Reply to Did MCPS do a sneaky thing for the magnet lotteries?

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Reply to "Did MCPS do a sneaky thing for the magnet lotteries?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wonder what percent of each group take private math courses?  I suspect the taking of private math courses correlates far more with 5s than does race.  [/quote]

You may be right, but not sure that matters. They're ignoring the details of the process like local morning which explains the delta that they're pointing to as evidence of rigging. I think they're just heavily vested in this narrative and are in heavy denial of reality.[/quote]

Doesn't make the data wrong. PP just presented the data and it is pretty clear it disadvantages and penalizes a particular racial minority group for good performance. I don't think it is fair but I am not particularly bothered by it. Eventually work doesn't go waste.  Just have the grace though to accept the facts. It is obvious what's happening here - could be because of local mooring which happened for a reason. [/quote]

The reason for local norming is a nationwide shift towards policies that reward the top percentile students based on their home school, not their entire district. It's a sea change, it's everywhere.[/quote]
Can you provide examples from other school districts applying this same methodology?[/quote]

Local norming is when "the criteria for gifted is set at the top 5 percent of a school instead of the top 5 percent of the nation"  https://www.nagc.org/blog/local-norms-improve-equity-gifted-identification.

The theory is that schools traditionally with higher percentages of Black and Hispanic children would have a higher number of "gifted" identified in those racial categories.

Kentucky has a few examples.  Not sure about anywhere else.

However, even the experts caution against applying it without certain adjustments.

"users of local norms must recognize that being gifted or advanced within a local comparison may not mean the student is prepared for the rigor of advanced classes."

"using local norms may harm those who would be identified using national norms. Address this issue by identifying all students who meet the national norms as well as the underrepresented students who meet group-specific norms."

https://www.wku.edu/gifted/rap/using-local-norms.pdf provide example.

Unfortunately, MCPS doesn't do this.  MCPS actively discriminates - for example, when they don't select a 99th percentile asian for the magnet program.  That's racism.

[/quote]

I'm all for using local norms. Many people believe these schools are not all the same. Some even pay hundreds of thousands more for a home in boundary of one of these good schools because they believe it confers an advantage. This is one of the things that local norms would address. They make sure that all get to children have a fair chance. This is simply selecting students using merit based on the opportunities that were available to them. What I do not like is using a random lottery their results in a much weaker cohort.[/quote]

Yep. Do the local norming but do proper testing too to enable a fair, measurable process. Not some random lottery. Doesn't help anyone. Get the best kids from local schools AND the best kids from the county. Win win. This doesn't need to get political or weaken the schools. Diversity with performance and excellence is very much possible given the right intent. As of seems like MCPS just wants to take short cuts. [/quote]

I agree but I'd also create more MS magnets to ensure that kids that need this kind of thing all get it. Not just some random subset.  Also doing this could help reduce the bussing costs by reducing travel time.[/quote]

Yep. I wonder if someone has done an analysis on bussing costs that can be saved. Either way, the investment will be well worth it for the community. [/quote]

And there are underenrolled middle schools, like Westland and Shady Grove with hundreds of empty seats each, that would be much more conveniently located for lots of families.[/quote]

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