letter received today from MCPS about HGC

[Anonymous]

They are. It is a P. They just need to use it for Middle and High Schools too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our home school, where there is about a 40% FARMS rate and many well educated middle/upper middle class families as well, I think that making a whole class HGC would be detrimental to closing the achievement gap. It would have the opposite effect of MCPS's goal with these pilots. It would just be tracking.

We're at a school that's closer to 50% FARMS and, honestly, the high performers aren't even close to all white/Asian. Yes, the white/Asian kids are over represented, but if you created a "gifted" class, it would probably be about half white/Asian and half Black/Latinx compared to a regular class that's only 25% white/Asian. But...still, since the Black/Latinx kids rarely make it to the HGC, this model would do a better job of closing the achievement gap than what we have now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our home school, where there is about a 40% FARMS rate and many well educated middle/upper middle class families as well, I think that making a whole class HGC would be detrimental to closing the achievement gap. It would have the opposite effect of MCPS's goal with these pilots. It would just be tracking.

We're at a school that's closer to 50% FARMS and, honestly, the high performers aren't even close to all white/Asian. Yes, the white/Asian kids are over represented, but if you created a "gifted" class, it would probably be about half white/Asian and half Black/Latinx compared to a regular class that's only 25% white/Asian. But...still, since the Black/Latinx kids rarely make it to the HGC, this model would do a better job of closing the achievement gap than what we have now.

maybe they should offer every kid the level of education they offer the gifted kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our home school, where there is about a 40% FARMS rate and many well educated middle/upper middle class families as well, I think that making a whole class HGC would be detrimental to closing the achievement gap. It would have the opposite effect of MCPS's goal with these pilots. It would just be tracking.

We're at a school that's closer to 50% FARMS and, honestly, the high performers aren't even close to all white/Asian. Yes, the white/Asian kids are over represented, but if you created a "gifted" class, it would probably be about half white/Asian and half Black/Latinx compared to a regular class that's only 25% white/Asian. But...still, since the Black/Latinx kids rarely make it to the HGC, this model would do a better job of closing the achievement gap than what we have now.

maybe they should offer every kid the level of education they offer the gifted kids.

So a child that is not reading much yet should be put in a class reading books on the third grade level in first grade and asked to write about them. A child still working on the concept if multiplication should be in a very fast paced 5th grade level math class in 3rd grade. In fifth grade, a child still working on forming well structured paragraphs should be asked to write a 10+ page research project? I would not want that for my typical on grade level student It would be too much and inappropriate to his needs.

[Anonymous]

Am I understanding that MoCo doesn't give the CoGAT to all third graders? They limit who can even take that initial test?

Our non-MoCo Marlyand district tests *all* second graders. No need for teacher recommendations or parent involvement. All second graders receive the CoGAT and then anyone above a given cutoff (not sure what the number is) is given the Performance Series test and teacher evaluations.
It's not a perfect system, but at least you're reaching out to all kids and hopefully catching those really bright kids who may not have parents actively involved or might not currently work to their potential in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I understanding that MoCo doesn't give the CoGAT to all third graders? They limit who can even take that initial test?

Our non-MoCo Marlyand district tests *all* second graders. No need for teacher recommendations or parent involvement. All second graders receive the CoGAT and then anyone above a given cutoff (not sure what the number is) is given the Performance Series test and teacher evaluations.
It's not a perfect system, but at least you're reaching out to all kids and hopefully catching those really bright kids who may not have parents actively involved or might not currently work to their potential in the classroom.

All second graders in MOCO take the InView test. I am not completely clear on who will take the test in third. I guess whoever the school recommends. Additionally, it sounds like a parent can recommend their child as well to take the test. So no, its not everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I understanding that MoCo doesn't give the CoGAT to all third graders? They limit who can even take that initial test?

Our non-MoCo Marlyand district tests *all* second graders. No need for teacher recommendations or parent involvement. All second graders receive the CoGAT and then anyone above a given cutoff (not sure what the number is) is given the Performance Series test and teacher evaluations.
It's not a perfect system, but at least you're reaching out to all kids and hopefully catching those really bright kids who may not have parents actively involved or might not currently work to their potential in the classroom.

All second graders in MOCO take the InView test. I am not completely clear on who will take the test in third. I guess whoever the school recommends. Additionally, it sounds like a parent can recommend their child as well to take the test. So no, its not everyone.

What is the county's reason for not giving the test to every student?

[Anonymous]

Every family gets a form to fill out if they interested in testing. I assume if a family has no interest in the program it would be just extra testing for the child to have to sit through it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I understanding that MoCo doesn't give the CoGAT to all third graders? They limit who can even take that initial test?

Our non-MoCo Marlyand district tests *all* second graders. No need for teacher recommendations or parent involvement. All second graders receive the CoGAT and then anyone above a given cutoff (not sure what the number is) is given the Performance Series test and teacher evaluations.
It's not a perfect system, but at least you're reaching out to all kids and hopefully catching those really bright kids who may not have parents actively involved or might not currently work to their potential in the classroom.

All second graders in MOCO take the InView test. I am not completely clear on who will take the test in third. I guess whoever the school recommends. Additionally, it sounds like a parent can recommend their child as well to take the test. So no, its not everyone.

What is the county's reason for not giving the test to every student?

I assume $$$, why else would you not give the CogNat test universally to all 3rd graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I understanding that MoCo doesn't give the CoGAT to all third graders? They limit who can even take that initial test?

Our non-MoCo Marlyand district tests *all* second graders. No need for teacher recommendations or parent involvement. All second graders receive the CoGAT and then anyone above a given cutoff (not sure what the number is) is given the Performance Series test and teacher evaluations.
It's not a perfect system, but at least you're reaching out to all kids and hopefully catching those really bright kids who may not have parents actively involved or might not currently work to their potential in the classroom.

All second graders in MOCO take the InView test. I am not completely clear on who will take the test in third. I guess whoever the school recommends. Additionally, it sounds like a parent can recommend their child as well to take the test. So no, its not everyone.

I think the point is that conducting the test during school hours, and testing kids identified by the school rather than parent referrals, will catch kids whose parents don't know they are gifted or who can't/won't take their child to a testing center on a weekend.

[Anonymous]

The test (for elementary school) is during school hours. I wonder why they can't just use the INVIEW which is given to all kids already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our home school, where there is about a 40% FARMS rate and many well educated middle/upper middle class families as well, I think that making a whole class HGC would be detrimental to closing the achievement gap. It would have the opposite effect of MCPS's goal with these pilots. It would just be tracking.

We're at a school that's closer to 50% FARMS and, honestly, the high performers aren't even close to all white/Asian. Yes, the white/Asian kids are over represented, but if you created a "gifted" class, it would probably be about half white/Asian and half Black/Latinx compared to a regular class that's only 25% white/Asian. But...still, since the Black/Latinx kids rarely make it to the HGC, this model would do a better job of closing the achievement gap than what we have now.

maybe they should offer every kid the level of education they offer the gifted kids.

The HGC program is challenging. Even many kids who are in it find the work load stressful and this is with the current selectivity. Not sure why you would want to offer it to every kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So with the home school model, small ESs with two classes per grade have a 50% gifted program and large ESs with 5 classes per grade have a 20% gifted program. This is not a gifted program at all and it is not fair...

The standard would also be very different at every school. In our ES there are so many parents with Ivy degrees, MBAs, PhDs and it's one of those places where Inview identifies 80% of the class as gifted. Parents would cry bloody murder if they had only one class of gifted kids and the rest had to be in "regular" classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The test (for elementary school) is during school hours. I wonder why they can't just use the INVIEW which is given to all kids already.

Or save money by getting rid of it and then using that money to screen everyone on Cogat.

[Anonymous]

I was just reading about a gifted program in a different state and how they had different criteria for different schools. For the newest gifted school located in a very poor part of their district they ended up having to make attendance a big factor.