Gifted kid did not get through AAP - HELP please

[Anonymous]

One important question - Does anyone know if kids can be interviewed throughout fcps? Whatever samples are sent or whatever recos or whatever information we write, if it is beyond average it probably looks skeptical. So the only way to clear this out is to do a 1x1 with certain kids. Does anyone know if there is an option? Or may WISC is the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all your comments. When teachers in every parent teacher meet say he is extremely advanced for his age, and when they write that even in the GBRS comments, especially in the highlighted skills of math science and social studies, parents will think their kid is advanced. Further when some coaches for STEM or even activities like Music, singing say he amazes them, parents make conclusions and sometimes you never realize your kids and only know when others tell you.

We are awaiting his WISC scores,the report. But the meeting after the test, the psychologist said, “his thinking and application skills is excellent, his factual reasoning is very high and sometimes those kids with high factual skills fair less on verbal creative writing”.

Anyway, whoever is just making assumptions on our kids, please stop. I am not defending any parent here, If you have a suggestion, pls do, we also struggle as a parent, and it hurts when your kid says it is boring at school, they only tell you about solid liquid gases, and I want to experiment on it, I want to ask my teacher why we can’t hold gas but can hold ice cube, but all other kids scream, and my teacher can’t answer me and just ask me to write this. We are looking for ways, when we think our child is gifted, it is not because we assume, because we are told continuously by people, coaches, teachers we meet that they are so. when we look at our kids, we look at them without any adjectives. And adjectives are added genuinely by people who mentor them and we learn a lot about our kids from them and also on our interaction.

So pls do help parents when they are in unique situations rather than judging that parent just think kids are gifted.

Are you an Asian family, by chance?

Yes, we are Asians

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One important question - Does anyone know if kids can be interviewed throughout fcps? Whatever samples are sent or whatever recos or whatever information we write, if it is beyond average it probably looks skeptical. So the only way to clear this out is to do a 1x1 with certain kids. Does anyone know if there is an option? Or may WISC is the way to go.

I doubt FCPS will interview anyone in person for AAP. I think your best bet is to submit WISC. If the kid is truly gifted as NNAT and CogAT scores imply and parent/teacher predicts, WISC will probably be very high and will be in on an appeal. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One important question - Does anyone know if kids can be interviewed throughout fcps? Whatever samples are sent or whatever recos or whatever information we write, if it is beyond average it probably looks skeptical. So the only way to clear this out is to do a 1x1 with certain kids. Does anyone know if there is an option? Or may WISC is the way to go.

I doubt FCPS will interview anyone in person for AAP. I think your best bet is to submit WISC. If the kid is truly gifted as NNAT and CogAT scores imply and parent/teacher predicts, WISC will probably be very high and will be in on an appeal. Problem solved.

Thanks for your encouraging words

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you need to relax for both your child and your family.. I know it is disappointing that your child with what appears to be scores high enough for admission to the program did not get it. I get that it seems unfair that people with lower test scores got it. What was the GBRS? All consistently, 3 C, 1F? Most of the posts with high score rejects did not know the GBRS so maybe that was the weak link in your file? I think the admission process is completely hit or miss. I truly have no idea how the admission committee makes their decision when everything in the file is strong and candidates still get rejected.

Having said that, AAP is not the end all be all of your child's education. Being in AAP does not mean that the child is set up for success and being in gen ed does not mean that the kids is doomed to be a second class academic citizen. There will be gen ed kids who surpass some of the AAP kids by the time high school graduation comes around. I have an older child in AAP and a younger child who will start next year. Honestly, AAP is not that advanced. The only subject that is more accelerated is the math and it still may not be enough for some kids. The work in the other subjects is just a little different not more accelerated. I don't think the program as it currently stands really serves gifted kids. We still supplement outside of school depending on the child's interests. I don't think any education will 100% meet your child's needs. We just made the decision that public school with outside supplementation made the best sense for our kids. I just don't think the private school around here are worth the money unless the primary benefit for your child is the small classes. Our calculus might be different if we were talking about some of the New England private schools.

I think people have an unrealistic expectation of AAP. It is not going to make a bored unengaged gifted child suddenly engaged with the school. It may help some kids but still not serve others. But you really have to look at your kid and see what type of education will serve him best. OP it sounds like your child really likes experiential learning and doing things hands on. In that case, your child might be better served in private school where they can provide more hands on learning experiences to your child because AAP is not going to be that different than gened in that regard. I do think the science education in public school elementary school is particularly weak. So if this is where your child thrives he might like the learning environment at a private school better.

I think you should still appeal but don't think that AAP is going to fix your kid being bored and unengaged at school, especially if the child is extremely gifted. You have to figure out what is causing the disengagement and address that. Being gifted is not usually the sole reason that the kid is disengaged. Know that your kids can be extremely successful with or without AAP as long as his educational needs are supported.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all your comments. When teachers in every parent teacher meet say he is extremely advanced for his age, and when they write that even in the GBRS comments, especially in the highlighted skills of math science and social studies, parents will think their kid is advanced. Further when some coaches for STEM or even activities like Music, singing say he amazes them, parents make conclusions and sometimes you never realize your kids and only know when others tell you.

We are awaiting his WISC scores,the report. But the meeting after the test, the psychologist said, “his thinking and application skills is excellent, his factual reasoning is very high and sometimes those kids with high factual skills fair less on verbal creative writing”.

Anyway, whoever is just making assumptions on our kids, please stop. I am not defending any parent here, If you have a suggestion, pls do, we also struggle as a parent, and it hurts when your kid says it is boring at school, they only tell you about solid liquid gases, and I want to experiment on it, I want to ask my teacher why we can’t hold gas but can hold ice cube, but all other kids scream, and my teacher can’t answer me and just ask me to write this. We are looking for ways, when we think our child is gifted, it is not because we assume, because we are told continuously by people, coaches, teachers we meet that they are so. when we look at our kids, we look at them without any adjectives. And adjectives are added genuinely by people who mentor them and we learn a lot about our kids from them and also on our interaction.

So pls do help parents when they are in unique situations rather than judging that parent just think kids are gifted.

I’m not trying to invite you more than you already are...but — don’t you think it’s strange coaches tell you you have a gifted kid? Do you really, really believe that your son is in a class asking why we can’t hold a gas (which actually shows he doesn’t understand the concept of gasses) and all the other kids are just screaming? No teacher in Fcps is telling you your child is gifted - so what teacher is telling you those words?

[Anonymous]

Invite = incite

[Anonymous]

Get a WISC and if you have money, get another test too. One of the other IQ tests shown on the appeal form.

[Anonymous]

Was that the cogat cumulative score or highest section?

[Anonymous]

What was the GBRS rating?

A lot of high scoring kids were rejected in the first round this year, no one knows why.

Get a WISC and he will almost certainly get in on appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the GBRS rating?

A lot of high scoring kids were rejected in the first round this year, no one knows why.

Get a WISC and he will almost certainly get in on appeal.

I feel like most of these kids will get in on appeal but I am wondering if the committee is starting to make some kind of determination about not wanting to admit hot housed second graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What was the GBRS rating?

A lot of high scoring kids were rejected in the first round this year, no one knows why.

Get a WISC and he will almost certainly get in on appeal.

We requested the screening file and in the screening there was no score for GBRS, only the commentary section by teacher. The AART teacher said this year they are not scoring. I am wondering how everyone is getting to know the GBRS scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you need to relax for both your child and your family.. I know it is disappointing that your child with what appears to be scores high enough for admission to the program did not get it. I get that it seems unfair that people with lower test scores got it. What was the GBRS? All consistently, 3 C, 1F? Most of the posts with high score rejects did not know the GBRS so maybe that was the weak link in your file? I think the admission process is completely hit or miss. I truly have no idea how the admission committee makes their decision when everything in the file is strong and candidates still get rejected.

Having said that, AAP is not the end all be all of your child's education. Being in AAP does not mean that the child is set up for success and being in gen ed does not mean that the kids is doomed to be a second class academic citizen. There will be gen ed kids who surpass some of the AAP kids by the time high school graduation comes around. I have an older child in AAP and a younger child who will start next year. Honestly, AAP is not that advanced. The only subject that is more accelerated is the math and it still may not be enough for some kids. The work in the other subjects is just a little different not more accelerated. I don't think the program as it currently stands really serves gifted kids. We still supplement outside of school depending on the child's interests. I don't think any education will 100% meet your child's needs. We just made the decision that public school with outside supplementation made the best sense for our kids. I just don't think the private school around here are worth the money unless the primary benefit for your child is the small classes. Our calculus might be different if we were talking about some of the New England private schools.

I think people have an unrealistic expectation of AAP. It is not going to make a bored unengaged gifted child suddenly engaged with the school. It may help some kids but still not serve others. But you really have to look at your kid and see what type of education will serve him best. OP it sounds like your child really likes experiential learning and doing things hands on. In that case, your child might be better served in private school where they can provide more hands on learning experiences to your child because AAP is not going to be that different than gened in that regard. I do think the science education in public school elementary school is particularly weak. So if this is where your child thrives he might like the learning environment at a private school better.

I think you should still appeal but don't think that AAP is going to fix your kid being bored and unengaged at school, especially if the child is extremely gifted. You have to figure out what is causing the disengagement and address that. Being gifted is not usually the sole reason that the kid is disengaged. Know that your kids can be extremely successful with or without AAP as long as his educational needs are supported.

Very beautifully and objectively written. Thanks for this write up.

[Anonymous]

And NO interviews, no videos, just the things on the appeal form are allowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the GBRS rating?

A lot of high scoring kids were rejected in the first round this year, no one knows why.

Get a WISC and he will almost certainly get in on appeal.

We requested the screening file and in the screening there was no score for GBRS, only the commentary section by teacher. The AART teacher said this year they are not scoring. I am wondering how everyone is getting to know the GBRS scores?

They rated using occasionally, frequently, or consistently. People are reporting the number of times each term was used. It roughly translates to the old numbers with Consistently being a 4, Frequently a 3 and occasionally a 2.