Reply to MCPS percentiles based on current school and not county or home school?

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[quote=Anonymous]https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/specialprograms/middle/Magnet%20FAQs%202019(7).pdf
(hope this link works... from https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/admissions/applications.aspx )

Here is the entire paragraph:
[quote]3.   What do the MCPS percentiles mean? How are MCPS percentiles determined?
National norms are designed to compare and rank test takers in relation to one another based on those who took the test nationally. Local norms are designed to compare and rank test takers in relation to one another based on those who took the test locally – within MCPS. Local norming provides information about students in relation to their academic peer groups in MCPS. MCPS CogAT percentiles are locally normed percentiles established based on the three sections of the CogAT.   Gifted and talented experts recommend the use of local norms as an equitable approach to ensure equity and access in identification of students for program access. Additionally, the current draft of Gifted and Talented Definitions from the Maryland State Department of Education includes the use of local norms as part of its gifted and talented identification process.  The socioeconomic status of elementary schools was used to determine the locally normed score on the CogAT (MCPS Percentiles). In establishing MCPS Percentiles, students in schools with minimal poverty were compared to one another, students in schools with moderate poverty were compared to each other, and students from schools highly impacted by poverty were compared to each other.[/quote]
The CogAT is providing raw scores, the percentile scores depend on the sub-grouping. I think that this is a sensible way to try to identify talented students whose performance may be masked by poverty. If you have 3000 test takers, and are looking for 300 students, you might think it's best to take just the top 10% (or 90th percentile). But if you split that group into three groups of 1000, you might discover that the top 5% of the low poverty group was around the 85th percentile, and you would have missed them. If you can serve many of your top students in the schools with minimal poverty because there are enough to make a cohort, you can then make room to serve students from schools where there are not enough students to make a cohort. It is a reasonable process.

This is effectively what the middle school magnet consortium does, but in reverse. Draw enough high performing students from out of area to make a large enough cohort that advanced classes can be offered, which the advanced local students then also benefit from. It's a big difference from being one of the 20 "smart" kids in a grade with 300 kids to being one of 100 smart kids in a grade of 300 kids. I taught at Parkland and had 2 boys that were in Honors Geometry who were convinced they didn't belong there because all the other kids were "so much smarter". Although they were recommended to Honors Algebra 2 in high school, they ended up enrolling in regular Algebra 2. They came back the following year to tell me how eye-opening it was and how they realized that they actually were smart, because as freshmen they ended up with 11th and 12th graders and practically tutored them in the class.[/quote]

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