In FCPS AAP Full-time as guest/performs great/Rejected for Full-time placement!!??

[Anonymous]

Now I see why people have very strong feelings about FCPS AAP. Our child had qualified for AAP after 2nd grade because of COGAT score but was not placed in AAP for who know's what reason. He was invited to AAP Math for 3rd Grade, though, and did extremely well. This year, he was invited "as a guest" to 4th Grade AAP Full-Time and has again performed very well. I honestly thought he would be a shoe-in because of: performance, test scores, extracurriculars and high praise from his AAP teacher. However, we got the rejection Form Letter from the AAP Central Committee today

The Form Letter went on as if he hadn't even been in AAP all year long - working hard, making good friends... but most of all being challenged and loving every minute of it.

Does anybody know if we can see the hows and whys of the AAP Central Committee decision process? It would be nice if there were some transparency here so that we can know what exactly the reason was for the rejection.

[Anonymous]

I suggest you telephone the AAP office.

http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/directory.shtml

FAIRFAX RIDGE BUILDING
3877 Fairfax Ridge Rd - 3rd Floor
Fairfax, VA 22030
[phone]
[phone] (Fax)

[Anonymous]

I have a second grader, but I would be even more confused if I were you. If your child has been performing well all year in the full time AAP, then the rejection doesn't make any sense!

[Anonymous]

After you call. Write a letter. You will have to appeal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After you call. Write a letter. You will have to appeal.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suggest you telephone the AAP office.

http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/directory.shtml

FAIRFAX RIDGE BUILDING
3877 Fairfax Ridge Rd - 3rd Floor
Fairfax, VA 22030
[phone]
[phone] (Fax)

Thanks, but won't they just read the company line to me which will leave me still up in the air wondering why? (sorry, I have a tendancy to look at all the negative angles). Or is it possible they just didn't realize he was already in full-time AAP, as a "guest", doing great all year long?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suggest you telephone the AAP office.

http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/directory.shtml

FAIRFAX RIDGE BUILDING
3877 Fairfax Ridge Rd - 3rd Floor
Fairfax, VA 22030
[phone]
[phone] (Fax)

Thanks, but won't they just read the company line to me which will leave me still up in the air wondering why? (sorry, I have a tendancy to look at all the negative angles). Or is it possible they just didn't realize he was already in full-time AAP, as a "guest", doing great all year long?

Your choices are (1) contact the AART at your school, who will end up saying that the central selection committee is the one that determines Level IV Center eligibility (so you will learn almost nothing), or (2) contact the central office AAP staff and ask what you should do at this point. Since the central office AAP staff are the ones that handle the central screening, I would start there. Then I would follow what the PP suggested and get an appeal ready. The central office AAP staff may have some suggestions to offer as to what to include in the appeal. I would then follow up all this with a meeting (not an email or a phone call) with the AART at your school to review the screening file that was submitted to the central screening committee.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! (from OP)

[Anonymous]

I am guessing that your child is at a local level iv because centers do not invite guests. Some local level iv classes are 95% center eligible, and some are only 25% eligible with lots of filler kids. So should all those extra kids qualify the following later? Clearly not. So doing well at a local level iv does not mean much, unless all or almost all of the other kids were center eligible, which may be the situation at your school. So, when you appeal, it may be helpful to know this info and to explicitly state something like 90% of the kids in the class are aap eligible, and my kid has not only kept up but has flourished and acts like a leader.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, PP, but I think it's a bad idea. At our Local Level IV, they love to tell us how no one can tell who is center-eligible and who was placed by the principal. I don't think anyone is going to tell you what % of the kids are center eligible, and no one is going to want to hear you make comparisons that quietly disparage the non-center-eligible kids in the class. At our school, in fact, they seem to bend over backwards to make sure that the non-center-eligibles who are placed by the principal into the 3rd grade full-time AAP are center-certified the next year. I know this because my daughter's 3rd grade AAP teacher proudly told me at a conference that only one student in the class did NOT get center-certified as a rising 4th grader.

[Anonymous]

Weirdest thing I ever heard.

[Anonymous]

It's because there's a difference between an excellent student vs. a gifted learner. A lot of the local guests are conscientious, dedicated students who work hard to be good students. The Level IV is supposed to be for kids who think or learn in a different way. (though this sometimes isn't the case these days.) Getting good grades in a class of both eligible students and guests does not negate a reason a child wasn't found eligible in the first place.

I know that's rough. It is not fair that some local level 4 schools try to have their teachers get all their guests in officially. It sets up unreasonable expectations and is misleading. It's too bad that the county doesn't seem to standardized what the local level 4s do.

Also, last year I had to decide between local or center for my son so I did a lot of research. The curriculums are NOT the same, even if they say they are. They may both be good but they're not the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's because there's a difference between an excellent student vs. a gifted learner. A lot of the local guests are conscientious, dedicated students who work hard to be good students. The Level IV is supposed to be for kids who think or learn in a different way. (though this sometimes isn't the case these days.) Getting good grades in a class of both eligible students and guests does not negate a reason a child wasn't found eligible in the first place.

I know that's rough. It is not fair that some local level 4 schools try to have their teachers get all their guests in officially. It sets up unreasonable expectations and is misleading. It's too bad that the county doesn't seem to standardized what the local level 4s do.

Also, last year I had to decide between local or center for my son so I did a lot of research. The curriculums are NOT the same, even if they say they are. They may both be good but they're not the same.

Well it suks that the child was put in there, did everything they were supposed to, and now might have to go back to "standard" learning even though they excelled??? A form of torture, perhaps? And perhaps being judged on the whim of one teacher?

[Anonymous]

Can't op's son guest again for 5th or is that up in the air?

What's really unfair is that if you just miss getting in at a center school or school with no level 4 class then you are screwed with no chance to guest. Services shouldn't be so random. If op's son went to a school with a center he wouldn't have gotten the level 4 experience at all!

[Anonymous]

You can tell on dashboard how many center eligible children are at a LLIV school.