What would explain a 48-point gap bw national and MCPS percentiles?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected with 88% national and barely above 50% MCPS.

Pp here - for Chevy Chase CES

Here’s a good example of how MCPS adjusted for SES. DC was also rejected with 88% national but 70% MCPS. This would’ve been for Fox Chapel CES.

The national percentiles at least are also adjusted by age, so a redshirted student who is 9 years 7 months old when they take the test (turned 9 July before going to third grade) are compared to other 9 year 10 month old third graders nationally who took the test, and a student who is 8 years 6 months old (turned 8 August before 3rd grade) is only compared to other students who are his/her age.

The FAQs and the letter make it clear MCPS adjusts for SES of the school, but not sure about age. The FAQs are on the website for anyone who missed them and wants to see a more specific description of how MCPS percentiles are figured.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/curriculum/specialprograms/elementary/CES%20Selection%20Process%20FAQ%203.29(1).pdf

"The socioeconomic status of elementary schools was used to determine the locally normed score on the CogAT® (MCPS Percentiles). In establishing MCPS Percentiles, students in schools with minimal poverty were compared to one another, students in schools with moderate poverty were compared to each other, and students from schools highly impacted by poverty were compared to each other."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejected with 88% national and barely above 50% MCPS.

Pp here - for Chevy Chase CES

Here’s a good example of how MCPS adjusted for SES. DC was also rejected with 88% national but 70% MCPS. This would’ve been for Fox Chapel CES.

Anonymous wrote:Rejected with 88% national and barely above 50% MCPS.

Pp here - for Chevy Chase CES

Anonymous wrote:The acceptance letter says that the MCPS Percentiles are adjusted by SES. Does anyone know whether it’s the child’s personal SES or the SES of the home school? I would assume some schools in Silver Spring Takoma have affluent families at diverse schools. Also are the MCPS Percentiles also adjusted for age like the National ones?

My understanding (possibly wrong) is that it’s based on school’s Ses. The rejection letter does not mention Ses and just says students may be compared against different groups and that my child was compared against other mcps students, implying all of them, which based on the scores I find unlikely.

Rejected with 88% national and barely above 50% MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

Yes, the top 50% of MCPS students who took this test outperform the national average.

MCPS also did their blackbox magic with the MCPS % manipulation base on SES.

The acceptance letter says that the MCPS Percentiles are adjusted by SES. Does anyone know whether it’s the child’s personal SES or the SES of the home school? I would assume some schools in Silver Spring Takoma have affluent families at diverse schools. Also are the MCPS Percentiles also adjusted for age like the National ones?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

The MCPS percentiles are based on the top half or so of the class that is taking the test as well. So if you are in the 30th percentile, it is not that all 70% of MCPS is above you, but 70% of the test pool in your Like SES pool.

It sure doesn’t say that in the notification letter about the SES. It’s pretty misleading if that’s how it was done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

We have a 24% gap on those 2 percentiles, does that mean there's really a lot more smart kids in mcps if compared to national?

I suspect there are some who would like to believe this, but since the MAP scores that are given to all students track the national average, I tend to doubt it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

Yes, the top 50% of MCPS students who took this test outperform the national average.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

We have a 24% gap on those 2 percentiles, does that mean there's really a lot more smart kids in mcps if compared to national?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.

The MCPS percentiles are based on the top half or so of the class that is taking the test as well. So if you are in the 30th percentile, it is not that all 70% of MCPS is above you, but 70% of the test pool in your Like SES pool.

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

Nobody knows for sure. The county provided some details on their website. If I were to guess, it means of the kids that tested at YOUR school or schools that are demographically similar, DC is in that percentile. The lower scores are mostly because only the top 55% or so took the test.

Anonymous wrote:So, what does that mean if the national is way higher than mcps? I'm not appealing, just wondering what it means and how it relates to enrichment mentioned in the letter.

It means MCPS kids do much better than the national average.