In pool notification- when?

[Anonymous]

How so? One of the audit results pointed to the creation of a program that meets the needs of the top 10% of the kids at each school. The new selection process reflects that. Kids are not distributed to Centers evenly throughout the County, they are distributed based on their base school. The in-pool scores for each Center are probably pretty similar so you should end up with cohorts at Centers with similar scores and their AAP program is reaching the 10% that need a more advanced program.

Honestly, I think that is exactly what the program should be doing. It shouldn't be a surprise that the top 10% in McLean looks different then the top 10% in Herndon. The Top 10% in a title 1 school will look different then the top 10% in a High SES school.

Honestly, that shouldn't impact a kid in a High SES school because that kid has a Gen Ed cohort that is ahead of the Title 1 cohort. And I doubt that the parent of a High SES kid wants their kid in a Title 1 AAP program because the kids are at a different place and i would bet that the Teachers adjust the curriculum to fit the needs of the kids in that program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How so? One of the audit results pointed to the creation of a program that meets the needs of the top 10% of the kids at each school. The new selection process reflects that. Kids are not distributed to Centers evenly throughout the County, they are distributed based on their base school. The in-pool scores for each Center are probably pretty similar so you should end up with cohorts at Centers with similar scores and their AAP program is reaching the 10% that need a more advanced program.

Honestly, I think that is exactly what the program should be doing. It shouldn't be a surprise that the top 10% in McLean looks different then the top 10% in Herndon. The Top 10% in a title 1 school will look different then the top 10% in a High SES school.

Honestly, that shouldn't impact a kid in a High SES school because that kid has a Gen Ed cohort that is ahead of the Title 1 cohort. And I doubt that the parent of a High SES kid wants their kid in a Title 1 AAP program because the kids are at a different place and i would bet that the Teachers adjust the curriculum to fit the needs of the kids in that program.

There are 3 glaring problems w this new selection process. 1) the schools that feed into center do not have the same local in-pool scores as in-pool scores for base kids at the center. In some cases, in-pool non-center kids scored 20 pts lower than base cut off and yet, they still feed to the same school. 2) the access to advanced math matters for middle school and kids in GE at high SES school who would've otherwise qualified for AAP somewhere else, now don't have access to accelerated math. 3) it encourages and rewards prepping at the higher SES schools, which makes scores less reliable and reliance on GBRS even greater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How so? One of the audit results pointed to the creation of a program that meets the needs of the top 10% of the kids at each school. The new selection process reflects that. Kids are not distributed to Centers evenly throughout the County, they are distributed based on their base school. The in-pool scores for each Center are probably pretty similar so you should end up with cohorts at Centers with similar scores and their AAP program is reaching the 10% that need a more advanced program.

Honestly, I think that is exactly what the program should be doing. It shouldn't be a surprise that the top 10% in McLean looks different then the top 10% in Herndon. The Top 10% in a title 1 school will look different then the top 10% in a High SES school.

Honestly, that shouldn't impact a kid in a High SES school because that kid has a Gen Ed cohort that is ahead of the Title 1 cohort. And I doubt that the parent of a High SES kid wants their kid in a Title 1 AAP program because the kids are at a different place and i would bet that the Teachers adjust the curriculum to fit the needs of the kids in that program.

There are 3 glaring problems w this new selection process. 1) the schools that feed into center do not have the same local in-pool scores as in-pool scores for base kids at the center. In some cases, in-pool non-center kids scored 20 pts lower than base cut off and yet, they still feed to the same school. 2) the access to advanced math matters for middle school and kids in GE at high SES school who would've otherwise qualified for AAP somewhere else, now don't have access to accelerated math. 3) it encourages and rewards prepping at the higher SES schools, which makes scores less reliable and reliance on GBRS even greater.

For your first problem, I would guess that plenty of Centers and LLIV dealt with a 20-30 point spread in kids who were accepted into AAP. I doubt that is a new thing, as such, the schools should be able to handle it. The old in-pool scores of 132 probably meant that the Centers that included schools that prep and schools that didn't already had kids in it with scores ranging from 132-160, and that is the in-pool kids only. I would guess that there were kids in those Centers who were parent referred with scores under 132.

Problem 2 is a non-problem. Advanced Math is separate from LIV at all schools. LIV classes include Advanced Math but every school offers Advanced Math starting in 5th grade. Some offer Advanced Math starting in 3rd grade. As such, Advanced Math is available to everyone, regardless of the LIV placement or not. DS is at a school without LLIV and has been in advanced Math since 3rd grade. In 5th grade, Advanced Math means 6th grade math and the 6th grade SOL.

Problem 3. not really a problem. Those schools already have an issue with parents prepping. There is only so much that the County can do about that. So now kids who hadn't prepped and landed int he 140's might join the prep to land in the 150's. I suspect that many of those schools already had higher scores because of the prepping so I doubt you are going to see that much of a change. The schools with lower scores most likely do not have a prepping culture so the scores are not going to change that much. I doubt that the folks who prep are going to moved to the schools without prepping because the parents are not going to be happy with those schools.

The new selection process meets schools were they are and accepts that kids will be at different levels based on environment as much as their native intelligence. A gifted kid who was raised in a house were they were not read to and people were not playing math games will still learn quickly, their base is simply different. That also means that their NNAT and CogAT scores are going to be lower then a gifted kid who was raised with parents reading to them and playing math games. We area ll aware of the education gaps and issues that exist. A kid who is ahead at a Title 1 school still needs a program that challenges them even if that program ends up looking a bit different then a kid in a high SES school.

[Anonymous]

Upper mid SES school LLIV here. DS has a classmate who is wealthy, qualified at a Title 1 school, moved in August and got slot in new school where he may well not be in the top 10% anymore.

Is that an issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Upper mid SES school LLIV here. DS has a classmate who is wealthy, qualified at a Title 1 school, moved in August and got slot in new school where he may well not be in the top 10% anymore.

Is that an issue?

Not for me. If he falls behind in his new school his parents will need to make a choice. AAP is not that big a deal. I know that is sacrilege to most of you but it just isn't. If a child is not keeping up in AAP at one of the high powered centers, I am guessing that the Teachers talk tot he parents and the kid doesn't do well on their report card. The parents can choose to move the kid or not. Or the kid steps up and is able to do the work.

Now we will wait for the really crazy parents to talk about renting an apartment at a Title 1 school in second grade so that their kid can get into AAP more easily because nothing says "Pro educational rigor" then disrupting a kids education to game the system. I actualyl don't think that will happen any more then I think that parents are moving their kids in 8th grade to game getting into TJ. And if it is happening or does happen then that is more a reflection of very different priorities then I think most families have.