AAP Appeals Questions Thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received the email. DC is in.

Can you share info about what you did to get in? My kid got rejected after very high scores on everything! What grade is your child in?

Thanks.

Can I ask about what your Hope evaluation looked like?

Our son got in on appeal - sorry you got rejected and it sounds strange. Our original packet weak point was very clearly Hope. So we addressed that head-on in cover letter, as well as with WISC-V score, ADHD diagnosis information and a new and improved winter over fall CoGAT. We added new super AAP-focused samples and also a letter from his first grade teachers who asked to write one, saying they could not believe he wasnt accepted to begin with.

Who knows what did it. We are glad but sorry for you bc it seems hard to know what the yes/no factor. We are, however, not fans of Hope and its application.

We had very good scores initially (including perfect NNAT) but the Hope was not good, maybe terrible. We had a few meetings and found out more or less that our team low scored many kids on Hope. (They told us many kids got “never” for everything - ! - and the fact that our son was above that - with “sometimes” - was positive. But we knew it had to look terrible on the county evaluation end.)

I can deep dive into the - to us - wild standards they were using but I think the Hope scoring, esp in the rollout year here is the opposite of the intention- it holds kids back rather than includes them. We wonder if it is especially not great for kids who are not extra outgoing or are 2e. (We get that leadership is part of the AAP system in general.)

(Though it very well could be there are accepted cases that disprove this and we don’t see bc they got in w lower testing and high Hope and were happy/successful.)

Anyway, we - and our school team made us feel they don’t disagree - really have concerns about Hope.

What did that look like in your packet?

We never had one of those. I have 2 kids applying for AAP. One was 2nd grader with mediocre scores on tests but really good work output and work samples. The other was 5th grader with high scores on cogat (90th i believe) and wisc-v (91st), good writing samples etc, scored advanced math on SOL, high GBRS from teacher. Both were rejected so Im just confused on what they want. The AART teacher is no helpful in guiding what we should do.

90th and 91st percentile scores are low for AAP. For a 5th grader, you would need to show that their needs can't be met in the regular classroom. Both the wisc and cogat would suggest that your kid is fine in gen ed. I think if you had scores closer to the 95th or 96th percentile + iready scores that are at least 95th percentile, it might have been possible to get in with concrete examples of why your kid needs to be in AAP. It stinks that you can't simply show that your kid is as good as the kids in the bottom half of AAP or that your kid would do fine in AAP. They really want examples of why gen ed is not an appropriate placement for your kid.

If you view your 5th grader's scores as "high" and your second grader's as "mediocre," then the issue for your second grader is that the scores weren't even in the right ballpark. If there are no extenuating circumstances, 90th percentile is around the minimum score a kid needs to have a chance at AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the review committee care about the GAI at all or is it only focused on the FSIQ? My DN was 137 on GAI but 130 on FSIQ. The assessment coordinator highlighted only the GAI in the summary report. I plan to get DN tested for 2e.

They know how to read a WISC report and will look at all of the scores and subscores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got our rejection. I’m the PP who got the Level II email yesterday so this makes sense 😔

Yes, same here. I wonder if we are at the same school.

[Anonymous]

My child had 128 Composite on CoGAT, 106 for NNAT, HOPE scale was "often" for most except two which were "almost always". Got rejected the first time so we appealed again with a WISC score of 136/99th percentile and very strong work samples and referral letter - got rejected again. We thought we had very strong chance given child's CoGAT and WISC scores and very strong work samples. We are so confused. Could it be the low NNAT score and the iReady scores that were submitted with the original application (74 for Math and 80 for reading)? Or was it the low HOPE scores from school?

[Anonymous]

Is it harder to get in aap in next year ?

[Anonymous]

Though wrong, they have to account for resources too and they coordinate before final decisions with schools to gauge numbers! They simply can’t give 50 students level 4 if the center school has only one AAP class/ teacher! Ours got rejected with 98 on all NNAT, Cogat, Wisc and a very good HOPE. Since our school also hosts nearby fulltime AAPs, my guess there were 22-28 in total who hit 99th and filled up the class

[Anonymous]

Surely harder to get in next year since those who hit it now are guaranteed spots, so unless they expand resources, one must have exceptional performance in third grade at all levels to force a decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child had 128 Composite on CoGAT, 106 for NNAT, HOPE scale was "often" for most except two which were "almost always". Got rejected the first time so we appealed again with a WISC score of 136/99th percentile and very strong work samples and referral letter - got rejected again. We thought we had very strong chance given child's CoGAT and WISC scores and very strong work samples. We are so confused. Could it be the low NNAT score and the iReady scores that were submitted with the original application (74 for Math and 80 for reading)? Or was it the low HOPE scores from school?

It’s a holistic approach so yes, HOPE and low iready scores probably indicated your child is not in need of full-time advanced curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surely harder to get in next year since those who hit it now are guaranteed spots, so unless they expand resources, one must have exceptional performance in third grade at all levels to force a decision

What if he get in aap part time is he have a better chance to get in full time next year ?

[Anonymous]

Still not in with a 138 CoGAT and 99.8 percentiles on some of the subtests on WISC with a 136 FISQ. His Winter iReady was only like 80% in reading, but 99 in math. Our schook doesn’t start advanced math until 5th, so he’s just screwed next year.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations to those who got in and best of luck if you choose to reapply in the future for those who did not.

For the initial file, my child had a great HOPE score but low CogAt (115V, 109 NV, 126 Q, 119 composite). Fall Iready was not great either, 90th math, 87th reading. DC was new to FCPS this year from overseas so no NNAT. My child's best subject by far is language arts/social studies though so the test scores showing math as the best subject didn't really made any sense. I took DC for a WISC and DC got 146 VCI, 115 VSI, 126 FRI, (and 127 WMI and 123 PSI) with 136 FSIQ.

For the appeal, I submitted the WISC along with new winter reading Iready 94th (skipped winter math since that went from 90th to 73rd), and a strong end of year oral PRF provided by the classroom teacher to argue the CogAt verbal score was an outlier and combined, the other scores suggest the LA/SS needs of my child can't be met in a gen ed classroom etc... I also submitted new work samples- an excellent (IMO) social studies powerpoint presentation, science writing from the school weather unit and a multiplication/division worksheet just to show DC can keep up there.

I never involved the AART with the process... I found her nice but intimidating. I learned most of it here and had a short email exchange with the classroom teacher. Posting here in case this helps anyone in the future, as this board was so incredibly helpful to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Still not in with a 138 CoGAT and 99.8 percentiles on some of the subtests on WISC with a 136 FISQ. His Winter iReady was only like 80% in reading, but 99 in math. Our schook doesn’t start advanced math until 5th, so he’s just screwed next year.

Did you indicate the fact that your school does not have advanced math in your cover letter. That was something I stressed , the lack of opportunity for challenge. It helped us

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still not in with a 138 CoGAT and 99.8 percentiles on some of the subtests on WISC with a 136 FISQ. His Winter iReady was only like 80% in reading, but 99 in math. Our schook doesn’t start advanced math until 5th, so he’s just screwed next year.

Did you indicate the fact that your school does not have advanced math in your cover letter. That was something I stressed , the lack of opportunity for challenge. It helped us

I did not and probably should have. I also put in the cover letter that I have years of experience teaching AAP/ UVA gifted endorsement and that my child fit the profile , which in hindsight may have pissed them off rather than helping?

[Anonymous]

Our child got in after my repeat applications, I think having work samples she was passionate about was the key. Background nnat: 134ish cogat 136 wisc 145 (99.5%) not very good gbra/hope. I applied 3 times and appealed 3 times. But generally I've been like "hmm what work can I submit that might be laying around the house" while this time she happened to be doing multiple projects she was really excited about that I could take pics of and submit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Still not in with a 138 CoGAT and 99.8 percentiles on some of the subtests on WISC with a 136 FISQ. His Winter iReady was only like 80% in reading, but 99 in math. Our schook doesn’t start advanced math until 5th, so he’s just screwed next year.

Did you indicate the fact that your school does not have advanced math in your cover letter. That was something I stressed , the lack of opportunity for challenge. It helped us

I did not and probably should have. I also put in the cover letter that I have years of experience teaching AAP/ UVA gifted endorsement and that my child fit the profile , which in hindsight may have pissed them off rather than helping?

I think it’s important to tell them what your child will not get in their school and why they need it. That’s what I have learned after doing it for multiple children. It was in all the areas I got to write a message to them. “ perfect Cogat Q and iready but does not have access to advanced math until 5th unless accepted into level IV” put that statement in next year.