GT/AAP Appeals

[Anonymous]

Let's just say I am part of the system and leave it at that. No process is perfect, nor is it ever going to please everyone, but I think the professionals involved DO try their best to give as many kids as they can, the benefit of a doubt. I wish you all the best of luck.

[Anonymous]

From the fcps website, i found this:

The oversight committee reviews appeals to the aap decisions. This is made up of central office staff members.

The original central screening committee is/can be made up of aarts, gt teachers, school psychologists, ESOP teachers, guidance counselors, other educational specialists and central office staff members.

[Anonymous]

Well 13:44 you have me quite intrigued! In any event, thank you for your candid assessment and helpful insights. The info from the PP makes it sound as if Carol Horn makes the final decision on appeal!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the information.

[Anonymous]

I also appreciate 13:44's insights. I was told earlier by some folks that the new information weighs in much more than the previous information but I guess that's not true.

[Anonymous]

I recently heard opinions that GBRS is not only a subjective assessment primarily made by the class room teacher but also that some schools that have have most of the kids performing good in all respects (grade level, gifted criteria, etc.) want to be very selective in giving high GBRS to the kids so that the school's regular program does not suffer. If that's the case, GBRS loses its credibility for admissions to AAP. Also, the eligible kids in the regular program would not do good as they would be utterly bored. If we have to compete with the excellent education system in place in many parts of the world, all eligible kids should be given the opportunity to fulfill their potential!

[Anonymous]

This appeal process is BS. If your son/daughter doesn't make it, he/she doesn't make it. This all about parental ego and wanting your son and daughter to have the G/T label. Give me a break. What's next - allowing parents to appeal to a university to reconsider their child's college application?

There are plenty of smart kids who don't get into GT. It's not the end of the world. Deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently heard opinions that GBRS is not only a subjective assessment primarily made by the class room teacher but also that some schools that have have most of the kids performing good in all respects (grade level, gifted criteria, etc.) want to be very selective in giving high GBRS to the kids so that the school's regular program does not suffer. If that's the case, GBRS loses its credibility for admissions to AAP. Also, the eligible kids in the regular program would not do good as they would be utterly bored. If we have to compete with the excellent education system in place in many parts of the world, all eligible kids should be given the opportunity to fulfill their potential!

well I recently heard, on here actually, that some parents pay as much as $450 to have their children tested by psychologists whose names are passed around on the internet as being "very good." This gives the well-off and highly driven parents a big advantage it would seem over people who can't afford this or who are simply humble enough to accept "no" for an answer.

[Anonymous]

PP: The problem with that argument is that we are dealing with precise but inaccurate measures of abilities: The GBRS fundamentally quantifying the qualitative, and the NNAT/CogAT's are group tests which measure something that is sometimes (often) proportional to intelligence. Because of these issues, there is an appeals process: you can supply WISC....or other new information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently heard opinions that GBRS is not only a subjective assessment primarily made by the class room teacher but also that some schools that have have most of the kids performing good in all respects (grade level, gifted criteria, etc.) want to be very selective in giving high GBRS to the kids so that the school's regular program does not suffer. If that's the case, GBRS loses its credibility for admissions to AAP. Also, the eligible kids in the regular program would not do good as they would be utterly bored. If we have to compete with the excellent education system in place in many parts of the world, all eligible kids should be given the opportunity to fulfill their potential!

This conspiracy has been suggested for a long time. I have seen no direct evidence, only anecdotal stories. If this is true, someone should investigate. For example, comparison of tests with GBRS, or GBRS and grades should provide the smoking gun. Until I see such evidence, I do not believe it. And I do think that Obama was born in the USA

[Anonymous]

I too appreciate 13:44's insight. I was wondering if you might be able to add anything on whether the written assessment accompanying the WISC scores is taken into consideration?

My child scored well enough, but the write-up and explanation given to us was that his score was limited by the nature of the test -- that even though he didn't get every question correct, he also never reached a ceiling in one subsection.

[Anonymous]

13:44 here. There is no gbrs conspiracy. If you review your child's packet, you will see that there is a comment sheet that has to be completed and submitted with specific observed examples that support the score in each category. This is typically completed by the entire second grade team, since most kids have multiple teachers due to flexible grouping. It is then discussed again by the local screening committee. There are no "random or downgraded" scores. Everything must be documented and the entire committee must agree before the packet is completed.

The gbrs conspiracy was created by disgruntled parents who
don't understand the true purpose of the aap program and how the evaluation process works, and need to find
some way to justify why the school didn't agree with the parents' assessment of their children's classroom traits.

Their is no truth to it.

[Anonymous]

Whoops...can't believe I misspelled "there.".

With regard to pp's question....sometimes the committee just needs to see a decent wisc score to flip someone from the ineligible pile to the eligible pile.

If necessary though, they will read all the material submitted to give each child a reasonable chance at eligibility.

Again, best of luck to you all. And, if for some reason it doesn't work out for you this year, please remember that you can always reapply next year... Some children are remarkably more successful and confident after they have had another year to mature and come out of their shells in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:44 here. There is no gbrs conspiracy. If you review your child's packet, you will see that there is a comment sheet that has to be completed and submitted with specific observed examples that support the score in each category. This is typically completed by the entire second grade team, since most kids have multiple teachers due to flexible grouping. It is then discussed again by the local screening committee. There are no "random or downgraded" scores. Everything must be documented and the entire committee must agree before the packet is completed.

The gbrs conspiracy was created by disgruntled parents who
don't understand the true purpose of the aap program and how the evaluation process works, and need to find
some way to justify why the school didn't agree with the parents' assessment of their children's classroom traits.

Their is no truth to it.

I find this comment very interesting. My son was admitted who is not even on grade level reading and on grade level math. He has struggled with reading and math since Kindergarten and we were shocked he was even in the pool. But yet I have a friend whose daughter is 2 grade levels ahead in reading, a grade level ahead in math, goes to AAP pull-out for reading and math and shines in her classroom but yet she was found ineligible with a 9 GBRS and high CoGat scores. When my friend asked the AAP pull-out teacher for an explanation of the GBRS and if she should be concerned about her daughter's change in behavior since just last year and Kindergarten, there was not even a response to the phone call or email. I volunteered in the classroom with this little girl when the two children were in 1st grade together and I was so sure my friend's daughter she would go and my son would not. I am still wondering why this happened.

[Anonymous]

Teacher should not be subjective. Some gifted kids really suffer because of the teachers poor judgment . I do believe in some Schools only classroom teacher does the assessment and they favor some kids specially if their parents volunteer in the classroom. My dd teacher is one of them.