AAP info meeting

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about what we should submit. This year we have gotten 0 writing samples from school sent home. Is it appropriate to send in 1st grade poetry? Also, if your child is a stellar math student, what type of sample would you send in that reflects this? math tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:work on your packet now, so you aren't running around in late January getting it all together if your child is not in the pool. Just do it!

For the information in the packet provided by the school (GBRS, Ability Test Scores, Report Cards), I assume we need to obtain that from the school and then re-submit it as part of the packet, correct? We don't just submit the documentation to which we have access and ask the school to supplement with the documentation within their control, right?

You put your portion together (and one of the most important parts is the one page Parent Questionnaire) and add student work samples (up to five pages), and include any additional testing (outside of the school testing) if you have any. The AART will add your materials to what the school puts together into a single screening file.

Each AART does things differently, but the AART at our school suggested we meet (after the referral deadline) and we went through what was submitted to the Central Screening Committee. That's when I saw the GBRS score AND the Commentary from the Local Screening Committee, and was able to see the student work samples provided by the teacher (and the work samples were wonderful, by the way!).

[Anonymous]

what grade does this bullshit start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what grade does this bullshit start?

close to the end of 12th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You put your portion together (and one of the most important parts is the one page Parent Questionnaire) and add student work samples (up to five pages), and include any additional testing (outside of the school testing) if you have any. The AART will add your materials to what the school puts together into a single screening file.

Each AART does things differently, but the AART at our school suggested we meet (after the referral deadline) and we went through what was submitted to the Central Screening Committee. That's when I saw the GBRS score AND the Commentary from the Local Screening Committee, and was able to see the student work samples provided by the teacher (and the work samples were wonderful, by the way!).

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

Good grief. I guess it will look weird if DC is in the pool but we choose to submit nothing. But honestly, are they really going to look at "work samples"? I get submitting the questionnaire, but it seems silly to try to find some work when I'm guessing the teachers have submitted the best work already. Maybe this is because I don't have DC enter every contest or do a lot of extra enrichment stuff...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

Good grief. I guess it will look weird if DC is in the pool but we choose to submit nothing. But honestly, are they really going to look at "work samples"? I get submitting the questionnaire, but it seems silly to try to find some work when I'm guessing the teachers have submitted the best work already. Maybe this is because I don't have DC enter every contest or do a lot of extra enrichment stuff...

We skipped the work samples submission with our youngest. We did the parent questionnaire, submitted a letter from a coach, a letter from a camp counselor, and optional testing. That was it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

Good grief. I guess it will look weird if DC is in the pool but we choose to submit nothing. But honestly, are they really going to look at "work samples"? I get submitting the questionnaire, but it seems silly to try to find some work when I'm guessing the teachers have submitted the best work already. Maybe this is because I don't have DC enter every contest or do a lot of extra enrichment stuff...

DS's second grade teacher submitted horrible work samples and sunk him on the GBRS. Her commentary took up only 20-25% of the page. Our psychologist commented that she clearly did not understand the form. DS got in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

Good grief. I guess it will look weird if DC is in the pool but we choose to submit nothing. But honestly, are they really going to look at "work samples"? I get submitting the questionnaire, but it seems silly to try to find some work when I'm guessing the teachers have submitted the best work already. Maybe this is because I don't have DC enter every contest or do a lot of extra enrichment stuff...

DS's second grade teacher submitted horrible work samples and sunk him on the GBRS. Her commentary took up only 20-25% of the page. Our psychologist commented that she clearly did not understand the form. DS got in on appeal.

that is pathetic that you hired a psychologist to game the system just to get your little child into AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have any idea what percentage of parents whose kids are in the pool also choose to submit optional materials? TIA.

This is just a guess based on the parents at our school, but I would say 95%.

I seriously doubt this. There are are plenty of kids that get in and the parents didn't even have a clue about all these forms and extra BS.

There is a certain percentage of overachiever parents that must overdo everything for their children, instead of letting their kids shine on their own.

It's not surprising though that some schools are a more "cut throat" and "helicopter parent" filled, I can certainly guess which ones.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on what you want to do. My older DC was 99tile and high GBRS and excellent writing and math samples from the school, and I still did the parent packet.

As to what to submit...a high score on a non multiple choice math or science test, a stellar writing sample that shows advanced vocabulary, science fair certificate; our kids have been participating since KG in the science fair, a picture of something your child built, referral from outside teacher; music, religion, language, soccer, whomever you think of. AART said NOT spelling tests, NOT art work.

I pulled together some materials today and will work on it over the weekend. AAP placement is worth a few hours of my time, IMO, anyway. I pulled out DCs science and math assessments from this week or last week. DC scored perfect and it shows DCs thinking on a few of the questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You put your portion together (and one of the most important parts is the one page Parent Questionnaire) and add student work samples (up to five pages), and include any additional testing (outside of the school testing) if you have any. The AART will add your materials to what the school puts together into a single screening file.

Not sure that I agree that the parent form is all that important. I imagine that they take what parents say and submit with a grain of salt. When my daughter made the pool, we didn't submit anything. No parent form, no additional information or work samples from us, and she got in with no problem. Our AART told us that they wouldn't weight parent submissions too highly, and she wasn't bothering for her child (who was in my child's class). Both he and my daughter got in.

Just another opinion. You can still do the form, just in case your child doesn't get in, so that you won't wonder if it would have made a difference, I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Just another opinion. You can still do the form, just in case your child doesn't get in, so that you won't wonder if it would have made a difference, I suppose.

This is why it is important. Also, the GBRS with Commentary is subjective and there are cases where certain schools/AARTs actually downplay student's strengths and the parent questionnaire can (sometimes) outweigh the GBRS with Commentary.