Reply to cutoff scores for Fairfax County GT centers for this year?

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[quote=Anonymous]The cut-offs are based on 2 standard deviations above the mean.  This is true for the tests administered in FCPS (NNAT and CogAT), as well as for the WISC.  Because the pool of kids being tested changes every year, the mean changes a little each year, too (and hence the SD gets shifted accordingly).  So in one sense, it is not arbitrary -- it is based on a rule of thumb that +2 SDs means a child is automatically put in the pool.  OTOH, there is still the issue that a 129 is not meaningfully different from a 131 from a psychometric perspective -- in that regard, however, one could argue that ANY cut score is arbitrary.

Note, however, that the cut-off merely determines AUTOMATIC PLACEMENT IN THE POOL.  A kid with a 140 would make it to the pool, but might still not be deemed center-eligible.  Likewise, a child who scored below the cut-off can still be placed in the pool, based on additional evidence (teacher recs, academic performance, etc.).  My own experience was that the resource person at our school did an abysmal job explaining these details.  I think they like to run a covert operation. [/quote]

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