Does anyone ever *not* qualify for the Hopkins CTY program? [i.e. score too low on SCAT ]

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[Post New]11/05/2015 10:31
quote
RedTailHawk
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I know that the value of the program has debated on this forum in the past but this is a slightly different question.

I'm trying to make a point with my child's (MCPS) teachers that she is quite capable of learning to write well. At this point she consistently gets I's in writing and I'd like her to get some explicit instruction that takes into account her history of learning problems and language disorder.

She qualifies for gifted writers programs at CTY based on last spring's SCAT test results. I interpret this to mean that CTY "thinks" she should be capable of writing well.

I don't think the CTY program is nearly as exclusive as they would like parents to believe but I would like to better understand if the SCAT results have any meaning for her teachers. If it is the case that pretty much every child in her class would pass the CTY cut score then it isn't meaningful. (This is a low FARMS, W feeder type school.)

Thank you.

p.s. - I have no intention of signing her up for a CTY writing program. She took the test because I thought she might enjoy a different summer camp at Sandy Spring. She ended not attending any CTY camps because none of her friends were interested in going.
[Post New]11/05/2015 13:08
quote
Anonymous
I know that the value of the program has debated on this forum in the past but this is a slightly different question.

I'm trying to make a point with my child's (MCPS) teachers that she is quite capable of learning to write well. At this point she consistently gets I's in writing and I'd like her to get some explicit instruction that takes into account her history of learning problems and language disorder.

She qualifies for gifted writers programs at CTY based on last spring's SCAT test results. I interpret this to mean that CTY "thinks" she should be capable of writing well.

I don't think the CTY program is nearly as exclusive as they would like parents to believe but I would like to better understand if the SCAT results have any meaning for her teachers. If it is the case that pretty much every child in her class would pass the CTY cut score then it isn't meaningful. (This is a low FARMS, W feeder type school.)

Thank you.

p.s. - I have no intention of signing her up for a CTY writing program. She took the test because I thought she might enjoy a different summer camp at Sandy Spring. She ended not attending any CTY camps because none of her friends were interested in going.



I am very familiar with SCAT. How can anyone believe that a MCQ exam of less than 50 questions using analogies qualifies anyone as a writer? This is the very definition of gullible. I suggest one use common sense and not put all your eggs in the the CTY marketing ploy for its business model.
[Post New]11/05/2015 13:09
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Anonymous
It depends on what the score is. I don't think schools are particularly impressed with a qualifying score, but a high honors level score, or even better, a score over 95%, can be useful.
[Post New]11/05/2015 15:13
quote
Anonymous
RedTailHawk wrote:I know that the value of the program has debated on this forum in the past but this is a slightly different question.

I'm trying to make a point with my child's (MCPS) teachers that she is quite capable of learning to write well. At this point she consistently gets I's in writing and I'd like her to get some explicit instruction that takes into account her history of learning problems and language disorder.

She qualifies for gifted writers programs at CTY based on last spring's SCAT test results. I interpret this to mean that CTY "thinks" she should be capable of writing well.

I don't think the CTY program is nearly as exclusive as they would like parents to believe but I would like to better understand if the SCAT results have any meaning for her teachers. If it is the case that pretty much every child in her class would pass the CTY cut score then it isn't meaningful. (This is a low FARMS, W feeder type school.)

Thank you.

p.s. - I have no intention of signing her up for a CTY writing program. She took the test because I thought she might enjoy a different summer camp at Sandy Spring. She ended not attending any CTY camps because none of her friends were interested in going.



Hmm. So many sentences I'd like to comment on from your post.

Is the CTY program really exclusive? And if is, should I care that it is?

In 3rd grade, the teacher did not know about SCAT or CTY so we didn't share the results. My kid got 99th percentile verbal. Is he a good writer? He's a developing writer, and we just now started to get glowing comments from his teacher. Is he good at analogies? He is awesome at analogies and gets high scores on the wordmasters challenges.

Use the score as a data point only- not to set up expectations based on your interpretation. What has been interesting to see is that his verbal scores are very consistent across different tests- WISC, Woodcock Johnson, SCAT, etc. But other than that, I'm not banking on using those test scores for anything else but qualifying for the CTY courses.

What I've seen debated on DCUM before is the validity of the SCAT, and that it's an easy test and everyone passes it. We did wonder about that too but thought we'd go ahead and just have DC take it anyway. The SCAT is an above grade test. You need to have a qualifying score on other tests such as the WISC to take the SCAT. DC scored in the 99th percentile of 5th graders when he took the test in 3rd grade- we thought was a great data point for us.

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