Reply to Is CogAT gone forever?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Office of Shared Accountability presented their review schedule to the BOE recently.  Selection criteria for the magnets and accelerated math are scheduled for review in the Spring.  MCPS won't be making any changes like going back to using CogAT until after that, if they do at all.[/quote]

And these bad decisions are why The Office of Shared Accountability needs to be replaced.

By not using a Nationally-normed, race-neutral exam, I feel MCPS is basically admitting 'bias' or 'discrimination' since MCPS chose not to focus on better teaching, but instead handicaps kids that are smarter and better prepared to succeed.  Until MCPS comes clean regarding all details of it's selections (which is hidden under the veil of "child privacy"), we will never know.  For all we know, there's someone making up names on a spreadsheet behind the curtain?  There's only one thing that is certain, though - MCPS is not choosing the best of the best children for the program.[/quote]

Disagree by using an exam that favors those who can afford CogAT prep it unfairly skews selection to those with resources. You very well know kids hire CogAT tutors and it makes a difference. The last thing anyone needs is more of this gatekeeping.[/quote]

Exactly, when my kids were applying to these special programs, I hired a CogAT tutor. It got their scores up by 25%. They breezed right into the mangets. I think that's why so many people want these tests back because they're so easily gamed.[/quote]

Are you the same poster who said essentially the same thing 8 pages back referencing CogAT prep for TJ (Fairfax County)?

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1152067.page

Look, the issue is a failure of [i]MCPS[/i] to do a reasonably good job identifying ability (whether for GT designation or magnet admission/advanced class assignment), given the tools that they [i]could[/i] (and did, not so long ago) employ.  The tools they [i]do[/i] use (e.g., MAP) are [i]far more gameable[/i] than tools like CogAT.  Those tools used also don't evidence underlying capability to the degree a tool like CogAT would.  The paradigm they've kept, then, [i]more significantly advantages[/i] those of means (including those coming from private school, as they then are allowed additional ways to test in), flying in the face of the equity aims espoused by MCPS leadership & the BOE.

The answer doesn't have to be CogAT, but it shouldn't be what they've adopted.  Even if they couldn't identify an alternate ability measure that better resisted being gamed, including CogAT with a robust heuristic would beat the current approach hands down.[/quote]

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