not percentile points. In percentile points that's only about one percentile point. But who the hell cares? Selection to the magnets are likely based on your MS cohort, as PP points out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call BS to 98 percent is 90 percent in MCPS. We are such a large district we have to revert towards mean.

You get MCPS scores and National scores in your Map reports. We all know there is a few percentage point difference with MCPS scores being higher.
If you have a child in 5th last year you got MCPS scores for your SES and national scores for Cogat. There is a huge gap between MCPS scores and national percentiles in the highest SES group. DC was 99th percentile nationally but only 95th in MCPS for that group. A friend had 98th percentile scores and I think her parent said it was 90th for MCPS for that group.

I'm looking at my child's MAP Progress Report. Can someone tell me where it shows the SES? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

It doesn't show SES. Why and how would they know your income???!

There seem to be a couple of misconceptions here.

For the past few years, when kids have taken the CogAT for CES and MS magnet admissions, MCPS has reported the raw score as well as two different percentiles - the national percentile and the "MCPS percentile." The MCPS percentiles showed how your child's scores compared to the scores of kids attending MCPS schools with similar SES profiles (not kids whose families have similar SES profiles to yours). They don't specifically tell you which SES band your school is in, and no one knows exactly how the schools are grouped. The best guess I heard is that the three groups are Title I, Focus, and everyone else. The MCPS percentile is the one used for admission to ES and MS selective programs. This process did not happen this year because CogAT was not administered.

The MCPS percentile has never been calculated for MAP tests, although the MAP report will show both the national and district averages for your child's grade level.

MAP report show only 4 point spread btw district and national avgs - raw points, not percentile points. In percentile points that's only about one percentile point. But who the hell cares? Selection to the magnets are likely based on your MS cohort, as PP points out.

Selection for the pool probably a function of MS cohort but selection from the pool lottery just like they said.

[Anonymous]

Yes, duh. It's just for this year bc they can't do Cogat, etc. bc we're in the middle of a f*ing pandemic.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't know what everyone's yammering on about. It's been established several times already that the magnet cutoffs were higher in previous years. Sheesh.

I don't think there's a hardline but 240 being tossed around seems about right for the STEM magnet and a bit lower for the Humanities. In past years it seemed much higher.

In past years the pool was about the same the difference was how selection worked. Other years students were selected from the pool based on their scores relative to their home ms cohort This year they used a random lottery.

This is the key detail that people are missing and explains why one kid with 248 gets in while others with 270 and 280+ don't. They determined who they believed were good candidates and put them in a pool. They did not want to split hairs and just picked randomly from the pool. This is exactly what they said they would do this year. It isn't complicated.

Did they use the home school cohort only for CES or was it also used for MS selective magnets?

No one knows for sure but if I had to wager, I'd guess each home MS was allotted a number of seats that were filled by a random pool draw.

Agreed. They want more or less equal geographical representation. They fid in years past.

[Anonymous]

Last year it was by sending elementary, not middle. I think middle school makes more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year it was by sending elementary, not middle. I think middle school makes more sense.

It makes zero sense.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So it seems that some kids with lower scores ‘won’ the lottery and that’s bad luck for the high scoring and also deserving kids. I don’t understand how high scorers were not included in the pool when there are clearly kids with lower (still very good) scores in there.

A much simpler way to doing it would have been to select the top scorers, taking into account previous years of MAP scores to account for the pandemic.

True, although the scores may not be the perfect predictor for success in magnet programs.

Honestly, the magnet middle school program could double or triple their seating and not dilute their excellence. Due to seat shortages, it's more selective than either high school or elementary school magnets.

No selection method is perfect, but I would rather have a strictly academic selection method than any other. This isn't so much for the children who get in since I know they'll do well (see above). It's to allow the outliers and higher-scorers to avoid their home school. A bright kid who is on the cusp might be expected to do well at either school, but for a kid who consistently scores higher than anyone else - how can anyone think they'd be fine in their home school? Weren't magnets made for just these children?

I agree but you have to have the top kids there or else it's pointless. At TPMS there's a core group of a dozen kids in each grade who are exceptional. Other kids go there to be with these kids. If they are no longer there then what?

They are top kids. I mean they're all in the top 10%.

You don't understand. There is top 10%, or even 1%, and then there are these handful of kids.

You need to get over yourself. They can change the criteria however they want. This isn’t driven by some law of physics that entitles pampered kids to an elite education while everyone else gets crumbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid in CES got into eastern. Are the MAP scores on the paper? I don’t see them anywhere. They won’t be going. It’s way too far away. Hope one of your kids gets the spot!

We'd appreciate it if you could share the stats for your child. Fall 2020 MAP scores in particular.

I would be happy to provide, but I don’t know how to find them. When my older was in 5th, the paper had her scores on it, this one doesn’t. Is it on ParentVUE somewhere?

Okay I found them.

In pool for Eastern and got in, not in pool for takoma.
Map reading was 239 (98%) in fall
Math was 232 (93%) but had always gotten 97-99% in past. DL has not worked well, tendencies towards ADD).

Is she by any chance categorized by MCPS as ESOL, FARMS, or does she have an IEP?
I ask because while these are perfectly decent scores, Fall 2020 MAPs are significantly below what some other students have, and some not only were not selected in the lottery, but some ***were not even in the pool***
To me this means MCPS weighed prior MAP scores significantly.

This is an extremely rude post. Plenty of people have posted about scores in the 98 and 93 percentile and got wait listed. Why pick on this person? It seems you are jealous her kids got in without even trying. Frankly she should keep the spot just to spite you.

[Anonymous]

For HS I was told they used highest of winter (about Dec 2019) or fall scores (September 2020).

[Anonymous]

Is there any hopes for kids in waitlist to get in the second round? When is the second round results and is anyone who got in not accepting (in this forum or that you know of)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any hopes for kids in waitlist to get in the second round? When is the second round results and is anyone who got in not accepting (in this forum or that you know of)?

They never posted this information. I would assume that parents got a month to confirm enrollment. So if there is movement it would occur in April? I imagine there could be a lot of movement because they are offering spots without first identifying whether or not the family is interested. I can imagine there would be a lot of kids that would prefer to go to their home MS to stay with friends. But it’s all a guessing game at this stage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any hopes for kids in waitlist to get in the second round? When is the second round results and is anyone who got in not accepting (in this forum or that you know of)?

When I submitted an appeal, it said we would hear results on/around March 26. I believe that the deadline for appeals and for parents to accept/decline initial acceptances was March 5, so my guess is that they will go through that information and do another round of lottery as needed to fill declined spots and send those results March 26.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid in CES got into eastern. Are the MAP scores on the paper? I don’t see them anywhere. They won’t be going. It’s way too far away. Hope one of your kids gets the spot!

We'd appreciate it if you could share the stats for your child. Fall 2020 MAP scores in particular.

I would be happy to provide, but I don’t know how to find them. When my older was in 5th, the paper had her scores on it, this one doesn’t. Is it on ParentVUE somewhere?

Okay I found them.

In pool for Eastern and got in, not in pool for takoma.
Map reading was 239 (98%) in fall
Math was 232 (93%) but had always gotten 97-99% in past. DL has not worked well, tendencies towards ADD).

Is she by any chance categorized by MCPS as ESOL, FARMS, or does she have an IEP?
I ask because while these are perfectly decent scores, Fall 2020 MAPs are significantly below what some other students have, and some not only were not selected in the lottery, but some ***were not even in the pool***
To me this means MCPS weighed prior MAP scores significantly.

This is an extremely rude post. Plenty of people have posted about scores in the 98 and 93 percentile and got wait listed. Why pick on this person? It seems you are jealous her kids got in without even trying. Frankly she should keep the spot just to spite you.

NP. What's so rude about it? Those scores are extremely low compared to kids who were rejected in previous years. People are just trying to figure out why their child did not get in the pool with higher scores. It could be MCPS used geography or sending elementary or MS. No one knows so she's just asking other questions.
It's unhinged how you jump to conclusions and then to tell someone to take a spot to spite another person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any hopes for kids in waitlist to get in the second round? When is the second round results and is anyone who got in not accepting (in this forum or that you know of)?

They never posted this information. I would assume that parents got a month to confirm enrollment. So if there is movement it would occur in April? I imagine there could be a lot of movement because they are offering spots without first identifying whether or not the family is interested. I can imagine there would be a lot of kids that would prefer to go to their home MS to stay with friends. But it’s all a guessing game at this stage.

I know 2 people who got off the wait list in the summer last year, and one the previous year who got a call in late August. I would not give up hope although I think the numbers are really small.