Reply to Positive review for Poolesville SMACS program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Both the Poolesville and Blair SMACs are HS choice Magnet programs.  Both offer classes that are not offered in other HS curriculum (especially advanced math).  Both are non-lottery applications.  However, both no longer use a Nationally-recognized test to qualify applicants, since MAP is only an indicator of "grade-level" progress and the course offerings are somewhat static, so it's not really a G-T program per-se, although most G-T kids are "grade-level" advanced, so there is significant overlap.

A factor that some college admissions boards may take note of are the national school rankings.  College admissions boards don't normally take the time to examine each HS individually, so will rely upon past performance of students they received as well as well-known national rankings as indicators of success.  For the latter, US News is probably the most widely-known national school ranking system, however, GreatSchools, Niche, Patch, etc. all are roughly comparable.

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When schools went virtual, the makers of the CogAT test would not allow it to be given online so MCPS had no choice but to cancel it that year. Afterward, they decided to extend that pause to 3 years so they can evaluate whether it was necessary. These days similar tests like SATs have fallen in disfavor with many colleges since they don't provide any new information aside from who took the expensive prep course to improve their scores.[/quote]

*Shrug*   I'm not the one trying to get into a good college, but if you think it's good for your kid(s), okay by me.[/quote]

These tests don't really tell us anything we didn't already know but act as a gatekeeper for less affluent schools where kids don't typically take CogAT prep classes[/quote]

And you think parents aren’t prepping for MAP now instead?  Getting rid of COGAT a mistake.   [/quote]

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