GT/AAP Decisions: JUST THE SCORES, PLEASE!

[Anonymous]

DD is now in 7th and cutoff was 132 when she was in 2nd, DS is in 4th and cutoff was 130 when he was in 2nd.

If your child gets a score close to but not quite the cutoff and has generally high scores across - I would definitely parent refer if you're inclined. In talking with friends, high scores across the board are not as common as you might think.

Our DS is crazy bright (per teachers) and scored just under the cutoff. DD is very book smart and scored over the cutoff for her year. I'm pretty sure private testing would have bumped DS up over the cutoff (one on one testing would benefit him) but we decided to wait and see if he got in on parent referral and he did, so we saved ourselves the money. It's been a great fit for both of them despite their completely different learning styles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to know this: If your child is in the pool, you get a letter sent home about the same day as the test scores (separate envelope, from the county NOT the school) explaing that she/he has made the pool. If your kid is not in the pool, you get an envelope with test scores only (also from the county) but no notice that your child failed to make the pool. Even if your child misses the pool by one point, you are out of luck unless you take the initiative and figure out how to parent refer. It's on the website, but you'll never receive a letter explaining the process and it's easy to just miss all the deadlines.

Excellent post!

Advanced Academic Resource Teachers (AARTs) are responsible for presenting information to parents to inform about this process. Some schools schedule their AARTs presentation in January, to time it with the scores being mailed out and/or the in-pool notification letters being mailed out.

Note that a parent can simply refer the child, whether the child is in-pool or not.

The deadline for referring a child is February 3, 2012.

Again, our school was different. Our AART teacher did not do any sort of info session the year my dd was accepted. If it wasn't for friends who had already gone through the process, and this bord, I'd be totally clueless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to point out that an "above cutoff" composite CogAT score will not get a child "into the pool."

A child must score at or above the cutoff on the NNAT or on any one subtest of the CogAT.
If the compostite score on the CogAT test is above the cutoff, but none of the subtest scores are (which sometimes happens in the high 120 range), a child will not automatically be in the pool.

I can verify this. We had to parent refer DC into the pool and played it safe by getting WISC done (which scored higher than 130). DC got in on initial submission round (ie, no appeal) and is thriving.

[Anonymous]

Last year, a bunch of kids in my DS's second grade made it into the pool but were rejected in the initial round (I know at least one who made it in on appeal with a WISC of 130). I know the Mom's quite well, and from what they told me, it sounds like having just one score in the "in pool" range will not cut it, unless you have a GBRS of 13 or higher (at least at our school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to know this: If your child is in the pool, you get a letter sent home about the same day as the test scores (separate envelope, from the county NOT the school) explaing that she/he has made the pool. If your kid is not in the pool, you get an envelope with test scores only (also from the county) but no notice that your child failed to make the pool. Even if your child misses the pool by one point, you are out of luck unless you take the initiative and figure out how to parent refer. It's on the website, but you'll never receive a letter explaining the process and it's easy to just miss all the deadlines.

Excellent post!

Advanced Academic Resource Teachers (AARTs) are responsible for presenting information to parents to inform about this process. Some schools schedule their AARTs presentation in January, to time it with the scores being mailed out and/or the in-pool notification letters being mailed out.

Note that a parent can simply refer the child, whether the child is in-pool or not.

The deadline for referring a child is February 3, 2012.

Again, our school was different. Our AART teacher did not do any sort of info session the year my dd was accepted. If it wasn't for friends who had already gone through the process, and this bord, I'd be totally clueless.

That's why I posted "Advanced Academic Resource Teachers (AARTs) are responsible for presenting information to parents to inform about this process." Thanks to site-based management with each principal running the school how (s)he sees fit, the AARTs may not even get a chance to do a presentation. Unfortunately, the folks at FCPS central office have no enforcement mechanism to make sure these presentations are done at individual schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to point out that an "above cutoff" composite CogAT score will not get a child "into the pool."

A child must score at or above the cutoff on the NNAT or on any one subtest of the CogAT.
If the compostite score on the CogAT test is above the cutoff, but none of the subtest scores are (which sometimes happens in the high 120 range), a child will not automatically be in the pool.

I can verify this. We had to parent refer DC into the pool and played it safe by getting WISC done (which scored higher than 130). DC got in on initial submission round (ie, no appeal) and is thriving.

Thanks for posting this. We are planning on doing the parent referral and will submit WISC scores with the referral instead of waiting for a possible appeal.

[Anonymous]

Does a parent have to request to see the GBRS from the AART or is that score provided along with the scores?

[Anonymous]

GBRS is available only after the packet is sent to the central committee. At that point, you can request it.

[Anonymous]

Just applied in the fall 2011....Found out today my son made it without having to appeal. GBRS 16 and NNAT 146.

[Anonymous]

I would expect with the GBRS of 16 and perfect NNAT appeal would not be necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just applied in the fall 2011....Found out today my son made it without having to appeal. GBRS 16 and NNAT 146.

Congratulations. How did you find out? Did you get a letter or some other means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just applied in the fall 2011....Found out today my son made it without having to appeal. GBRS 16 and NNAT 146.

did your son take the CogAt?

[Anonymous]

Just applied in the fall 2011....Found out today my son made it without having to appeal. GBRS 16 and NNAT 146.

Of course - those two scores together make it essentially a sure thing. Congrats, PP!

[Anonymous]

I am also curious about the cogat. Wondering if pp omitted the score because it wasn't taken or because it wasn't a good score. Either way, a 16 GBRS is almost always enought on it's own.

[Anonymous]

14:15 PP here: No cogat was taken. NNAT was taken in FCPS in 1st grade, but we moved DC to private school for 2nd grade.