Reply to Second community meeting on Choice Study?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I did.  The criteria of what makes it successful is if the program meets its goal of "meeting the needs of the top 2 to 3%".  What's so hard about that?  You are not really asking what makes the program successful, because clearly, the program is a success in that many parents want their kids in the program and because it meets the needs of the top 2 to 3%.  You are really asking about the entrance criteria, and whether the current method is successful in identifying the top 2 to 3%.   [/quote]

If the entrance criteria do not successfully identify the top 2-3%, and/or there are not enough spaces in the program for the top 2-3%, then a program whose goal is "meeting the needs of the top 2 to 3%" is not successful.

By the way, "meeting the needs of the top 2 to 3%" as the goal for the HGCs is something I've only ever read on DCUM. Is there anything where MCPS says that this is the goal?[/quote]

1. [b] The program can only accommodate x of kids.  It happens to represent about 2 to 3 % of incoming 4th graders.  You can argue whether the program should be expanded, but then at some point, the program becomes watered down.  
[/b]
2.   As I stated, your question really is if the entrance criteria is indeed identifying the top kids.   There is no perfect way to identify "gifted" kids.  One measure that is universally used is a type of cognitive ability test like the CoGat, which the HGC admissions criteria uses.  Also, as I stated, one measure that does *not* identify academically gifted kids is musical or artistic talent, though these can be non academic gifted talents.  But, again, HGC is not about musical or artistic giftedness, but an academic one.[/quote]

I can't find MCPS enrollment by grade, but K-5 is 71,513, divided by 6 grades is an average of 11,919 per grade. 442 HGC seats per grade divided by 11,919 students per grade = 3.7% of students per grade, which rounds to 4%.

And then there's the issue that students are admitted by cluster. It would be possible to calculate number of HGC seats per clusters served, although I have no intention of doing so. I bet that the number of fourth/fifth-grade HGC seats per fourth/fifth-grade student varies by HGC, with some HGCs having more and some HGCs having fewer.

And then there's the issue of heterogeneous distribution of high-scoring kids among the various clusters the various HGCs serve.

So if the HGC program is intended to serve the top 2-3% (per DCUM, not per MCPS), then it's not doing that.[/quote]

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