Has anyone's child entered AAP IV after 2nd grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at a noncenter school, the principal might be able to place your child into the Level IV class if there is space. You should email the principal and AART about how it works at your school. From my understanding they fill the Local Level IV class with other kids who weren't selected by the central committee (such as Level III kids). They also will put some kids in the Level IV class just for math. Then the next year you can parent refer with the form on the AAP website.

Same is happening at our LLIV, 13 kids made it into the program and 9 are opting for the center, so that leaves 4 kids who are center eligible to be the base of the schools LLIV class. They'll pull in ~20 (mostly qualifying/deserving) kids into the class to fill the ranks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at a noncenter school, the principal might be able to place your child into the Level IV class if there is space. You should email the principal and AART about how it works at your school. From my understanding they fill the Local Level IV class with other kids who weren't selected by the central committee (such as Level III kids). They also will put some kids in the Level IV class just for math. Then the next year you can parent refer with the form on the AAP website.

Same is happening at our LLIV, 13 kids made it into the program and 9 are opting for the center, so that leaves 4 kids who are center eligible to be the base of the schools LLIV class. They'll pull in ~20 (mostly qualifying/deserving) kids into the class to fill the ranks.

My kid is committee placed now and was never in the LLIV class. Our sense is that it's the committee placed kids plus the kids of parents who know to request it. Lots of kids leave that class for math and lots of kids come in for math. If it was based on who deserves it or was the best student, most of the kids coming in for math would be in the class full time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at a noncenter school, the principal might be able to place your child into the Level IV class if there is space. You should email the principal and AART about how it works at your school. From my understanding they fill the Local Level IV class with other kids who weren't selected by the central committee (such as Level III kids). They also will put some kids in the Level IV class just for math. Then the next year you can parent refer with the form on the AAP website.

Same is happening at our LLIV, 13 kids made it into the program and 9 are opting for the center, so that leaves 4 kids who are center eligible to be the base of the schools LLIV class. They'll pull in ~20 (mostly qualifying/deserving) kids into the class to fill the ranks.

My kid is committee placed now and was never in the LLIV class. Our sense is that it's the committee placed kids plus the kids of parents who know to request it. Lots of kids leave that class for math and lots of kids come in for math. If it was based on who deserves it or was the best student, most of the kids coming in for math would be in the class full time.

Agreed that the placement is suspect... We didn't find out that our 2nd grader wasn't receiving Level 3 services until another parent told us about break-outs. All the correspondence is basically that you don't have to do anything - the school assesses every student. By the time we advocated and got him into the classes, it was too late for any meaningful samples to come out of there. We got into Level 4 anyway and are center bound. The kicker... the reason the 2nd grade teacher gave was that our kid was sporty and didn't seem like the AAP type, despite 140 NNAT, 99% in all I-Ready's and straight 4's on report cards. The fact that it worked out significantly reduced our anger level to something less than livid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The kicker... the reason the 2nd grade teacher gave was that our kid was sporty and didn't seem like the AAP type, despite 140 NNAT, 99% in all I-Ready's and straight 4's on report cards.

Wow! That's bad. Not surprising though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens if you join in later years? Is it a big jump to merge into classes with peers who have already been in LIV since 3rd/4th grade?

In our case (LLIV), kid was in LIII and had already been in combined classes with these kids, so really no change. It was a formality.

My child entered in 5th. He knew a few people in there, but his best friends were not in AAP. I was a little worried about him initially, but he made friends very quickly and still hangs with his old friends (we are at a Center school.) He sees his old buddies over recess and now he has expanded his friend group with a bunch of AAP kids. If your child is social enough, they will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your child is at a noncenter school, the principal might be able to place your child into the Level IV class if there is space. You should email the principal and AART about how it works at your school. From my understanding they fill the Local Level IV class with other kids who weren't selected by the central committee (such as Level III kids). They also will put some kids in the Level IV class just for math. Then the next year you can parent refer with the form on the AAP website.

Same is happening at our LLIV, 13 kids made it into the program and 9 are opting for the center, so that leaves 4 kids who are center eligible to be the base of the schools LLIV class. They'll pull in ~20 (mostly qualifying/deserving) kids into the class to fill the ranks.

My kid is committee placed now and was never in the LLIV class. Our sense is that it's the committee placed kids plus the kids of parents who know to request it. Lots of kids leave that class for math and lots of kids come in for math. If it was based on who deserves it or was the best student, most of the kids coming in for math would be in the class full time.

Agreed that the placement is suspect... We didn't find out that our 2nd grader wasn't receiving Level 3 services until another parent told us about break-outs. All the correspondence is basically that you don't have to do anything - the school assesses every student. By the time we advocated and got him into the classes, it was too late for any meaningful samples to come out of there. We got into Level 4 anyway and are center bound. The kicker... the reason the 2nd grade teacher gave was that our kid was sporty and didn't seem like the AAP type, despite 140 NNAT, 99% in all I-Ready's and straight 4's on report cards. The fact that it worked out significantly reduced our anger level to something less than livid.

There are no level III services in second, they start in third.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD got in later through a teacher referral. If you kid is in advanced math and one of the better students in the class, they will get in down the road if you want them in. We did not ask for the referral

Didn’t think the teachers could refer. DC’s teacher recommended we refer and said she would back us up, but I thought the teacher wasn’t allowed to refer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens if you join in later years? Is it a big jump to merge into classes with peers who have already been in LIV since 3rd/4th grade?

In our case (LLIV), kid was in LIII and had already been in combined classes with these kids, so really no change. It was a formality.

My child entered in 5th. He knew a few people in there, but his best friends were not in AAP. I was a little worried about him initially, but he made friends very quickly and still hangs with his old friends (we are at a Center school.) He sees his old buddies over recess and now he has expanded his friend group with a bunch of AAP kids. If your child is social enough, they will be fine.

I've taught AAP for years, there are always 5 or so new kids every year. Either they are newly admitted from GenED, transferred from another FCPS school (move), or moved from another state and were in a gifted program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD got in later through a teacher referral. If you kid is in advanced math and one of the better students in the class, they will get in down the road if you want them in. We did not ask for the referral

Didn’t think the teachers could refer. DC’s teacher recommended we refer and said she would back us up, but I thought the teacher wasn’t allowed to refer.

Inaccurate. Teacher can 100% refer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD got in later through a teacher referral. If you kid is in advanced math and one of the better students in the class, they will get in down the road if you want them in. We did not ask for the referral

Didn’t think the teachers could refer. DC’s teacher recommended we refer and said she would back us up, but I thought the teacher wasn’t allowed to refer.

Inaccurate. Teacher can 100% refer.

This. They may say they can't as a way to deflect an insistent parent if they don't want to refer that kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD got in later through a teacher referral. If you kid is in advanced math and one of the better students in the class, they will get in down the road if you want them in. We did not ask for the referral

Didn’t think the teachers could refer. DC’s teacher recommended we refer and said she would back us up, but I thought the teacher wasn’t allowed to refer.

Inaccurate. Teacher can 100% refer.

Our late arrival was teacher referred (AART contacted us, said teacher wanted to refer and I think we filled out some supporting paperwork, IIRC).

[Anonymous]

Teachers can refer and they do. As I understand it, Teacher referral is pushed at schools with lower SES populations because those parents are less likely to refer. But it doesn't have to be a hard rule.

I can see a Teacher saying that they are not allowed to refer because they don't think a kid belongs in LIV.

[Anonymous]

My oldest started in 4th grade after private school through 3rd grade. We were ready to appeal because supposedly private school teachers "aren't trained" like FCPS teachers to fill out the GBRS, so it wouldn't mean as much. We originally got WISC but the score was low 90s percentile, so we retested with COGAT for mid- to high 90s percentiles and submitted only the COGAT scores. No issue getting in the first time.

We have a 2nd grader who got rejected, took the WISC (got high 90s percentile), and now has an appeal in. I think it's harder to get in from 2nd grade FCPS to Level IV 3rd grade FCPS.