Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are waitlisted for CES (qualify for the pool but don't get a spot), you are guaranteed the Enriched Literacy Curriculum at your local school, which is based on CES curriculum. The only schools that don't have ELC are the one-way and two-way immersion programs.

I'd seen this about the two-way immersion programs but not the one-way programs. Got a reference on it?

To be clear, the one-way immersion programs don't have ELC. But the gen-ed (English-only) programs at those schools do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the criteria. My 3rd grader took MAP-R today. His fall MAP-R in fall was 95% and he is ON grade level with all As. So I guess that means he’ll most likely meet these criteria. Then it’s up to the central office to decide if he gets a CES spot? I’m not sure I’d send him anyway since it’s kind of far from our house.

My DS is in a CES program. They said at orientation that the curriculum is geared for kids testing in the 97% or higher. That's not the same as being the cutoff, but they did say anyone not reading at that level would struggle.

We are at a mid-farms school, not one known for being amazing. Both my kids score consistently above the 99th percentile for both sets of MAP testing and their teachers tell me they have several other students who are roughly equivalent each year. I don’t totally understand how it’s possible but apparently there are lots of super high scoring kids at our totally random elementary school. I hope that means they can have a good ELC experience even if they don’t get in to the lottery (we are not super inclined to send them to CES even if they get in).

Anonymous wrote:If you are waitlisted for CES (qualify for the pool but don't get a spot), you are guaranteed the Enriched Literacy Curriculum at your local school, which is based on CES curriculum. The only schools that don't have ELC are the one-way and two-way immersion programs.

I'd seen this about the two-way immersion programs but not the one-way programs. Got a reference on it?

Anonymous wrote:They recently expanded ELC to all schools and I believe some of them are teaching it as the only literacy curriculum (for the entire grade).

Hopefully most of the kids in those schools really need ELC or they are somehow differentiating the classes. Otherwise that’s a waste for the advance students or more work for the teacher who will still need to create depth and advancement for some students.

And I say that after having talked to an ELC teacher and a Reading Specialist.

Anonymous wrote:Is the criteria for CES the same as for ELC or can you qualify for ELC but not be placed in the lottery?

It’s the same. If your dc doesn’t qualify for the CES pool they don’t qualify for ELC. But schools have worked to get kids on the cusp into the elc program if they miss by a small margin

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the criteria. My 3rd grader took MAP-R today. His fall MAP-R in fall was 95% and he is ON grade level with all As. So I guess that means he’ll most likely meet these criteria. Then it’s up to the central office to decide if he gets a CES spot? I’m not sure I’d send him anyway since it’s kind of far from our house.

My DS is in a CES program. They said at orientation that the curriculum is geared for kids testing in the 97% or higher. That's not the same as being the cutoff, but they did say anyone not reading at that level would struggle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They recently expanded ELC to all schools and I believe some of them are teaching it as the only literacy curriculum (for the entire grade).

Yes - consistent with the “honors for all” approach that MCPS is doing for high school.

I think it's because MCPS is still clinging to Benchmark as the primary curriculum and schools are taking it upon themselves to provide something better.

Is the criteria for CES the same as for ELC or can you qualify for ELC but not be placed in the lottery?

Anonymous wrote:They recently expanded ELC to all schools and I believe some of them are teaching it as the only literacy curriculum (for the entire grade).

Yes - consistent with the “honors for all” approach that MCPS is doing for high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the criteria. My 3rd grader took MAP-R today. His fall MAP-R in fall was 95% and he is ON grade level with all As. So I guess that means he’ll most likely meet these criteria. Then it’s up to the central office to decide if he gets a CES spot? I’m not sure I’d send him anyway since it’s kind of far from our house.

It depends on what your locally normed MAP score ends up being. In years past, kids at the lowest FARMS schools with scores in the mid 90s did NOT qualify for the lottery pool because a 94, 95 etc. % in their cohort group was not top 85%.

I agree, we are at a low FARMs school and both my kids were all As, above grade level reading, mid 90s reading map. Neither was identified for CES. Both did ELC at school.

They recently expanded ELC to all schools and I believe some of them are teaching it as the only literacy curriculum (for the entire grade).

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the criteria. My 3rd grader took MAP-R today. His fall MAP-R in fall was 95% and he is ON grade level with all As. So I guess that means he’ll most likely meet these criteria. Then it’s up to the central office to decide if he gets a CES spot? I’m not sure I’d send him anyway since it’s kind of far from our house.

It depends on what your locally normed MAP score ends up being. In years past, kids at the lowest FARMS schools with scores in the mid 90s did NOT qualify for the lottery pool because a 94, 95 etc. % in their cohort group was not top 85%.

Anonymous wrote:Currently in 3rd grade. No application needed -- centrally reviewed. Locally-normed 85th percentile (see exception, below) on Winter MAP-R (window currently open). (Fall, or best of Fall and last Spring, now for math, is used in 5th grade for criteria-based MS magnets.) Grades of A in 2nd marking period (current one) for Writing and Social Studies. 2nd marking period reading level marked as on or above ("ABV"). All criteria must be met.

Locally normed 85th %ile means that they take all the elementaries and determine their FARMS-rate tranche -- 5 of those from low-FARMS to high-FARMS -- determine the MAP RIT score that was met or exceeded by the top 15% of scorers from the population of those schools, and then let all such scorers from those schools through that particular criterion-gate (still need the grades, etc.). That changes from year to year. For low-FARMS schools, that could end up being a national 95th %ile or higher, as those schools tend to have a large proportion of high scorers. Local norming is seen as a best practice to make comparisons across dissimilar populations.

For those receiving services (FARMS, EML, 504, IEP) the criterion becomes a locally-normed 70th %ile.

Apologies. The grade criteria reported should have been an A in Reading AND an A in either Writing OR Social Studies.

For the poster, above, who asked where this comes from:

CES FAQ -- https://docs.google.com/document/d/127SBBarwO1ox4Soalug9dg3HdIe7f5UNqFB0NHIyQ88

MCPS report to the BOE --
https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/boe/meetings/memorandum/09/uploadedfiles/boe/meetings/memorandum/230119-ap-capstone-magnet-prog-12-06-2022-01-c-d-e-bd.pdf

This is from last year and will be updated for this year, but he criteria are unlikely to change until the planned review this spring on criteria-based programs that OSA proposed to the BOE just as this school year was starting.

Related to that 504 and hitting the mark, be careful about assumptions of the locally normed percentiles for your school's FARMS-rate tranche. Though it's based on the reported RIT score, it's not the same as the national percentile shown on the MAP report -- see the methodology, above.

As far as having others think your child got a break that theirs didn't, I hope that they are viewed for their own worth and not for a number. I hope that others can consider the adversities that the "receiving services" moniker is supposed to represent, even if the associated adjustment is something of a hammer instead of a scalpel, and don't assume that that's necessarily what got anyone in. I certainly hope nobody puts you in a position of having to defend your child's abilities.

Thanks for the criteria. My 3rd grader took MAP-R today. His fall MAP-R in fall was 95% and he is ON grade level with all As. So I guess that means he’ll most likely meet these criteria. Then it’s up to the central office to decide if he gets a CES spot? I’m not sure I’d send him anyway since it’s kind of far from our house.

As others said it’s a central review. There is nothing parents or students need to do at this time. This is merely a notification and providing info.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/center-enriched-studies/