Magnet Middle School Thread: MAP scores and results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

And this top dozen group is uniquely determined by the top dozen MAP scores? I am not trying to be snarky, just curious.

DC's map score is 30 points over the 99% and in the high 270s. The difference in their score and a 99% is the same as that of an 70% and a 99%. However, they did not make the cut. They had straight A's. They are in the CES. They had 99% cog-at when they took it in 3rd and 5's on both PARCs. This is a lottery. Their scores were great but it didn't matter in the end.

They didn't make the cut to be in pool? Or they were in the pool and didn't win the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fall Map 98% math 94% reading
CES
Straight A
3rd grade cogat 99%
High FARMS school but not our family, male,
Not in the lottery pool for either.

THIS MAKES NO SENSE! I srsly do not understand how they created this pool then.

- PP with the high80s math kid who WAS in the lottery for TPMS. Even I can see that’s not fair at all. I was hoping she’d get into the lottery for Eastern (and would have loved for her to go there), but it doesn’t make much sense that she took a lottery spot for TP from a kid like this. Does not compute.

[Anonymous]

We should send this thread to MCPS.

[Anonymous]

This happens every year though, doesn't it? A bunch of seemingly shoe-in kids get rejected and no one can explain why? This thread will hopefully encourage a few of those families to appeal the decision and at least get placed in the lottery pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens every year though, doesn't it? A bunch of seemingly shoe-in kids get rejected and no one can explain why? This thread will hopefully encourage a few of those families to appeal the decision and at least get placed in the lottery pool

I know MCPS has some secret way they make the final decisions but the way kids were placed into the lottery at least(!) should have been transparent. Unless everyone is lying about their kid’s 99 scores... That thought just occurred to me! Do you think people lie (to themselves, on DCUM, etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens every year though, doesn't it? A bunch of seemingly shoe-in kids get rejected and no one can explain why? This thread will hopefully encourage a few of those families to appeal the decision and at least get placed in the lottery pool

There is no appeal. It's a lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

And this top dozen group is uniquely determined by the top dozen MAP scores? I am not trying to be snarky, just curious.

DC's map score is 30 points over the 99% and in the high 270s. The difference in their score and a 99% is the same as that of an 70% and a 99%. However, they did not make the cut. They had straight A's. They are in the CES. They had 99% cog-at when they took it in 3rd and 5's on both PARCs. This is a lottery. Their scores were great but it didn't matter in the end.

They didn't make the cut to be in pool? Or they were in the pool and didn't win the lottery.

270s and straight As are nothing to brag about for a Humanities sixth grader. I’m a little embarrassed for you that those are the stats you think should qualify your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

And this top dozen group is uniquely determined by the top dozen MAP scores? I am not trying to be snarky, just curious.

DC's map score is 30 points over the 99% and in the high 270s. The difference in their score and a 99% is the same as that of an 70% and a 99%. However, they did not make the cut. They had straight A's. They are in the CES. They had 99% cog-at when they took it in 3rd and 5's on both PARCs. This is a lottery. Their scores were great but it didn't matter in the end.

They didn't make the cut to be in pool? Or they were in the pool and didn't win the lottery.

270s and straight As are nothing to brag about for a Humanities sixth grader. I’m a little embarrassed for you that those are the stats you think should qualify your kid.

They were providing info on a thread about stats. There are maybe a handful of kids with scores like that in the county. I think their point is it's a lottery and even being one of the top scorers doesn't mean you get selected at random.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happens every year though, doesn't it? A bunch of seemingly shoe-in kids get rejected and no one can explain why? This thread will hopefully encourage a few of those families to appeal the decision and at least get placed in the lottery pool

There is no appeal. It's a lottery.

Actually, there is an appeal and it has to be submitted by March 5. It says so at the bottom of the mailer

[Anonymous]

I believe there was more than one kid with 99's not selected for the Magnet. I know of a kid with a 99 CogAT that didn't get into TPMS. The question is how the kids selected, and that's something MCPS will never fully answer. That's why the system is moving to "lottery" (so that if any monkey business occurs, no one would ever be able to prove it). Now, how random will the lottery be? Well.. The point is that by not selecting the best, the Magnet Program will be watered down into nothing special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe there was more than one kid with 99's not selected for the Magnet. I know of a kid with a 99 CogAT that didn't get into TPMS. The question is how the kids selected, and that's something MCPS will never fully answer. That's why the system is moving to "lottery" (so that if any monkey business occurs, no one would ever be able to prove it). Now, how random will the lottery be? Well.. The point is that by not selecting the best, the Magnet Program will be watered down into nothing special.

Again folks: Lottery. The scandal isn't that 99% did not get selected because it was a random lottery. But it is problematic that the cut off for the lottery pool seems to have been applied inconsistently on some undisclosed basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happens every year though, doesn't it? A bunch of seemingly shoe-in kids get rejected and no one can explain why? This thread will hopefully encourage a few of those families to appeal the decision and at least get placed in the lottery pool

There is no appeal. It's a lottery.

Actually, there is an appeal and it has to be submitted by March 5. It says so at the bottom of the mailer

The appeal is only if your kid didn’t get into the lottery pool. If they’re in the pool but not selected - no appeal.

[Anonymous]

Map M-283 Map R-240.
Currently in elementary GT program. Straight A student.
In the lottery pool for both TPMS and Eastern. Did not get selected for either program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe there was more than one kid with 99's not selected for the Magnet. I know of a kid with a 99 CogAT that didn't get into TPMS. The question is how the kids selected, and that's something MCPS will never fully answer. That's why the system is moving to "lottery" (so that if any monkey business occurs, no one would ever be able to prove it). Now, how random will the lottery be? Well.. The point is that by not selecting the best, the Magnet Program will be watered down into nothing special.

Again folks: Lottery. The scandal isn't that 99% did not get selected because it was a random lottery. But it is problematic that the cut off for the lottery pool seems to have been applied inconsistently on some undisclosed basis.

That's not my take away from the information disclosed in this thread. It is that the pool's cutoff captured a lot of kids. This may be as many as 10%-20% of the 5th grade population and a random sample was selected because that's how lotteries work.

[Anonymous]

I’m curious how many students were in the lottery. Is that information published anywhere?