How many get in on appeal anyway

[Anonymous]

I know no one really knows about this but am trying to decide if an appeal is worthwhile for my child. How many are getting in on appeals? Looking at last year's appeals thread it looks like a lot of them didn't. My ds' scores are good but his gbrs is at the borderline. We had him wisc done as part of his diagnosis and it's within 99.5%. I know they dont care about outside testing anymore. We are Asian in a high SES but small center school. It probably depends on where you are but in general do kids get in on appeals? Is it like a handful or hundreds? We are new to the county and I genuinely dont know much about this system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know no one really knows about this but am trying to decide if an appeal is worthwhile for my child. How many are getting in on appeals? Looking at last year's appeals thread it looks like a lot of them didn't. My ds' scores are good but his gbrs is at the borderline. We had him wisc done as part of his diagnosis and it's within 99.5%. I know they dont care about outside testing anymore. We are Asian in a high SES but small center school. It probably depends on where you are but in general do kids get in on appeals? Is it like a handful or hundreds? We are new to the county and I genuinely dont know much about this system.

I don't know how many do, but mine did. The key is to write a compelling letter that explains why your kid's needs can't be met in a regular classroom. If you persuade the reviewers, your kid will get in. If you don't, they won't. I'd compensate for a borderline GBRS by having your child submit new work samples, include a sentence about what GBRS trait the sample is showing, and then in the letter also explain some of the GBRS bullet point traits that your kid is demonstrating.

[Anonymous]

There are numbers out there. Check that AAP report- google it. I think it’s close to 50% of appeals got in during the time period they looked at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know no one really knows about this but am trying to decide if an appeal is worthwhile for my child. How many are getting in on appeals? Looking at last year's appeals thread it looks like a lot of them didn't. My ds' scores are good but his gbrs is at the borderline. We had him wisc done as part of his diagnosis and it's within 99.5%. I know they dont care about outside testing anymore. We are Asian in a high SES but small center school. It probably depends on where you are but in general do kids get in on appeals? Is it like a handful or hundreds? We are new to the county and I genuinely dont know much about this system.

Asian in small high-SES school. Not a PTA member. DD didn’t make cutoff, parent referral didn’t work.
Don’t worry, nobody knows how the system works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are numbers out there. Check that AAP report- google it. I think it’s close to 50% of appeals got in during the time period they looked at.

+1

This is why the reform people recommended getting rid of appeals.

My younger DC got in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are numbers out there. Check that AAP report- google it. I think it’s close to 50% of appeals got in during the time period they looked at.

+1

This is why the reform people recommended getting rid of appeals.

My younger DC got in on appeal.

Yes, but relatively few people actually do the appeal, so it ends up that 1 or 2 more kids per school (on average) will get in that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are numbers out there. Check that AAP report- google it. I think it’s close to 50% of appeals got in during the time period they looked at.

+1

This is why the reform people recommended getting rid of appeals.

My younger DC got in on appeal.

Reforms people want to get rid of NNAT, parent referrals, GBRS etc. because they understandable contribute to inequitable situations. They also want to offer AAP to everyone but don’t really have a way of doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know no one really knows about this but am trying to decide if an appeal is worthwhile for my child. How many are getting in on appeals? Looking at last year's appeals thread it looks like a lot of them didn't. My ds' scores are good but his gbrs is at the borderline. We had him wisc done as part of his diagnosis and it's within 99.5%. I know they dont care about outside testing anymore. We are Asian in a high SES but small center school. It probably depends on where you are but in general do kids get in on appeals? Is it like a handful or hundreds? We are new to the county and I genuinely dont know much about this system.

I don't know how many do, but mine did. The key is to write a compelling letter that explains why your kid's needs can't be met in a regular classroom. If you persuade the reviewers, your kid will get in. If you don't, they won't. I'd compensate for a borderline GBRS by having your child submit new work samples, include a sentence about what GBRS trait the sample is showing, and then in the letter also explain some of the GBRS bullet point traits that your kid is demonstrating.

Yes, this is the key. You need to explain the difficulties your child faces getting his/her needs met in the regular classroom. The more specific you can be, the better.

[Anonymous]

I do think it’s always worth a try since the whole system is kind of a crap shoot anyways. Don’t put down the teachers, but show a need for project based learning, extensions, and social differences. Anecdotally, I have known many people to appeal and only 1 to get in on appeal, but that’s just our local experience.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think the program is a crapshoot, I think a lot of parents just don’t understand what the purpose of the program is.

It is meant to provide an educational alternative for kids who are not having their needs met in the regular classroom. So, it is not about just having the highest scores, as many parents think, but more about kids who learn in a different way than other kids.

So, yes, kids with high scores, but also with other things going on in terms of how they learn best. Some bright kids do fine in the regular classroom and progress well there, while others might have a need to be surrounded by similar kids to learn. If a bright child is doing fine in the regular classroom and gets top grades all the time, then their needs are being met and they will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think the program is a crapshoot, I think a lot of parents just don’t understand what the purpose of the program is.

It is meant to provide an educational alternative for kids who are not having their needs met in the regular classroom. So, it is not about just having the highest scores, as many parents think, but more about kids who learn in a different way than other kids.

So, yes, kids with high scores, but also with other things going on in terms of how they learn best. Some bright kids do fine in the regular classroom and progress well there, while others might have a need to be surrounded by similar kids to learn. If a bright child is doing fine in the regular classroom and gets top grades all the time, then their needs are being met and they will be fine.

That's a load of BS. You really think that 20% of the FCPS population learn that differently from their peers and simply cannot have their needs met in a regular classroom? Do you really think that the majority of kids admitted to AAP aren't bright kids who were doing fine in the regular classroom and would do fine in any environment? For the most part, the bright kids who learn differently from other kids and cannot have their needs met in a regular classroom are the ones getting very high test scores, low GBRS, and then getting rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think the program is a crapshoot, I think a lot of parents just don’t understand what the purpose of the program is.

It is meant to provide an educational alternative for kids who are not having their needs met in the regular classroom. So, it is not about just having the highest scores, as many parents think, but more about kids who learn in a different way than other kids.

So, yes, kids with high scores, but also with other things going on in terms of how they learn best. Some bright kids do fine in the regular classroom and progress well there, while others might have a need to be surrounded by similar kids to learn. If a bright child is doing fine in the regular classroom and gets top grades all the time, then their needs are being met and they will be fine.

I totally agree with you but the system itself is confusing. Kids who would struggle in a regular classroom because their needs are met are less likely to get good GBRS. The switching emphasis on GBRS makes me think that they probably want reasonably bright, well-behaved kids in AAP. Anecdotally I think there's a higher chance of getting in the next year than on appeals as well. Not many appeals that I know were successful but I know a plenty of kids who got in the next cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think the program is a crapshoot, I think a lot of parents just don’t understand what the purpose of the program is.

It is meant to provide an educational alternative for kids who are not having their needs met in the regular classroom. So, it is not about just having the highest scores, as many parents think, but more about kids who learn in a different way than other kids.

So, yes, kids with high scores, but also with other things going on in terms of how they learn best. Some bright kids do fine in the regular classroom and progress well there, while others might have a need to be surrounded by similar kids to learn. If a bright child is doing fine in the regular classroom and gets top grades all the time, then their needs are being met and they will be fine.

I totally agree with you but the system itself is confusing. Kids who would struggle in a regular classroom because their needs are met are less likely to get good GBRS. The switching emphasis on GBRS makes me think that they probably want reasonably bright, well-behaved kids in AAP. Anecdotally I think there's a higher chance of getting in the next year than on appeals as well. Not many appeals that I know were successful but I know a plenty of kids who got in the next cycle.

I meant to say whose needs are NOT met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do think it’s always worth a try since the whole system is kind of a crap shoot anyways. Don’t put down the teachers, but show a need for project based learning, extensions, and social differences. Anecdotally, I have known many people to appeal and only 1 to get in on appeal, but that’s just our local experience.

This. I described how my child was fascinated by history and needed the opportunity to dive deeper into the subject matter. I described how my child would thrive through more experiential and project based learning rather than rote. I gave examples of how my child was inspired by motivated peers to go above and beyond, but also how my child would tune out if they found the material too easy. I described some of my child's quirky interests and how they would socially struggle in a regular classroom. Mine did get in on appeal. If you drop enough of the right buzzwords, the appeals panel is more likely to admit your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think the program is a crapshoot, I think a lot of parents just don’t understand what the purpose of the program is.

It is meant to provide an educational alternative for kids who are not having their needs met in the regular classroom. So, it is not about just having the highest scores, as many parents think, but more about kids who learn in a different way than other kids.

So, yes, kids with high scores, but also with other things going on in terms of how they learn best. Some bright kids do fine in the regular classroom and progress well there, while others might have a need to be surrounded by similar kids to learn. If a bright child is doing fine in the regular classroom and gets top grades all the time, then their needs are being met and they will be fine.

As a parent with several kids who have gone through the program, who talks to teachers, and who has volunteered in the classroom, I can assure you: this is NOT TRUE. At all. The vast majority of the kids do not learn differently. In fact, I think the program is geared toward kids who are especially good at learning quickly in a traditional way. There is very little different learning and different kinds of teaching in AAP. It is just a program that goes a bit faster than Gen Ed.