AAP application - are kids compared only within the same school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does it work when kids are applying in 3rd/4th/5th grade and there aren't a ton of kids applying from their school? If three kids are applying in fourth grade, are they only compared against each other?

Can someone please answer THIS question?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the committee see the child's race?

No, but if the application mentions that the child was in Young Scholars, they can deduce that the child is a minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work when kids are applying in 3rd/4th/5th grade and there aren't a ton of kids applying from their school? If three kids are applying in fourth grade, are they only compared against each other?

Can someone please answer THIS question?

No idea but it would make sense if they open all the packets from one school and get to work on the submissions from that school, including other grades, but probably not at the same time as they’re doing 2nd. The reason I think that is the packets coming from each school will all have been compiled by the same local committee w/ similar standards for their whole student population

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the committee see the child's race?

No, but if the application mentions that the child was in Young Scholars, they can deduce that the child is a minority.

This, plus sometimes they can tell from the last names, if they are not redacted. FCPS doesn't want you to know what the criteria are. Agree with the transparency being lacked.

[Anonymous]

With older ages, there’s more test data. Didnkid lass advance on SOLs? Did they score high on VGA compared to peers and thus an outlier? If scores are very high compared to peers at school, shows the need for AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the committee see the child's race?

No, but if the application mentions that the child was in Young Scholars, they can deduce that the child is a minority.

There have been plenty of caucasian families that have posted on DCUM that their children were invited to join Young Scholars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work when kids are applying in 3rd/4th/5th grade and there aren't a ton of kids applying from their school? If three kids are applying in fourth grade, are they only compared against each other?

Can someone please answer THIS question?

No idea but it would make sense if they open all the packets from one school and get to work on the submissions from that school, including other grades, but probably not at the same time as they’re doing 2nd. The reason I think that is the packets coming from each school will all have been compiled by the same local committee w/ similar standards for their whole student population

So they would just evaluate the 3rd - 5th graders at the same time as the 2nd graders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why must we keep stats on race? Why can’t we all just be “American” or the “Human” race. Is it really necessary?

Because FCPS discriminates against Asians.

No they don't. Your toxicity is unhelpful.

It is a fact that the acceptance rate for AAP, with respect to Hispanics and Blacks, is higher than Whites and Asians. It's unclear exactly why the acceptance rate is so much higher, but I think most people suspect that there is a diversity component to AAP. I don't know if I would characterize a diversity component as discrimination against Asians, but I can understand why people have this type of reaction. There is absolutely no transparency or accountability, as no one knows how decisions are made, and this leads to people accusing FCPS of discrimination. I think FCPS would really benefit from being transparent.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the proportion of Black/Hispanic students applying who are highly qualified is higher... I think with White and Asian families in addition to the highly qualified kids you might get a much higher percentage of kids applying who are just "qualified" but don't really stand out. But agree that improved transparency would be a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why must we keep stats on race? Why can’t we all just be “American” or the “Human” race. Is it really necessary?

Because FCPS discriminates against Asians.

No they don't. Your toxicity is unhelpful.

It is a fact that the acceptance rate for AAP, with respect to Hispanics and Blacks, is higher than Whites and Asians. It's unclear exactly why the acceptance rate is so much higher, but I think most people suspect that there is a diversity component to AAP. I don't know if I would characterize a diversity component as discrimination against Asians, but I can understand why people have this type of reaction. There is absolutely no transparency or accountability, as no one knows how decisions are made, and this leads to people accusing FCPS of discrimination. I think FCPS would really benefit from being transparent.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the proportion of Black/Hispanic students applying who are highly qualified is higher... I think with White and Asian families in addition to the highly qualified kids you might get a much higher percentage of kids applying who are just "qualified" but don't really stand out. But agree that improved transparency would be a good thing.

Completely agree that one possibility is that the small number of Black/Hispanic students who apply are more qualified on average, but there's no way of knowing that because of the lack of transparency. I think the data shows that test scores (NNAT, COGAT) for admitted Black/Hispanic students are lower on average than those for admitted White/Asian students, but I think that's about all that can be said. Without transparency, what you get is a lot of mean-spirited comments said behind people's backs about how so and so got in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, friendship with teacher or administration, involvement in PTA, etc.] and so and so did not get in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, personally disliked by teacher, being too quiet, etc.].

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A PP on a different thread said that teachers from one school will look at all the kids from a different school and accept them based solely on their comparison to other kids at the same school. Is this really true? I thought the applications were blind.

I was that poster. I said it because our AART said it in the presentation on the full-time AAP program given to parents in late fall. And as a different PP said, committees don't look at their own school. They look at all the kids fro another school together.

The emphasis on comparing like with like seemed new this year (have older kids in AAP so I've been through this a couple times and I was sitting in the presentation with parents whose kids are as old as high school). This new emphasis seems like a natural progression from the local norming they starting for the pool in 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why must we keep stats on race? Why can’t we all just be “American” or the “Human” race. Is it really necessary?

Because FCPS discriminates against Asians.

No they don't. Your toxicity is unhelpful.

It is a fact that the acceptance rate for AAP, with respect to Hispanics and Blacks, is higher than Whites and Asians. It's unclear exactly why the acceptance rate is so much higher, but I think most people suspect that there is a diversity component to AAP. I don't know if I would characterize a diversity component as discrimination against Asians, but I can understand why people have this type of reaction. There is absolutely no transparency or accountability, as no one knows how decisions are made, and this leads to people accusing FCPS of discrimination. I think FCPS would really benefit from being transparent.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the proportion of Black/Hispanic students applying who are highly qualified is higher... I think with White and Asian families in addition to the highly qualified kids you might get a much higher percentage of kids applying who are just "qualified" but don't really stand out. But agree that improved transparency would be a good thing.

Completely agree that one possibility is that the small number of Black/Hispanic students who apply are more qualified on average, but there's no way of knowing that because of the lack of transparency. I think the data shows that test scores (NNAT, COGAT) for admitted Black/Hispanic students are lower on average than those for admitted White/Asian students, but I think that's about all that can be said. Without transparency, what you get is a lot of mean-spirited comments said behind people's backs about how so and so got in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, friendship with teacher or administration, involvement in PTA, etc.] and so and so did not get in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, personally disliked by teacher, being too quiet, etc.].

Go read the 2020 external AAP report. Certain races had a definite advantage in the data at the time. But that has nothing to do with OP's question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the committee see the child's race?

No, but if the application mentions that the child was in Young Scholars, they can deduce that the child is a minority.

My white middle class child is in young scholars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why must we keep stats on race? Why can’t we all just be “American” or the “Human” race. Is it really necessary?

Because FCPS discriminates against Asians.

No they don't. Your toxicity is unhelpful.

It is a fact that the acceptance rate for AAP, with respect to Hispanics and Blacks, is higher than Whites and Asians. It's unclear exactly why the acceptance rate is so much higher, but I think most people suspect that there is a diversity component to AAP. I don't know if I would characterize a diversity component as discrimination against Asians, but I can understand why people have this type of reaction. There is absolutely no transparency or accountability, as no one knows how decisions are made, and this leads to people accusing FCPS of discrimination. I think FCPS would really benefit from being transparent.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the proportion of Black/Hispanic students applying who are highly qualified is higher... I think with White and Asian families in addition to the highly qualified kids you might get a much higher percentage of kids applying who are just "qualified" but don't really stand out. But agree that improved transparency would be a good thing.

Completely agree that one possibility is that the small number of Black/Hispanic students who apply are more qualified on average, but there's no way of knowing that because of the lack of transparency. I think the data shows that test scores (NNAT, COGAT) for admitted Black/Hispanic students are lower on average than those for admitted White/Asian students, but I think that's about all that can be said. Without transparency, what you get is a lot of mean-spirited comments said behind people's backs about how so and so got in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, friendship with teacher or administration, involvement in PTA, etc.] and so and so did not get in because of [FILL IN THE BLANK - race, personally disliked by teacher, being too quiet, etc.].

Go read the 2020 external AAP report. Certain races had a definite advantage in the data at the time. But that has nothing to do with OP's question.

That report states there are higher acceptance rates for certain races and that test scores are lower for certain races. It doesn't explain WHY there are these discrepancies. Agreed that this is going off-topic from OP's question, so will stop commenting on this point.

[Anonymous]

PP about Young Scholars. You are right, there are causasians in Young Scholars. I stand corrected on that.

But look at what Young Scholars is all about: https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary/advanced-academic-programs/young-scholars

It's not a bad thing at all, but if it's mentioned it is potentially planting a seed of unconscious bias into a reviewer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A PP on a different thread said that teachers from one school will look at all the kids from a different school and accept them based solely on their comparison to other kids at the same school. Is this really true? I thought the applications were blind.

I was that poster. I said it because our AART said it in the presentation on the full-time AAP program given to parents in late fall. And as a different PP said, committees don't look at their own school. They look at all the kids fro another school together.

The emphasis on comparing like with like seemed new this year (have older kids in AAP so I've been through this a couple times and I was sitting in the presentation with parents whose kids are as old as high school). This new emphasis seems like a natural progression from the local norming they starting for the pool in 2021.

I did research on the new HOPE scale the other night and it also seemed to emphasize comparing scores to "local norms" rather than nationally available data.