NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:Thanks! Honestly, the whole GT thing wasn't even really what I cared about. Her psychiatrist asked for the CogAT profile to help get a fuller picture about her strengths and struggles (she has ADHD and anxiety so it can be hard to sometimes sort out what the causal mechanism is for a struggle.) Sucks we don't have that, though I'm aware MCPS doesn't give the CogAT for that purpose.

Also, I cannot tell you the confusion we created when we emailed the MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Office who absolutely insisted we were wrong and everyone had gotten the CogAT. They acted like we were dumb for not being able to find it on ParentVue. Took the principal escalating to someone to get an actual answer

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AEI annoyed me by sending me a letter that my child wasn't designated G&T.

My kid entered MCPS in 7th grade, and when you looked at the letter, he was designated as not G&T, because he had 99% MAP scores in Reading and Math, but no COGAT score ("data missing."

I asked how he was supposed to be designated G&T if they hadn't actually applied the test, and they "reviewed his case" and 6 months later, they designated him G&T (which means absolutely nothing in MCPS, as others have pointed out, but it's better than being not being designated G&T because the school couldn't be bothered to test him.)

Ok that's wild considering it was apparently their standard operating procedure to determine GT without CogAT for years. I would be annoyed, too.

It's also just a shame how poorly it's all run. I grew up in Louisiana where public schools were often not great, to put it mildly. Most private schools weren't much better. GT made a big difference in not only supporting my education but also getting me excited about school.

I naively thought that MCPS GT would be even better given the average school was already far and above most of my childhood experiences. But instead I'm left wondering why it even really exists

MCPS G-T doesn’t exist. People on this board say MCPS has the designation because it is required by the state. And selection for CES MS and HS magnets is entirely dependent on MAP scores, which is a test of exposure, rather than COGAT which is a test of giftedness. COGAT isn’t used at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AEI annoyed me by sending me a letter that my child wasn't designated G&T.

My kid entered MCPS in 7th grade, and when you looked at the letter, he was designated as not G&T, because he had 99% MAP scores in Reading and Math, but no COGAT score ("data missing."

I asked how he was supposed to be designated G&T if they hadn't actually applied the test, and they "reviewed his case" and 6 months later, they designated him G&T (which means absolutely nothing in MCPS, as others have pointed out, but it's better than being not being designated G&T because the school couldn't be bothered to test him.)

Ok that's wild considering it was apparently their standard operating procedure to determine GT without CogAT for years. I would be annoyed, too.

It's also just a shame how poorly it's all run. I grew up in Louisiana where public schools were often not great, to put it mildly. Most private schools weren't much better. GT made a big difference in not only supporting my education but also getting me excited about school.

I naively thought that MCPS GT would be even better given the average school was already far and above most of my childhood experiences. But instead I'm left wondering why it even really exists

MCPS G-T doesn’t exist. People on this board say MCPS has the designation because it is required by the state. And selection for CES MS and HS magnets is entirely dependent on MAP scores, which is a test of exposure, rather than COGAT which is a test of giftedness. COGAT isn’t used at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AEI annoyed me by sending me a letter that my child wasn't designated G&T.

My kid entered MCPS in 7th grade, and when you looked at the letter, he was designated as not G&T, because he had 99% MAP scores in Reading and Math, but no COGAT score ("data missing."

I asked how he was supposed to be designated G&T if they hadn't actually applied the test, and they "reviewed his case" and 6 months later, they designated him G&T (which means absolutely nothing in MCPS, as others have pointed out, but it's better than being not being designated G&T because the school couldn't be bothered to test him.)

Ok that's wild considering it was apparently their standard operating procedure to determine GT without CogAT for years. I would be annoyed, too.

It's also just a shame how poorly it's all run. I grew up in Louisiana where public schools were often not great, to put it mildly. Most private schools weren't much better. GT made a big difference in not only supporting my education but also getting me excited about school.

I naively thought that MCPS GT would be even better given the average school was already far and above most of my childhood experiences. But instead I'm left wondering why it even really exists

Anonymous wrote:AEI annoyed me by sending me a letter that my child wasn't designated G&T.

My kid entered MCPS in 7th grade, and when you looked at the letter, he was designated as not G&T, because he had 99% MAP scores in Reading and Math, but no COGAT score ("data missing."

I asked how he was supposed to be designated G&T if they hadn't actually applied the test, and they "reviewed his case" and 6 months later, they designated him G&T (which means absolutely nothing in MCPS, as others have pointed out, but it's better than being not being designated G&T because the school couldn't be bothered to test him.)

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:Thanks! Honestly, the whole GT thing wasn't even really what I cared about. Her psychiatrist asked for the CogAT profile to help get a fuller picture about her strengths and struggles (she has ADHD and anxiety so it can be hard to sometimes sort out what the causal mechanism is for a struggle.) Sucks we don't have that, though I'm aware MCPS doesn't give the CogAT for that purpose.

Also, I cannot tell you the confusion we created when we emailed the MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Office who absolutely insisted we were wrong and everyone had gotten the CogAT. They acted like we were dumb for not being able to find it on ParentVue. Took the principal escalating to someone to get an actual answer

Ugh, that is not reassuring to hear from AEI-- you were clear you were talking about a 5th grader? They should know who got what when better than anyone!

And the CogAT last year was only the abbreviated screener anyway (3 tests rather than 9) so it might not have been what you needed anyway. (I read they are doing the full one this year, though.)

Yes. My husband went to one of the virtual GT Q&A sessions and asked, noting that our kid is in 5th grade. They told him he was wrong when he said she didn't have one available on ParentVue, everyone had it. So we emailed the AEI with the explicit info about her being in 5th grade and they emailed back that she did get it and after being pressed they sent a google doc template for what the CogAT letter should have looked like so we could find it (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5I6q8jFC1FsfCeI_BadpBGwMEVIb7Pe8XoCa1sgl9g/edit?usp=sharing). When the principal got the answer through her own channels and we asked them to confirm the AEI just didn't respond. We've sent two follow-ups and they are just ghosting us now.

I would be much less annoyed if they hadn't acted like all that! Makes me wonder about AEI in a lot of ways though

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:Thanks! Honestly, the whole GT thing wasn't even really what I cared about. Her psychiatrist asked for the CogAT profile to help get a fuller picture about her strengths and struggles (she has ADHD and anxiety so it can be hard to sometimes sort out what the causal mechanism is for a struggle.) Sucks we don't have that, though I'm aware MCPS doesn't give the CogAT for that purpose.

Also, I cannot tell you the confusion we created when we emailed the MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Office who absolutely insisted we were wrong and everyone had gotten the CogAT. They acted like we were dumb for not being able to find it on ParentVue. Took the principal escalating to someone to get an actual answer

Ugh, that is not reassuring to hear from AEI-- you were clear you were talking about a 5th grader? They should know who got what when better than anyone!

And the CogAT last year was only the abbreviated screener anyway (3 tests rather than 9) so it might not have been what you needed anyway. (I read they are doing the full one this year, though.)

Yes. My husband went to one of the virtual GT Q&A sessions and asked, noting that our kid is in 5th grade. They told him he was wrong when he said she didn't have one available on ParentVue, everyone had it. So we emailed the AEI with the explicit info about her being in 5th grade and they emailed back that she did get it and after being pressed they sent a google doc template for what the CogAT letter should have looked like so we could find it (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C5I6q8jFC1FsfCeI_BadpBGwMEVIb7Pe8XoCa1sgl9g/edit?usp=sharing). When the principal got the answer through her own channels and we asked them to confirm the AEI just didn't respond. We've sent two follow-ups and they are just ghosting us now.

I would be much less annoyed if they hadn't acted like all that! Makes me wonder about AEI in a lot of ways though

Anonymous wrote:

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:Thanks! Honestly, the whole GT thing wasn't even really what I cared about. Her psychiatrist asked for the CogAT profile to help get a fuller picture about her strengths and struggles (she has ADHD and anxiety so it can be hard to sometimes sort out what the causal mechanism is for a struggle.) Sucks we don't have that, though I'm aware MCPS doesn't give the CogAT for that purpose.

Also, I cannot tell you the confusion we created when we emailed the MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Office who absolutely insisted we were wrong and everyone had gotten the CogAT. They acted like we were dumb for not being able to find it on ParentVue. Took the principal escalating to someone to get an actual answer

Ugh, that is not reassuring to hear from AEI-- you were clear you were talking about a 5th grader? They should know who got what when better than anyone!

And the CogAT last year was only the abbreviated screener anyway (3 tests rather than 9) so it might not have been what you needed anyway. (I read they are doing the full one this year, though.)

NotThatKindofDoctor wrote:Thanks! Honestly, the whole GT thing wasn't even really what I cared about. Her psychiatrist asked for the CogAT profile to help get a fuller picture about her strengths and struggles (she has ADHD and anxiety so it can be hard to sometimes sort out what the causal mechanism is for a struggle.) Sucks we don't have that, though I'm aware MCPS doesn't give the CogAT for that purpose.

Also, I cannot tell you the confusion we created when we emailed the MCPS Accelerated and Enriched Instruction Office who absolutely insisted we were wrong and everyone had gotten the CogAT. They acted like we were dumb for not being able to find it on ParentVue. Took the principal escalating to someone to get an actual answer

Anonymous wrote:Correct. Last year was the first year CogAT was back and it was for 2nd and 3rd grade only.

But GT status doesn't really matter much anyway.