Age / grade clarification

Correction:
1st year in VEX 2018-19 with 90% of them going into 6th grade (30 students) in VEXIQ will be 12 years old (born Aug/Sept 2007) in the Fall attending 6th grade at an Elementary school.
Issue:
This will eliminate 27 of our 6th graders in 2019-20 season to participate in VEXIQ Elementary.
So the May 1, 2008 cutoff date creates a dilemma.
— Skipping a grade is not possible to have them in Middle School.

Does your area have separate Elementary & Middle School tournaments? Or the tournaments blended with both Elm and MS in the same tournament?

Is there an issue with them participating as VEXIQ Middle School?

It does not eliminate anyone. Don’t confuse what VEX considers ES and/or MS with what an individual school district or state considers ES and/or MS. Sixth graders in a K-6 school or a K-5 school or a K-8 school or a K-12 school will need to participate based upon their birthdate in the appropriate division. My teams happen to do VEX EDR and my sixth graders compete against 18 year old seniors from the start(because every tournament up until states is blended). Is it tough? Yes. Is it fair? Yes because it is
per the rules.

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Thank you for all your comments.

Also remember that you can set the designation for each team differently, and they can play as a middle school team under your elementary team’s name.

So your teams could be:

1234A - Elementary
1234B - Elementary
1234C - Middle School
1234D - Elementary

You just set it as you register the teams.

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Some passionate responses to this rule change were given at the EP summit.

I too am in a spot regarding this rule. At my school, students are placed in a grade based on criteria such as a placement interview, English fluency, and of course age. This is an international school where 99.9% of the students are not instructed in their native language. So, a very bright student may be placed in a lower grade due to his/her English ability. I teach at a middle school, grades 6, 7, and 8.

This affects my 8th graders, which a very small percentage may be too old to participate in IQ. The rule states" Eligibility may also be granted based on a disability that has delayed education by at least one year. " Would non-english fluency that resulted in the student being placed in a lower grade be an eligibility consideration? If so, what sort of documentation would be necessary for this?

Thank you for your response

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Good question. Note, though, that you will need to ask it in the Q&A to get an official answer.

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The new rules stipulate that any any elementary team can choose to play up to middle school but once you do so, you can not go back. It does not specify that you cannot play down once you choose to play up. Is it correct to assume that an elementary team can register and compete in the elementary level but if they later find it too easy or unsuitable and wish to play up to middle school in the middle of the season, they still can.

Team - Two or more Students make up a Team. A Team is classified as an Elementary School Team if all members are Elementary School Students. A Team is classified as a Middle School Team if any members are Middle School Students, or made up of Elementary School Students who declare themselves “playing up” as Middle School Students by registering their team as a Middle School Team. Once declared and playing as a Middle School Team, that team may not change back to an Elementary School Team for the remainder of the season. Teams may be associated with schools, community/youth organizations, or a group of neighborhood Students.

That’s a good question…

https://www.robotevents.com/VIQC/2019-2020/QA/343

Thanks for posting the question in the Q&A.

I wonder also how shifting two grades to elementary will impact allocation for worlds between the grades. I know the total will be the same and adjusted in January but the qualification manual says that allocation between grades are calculated and allocated separately. I would imagine shifting 2 lower middle school grades will have significant impact on the split in most cases. For example, if initial allocation based on last year’s split was 3 for elementary and 8 for middle school but with the age change the split becomes 50/50, do we assume that final allocation will be adjusted based on this year’s split. It would not make sense in this case for 1 group to have only 3 spots and another with 8 when they’re equal size. Not sure if headquarters will be addressing that or dealt with at the regional level or if the spot allocation by grade is fixed for this year.

If the shift proportionally affects all regions the same, then the allocation of spots shouldn’t shift that much. It’s just your region’s % of elementary spots vs. the total number of elementary. The calculation for middle is done separately.

A good number of 9th graders now are still eligible to play IQ as well. That information come out a little too late, but I have a couple of OLD 8th graders that would have been clipped by the rule until it was changed.

I’m a little confused as to how they calculate allocation for Worlds. I thought according to the guidelines they provided (see below), they first calculate how many spots your region is entitled to based on how many teams registered the previous year and then they calculate how many elementary and middle school seperately based on the split between the 2 grade groups? So if 10 spots were allocated to a region and 70% is middle school then middle school would get 7 spots while elementary would get 3 spots. Is this not how they do it? Do they instead do, say ,410 spots for elementary and your region gets x percentage of that depending on your share of the total global elementary registration? Your explanation seems to suggest the latter.

Here is the rule that I was referring to:

  1. On January 15, 2020, additional spots will be allocated to regions that have higher-than-average
    growth to re-balance spot levels due to these additional teams. Teams added after January 1,
    2020, will not be considered in this re-balancing allocation of spots.

  2. Middle School World Championship spots and Elementary School World Championship spots
    are calculated separately and allocated separately.

I’m not the authority, but this says they are calculated separately.

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Thanks for the clarification. Your explanation makes sense.