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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The designation isn't entirely meaningless. 
MD law (https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Documents/Gifted-Talented/COMAR_13A0407_GT_Education.pdf) requires MCPS to identify GT students, make GT programs available to them and train staff to provide GT education.

The more who are identified, the more needs to be provided, but economies of scale usually make this feasible.  The specifics of that which is to be provided are nonexistent, though.  MCPS can use Benchmark Advance enrichments or ELC, Eureka enrichments or acceleration, and MCPS can say that some need is met theough one and some through the other, meaning that they can decouple Math 4/5 placement criteria from GT identification.  The GT designation [b]should[/b] ensure that a student is provided one or the other, however, and the notice to parents/guardians should allow them to follow up with the teacher/school administration to ensure that that happens.  Lord knows that MCPS central staff (AEI) don't have the manpower to provide the oversight of all the schools, and whatever they're calling OSSI nowadays (area superintendents/directors who oversee the schools directly) doesn't seem to make adherence to this aspect of COMAR a priority.[/quote]

Thank you, this is helpful. Given how opaque the admissions process is now for the 4th/5th grade CES programs, can someone who knows DEFINITIVELY say that they are sure that lack of GT designation for a rising 3rd grader will not impact his chances of CES admission this time next year? Kid is off the charts on MAP, apparently bombed EOLs.... truly not sure how a kid in 240s for map m in 2nd grade gets a 1 on EOL... I'm concerned. In the shorter term, he loves his math enrichment and will be so sad without it.

[/quote]

"Gifted and Talented designation is not a consideration or requirement for participation in the CES lottery process."  [directly from the MCPS CES page]

In the past (recent past, anyway) GT identification and CES placement have been decoupled. GT identification checks the box for MCPS, showing that they are following the COMAR regulation (how well or to whose satisfaction clearly is debatable).  MCPS GT programs like CES (formerly HGC) predated the state regulation, and placement has been a separate process, perhaps as an artifact of this predating or perhaps because crossing the streams, as it were, would be "bad"; this past year, inclusion in the CES lottery was based on grades, reading level and MAP-R scores.  That may change this year, as it has many times in the past -- either to tweak the criteria (e.g., 90th %ile cutoffs instead of 85th, adjusting for SES factors) or make more significant changes (e.g., consideration of local cohort, use or abandonment of CogAT, unweighted lottery instead of rank-ordered selection, etc.).

I don't see it as at all likely that past GT identification, itself, would become one of the CES criteria, but there are similar criteria for each, and you never know what changes might be made.  Also remember that CES is not a Math program -- placement into Math 4/5 is, itself, a separate process, though most CES students end up qualifying for Math acceleration, too.  Further, the MCPS paradigm for elementary Math enrichment is supposed to be based on a module-by-module evaluation of each student's uptake, with three tiers of enrichment available to be employed prior to consideration for grade-skipping (very rarely employed).  This is the reason the GT letters don't say "On grade level with enrichment" for Math as they do for Literacy, only "On grade level" -- enrichment options are baked into the Math curriculum, so there isn't a separate call-out (the sentence below that in the letter tries to explain that, but I doubt it's clear for anyone not intimately familiar with the curriculum).  Your child should continue to receive Math enrichment next year.

As for EOL scores, they were off this year due to the lingering effects of pandemic instruction and related curricular omissions employed to manage shortened instructional time.  Why they then chose to utilize them for GT identification under these circumstances is beyond me.  Bottom line -- don't worry too much about it, but be willing to advocate if you ever find that any opportunities [b]are[/b] left off the table.[/quote]

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