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]So if a student “prepped” which means that they were prepared for enriched learning then that means that they should not receive enriched learning? [b]I’m not sure I’m understanding the argument here.[/b]

BTW, my kid went to CES with no “prep” and we don’t know anyone who did. [/quote]

It's like this: The point of a "GT" program is to identify kids who are gifted. Those who learn differently, not just those who have been exposed to more material by the same age. I'm not a fan of the "cram school" accusations on this thread, because they reek of racist dog whistles, but even without those dog whistles, MCPS is not in the business (nor should they be) of getting into an arms race with parents, in which parents rush to expose kids to more and more material outside of school and school just picks up where RSM left off.

If MCPS truly wants to have a "gifted" program, they have to figure out how to identify kids who learn differently.

Now, in reality, any GT program is going to have a mix of truly gifted kids and just above average hard workers. But the previous system was leaving a lot of talent behind because it was set up in a way to be nearly inaccessible to certain communities. That's what MCPS is trying to address now, with some success.

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Agree but that seems unfathomable to some. Personally what MCPS has done prior to the lottery seemed moderate and reasonable to me, but I'm also not a fan of how the lottery has panned out. Even more talented kids are being left out.[/quote]

I'm the PP and I don't know anyone who thinks the "85% lottery" is a good plan. But I also think it would be a mistake to look at that plan as anything but the best of bad options in a pandemic. MCPS could not administer the CoGAT in a virtual learning environment. Not only would cheating be rampant, but the test company forbids it.

So...what do you do when one of the only aptitude-based tests is off the table? How do you find the gifted kid whose MAP scores aren't great because their school didn't get to the entire curriculum that year and they don't have access to outside enrichment? You kind of toss it all up in the air and hope it works out. It's not a great situation, but taking kids based solely on MAP scores also isn't a great solution.

Hopefully this year is more normal, and MCPS continues to figure out how to best serve the actual goal of gifted programs, which is to identify kids who need a different kind of instruction and/or who would not have a peer group in their home school. [/quote]

Ha. Posted at the same time and I agree. Why isn’t MCPS bringing CoGAT back this year? Vast majority of kids are in person and it is doable if they want to. [/quote]

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