CES Decision Letters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who says the CES test is weighted higher than other criteria? I don't think that's true. They've provided a list of criteria used but never talked about whether one thing is more important than the next thing.

For the middle schools they used a complicated formula that even included creating percentiles for some tests based on the socieoeconomic tier of the location of your home MS. They've never said whether they did the same for ES or not.

Because I know

What about a child who has 99% map but didn't do too well in the CES test? Does he/she have a good chance of getting into a local center?

In my experience, it depends on which subsection of the CES test they didn't do as well on. There were kids from my child's home school with lower quantitative scores but very high verbal scores and they were admitted to the CES over kids whose results were flipped. This makes sense because all kids in MCPS have access to compacted math, so kids whose strength lies in math will get enrichment at their home school no matter what.

[Anonymous]

Folks, take this info with a grain of salt. MCPS has not said what criteria are given the most weight, and I know kids who had higher quant/non-verbal scores than verbal on Cogat and got into a CES (Chevy Chase/Cold Spring.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks, take this info with a grain of salt. MCPS has not said what criteria are given the most weight, and I know kids who had higher quant/non-verbal scores than verbal on Cogat and got into a CES (Chevy Chase/Cold Spring.)

It's all about cohort. Sometimes higher scores stay at home ES. Unless we could see the scores, we'll never know.

[Anonymous]

Elaborating it's cohort at the home elementary. We were told DD's grade had a lot of high scoreres which were considered a peer group so very few, including one far far out outlier, went from our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Elaborating it's cohort at the home elementary. We were told DD's grade had a lot of high scoreres which were considered a peer group so very few, including one far far out outlier, went from our school.

Although I've read people saying it here, the county had not listed cohort as a factor for CES just MS. The criteria for both programs are laid out pretty clearly on their website.

[Anonymous]

I don't think they are using cohort for CES, only for Middle School and not for High School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think they are using cohort for CES, only for Middle School and not for High School.

According to

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/Parent%20Presentations%202017-2018.Jan.2018(1).pdf

"The Centers are designed for students whose needs cannot easily be met in their home school and are seen as outliers amongst their peers."

And according to

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/CES%20Selection.PDF

here is the "purpose" of the center program: "Although many students would benefit from a selective magnet program experience, the intent of the program is to serve students who lack an academic cohort in their home school."

The two documents are listed at:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/admissions/applications.aspx

under the tab "For Grade 3 Students."

[Anonymous]

That interesting and all but the document on their site which lists the admission criteria lists 5-6 items like grades, CogAT, map scores etc. It doesn't say anything about cohort as consideration for CES.

[Anonymous]

Not really understanding your lack of understanding. There are 5-6 items that feed into a child's "score" for the CES.
How those scores are used includes looking at peer cohort.

So they are not ranking kids and taking the kids with the top scores. They are using some kind of formula that looks at scores RELATIVE TO THEIR PEERS AT THEIR HOME SCHOOL.

[Anonymous]

For all who are curious, here is a full report on exactly how children are selected:

https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/Enriched%20and%20Accelerated%2028Jan2019%20FINAL.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all who are curious, here is a full report on exactly how children are selected:

https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/Enriched%20and%20Accelerated%2028Jan2019%20FINAL.pdf

The instructions to the admissions team say clearly intent of program is academic cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all who are curious, here is a full report on exactly how children are selected:

https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/Enriched%20and%20Accelerated%2028Jan2019%20FINAL.pdf

The instructions to the admissions team say clearly intent of program is academic cohort.

The linked PDF does NOT contain the word cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all who are curious, here is a full report on exactly how children are selected:

https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/Enriched%20and%20Accelerated%2028Jan2019%20FINAL.pdf

The instructions to the admissions team say clearly intent of program is academic cohort.

The linked PDF does NOT contain the word cohort.

I'm all for them using cohort; however, I haven't seen a shred of evidence that they consider this for the CES.

[Anonymous]

Are you just trying to be argumentative?
PP posted several documents:

According to

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/...ns%202017-2018.Jan.2018(1).pdf

"The Centers are designed for students whose needs cannot easily be met in their home school and are seen as outliers amongst their peers."

And according to

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/...elementary/CES%20Selection.PDF

here is the "purpose" of the center program: "Although many students would benefit from a selective magnet program experience, the intent of the program is to serve students who lack an academic cohort in their home school."

The two documents are listed at:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/spe...s/admissions/applications.aspx

under the tab "For Grade 3 Students."

Also call AEI. They will tell you the same thing. I have talked to them about this and they said cohort was considered for the elementary programs. My DD did get in FWIW so this is not a parent trying to make excuses for why she did not get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For all who are curious, here is a full report on exactly how children are selected:

https://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2019/Enriched%20and%20Accelerated%2028Jan2019%20FINAL.pdf

The instructions to the admissions team say clearly intent of program is academic cohort.

The linked PDF does NOT contain the word cohort.

But, at the bottom of page one, the last bullet that describes the changes to the process that is being described/reviewed is:
"Considered the academic peer group at the home school in relation to the student’s
instructional need."

This is indeed for both Middle School magnets and CES based on my conversations with Central Office staff. It makes sense, given the stated purpose of the program and the diverse needs across the system. Not sure why people keep complaining and arguing about it.

It's also clearly stated in all the letters about the program - every one of them says something about meeting the needs of the student at the home school. It's also why the letters are specific to your home school and assigned CES location. People on COSAs have to say if they want to be considered for the program based on the school they attend (COSA) or the school they are assigned. If it didn't matter, they wouldn't make you pick before the selection process.