What is the point of AAP? I am getting to the conclusion the only real benefit is to have my child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well lets be honest, look at the majority of the kids at the school. Who is it that is cheating? Don't lump everyone in there!

You have to look at the ethnicities that are over-represented in AAP compared with ethnicity enrollment data. That will tell you who is engaging in widespread test prepping, tutoring at early ages, etc. The only ethnicity that falls into that category is Asian American. Not every Asian American parent is doing this, of course. Not by a long shot. But there is a heck of a lot more of this behavior going on among families of Asian descent than any other race, including whites.

And the jealous racist comes out. I've been waiting for you.

Whatever helps you sleep at night. Numbers don't lie.

I don't think she needs help sleeping, but you on the other hand seem all bent up about it. Nobody is doing anything illegal. You're just too dumb to get it. You want to penalize and criminalize people based on your flawed perception.

Relax. It is a fact that the testing/prepping etc. is much more prevalent in Asian American families, to give the kiddos a leg up in a competitive world. Especially amongst those that have emigrated to this country. And yes, for most kids, the extra prepping does give an advantage.

Exactly. I wasn't the poster who called it cheating. I simply stated a fact. If some people on here are too blind to admit it, that's their own issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think she needs help sleeping, but you on the other hand seem all bent up about it. Nobody is doing anything illegal. You're just too dumb to get it. You want to penalize and criminalize people based on your flawed perception.

Relax. It is a fact that the testing/prepping etc. is much more prevalent in Asian American families, to give the kiddos a leg up in a competitive world. Especially amongst those that have emigrated to this country. And yes, for most kids, the extra prepping does give an advantage.

There are two easy solutions: Either the 2nd grade teachers should add CogAT prep to the schedule between the start of school and the CogAT test date. That way, everyone would be on a more equal footing. Or, the Young Scholars program should incorporate some amount of test prep for 1st and 2nd graders. Yes, some kids will still get more prep or more intensive prep, but there should be diminishing returns on that much prepping.

You can't stop people from prepping, so the best approach would be to help everyone prep, rather than completely discount the scores or play little games where they try to guess which kids prepped. Then, the scores could be re-emphasized and the GBRS de-emphasized without giving any particular advantage to those doing outside prep. In-pool can still be set at the top 10% locally, even if the cutoff scores end up being higher due to the prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well lets be honest, look at the majority of the kids at the school. Who is it that is cheating? Don't lump everyone in there!

You have to look at the ethnicities that are over-represented in AAP compared with ethnicity enrollment data. That will tell you who is engaging in widespread test prepping, tutoring at early ages, etc. The only ethnicity that falls into that category is Asian American. Not every Asian American parent is doing this, of course. Not by a long shot. But there is a heck of a lot more of this behavior going on among families of Asian descent than any other race, including whites.

And the jealous racist comes out. I've been waiting for you.

Whatever helps you sleep at night. Numbers don't lie.

I don't think she needs help sleeping, but you on the other hand seem all bent up about it. Nobody is doing anything illegal. You're just too dumb to get it. You want to penalize and criminalize people based on your flawed perception.

I'm not sure where you got from my post that I'm "all bent up about it." Maybe you think I am the same poster who said it was illegal. Nothing in my one post above says anything about criminalizing anything. I am just saying that Asian American families in this area are more likely to prep their children for AAP, TJ, etc. than white families. I made this point because the previous poster seemed to be pointing at rich white families as the main source of this arms race to get their children into advanced classes. While there are some white people who do that, and there are plenty of Asian Americans who do not do that, the numbers do tell a story that is very clear. I have no agenda. I don't even live in FCPS area, and am not jealous either. I am just clarifying that the numbers don't support the previous poster's assertion about white parents. I am sure that someone will still call me a racist because it's impossible to have a civilized conversation about race on an anonymous message board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well lets be honest, look at the majority of the kids at the school. Who is it that is cheating? Don't lump everyone in there!

You have to look at the ethnicities that are over-represented in AAP compared with ethnicity enrollment data. That will tell you who is engaging in widespread test prepping, tutoring at early ages, etc. The only ethnicity that falls into that category is Asian American. Not every Asian American parent is doing this, of course. Not by a long shot. But there is a heck of a lot more of this behavior going on among families of Asian descent than any other race, including whites.

And the jealous racist comes out. I've been waiting for you.

Are you kidding me? Look up thread at how many people said nasty things about white people. Why no reaction to those posts? This poster said nothing about Asians cheating. Are you the previous poster who has been bashing white people??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure where you got from my post that I'm "all bent up about it." Maybe you think I am the same poster who said it was illegal. Nothing in my one post above says anything about criminalizing anything. I am just saying that Asian American families in this area are more likely to prep their children for AAP, TJ, etc. than white families. I made this point because the previous poster seemed to be pointing at rich white families as the main source of this arms race to get their children into advanced classes. While there are some white people who do that, and there are plenty of Asian Americans who do not do that, the numbers do tell a story that is very clear. I have no agenda. I don't even live in FCPS area, and am not jealous either. I am just clarifying that the numbers don't support the previous poster's assertion about white parents. I am sure that someone will still call me a racist because it's impossible to have a civilized conversation about race on an anonymous message board.

DP. Upper middle class and upper class people of all colors prep pretty extensively. The only difference between Asians and everyone else is that the Asians acknowledge that they're prepping, while everyone else just buys workbooks on Amazon, goes through them with the kids, and then brushes it off as "not really prepping." I know a lot of white people who prepped their kids, the kids still got scores around 120, and yet they managed to successfully refer them for AAP. They all claim that they didn't prep. They just went through a workbook and looked up problems on the internet to go through with their kids.

Middle and lower class Asians are probably more likely to prep than other races, because their culture generally values education more than regular American culture does. I have no stones to throw at less privileged people who do whatever they can to get some of the same benefits as privileged people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Are you kidding me? Look up thread at how many people said nasty things about white people. Why no reaction to those posts? This poster said nothing about Asians cheating. Are you the previous poster who has been bashing white people??

I'm one of the PPs who has "said nasty things about white people." I'm white. Most of my neighbors who got their kids into AAP are white. Trust me, they all test prep too. They just are more covert about it than the Asian parents. They also know how to talk to the schools in a way to give their kids every advantage and make the teacher more likely to give their kids high GBRS, as well as how to drop the right buzzwords in the parent referral form. Asians play the test prep and outside schooling game. White people play the milder test prep and social manipulation game. Both are still games to get their under-qualified kids into AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure where you got from my post that I'm "all bent up about it." Maybe you think I am the same poster who said it was illegal. Nothing in my one post above says anything about criminalizing anything. I am just saying that Asian American families in this area are more likely to prep their children for AAP, TJ, etc. than white families. I made this point because the previous poster seemed to be pointing at rich white families as the main source of this arms race to get their children into advanced classes. While there are some white people who do that, and there are plenty of Asian Americans who do not do that, the numbers do tell a story that is very clear. I have no agenda. I don't even live in FCPS area, and am not jealous either. I am just clarifying that the numbers don't support the previous poster's assertion about white parents. I am sure that someone will still call me a racist because it's impossible to have a civilized conversation about race on an anonymous message board.

DP. Upper middle class and upper class people of all colors prep pretty extensively. The only difference between Asians and everyone else is that the Asians acknowledge that they're prepping, while everyone else just buys workbooks on Amazon, goes through them with the kids, and then brushes it off as "not really prepping." I know a lot of white people who prepped their kids, the kids still got scores around 120, and yet they managed to successfully refer them for AAP. They all claim that they didn't prep. They just went through a workbook and looked up problems on the internet to go through with their kids.

Middle and lower class Asians are probably more likely to prep than other races, because their culture generally values education more than regular American culture does. I have no stones to throw at less privileged people who do whatever they can to get some of the same benefits as privileged people.

I agree with most of your post. I do see a distinction between buying a book on Amazon and doing a few sections of it, and taking a three or four week long intensive prep course. It's all still prep, but one is closer to the level of prep they do in class, to familiarize all kids with the questions. The other is taking multiple practice exams and figuring out test taking tricks. I hate the arms race and think it's incredibly damaging for kids. A practice workbook, however, is far less pressure and stress inducing than a private test prep tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I agree with most of your post. I do see a distinction between buying a book on Amazon and doing a few sections of it, and taking a three or four week long intensive prep course. It's all still prep, but one is closer to the level of prep they do in class, to familiarize all kids with the questions. The other is taking multiple practice exams and figuring out test taking tricks. I hate the arms race and think it's incredibly damaging for kids. A practice workbook, however, is far less pressure and stress inducing than a private test prep tutor.

I don't think there's nearly as big of a distinction between the two, other than that one group is wasting more time and money for about the same test advantage. Reasonably speaking, all of the prep in the world will only raise a kid's score about 10 points. Mild prep is enough to teach familiarity with the types of questions being asked, how to approach them, and tricks to solve them. There's a point where more prep isn't going to improve a kid's understanding that much. I wouldn't be surprised if the advantage of a prep course vs. an Amazon workbook is like 3 points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not sure where you got from my post that I'm "all bent up about it." Maybe you think I am the same poster who said it was illegal. Nothing in my one post above says anything about criminalizing anything. I am just saying that Asian American families in this area are more likely to prep their children for AAP, TJ, etc. than white families. I made this point because the previous poster seemed to be pointing at rich white families as the main source of this arms race to get their children into advanced classes. While there are some white people who do that, and there are plenty of Asian Americans who do not do that, the numbers do tell a story that is very clear. I have no agenda. I don't even live in FCPS area, and am not jealous either. I am just clarifying that the numbers don't support the previous poster's assertion about white parents. I am sure that someone will still call me a racist because it's impossible to have a civilized conversation about race on an anonymous message board.

DP. Upper middle class and upper class people of all colors prep pretty extensively. The only difference between Asians and everyone else is that the Asians acknowledge that they're prepping, while everyone else just buys workbooks on Amazon, goes through them with the kids, and then brushes it off as "not really prepping." I know a lot of white people who prepped their kids, the kids still got scores around 120, and yet they managed to successfully refer them for AAP. They all claim that they didn't prep. They just went through a workbook and looked up problems on the internet to go through with their kids.

Middle and lower class Asians are probably more likely to prep than other races, because their culture generally values education more than regular American culture does. I have no stones to throw at less privileged people who do whatever they can to get some of the same benefits as privileged people.

I agree with most of your post. I do see a distinction between buying a book on Amazon and doing a few sections of it, and taking a three or four week long intensive prep course. It's all still prep, but one is closer to the level of prep they do in class, to familiarize all kids with the questions. The other is taking multiple practice exams and figuring out test taking tricks. I hate the arms race and think it's incredibly damaging for kids. A practice workbook, however, is far less pressure and stress inducing than a private test prep tutor.

White parents are more likely to hire private test prep tutors than Asian parents.