Be honest AAP parent crew...

[Anonymous]

If you found out that a student in your kid's class had not qualified for the AAP pool in grade 2, but in a subsequent year got into the center on the teacher's recommendation (high GBRS/strong narrative), would you feel like your bright, hard working kid was being overlooked/slighted because the teacher had only recommended that one student?

[Anonymous]

Are you saying the teacher initiated the referral or did the teacher submit a high GBRS in support of a parent referral?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying the teacher initiated the referral or did the teacher submit a high GBRS in support of a parent referral?

It was a teacher referral.

[Anonymous]

It's my understanding that a teacher referral isn't very common and only done when there is reason to believe the student has parents who wouldn't refer themselves because of language barriers or other reasons for being less plugged in.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't feel like DC was overlooked by the teacher, just that the teacher felt the other child needed more of a challenge.

[Anonymous]

Parents often ask their teachers to refer them. It looks better to the committee if the referral came from a teacher and not a parent so I know several parents who persistently asked for teacher referrals in 3rd or 4th.

I do think that's not totally kosher, though.

[Anonymous]

I do not care how other kids get in. It's none of my business. The school board makes its decision and it's not my child so I have no right/need to know.

[Anonymous]

From my understanding to get into the pool you have to have a certain NNAT or Fairfax CoGat score. I think this is wrong. There are so many other things that go into making a kid a great candidate for the AAP program. My son is in first grade and he scored a 126 on the NNAT, which is below the automatic pool. I asked his teacher last Friday what her opinion of my son was and she said that he is the type of kid that needs the AAP center and that he would have an extremely high GBRS. I can list several things that my child does outside of school that leads me to have the same opinion as his teacher. So if he doesn't score high enough on the FFX test next year you better believe I am going to have his teacher refer him. I'll have his teacher do the referral because she cannot provide a letter of recommendation because she is a FFX county employee. So this is the only place she can offer her input.

[Anonymous]

Teachers can refer, or parents can refer. Usually, the teacher refferals are limited to very specific cases, such as language issues, social issues, etc. If a parent asks a teacher to refer, the teachers will usually tell them to refer. I do not think the source of the refferal really matters. Rather, it is the packet that the school sends to the central office

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From my understanding to get into the pool you have to have a certain NNAT or Fairfax CoGat score. I think this is wrong. There are so many other things that go into making a kid a great candidate for the AAP program. My son is in first grade and he scored a 126 on the NNAT, which is below the automatic pool. I asked his teacher last Friday what her opinion of my son was and she said that he is the type of kid that needs the AAP center and that he would have an extremely high GBRS. I can list several things that my child does outside of school that leads me to have the same opinion as his teacher. So if he doesn't score high enough on the FFX test next year you better believe I am going to have his teacher refer him. I'll have his teacher do the referral because she cannot provide a letter of recommendation because she is a FFX county employee. So this is the only place she can offer her input.

A 126 is a good score and is close enough to the automatic pool that many parents would go ahead and do the referral.

Your child's first grade teacher's comments can be included on the second grade GBRS. My child's school automatically asked for input from the K and first grade teachers, along with the second grade teacher. If your school does not, you could ask the teacher to provide her input at the time they do the GBRS.

If you are capable of doing it, the school is likely to prefer a parent referral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not care how other kids get in. It's none of my business. The school board makes its decision and it's not my child so I have no right/need to know.

I second this. There's no way -- and no reason --to know what is going on in another family, or what a teacher sees in a child that you don't think you see.

If this is a matter of resenting this other kid getting into AAP and feeling it was unfair for this child to have a teacher referral -- you're not the teacher and don't know what the teacher knows about this student. End of story.

[Anonymous]

I am impressed by the fact that every parent who posts here recognizes that their child NEEDS to be in the AAP program.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you found out that a student in your kid's class had not qualified for the AAP pool in grade 2, but in a subsequent year got into the center on the teacher's recommendation (high GBRS/strong narrative), would you feel like your bright, hard working kid was being overlooked/slighted because the teacher had only recommended that one student?

I would feel grateful to be able to advocate for my own child, while at the same time knowing that there was someone in his life who might care enough to advocate for him if I was unable to for whatever reason. As for why the teacher advocated for one child and not another, not my business.

[Anonymous]

PP, maybe because the teacher recognized that one child was actually gifted and the other was not? Just a thought.