Will in pool letters come before Dec 15?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the in pool decision made by the school or the county? And do they use anything else beside cogat, e.g., iReady, first grade report etc.

I understand it's some combination of cogat and nnat only but no one knows exactly how they are combined. I'm also curious about who exactly makes the decision.

Additionally, if not in-pool, what does that mean? Your child is not in the top 10% of their grade on these tests or something else?

AAP central office makes the decision on the cut-scores for in-pool by school I believe.

If not in-pool it just means you have to parent refer (or a teacher has to refer, but I don't think many 2nd grade teachers do that) for a kid to be considered. Their score was not in the top 10% of whatever formula at their school. Being in-pool doesn't impact their chances of getting in per se, except that it's always better to have higher test scores than not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the the in-pool score is decided by a straight average of the COGAT and NNAT, but you're right, nobody really knows. From what I've seen, I think the COGAT is weighted more heavily than the NNAT. I think the county determines who is in-pool because they are the ones that send out the in-pool notification emails. What IS definitive is that nothing is used to determine the in-pool score other than the NNAT and COGAT.

Thanks! Can you (or anyone) confirm that the criterion for in-pool is having a combined score that is within the top 10% in one's school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the in pool decision made by the school or the county? And do they use anything else beside cogat, e.g., iReady, first grade report etc.

I understand it's some combination of cogat and nnat only but no one knows exactly how they are combined. I'm also curious about who exactly makes the decision.

Additionally, if not in-pool, what does that mean? Your child is not in the top 10% of their grade on these tests or something else?

Right, if your child is not in pool, all it means is that their combination of NNAT/COGAT is not in the top 10% of the grade. If your child is in pool, it also means that the school will put together a referral even if the parent doesn't refer. There's not some magic gold dust that goes along with the in-pool designation that means those children have a special advantage. All it means is that their COGAT/NNAT scores are higher which looks more favorable to the committee. The committee will look at everything in the application. It's highly subjective. You might luck out and the committee of 6 people that reviews your child's application will say yes, while another committee would have said no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the the in-pool score is decided by a straight average of the COGAT and NNAT, but you're right, nobody really knows. From what I've seen, I think the COGAT is weighted more heavily than the NNAT. I think the county determines who is in-pool because they are the ones that send out the in-pool notification emails. What IS definitive is that nothing is used to determine the in-pool score other than the NNAT and COGAT.

Thanks! Can you (or anyone) confirm that the criterion for in-pool is having a combined score that is within the top 10% in one's school?

Yes, it is the top 10% of each individual school.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/advanced-academic-programs-aap/family-resources-advanced-academic-program-aap/screening

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the the in-pool score is decided by a straight average of the COGAT and NNAT, but you're right, nobody really knows. From what I've seen, I think the COGAT is weighted more heavily than the NNAT. I think the county determines who is in-pool because they are the ones that send out the in-pool notification emails. What IS definitive is that nothing is used to determine the in-pool score other than the NNAT and COGAT.

Thanks! Can you (or anyone) confirm that the criterion for in-pool is having a combined score that is within the top 10% in one's school?

Yes, it is the top 10% of each individual school.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/advanced-academic-programs-aap/family-resources-advanced-academic-program-aap/screening

Does in pool only get decided in 2nd grade or what if you were new to FCPS in a later grade and just took COGAT for first time in 5th? Also, what if it is a center school?

[Anonymous]

It’s odd that they do not use iReady. I feel it’s the one that is least affected by prepping

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the the in-pool score is decided by a straight average of the COGAT and NNAT, but you're right, nobody really knows. From what I've seen, I think the COGAT is weighted more heavily than the NNAT. I think the county determines who is in-pool because they are the ones that send out the in-pool notification emails. What IS definitive is that nothing is used to determine the in-pool score other than the NNAT and COGAT.

Thanks! Can you (or anyone) confirm that the criterion for in-pool is having a combined score that is within the top 10% in one's school?

Yes, it is the top 10% of each individual school.

https://www.fcps.edu/academics/advanced-academic-programs-aap/family-resources-advanced-academic-program-aap/screening

Does in pool only get decided in 2nd grade or what if you were new to FCPS in a later grade and just took COGAT for first time in 5th? Also, what if it is a center school?

In-Pool only gets decided for second grade. Doesn't matter if it's a center school or not - always just second grade. If your child is in 3rd-6th then you will either need to submit a parent referral or the teacher can submit a staff referral.

[Anonymous]

I believe they are using the math iReady scores this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd that they do not use iReady. I feel it’s the one that is least affected by prepping

iReady does not measure cognitive ability, which is what AAP placement is based on. You can certainly prep for iReady. I taught my daughter advanced math over the summer because she likes math and is good at it and blew the iReady out of the water. I’m sure there are kids that are just as smart or smarter than her that didn’t score as high because they were never taught the material.

You can prep for CogAt and NNAT by doing some practice problems to get comfortable with that type of test, but at the end of the day the student still has to reason their way through the exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe they are using the math iReady scores this year.

For the in-pool cutoff? Not per their own words from the linked posted above:

The Grade 2 universal screener referral captures the top 10% of students in grade 2. It uses universal testing data from:

NNAT
CogAT

It's in the section titled "Universal Screener Referral."

If you parent referred your kid it really doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

To capture the greatest number of kids, the top 10% is defined as an "either/or", not as an "and". So if your kid was 10% on NNAT but not on COGAT, your kid will be in pool. Or if your kid was top 10% in COGAT but not NNAT, kid is still referred. Kids that are 10% in both are also captured in this manner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To capture the greatest number of kids, the top 10% is defined as an "either/or", not as an "and". So if your kid was 10% on NNAT but not on COGAT, your kid will be in pool. Or if your kid was top 10% in COGAT but not NNAT, kid is still referred. Kids that are 10% in both are also captured in this manner.

This is more like the old method, except localized. You used to have to get 132 on either the cogat or NNAT.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]To capture the greatest number of kids, the top 10% is defined as an "either/or", not as an "and". So if your kid was 10% on NNAT but not on COGAT, your kid will be in pool. Or if your kid was top 10% in COGAT but not NNAT, kid is still referred. Kids that are 10% in both are also captured in this manner. [/quote]

I don't think this is correct. I think the pool is 10% of the 2nd grade class for each school.

The central committee is the same, though. They are supposedly comparing all student packets, in pool and referred, to each other. It has always been debate whether or not the central committee keeps the school in mind when making their decision.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To capture the greatest number of kids, the top 10% is defined as an "either/or", not as an "and". So if your kid was 10% on NNAT but not on COGAT, your kid will be in pool. Or if your kid was top 10% in COGAT but not NNAT, kid is still referred. Kids that are 10% in both are also captured in this manner. [/quote]

I don't think this is correct. I think the pool is 10% of the 2nd grade class for each school.

The central committee is the same, though. They are supposedly comparing all student packets, in pool and referred, to each other. It has always been debate whether or not the central committee keeps the school in mind when making their decision. [/quote]

My kids are older and were admitted under the old system. My oldest child got into AAP from a high FARMs school with no effort from me. We moved to McLean and my second child who was stronger in every way was rejected with better scores and strong GBRS. My kids are Asian boys. I do think school matters. Race may also matter.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. My child did get in on appeal.