Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am actually relieved about not getting into Eastern - I had one student go through the program and would not want the stress it entails for my rising 6th grader, but disappointed they were not selected for TMPS - they are a math loving kiddo with 99th percentile MAPS since Kindergarten.

Pretty much the same exact situation! Don't know if we would have done Eastern again, but the TPMS would have been perfect for our STEM loving youngest.

Now just the question of their friends - almost all of who were in CES and 5/6 math with them and probably in both pools (and I imagine they all have a pretty good idea of each others abilities). All kinds of potential there for social issues, tears, and complaints of "how is that fair when...".

How stressed kids will be about this is family driven. We haven't even mentioned the magnet to our kid. If he gets in, then we'll discuss. Kids might talk about it in a fleeting way, but I doubt most are obsessing unless their parents are.

Anonymous wrote:I am actually relieved about not getting into Eastern - I had one student go through the program and would not want the stress it entails for my rising 6th grader, but disappointed they were not selected for TMPS - they are a math loving kiddo with 99th percentile MAPS since Kindergarten.

Pretty much the same exact situation! Don't know if we would have done Eastern again, but the TPMS would have been perfect for our STEM loving youngest.

Now just the question of their friends - almost all of who were in CES and 5/6 math with them and probably in both pools (and I imagine they all have a pretty good idea of each others abilities). All kinds of potential there for social issues, tears, and complaints of "how is that fair when...".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought there would be an an opportunity to appeal if not selected to the lottery? And then the lottery? So they just skipped ahead and did the whole thing at once?

We are discussing the magnet/criteria MS… Eastern/Takoma Park and Clemente/MLK

You can't appeal the results. You can only appeal their decision to include you in the pool.

That’s why MCPS loves this new process. No one can appeal or
Contest there choices…they will just say “it’s a lottery.”

Yeah - this seems to be the thing full stop.

Definitely disappointing to know that out 5th grader would (almost certainly) have qualified with higher standards (based on our experience with two kids in MCPS CES/Magnets) but just didn’t get lucky. Seems to me pretty certain to result in more kids struggling in the magnets while others who could have excelled there lose interest in their classwork. Hopefully students with the opportunity will excel but it is really hard to see how this will lead to better results for most students (and I don't have much interest in prioritizing making things easier for MCPS).

I am actually relieved about not getting into Eastern - I had one student go through the program and would not want the stress it entails for my rising 6th grader, but disappointed they were not selected for TMPS - they are a math loving kiddo with 99th percentile MAPS since Kindergarten.

Anonymous wrote:In wait pool but not accepted to either TPMS or Eastern:

Fall 2021 report card grades: All As CES
reading level: not sure?
MAP-R: 241
MAP-M: 257

Sigh

Sorry - Lottery pool for both - not wait pool.

My daughter who was in the lottery pool for Eastern and has scored 93-96 wasn't selected. She's also not getting much enrichment at her home middle school.

In wait pool but not accepted to either TPMS or Eastern:

Fall 2021 report card grades: All As CES
reading level: not sure?
MAP-R: 241
MAP-M: 257

Sigh

My kid in the magnet ES with a 96% percentile MAP-R in the fall (always 98-99% before, definitely had some learning losses with virtual though still straight As) wasn't in the pool for humanities.


OP was this the scores from this year. Is your child a current 5th grader?

Yup. I'm fine with the outcome though. I'm sick of fighting the car pool line at the drop-off school where my kid picks up the bus to the magnet school. Glad he'll be able to walk to the bus stop for middle school. And our middle school is pretty strong.

Anonymous wrote:

What’s the inclusion criteria for lottery this year?


Fall 2021 report card grades
reading level
MAP-R
MAP-M
student services (ESOL, FARMS, IEP, 504)


What are the thresholds?

You must be new here. The criteria are a black box.

My kid in the magnet ES with a 96% percentile MAP-R in the fall (always 98-99% before, definitely had some learning losses with virtual though still straight As) wasn't in the pool for humanities.

OP was this the scores from this year. Is your child a current 5th grader?

Anonymous wrote:If it helps those not selected… Eastern has totally kicked my kid’s butt. It may not have been the right choice.

Agreed. Reading the RMIB thread, Eastern has had a similar attitude, sink or swim regardless of the pandemic. My child is glad to be there, but it's been a very bumpy road. This year has been better, but last year there were some truly terrible teachers, and the magnet admin does nothing about it. I honestly don't know how they'll expect kids to meet their standards if recruited with a lottery system.

What’s the inclusion criteria for lottery this year?


Fall 2021 report card grades
reading level
MAP-R
MAP-M
student services (ESOL, FARMS, IEP, 504)


What are the thresholds?

You must be new here. The criteria are a black box.

My kid in the magnet ES with a 96% percentile MAP-R in the fall (always 98-99% before, definitely had some learning losses with virtual though still straight As) wasn't in the pool for humanities.

If it helps those not selected… Eastern has totally kicked my kid’s butt. It may not have been the right choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought there would be an an opportunity to appeal if not selected to the lottery? And then the lottery? So they just skipped ahead and did the whole thing at once?

We are discussing the magnet/criteria MS… Eastern/Takoma Park and Clemente/MLK

You can't appeal the results. You can only appeal their decision to include you in the pool.

That’s why MCPS loves this new process. No one can appeal or
Contest there choices…they will just say “it’s a lottery.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really wish mcps had made a concerted effort to administrated the COGAT, I feel that would have given my child a better chance for acceptance into the magnets, instead of this lame lottery system.

They do have to qualify for the lottery.
Even if they had administered COGAT I bet they would have used a lottery.

To qualify for the lottery a student needs to score higher than 80% on MAP testing....that’s like 3/4 of our school, if not more. That’s is no way as good as qualifying based on good COGAT SCORES.

You're just plain wrong. They could set the "good Cogat SCORES" at 80 percentile and above, or some other similar fashion, and we'd be right back to the same debate. In fact they could require x-percentile MAP OR x-percentile Cogat and that could create an even larger lottery pool.

DP here. or they could do what they did previously and have universal screening process and then pick the children with the highest cogat scores, and completely eliminate the lottery pool. What a concept! those who deserve it would be those with the highest scores.

That is not what they did previously.

Care to elaborate?

At one point wealthy families would prep up to game the selection process. A lot more invites went to students at wealthy schools. The county made it a bit more fair by drawing the top students from all schools. This seemed to actually result in a stronger overall selection since it put more emphasis on natural ability and talent....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What’s the inclusion criteria for lottery this year?

Fall 2021 report card grades
reading level
MAP-R
MAP-M
student services (ESOL, FARMS, IEP, 504)

What are the thresholds?

From the FAQ:
To be placed in the humanities and communication lottery pool, Grade 5 students need to demonstrate an A in both reading and writing, above reading grade level on the marking period 1 report card from Grade 5, and a locally normed minimum of 85th percentile on this year’s (fall) MAP-R. For math, science or computer science, an A in both math and science and an indication of on level or higher for reading on the marking period 1 report card from Grade 5 and a locally normed minimum of 85th percentile on this year’s (fall) MAP-M.

Just so everyone knows, they edited the faq criteria this week (1/11/2022). The previous faq said it would take into consideration report card grades from last school year. It appears they changed that aspect after the fact without notifying anyone.