What to do NOW to get into and do well in AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS”s handwriting is atrocious and his art work is crap, love the boy but his writing is just bad and he is not an artist. He was accepted into LIV first round. He did well in school, had strong test scores (135], and good GBRS (3CO, 1FO). He dis used things he learned outside of school that related to what they were doing in class. He read books that tied into what they were learning in class when he finished his work. He did the extra work available and then read or wrote stories for fun. He is an easy going kid who doesn’t get in trouble in class.

We read to him at home, played lots of games, and went to some museums. He plays sports and does Scouts. There is no magic formula.

Of course there's no magic formula. There are ways to maximize your kid's chances. With a different 2nd grade teacher, your kid could have gotten FO or even OO for creativity and motivation. Your kid then could have been rejected by the central committee. Some teachers are really bad at understanding gifted behaviors and give very low GBRS scores, even for kids who are objectively highly gifted. If your kid ends up with one of these teachers, your best bet is to make sure your child stands out in a positive way. Pretty handwriting, pretty art, raising your hand a lot, doing all of the extra busywork, and coming across as a friendly, pleasant child will help earn a high GBRS.

[Anonymous]

The subjectivity/biases of the teacher can have such a big impact. My DC’s teacher in second grade gave him low GBRS. I went in to talk about it, and no joke, one of the reasons she gave a low score was because my child did not consistently show their work. My kid got the answers right and could do the problems quickly in their head, but because they did not write out all the new math busy work, the teacher scored them lower. I almost fell off my chair.

Another reason for low GBRS was DC did not consistently do the extra work in class, because they would quickly get the regular work done to work on blocks and puzzles - DC is off the charts in spatial reasoning. DC would do the extra work on the school worksheets with us when they got home, but the teacher never saw that. So teacher thought DC was some kind of slacker…um no…they just did not fit her box of what a gifted child looks like.

I could go on. DC got in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

I am worried about all of this because DC is doing really well but not sure how DC would do in a testing situation. DC will start at FCPS in second grade so if things are as crazy as people here suggest, I'm feeling we should get testing done at GMU (NNAT or WISC) instead of just waiting to do the CogAT in fall of next year.

Also the subjectivity in the evaluations is such a concern. My kid does not do pretty artwork but DC is very creative and never needs to be given something to do. But would what DC does be recognized as creative by others? I don't know. I have some relevant expertise, but does anyone really listen to the parents, whether they have expertise or not?

[Anonymous]

DS, 4th grade, is a known behavior problem with crap handwriting and little visual artistic skill. His IReadys were consistently 95th percentile or higher, COGAT 137 and WISC the same.

Had bleh NNAT (119). Into AAP first round, 3rd grade AAP teacher hated him, but volunteered she thought he was one of 3 truly gifted kids in the class. YMMV but they are definitely not only looking for quiet, rule-abiding kids with calligraphy skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Join the PTA!! At our school, all the AAP kids have PTA parents.

Yes this too. I'm the one that made the room mom comment earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Join the PTA!! At our school, all the AAP kids have PTA parents.

Yes this too. I'm the one that made the room mom comment earlier.

This is entirely school dependent. At our high SES center school, PTA, room parenting, and sucking up to the principal and AART get you nothing, as it shouldn’t. The new local norms for in-pool scores are also totally inflated bc so many ppl prep, so despite being firmly anti-prep, I highly encourage doing so if you’re at one of these schools.

[Anonymous]

1. encourage him to express his idea by drawing. Work sample is important, either from the teacher or the parents. If he's good at writing, great, but drawing is easier to express his idea, esp. the complicated ones that get her into AAP. I've seen girls draw intricate decoration patterns around her writing, boys draw the video game they are designing, etc.

2. test prep. There is a march test for 1st grade NNAT. I joined testingmom.com around Xmas in my son's first grade, $100 lifetime membership (it was Xmas sales down from $150). Both NNAT and CoGat are computer based test so I just let my son to do testing mom's NNAT test on the desktop or ipad for two months, mostly weekends, around 40 questions per session, all together or broken up into 2 or 4 sittings. He got it right or get it wrong, we talk about the wrong ones. That's pretty much it. The test questions tends to be more difficult than the real test, so don't let that scare you.

I heard from others that fee based tutoring also uses testing mom. I mean, there isn't much to "prep" anyway. The kid either get it or not.

3. There are four iReady tests in first grade, that will give you a sense of where your kid is. My son was 95% and up without me doing anything, so I didn't bother with iReady "prep"ing on testingmom, but I heard some crazy parents do that.

[Anonymous]

Be ready to write a good appeal letter, and read up on all the literature on giftedness. The GBRS is very subjective, especially if you have a truly gifted child (they pick up on teachers’ mistakes all the time and tends to give their opinions in the middle of lectures, yes I got emails from his 2nd grade teacher complaining about that). My child had 160 NNAT, 144 CoGAT, still had to do an appeal, with an 154 WISC and a good appeal letter to explain what truly gifted is they couldn’t deny him. He’s doing great now in the AAP center, and loves him new teacher, no more frustrations with the teacher in class.

[Anonymous]

The PTA/room mom thing is a bit of the chicken and egg story. Want your kid to do well at school? Be an involved parent who supports the quality of local public education.

Don't give a s-t about the quality of your local school? Don't volunteer, don't help with fundraisers , don't assist the teacher. If you are care about none of that, odds are you aren't reading to kids at home or helping them with their homework either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. encourage him to express his idea by drawing. Work sample is important, either from the teacher or the parents. If he's good at writing, great, but drawing is easier to express his idea, esp. the complicated ones that get her into AAP. I've seen girls draw intricate decoration patterns around her writing, boys draw the video game they are designing, etc.

2. test prep. There is a march test for 1st grade NNAT. I joined testingmom.com around Xmas in my son's first grade, $100 lifetime membership (it was Xmas sales down from $150). Both NNAT and CoGat are computer based test so I just let my son to do testing mom's NNAT test on the desktop or ipad for two months, mostly weekends, around 40 questions per session, all together or broken up into 2 or 4 sittings. He got it right or get it wrong, we talk about the wrong ones. That's pretty much it. The test questions tends to be more difficult than the real test, so don't let that scare you.

I heard from others that fee based tutoring also uses testing mom. I mean, there isn't much to "prep" anyway. The kid either get it or not.

3. There are four iReady tests in first grade, that will give you a sense of where your kid is. My son was 95% and up without me doing anything, so I didn't bother with iReady "prep"ing on testingmom, but I heard some crazy parents do that.

LOL it is not crazy to prep for the NNAT in first grade but it is crazy to prep for the iReady?

DS has been in the 99th percentile on every iready and didn’t need test prep to be in the 99th percentile in the NNAT or the CoGAT.

What is crazy is the amount of angst on that parents put themselves through for a few years to get into AAP. It just isn’t that special. If you are that worried about the “cohort” enter the lottery for one of the language immersion programs that starts in K or 1rst grade. The classes end up looking a lot like AAP classes, fewer kids who need a ton of time from the teacher, and most of the kids end up in Advanced Math. Then you can focus on school and stop trying to figure out the magical formula for AAP and worrying about changing school in third grade to move to the Center. Bonus: The kids are challenged with learning a new language and develop a decent base that will let them take a foreign language for high school credit for 2 years in MS instead of one.

But I guess the LI programs don’t give your kid the label that you are after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be ready to write a good appeal letter, and read up on all the literature on giftedness. The GBRS is very subjective, especially if you have a truly gifted child (they pick up on teachers’ mistakes all the time and tends to give their opinions in the middle of lectures, yes I got emails from his 2nd grade teacher complaining about that). My child had 160 NNAT, 144 CoGAT, still had to do an appeal, with an 154 WISC and a good appeal letter to explain what truly gifted is they couldn’t deny him. He’s doing great now in the AAP center, and loves him new teacher, no more frustrations with the teacher in class.

Serious question: How can your child be happy in AAP if they are so truly gifted? Isn't AAP full of kids who are merely bright and helpful?

I also wonder why being liked or disliked by one's teacher matters so much. I mean, what does that have to do with the day-to-day experience in AAP vs gen ed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. encourage him to express his idea by drawing. Work sample is important, either from the teacher or the parents. If he's good at writing, great, but drawing is easier to express his idea, esp. the complicated ones that get her into AAP. I've seen girls draw intricate decoration patterns around her writing, boys draw the video game they are designing, etc.

2. test prep. There is a march test for 1st grade NNAT. I joined testingmom.com around Xmas in my son's first grade, $100 lifetime membership (it was Xmas sales down from $150). Both NNAT and CoGat are computer based test so I just let my son to do testing mom's NNAT test on the desktop or ipad for two months, mostly weekends, around 40 questions per session, all together or broken up into 2 or 4 sittings. He got it right or get it wrong, we talk about the wrong ones. That's pretty much it. The test questions tends to be more difficult than the real test, so don't let that scare you.

I heard from others that fee based tutoring also uses testing mom. I mean, there isn't much to "prep" anyway. The kid either get it or not.

3. There are four iReady tests in first grade, that will give you a sense of where your kid is. My son was 95% and up without me doing anything, so I didn't bother with iReady "prep"ing on testingmom, but I heard some crazy parents do that.

LOL it is not crazy to prep for the NNAT in first grade but it is crazy to prep for the iReady?

DS has been in the 99th percentile on every iready and didn’t need test prep to be in the 99th percentile in the NNAT or the CoGAT.

What is crazy is the amount of angst on that parents put themselves through for a few years to get into AAP. It just isn’t that special. If you are that worried about the “cohort” enter the lottery for one of the language immersion programs that starts in K or 1rst grade. The classes end up looking a lot like AAP classes, fewer kids who need a ton of time from the teacher, and most of the kids end up in Advanced Math. Then you can focus on school and stop trying to figure out the magical formula for AAP and worrying about changing school in third grade to move to the Center. Bonus: The kids are challenged with learning a new language and develop a decent base that will let them take a foreign language for high school credit for 2 years in MS instead of one.

But I guess the LI programs don’t give your kid the label that you are after.

+1 I was thinking the same. She labels as crazy THOSE moms who prep for the iReady--not her, she just had her kid do TestingMom NNAT prep every weekend for two months.

You might be right that it has to do with the label.

I don't know anything about the language immersion programs. Is there a complete list somewhere?

[Anonymous]

He does AOPS on the side. And does Davidson Institute activities. Public school education is not enough for him. With the AAP environment at least he’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind especially telling teachers that they are wrong, his current teacher is much more open to kid’s opinions and what they think instead of pushing ideas into the kids’ heads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be ready to write a good appeal letter, and read up on all the literature on giftedness. The GBRS is very subjective, especially if you have a truly gifted child (they pick up on teachers’ mistakes all the time and tends to give their opinions in the middle of lectures, yes I got emails from his 2nd grade teacher complaining about that). My child had 160 NNAT, 144 CoGAT, still had to do an appeal, with an 154 WISC and a good appeal letter to explain what truly gifted is they couldn’t deny him. He’s doing great now in the AAP center, and loves him new teacher, no more frustrations with the teacher in class.

Serious question: How can your child be happy in AAP if they are so truly gifted? Isn't AAP full of kids who are merely bright and helpful?

I also wonder why being liked or disliked by one's teacher matters so much. I mean, what does that have to do with the day-to-day experience in AAP vs gen ed?

[Anonymous]

Google FCPS Language Immersion to get the list. FCPS offers Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Korean language immersion. Some Spanish programs start in K but most start in first grade. Parents have to provide transportation for out of boundary kids. The classes start large but decrease in size as kids move or drop out for whatever reason. DS’s class started with 32 kids in first and dropped to 20 in 6th. There are 40 total kids in the 6th grade LI group, 24 of them are in Advanced Math. All of them passed the 6th grade SOL last year.

LI is the hidden gem in FCPS. There are wait list for the Spanish programs and French, there is only one French Program. I have not heard of kids not getting into Japanese, Korean or German. Normally the wAit lusted kids from out of boundary get in as the in boundary parents drop out prior to school starting or in the first month.

[Anonymous]

LOL at the parents complaining and appealing after the fact. Participating in the school before the decision is a lot more pleasant for everyone. Same with the test prep, either your kid is going to be able to handle AAP or they aren't, might as well start saving for therapy costs now if you are pushing that hard when they are six.

Get to know the AART and hope for the best with the tests.