Getting into FCPS AAP level IV center from a private school?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience with getting a child into a FCPS AAP level IV center from a private school? My DS is pretty gifted - tested at 2nd grade reading level at age 4. We have decided to send him to private school for a variety of reasons - e.g. FCPS half day kindergarten, etc. which we do not think would be best for my DS. The tuition for private school is outrageous and we will not be able to sustain it through his elementary years if we want to retire someday (just joking). We were thinking about doing this just until he could get into a FCPS level IV center. Has anyone else done this? Can you please share your experiences? What tests and timelines do we need to be aware of?

[Anonymous]

We have done this for two of our kids. We had the kids tested by a psychologist using the WISC and the Stanford-Binet, rather than using George Mason's group testing. You'll need to study the FCPS Advanced Academic Program website for the timelines and to make sure you have fulfilled all of their requirements. The specific requirements include things like: the file has to be hand-delivered during a certain week, you have to have a check (there's a small fee), the psychologist has to include their license with their report, etc. You also want to make sure you handle it in a way that's sensitive to the private school, which in our case, meant talking to the teacher and notifying the head of school. The teacher will have to fill out a Gifted Behavior Rating Scale so his/her input is important. We talked to the head of school because the private required a deposit before we'd know whether or not our child made it into the Level IV Center; he let us delay paying the deposit until we knew for sure. You also want to be sure that you're gathering really interesting examples of your child's work -- not necessarily school work, but projects that s/he has done at home. I took pictures of a pulley system my daughter designed to ferry her stuffed animals around the room, included copies of stories she wrote, and other examples of self-initiated projects. The psychologist we used, who has experience helping people with appeals if necessary, said that these types of examples are much better than using the rather dry school assignments. Hope that helps!

[Anonymous]

OP here - Thank you for the respone. I think that we are probably going to the same private school that you went to. It is nice to know that the director might let us delay payment on the deposit that year if needed. It also sounds like they are receptive (or rather ok with) people switching to public school at that point as well.

[Anonymous]

We also moved from a private school. To save money, we just went with the CogAT/NNAT group testing offered by GMU, which is much less expensive than individual testing, and DS did well enough to get in without our needing to pursue WISC testing. The 2nd grade teachers were great about filling in the GBRS.

We applied in 2nd grade for 3rd grade, but for a variety of reasons we waited until 4th grade to move our DS, so we didn't face the problem with possibly losing our deposit. I think that waiting until 4th grade to move may have been a mistake. It was harder for DS to enter an already-established group of friends than it would have been in the first year of the AAP program, when all the kids were establishing new friendships. Also, the big difference in the style of education compared to our private school's approach and environment has made for a difficult adjustment. While the level of the academics is more appropriate in the AAP center for our DS than that offered at the private school, we and he preferred the educational approach and social environment of the private school. Too bad we can't have the best of both worlds....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We also moved from a private school. To save money, we just went with the CogAT/NNAT group testing offered by GMU, which is much less expensive than individual testing, and DS did well enough to get in without our needing to pursue WISC testing. The 2nd grade teachers were great about filling in the GBRS.

We applied in 2nd grade for 3rd grade, but for a variety of reasons we waited until 4th grade to move our DS, so we didn't face the problem with possibly losing our deposit. I think that waiting until 4th grade to move may have been a mistake. It was harder for DS to enter an already-established group of friends than it would have been in the first year of the AAP program, when all the kids were establishing new friendships. Also, the big difference in the style of education compared to our private school's approach and environment has made for a difficult adjustment. While the level of the academics is more appropriate in the AAP center for our DS than that offered at the private school, we and he preferred the educational approach and social environment of the private school. Too bad we can't have the best of both worlds....

I hear you PP. We also applied in second grade, but waited until a later grade to enter the AAP program and our DC also is having a tough time adjusting to the social scene and academic approach.

OP, the private school timeline is earlier than the FCPS timeline. You can apply in November and will receive an answer in January -- which might help with the deposit deadlines. We used the GMU individual WISC testing service, having heard that FCPS might find the GMU service more objective than a private psychologist (but not sure it matters).