AAP appeal declined

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here Thanks for the responses

I called the local AART when the original application was rejected. She suggested WISC as she could not say why it was rejected

Will call her again on the appeal decision

His current school did an info session on AAP and all his classmates applied at the same time so I guess timing not an issue

I'm kind of surprised that there is a private school that has info sessions on how to leave the school. Do all the smart kids leave after second grade? Do they take in new kids in the grade after the smart kids leave for AAP?

I'm sure you don't want to give the name of the school, OP, but what kind of a private school does this?

I asked this early in the thread. The school only goes through 3rd or 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here Thanks for the responses

I called the local AART when the original application was rejected. She suggested WISC as she could not say why it was rejected

Will call her again on the appeal decision

His current school did an info session on AAP and all his classmates applied at the same time so I guess timing not an issue

I'm kind of surprised that there is a private school that has info sessions on how to leave the school. Do all the smart kids leave after second grade? Do they take in new kids in the grade after the smart kids leave for AAP?

I'm sure you don't want to give the name of the school, OP, but what kind of a private school does this?

I asked this early in the thread. The school only goes through 3rd or 4th grade.

Or, apparently, only through 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here Thanks for the responses

I called the local AART when the original application was rejected. She suggested WISC as she could not say why it was rejected

Will call her again on the appeal decision

His current school did an info session on AAP and all his classmates applied at the same time so I guess timing not an issue

I'm kind of surprised that there is a private school that has info sessions on how to leave the school. Do all the smart kids leave after second grade? Do they take in new kids in the grade after the smart kids leave for AAP?

I'm sure you don't want to give the name of the school, OP, but what kind of a private school does this?

I asked this early in the thread. The school only goes through 3rd or 4th grade.

Or, apparently, only through 2nd grade.

What kind of private school only goes to second, or even third or fourth, grade? Is this common?

I would think it would be inconvenient to get my child started in a school knowing I'd have to find another after two or three years. In my experience, most elementary schools go to at least sixth grade, and many go to eighth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are Asian (and your kid has an Asian sounding name) they are basically racially profiling your child and assuming you prepped. That's what the "some communities" means. The fact that they totally discounted the WISC is also crazy. If you are Asian, I'd write a letter to the superintendent stating what the person told you and saying you think they are illegally using racial biases in the selection process. You have nothing to lose at this point.

Why assume Asian? Let’s talk Indians. They prep like hell.

Not all Indians! I just made sure he slept on time the previous night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What kind of private school only goes to second, or even third or fourth, grade? Is this common?

I would think it would be inconvenient to get my child started in a school knowing I'd have to find another after two or three years. In my experience, most elementary schools go to at least sixth grade, and many go to eighth.

Most Montessori, actually. IF they have elementary, they rarely have anything beyond lower El - grades 1-3. It is exceedingly difficult to find teachers trained beyond primary, and middle school and up might as well be unicorns. DD started in Montessori at age 2. The school where she started goes to grade 3. So, from a continuity perspective, she could stay in the same place for 7 years, and then switch. Which is not a bad deal.

It happens to be the case that there are not a lot of secular private school options in the area, for education beyond 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here

Got a call today from the coordinator

- she said many communities prepare for NNAT and cogat so they want to see samples showing critical thinking

The coordinator actually said that? She more or less said that they're discounting all test results, including WISC, due to the possibility of prepping?

Check what you quoted. OP never reported that the coordinator said that families prep for the WISC or that it was discounted. Also remember that you’re only hearing one side of the conversation on an anonymous board. Not saying that OP is lying. Just that there are always several ways to interpret the same event.

Clearly the WISC was discounted. The child had solid WISC scores that were ignored because "communities prep for the NNAT and CogAT." I'm guessing OP is in one of the communities referenced by the FCPS employee, so it is clear that FCPS is now profiling based on ethnicity/race to determine whether high scores are believable. SMH.

It seems that 160 was such an outlier that FCPS didn't believe it.

Ok. So deny first round. So what's the excuse for ignoring the WISC on appeal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are Asian (and your kid has an Asian sounding name) they are basically racially profiling your child and assuming you prepped. That's what the "some communities" means. The fact that they totally discounted the WISC is also crazy. If you are Asian, I'd write a letter to the superintendent stating what the person told you and saying you think they are illegally using racial biases in the selection process. You have nothing to lose at this point.

Why assume Asian? Let’s talk Indians. They prep like hell.

Not all Indians! I just made sure he slept on time the previous night.

Then you should be outraged by what OP was told. It seems as if FCPS is painting all members of certain communities with the same brush and assuming all members prep. In OP's case, not even a high WISC could overcome this bias. Maybe you were lucky to have a kid in FCPS, so they were willing to rely on the GBRS (prepared by FCPS employees) to override the bias. If your child is in a private school it seems that, unfortunately, the bias is very difficult to overcome. I wonder what a FOIA request regarding the number of Asian (including Indian) kids with high scores found ineligible versus other kids would show. I'm guessing, based on the admission by an FCPS employee that the fact that some communities prep is considered in eligibility decisions, that there will be a clear pattern of denials based on ethnicity/race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are Asian (and your kid has an Asian sounding name) they are basically racially profiling your child and assuming you prepped. That's what the "some communities" means. The fact that they totally discounted the WISC is also crazy. If you are Asian, I'd write a letter to the superintendent stating what the person told you and saying you think they are illegally using racial biases in the selection process. You have nothing to lose at this point.

Why assume Asian? Let’s talk Indians. They prep like hell.

Not all Indians! I just made sure he slept on time the previous night.

Then you should be outraged by what OP was told. It seems as if FCPS is painting all members of certain communities with the same brush and assuming all members prep. In OP's case, not even a high WISC could overcome this bias. Maybe you were lucky to have a kid in FCPS, so they were willing to rely on the GBRS (prepared by FCPS employees) to override the bias. If your child is in a private school it seems that, unfortunately, the bias is very difficult to overcome. I wonder what a FOIA request regarding the number of Asian (including Indian) kids with high scores found ineligible versus other kids would show. I'm guessing, based on the admission by an FCPS employee that the fact that some communities prep is considered in eligibility decisions, that there will be a clear pattern of denials based on ethnicity/race.

That's not at all how I interpreted OP's post. But go ahead with your outrage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are Asian (and your kid has an Asian sounding name) they are basically racially profiling your child and assuming you prepped. That's what the "some communities" means. The fact that they totally discounted the WISC is also crazy. If you are Asian, I'd write a letter to the superintendent stating what the person told you and saying you think they are illegally using racial biases in the selection process. You have nothing to lose at this point.

Why assume Asian? Let’s talk Indians. They prep like hell.

Not all Indians! I just made sure he slept on time the previous night.

Then you should be outraged by what OP was told. It seems as if FCPS is painting all members of certain communities with the same brush and assuming all members prep. In OP's case, not even a high WISC could overcome this bias. Maybe you were lucky to have a kid in FCPS, so they were willing to rely on the GBRS (prepared by FCPS employees) to override the bias. If your child is in a private school it seems that, unfortunately, the bias is very difficult to overcome. I wonder what a FOIA request regarding the number of Asian (including Indian) kids with high scores found ineligible versus other kids would show. I'm guessing, based on the admission by an FCPS employee that the fact that some communities prep is considered in eligibility decisions, that there will be a clear pattern of denials based on ethnicity/race.

That's not at all how I interpreted OP's post. But go ahead with your outrage.

So what's your theory as to why the WISC on appeal made no difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What kind of private school only goes to second, or even third or fourth, grade? Is this common?

I would think it would be inconvenient to get my child started in a school knowing I'd have to find another after two or three years. In my experience, most elementary schools go to at least sixth grade, and many go to eighth.

Most Montessori, actually. IF they have elementary, they rarely have anything beyond lower El - grades 1-3. It is exceedingly difficult to find teachers trained beyond primary, and middle school and up might as well be unicorns. DD started in Montessori at age 2. The school where she started goes to grade 3. So, from a continuity perspective, she could stay in the same place for 7 years, and then switch. Which is not a bad deal.

It happens to be the case that there are not a lot of secular private school options in the area, for education beyond 3rd grade.

That makes sense. I hadn't realized that we had Montessori schools in this area that go beyond kindergarten.

So, is it possible than that FCPS is familiar with the school and the teachers writing the GBRSs and reads their commentary a certain way? As in, what might appear to be positive comments to an outsider come across as "damning with faint praise" to the committee members who have read all the files from that particular school.

I don't know, just trying to come up with possibilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So, is it possible than that FCPS is familiar with the school and the teachers writing the GBRSs and reads their commentary a certain way? As in, what might appear to be positive comments to an outsider come across as "damning with faint praise" to the committee members who have read all the files from that particular school.

I don't know, just trying to come up with possibilities.

If that were the case, the initial rejection might make sense. It still doesn't explain discounting a very high WISC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So, is it possible than that FCPS is familiar with the school and the teachers writing the GBRSs and reads their commentary a certain way? As in, what might appear to be positive comments to an outsider come across as "damning with faint praise" to the committee members who have read all the files from that particular school.

I don't know, just trying to come up with possibilities.

If that were the case, the initial rejection might make sense. It still doesn't explain discounting a very high WISC.

There were suggestion in this thread that preferred tester should be GMU for sanity of the process. OP used private tester.

[Anonymous]

So far, the possible reasons other parents have suggested - -

1. Applying from a private school
2. Using a private psychologist
3. Ethnic/racial profiling
4. Lack of best work samples

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There were suggestion in this thread that preferred tester should be GMU for sanity of the process. OP used private tester.

If they wanted applicants to use certain testers, they should say so. They specify this for NNAT/CogAT. It's ridiculous to assume that parents would know that they don't like test results provided by certain psychologists. Most people likely schedule on the basis of convenience and price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So far, the possible reasons other parents have suggested - -

1. Applying from a private school
2. Using a private psychologist
3. Ethnic/racial profiling
4. Lack of best work samples

I do not think racial profiling is an issue here. Whoever suggested in this thread is a work of a troll!!

Additional point:

GBRs from private school seems to carry less or no weight.