Rejections to Magnets. What Does it Mean for Enriched Classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:44 again. This is Lakelands Park MS. Also wanted to add that there is no different math class. They have just renamed IM to Applied IM.

What about IM for 7th graders?

Didn't ask but thats a good question. The slides at the parent night were so funny. Either you are in "Advanced World Studies" or this humanities thing which is more advanced than advanced!!!

The new 6th grade regular curriculum basically names everything "advanced." It's just the name of the class, but it sure looks good for marketing. For example, at Lee MS, EVERY 6th grader will take "Advanced English." They claim that the new curriculum is better at handling the needs of both advanced students and remedial students, but the classes are homogenized and remedial students will be in a same class as advanced students, with everyone else mixed in, too. The higher-performing students are paired with lower-performing students to help being up the lower students, but there's no benefit in that for the higher students. They'll get an advanced reading group, like they do now in regular elementary school. So, if there's only one non-magnet class, and it's labeled "advanced," take that with a grain of salt.

This is not new or for only the 6th grade. The entire MS curriculum has been labeled “advanced” for a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP. I know. Just remarking how funny it is. Also makes me laugh how the choices for English are "Advanced" English or ESOL. Nothing in between

I wonder if that's why that curriculum was the new choice - it's great marketing when every parent can say their child is in "advanced" English. "Oh, my DC is in Advanced English. They're reading 'See Spot Run' in their 6th grade reading group."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Over 700 kids had qualifying cogat composite scores. That’s what happens when you test thousands of kids. This is a good thing.

What is considered a "qualifying cogat composite score," and is that a MCPS percentile or a national one? If the MS magnets are either for humanities or math, then why are they looking at composite score rather than the just the verbal for Eastern and just the quantitative (and nonverbal too?) for Takoma?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over 700 kids had qualifying cogat composite scores. That’s what happens when you test thousands of kids. This is a good thing.

What is considered a "qualifying cogat composite score," and is that a MCPS percentile or a national one? If the MS magnets are either for humanities or math, then why are they looking at composite score rather than the just the verbal for Eastern and just the quantitative (and nonverbal too?) for Takoma?

Why does it matter? Are you thinking MCPS’s threshold is too low? Well, that’s their prerogative. They are identifying 700 kids using composite scores alone. That’s more than when only kids whose parents referred were tested. I used composite because there’s no overlap. There are at least 700 gifted 5th graders in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over 700 kids had qualifying cogat composite scores. That’s what happens when you test thousands of kids. This is a good thing.

What is considered a "qualifying cogat composite score," and is that a MCPS percentile or a national one? If the MS magnets are either for humanities or math, then why are they looking at composite score rather than the just the verbal for Eastern and just the quantitative (and nonverbal too?) for Takoma?

Why does it matter? Are you thinking MCPS’s threshold is too low? Well, that’s their prerogative. They are identifying 700 kids using composite scores alone. That’s more than when only kids whose parents referred were tested. I used composite because there’s no overlap. There are at least 700 gifted 5th graders in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over 700 kids had qualifying cogat composite scores. That’s what happens when you test thousands of kids. This is a good thing.

What is considered a "qualifying cogat composite score," and is that a MCPS percentile or a national one? If the MS magnets are either for humanities or math, then why are they looking at composite score rather than the just the verbal for Eastern and just the quantitative (and nonverbal too?) for Takoma?

We don't know they aren't. More likely they are weighting them differently depending on the target school. It's interesting there's a lot of overlap between Eastern and Takoma accepted students this year but the fact that they are not the same group shows they are looking at different things for Takoma versus Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a W-feeder school. My kids stats look fantastic but he is rejected to both. Does that mean he is not automatically enrolled in the two enriched classes that are offered at our local MS? Are we at the mercy of the MS principal to make such decisions? If so, when will we know the results?

I am just curious how do you gage the stats?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone's kid heard from Cabin John Middle School regarding the enriched math and/or social studies class? As far as I understand, we are supposed to receive an invitation if selected but I we have not received anything in the mail.

[Anonymous]

We got DC's letter from Tilden today. Offered spots in both. Which is interesting, because DC was (national/MCPS) 99%/99% for verbal but only 99%/86% for math. MAP-M was 99% though so maybe that had something to do with it.

[Anonymous]

I think the bar was something like 95th percentile (or was it 90th?) on any one measure considered for admission. It could also have been your child's PARCC score.