Advice sought for aap appeal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard anecdotally that it’s harder this year. Don’t worry too much. Your kid will be fine either way. I have two older in aap and my current second grader won’t be and I think she will do just as fine as the older two.

NP here. This year’s decisions aren't harder, they make absolutely no sense. Somehow, FCPS managed to make a complete disaster of the AAP admission process in the span of 2 short years.

DS was accepted 2 years ago and people were complaining about the process and who was accepted. The complaints happen every year regardless of the process. And yes, there were kids with high test scores not accepted then as well.

I have a little more info that is not solely anecdotal coming from a 2nd grade teacher who sees the eligibility year after year fwiw. Teacher said this year was wack in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard anecdotally that it’s harder this year. Don’t worry too much. Your kid will be fine either way. I have two older in aap and my current second grader won’t be and I think she will do just as fine as the older two.

NP here. This year’s decisions aren't harder, they make absolutely no sense. Somehow, FCPS managed to make a complete disaster of the AAP admission process in the span of 2 short years.

Could you be a but more dramatic? 😳

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard anecdotally that it’s harder this year. Don’t worry too much. Your kid will be fine either way. I have two older in aap and my current second grader won’t be and I think she will do just as fine as the older two.

NP here. This year’s decisions aren't harder, they make absolutely no sense. Somehow, FCPS managed to make a complete disaster of the AAP admission process in the span of 2 short years.

DS was accepted 2 years ago and people were complaining about the process and who was accepted. The complaints happen every year regardless of the process. And yes, there were kids with high test scores not accepted then as well.

Yeah, I have an older child who was accepted 3 years ago and people complained then as well, but not for the reasons we’re complaining today. High score rejections were outliers then, now they’re the norm. Further, they’ve given enormous power to local elementary schools to determine various standards set in this holistic application process and they’re basically making it up with no standard set by the county. This has been a major shift in a long-established AAP application process and the kids these past 2 years are the experiment. It’s absurd and it’s hard to find a topic that will get me more riled up than messing with my kids’ education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard anecdotally that it’s harder this year. Don’t worry too much. Your kid will be fine either way. I have two older in aap and my current second grader won’t be and I think she will do just as fine as the older two.

NP here. This year’s decisions aren't harder, they make absolutely no sense. Somehow, FCPS managed to make a complete disaster of the AAP admission process in the span of 2 short years.

DS was accepted 2 years ago and people were complaining about the process and who was accepted. The complaints happen every year regardless of the process. And yes, there were kids with high test scores not accepted then as well.

Yeah, I have an older child who was accepted 3 years ago and people complained then as well, but not for the reasons we’re complaining today. High score rejections were outliers then, now they’re the norm. Further, they’ve given enormous power to local elementary schools to determine various standards set in this holistic application process and they’re basically making it up with no standard set by the county. This has been a major shift in a long-established AAP application process and the kids these past 2 years are the experiment. It’s absurd and it’s hard to find a topic that will get me more riled up than messing with my kids’ education.

How do we know that they are the norm? The complaints today seem to be the same as the complaints a few years ago. If anything there seems to be fewer posts this year then there were in past years.

Not to mention, the complaints on this board and the other sites I see tend to be a relatively small number of people. The difference might be that more parents had to refer because of the in-pool shift that has happened but I can’t say that I am seeing anything on this site or other facebook groups that make me think that the stats for this year are going to be all that different then in past years.

If we hear of high SES Centers having smaller classes or fewer classes then I’ll buy it but I suspect that did not happen.

[Anonymous]

OP - I’m at a loss as to why my DC wasn’t accepted. Could it have been their scores were borderline? The GBRS was pretty solid. I’m retrospect, the samples we submitted from home maybe weren’t great so I’m wondering if that backfired. I know families who didn’t submit any samples whose kids got it though I admittedly don’t know their scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - I’m at a loss as to why my DC wasn’t accepted. Could it have been their scores were borderline? The GBRS was pretty solid. I’m retrospect, the samples we submitted from home maybe weren’t great so I’m wondering if that backfired. I know families who didn’t submit any samples whose kids got it though I admittedly don’t know their scores

Just appeal. Everyone does it. Lots and lots get in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

Op here - one more question. Is it a problem if I don’t submit additional samples? Truth be told we haven’t gotten many from school recently and what has come doesn’t seem good enough to submit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- I know there’s been a backlash on this board regarding FCPS’s AAP equity initiatives but I should add that in my parent referral form, I mentioned that my DC reads and writes what I imagine is an under-represented language in AAP and they didn’t get in, so whatever equity initiative is in play didn’t benefit DC, despite what some posters might think. It’s all quite mysterious. It’s possible the scores just didn’t hit the mark for our school? 🤷‍♀️

What does this have to do with an equity initiative?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here - one more question. Is it a problem if I don’t submit additional samples? Truth be told we haven’t gotten many from school recently and what has come doesn’t seem good enough to submit.

I'd say it's a big problem. You want to use every opportunity to showcase your child and make a case. It's going to be easier to reject again if you don't provide enough info to refute their initial basis.

School samples are worthless - Use the GBRS to identify the weaknesses and create your own samples to represent how your child excels in those areas. My child had weaknesses in writing - so we spent time on a writing sample.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with the PP above. I have only ever submitted work samples from school and identified them as such. I think they DGAF what kind of stuff you coached your kid to prepare at home.

With DC2, I submitted a work sample sent home from school and later the teacher contacted me and said can I send it back in so she could submit it for my kid and I said - sorry I already submitted it - so I do know what kind of stuff they’re looking for. I’m a former teacher fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- I know there’s been a backlash on this board regarding FCPS’s AAP equity initiatives but I should add that in my parent referral form, I mentioned that my DC reads and writes what I imagine is an under-represented language in AAP and they didn’t get in, so whatever equity initiative is in play didn’t benefit DC, despite what some posters might think. It’s all quite mysterious. It’s possible the scores just didn’t hit the mark for our school? 🤷‍♀️

What does this have to do with an equity initiative?

Did you missed the part about mentioning that DC speaks an underrepresented language? Underrepresentation = equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the PP above. I have only ever submitted work samples from school and identified them as such. I think they DGAF what kind of stuff you coached your kid to prepare at home.

With DC2, I submitted a work sample sent home from school and later the teacher contacted me and said can I send it back in so she could submit it for my kid and I said - sorry I already submitted it - so I do know what kind of stuff they’re looking for. I’m a former teacher fwiw.

I'm not PP, but wouldn't you want to display that DC is performing work and showing initiative to do things above and beyond school-work? Not submitting outside samples indicates that their desire to excel stops after the classroom period ends. If OP has no organic work samples (I'm not advocating preparing something special), that doesn't bode well for acceptance in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- I know there’s been a backlash on this board regarding FCPS’s AAP equity initiatives but I should add that in my parent referral form, I mentioned that my DC reads and writes what I imagine is an under-represented language in AAP and they didn’t get in, so whatever equity initiative is in play didn’t benefit DC, despite what some posters might think. It’s all quite mysterious. It’s possible the scores just didn’t hit the mark for our school? 🤷‍♀️

What does this have to do with an equity initiative?

Did you missed the part about mentioning that DC speaks an underrepresented language? Underrepresentation = equity.

No, I got that part. Let’s say it is Spanish. How is the kid speaking Spanish helpful? Maybe his au pair taught him. Maybe he went to an immersion preschool. What does this have to do with the kid be URM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP- I know there’s been a backlash on this board regarding FCPS’s AAP equity initiatives but I should add that in my parent referral form, I mentioned that my DC reads and writes what I imagine is an under-represented language in AAP and they didn’t get in, so whatever equity initiative is in play didn’t benefit DC, despite what some posters might think. It’s all quite mysterious. It’s possible the scores just didn’t hit the mark for our school? 🤷‍♀️

What does this have to do with an equity initiative?

Did you missed the part about mentioning that DC speaks an underrepresented language? Underrepresentation = equity.

No, I got that part. Let’s say it is Spanish. How is the kid speaking Spanish helpful? Maybe his au pair taught him. Maybe he went to an immersion preschool. What does this have to do with the kid be URM?

Oh, because it’s a language that’s not typically learned by non native speakers or taught by au pairs (lol). Can’t tell if you’re being deliberately dense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the PP above. I have only ever submitted work samples from school and identified them as such. I think they DGAF what kind of stuff you coached your kid to prepare at home.

With DC2, I submitted a work sample sent home from school and later the teacher contacted me and said can I send it back in so she could submit it for my kid and I said - sorry I already submitted it - so I do know what kind of stuff they’re looking for. I’m a former teacher fwiw.

I'm not PP, but wouldn't you want to display that DC is performing work and showing initiative to do things above and beyond school-work? Not submitting outside samples indicates that their desire to excel stops after the classroom period ends. If OP has no organic work samples (I'm not advocating preparing something special), that doesn't bode well for acceptance in my opinion.

IDK - I had two kids get in with only work samples from school sent in. I think it's less weight when it's potentially parent coached work at home. They're really trying to get away from that to give everyone a fair chance, especially now. They basically allow parents to send things in to act like it is holistic but they really do not GAF what parents think about their own kids. That holds the least amount of weight in the entire application.