Bad News for Test Prep Parents

[Anonymous]

+(10000) ^10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The bottom line is that the scores of these AAP identification tests are affected when kids have been practicing with materials that replicate past tests. Some people know this and have decided to make some money off this fact. The more they can convince young parents that:
a: a child's intelligence is dependent on how many of this business's worksheets the child does and,
b: that there is no good education available in FCPS except in AAP and,
c: the best way to get a child into AAP is to use our services/products,
the more money they will make.

They do not want the school to know that kids have been prepped, because they know that the scores would then be taken less seriously. It would certainly be bad for business for the schools to know which second graders have been doing practice questions from old tests at camps or classes or clubs or just at home with a parent. Even the idea that teachers might be asking kids at school if they have seen questions like these before could be bad for business. Parents may hesitate to buy into test prep programs or materials if they hear that the schools might not use test results from kids who say they have seen questions like this before.

Most of these businesses sell other types of tutoring and test prep so they will not lose their shirts if FCPS were to stop using these tests or drop the AAP.
But it would eat into their profits to a certain extent.

It is about the money. And threads like this that point out the issues with prepping for these tests are not appreciated because they interfere with the advertising message.

Yes.

[Anonymous]

You're right. My Dad is reaping just rewards from all the hard work and preparation. I think he is loaded!

--Marshall ( 8 yr-old and still accelerating)

[Anonymous]

this board later in the year is a hotbed of WISC touting by the private testers who charge a fee I might add - so maybe they're the ones who don't like the CogAt test preppers because it helps people get into AAP without their help. Busted!

[Anonymous]

this board later in the year is a hotbed of WISC touting by the private testers who charge a fee I might add - so maybe they're the ones who don't like the CogAt test preppers because it helps people get into AAP without their help. Busted!

Is the a red herring?

-Marshall (8-yr-old kid)

[Anonymous]

No Marshall. It's called grasping (gasping) for straws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Marshall. It's called grasping (gasping) for straws.

ha ha - hit a nerve I see!

[Anonymous]

yeah, my funny bone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:yeah, my funny bone.

yeah, well Mercer's laughing all the way to the bank.

[Anonymous]

Nothing wrong with that. Companies get rewarded for preparation and hard work. The sooner you learn this principle the sooner your meagre fortunes will rise.

Marshall (8 yr-old son of The Sheriff at Peyton's Place)

[Anonymous]

The bottom line is that the scores of these AAP identification tests are affected when kids have been practicing with materials that replicate past tests. Some people know this and have decided to make some money off this fact. The more they can convince young parents that:
a: a child's intelligence is dependent on how many of this business's worksheets the child does and,
b: that there is no good education available in FCPS except in AAP and,
c: the best way to get a child into AAP is to use our services/products,
the more money they will make.

They do not want the school to know that kids have been prepped, because they know that the scores would then be taken less seriously. It would certainly be bad for business for the schools to know which second graders have been doing practice questions from old tests at camps or classes or clubs or just at home with a parent. Even the idea that teachers might be asking kids at school if they have seen questions like these before could be bad for business. Parents may hesitate to buy into test prep programs or materials if they hear that the schools might not use test results from kids who say they have seen questions like this before.

Most of these businesses sell other types of tutoring and test prep so they will not lose their shirts if FCPS were to stop using these tests or drop the AAP.
But it would eat into their profits to a certain extent.



It is about the money. And threads like this that point out the issues with prepping for these tests are not appreciated because they interfere with the advertising message.

Sounds like kids and companies are not the problem.

The real problem are the tools and methods dumb and even dumber educational bureaucrats (and their aging entitled supporters) use to screen intelligent and high performing students. The solution is not a witch hunt invading homes, classrooms, gridirons, and offices looking for materials, books, and notebooks bearing any resemblance to the content of any prescribed test. Nor is the solution telling kids to seclude themselves, for 9 months prior to AAP screening, from engaging in any form of brain stimulation (alone or in the company of parents or others) that may be construed by this pathetic crowd as resembling material in topic, context, character, form or content that may be tested on a screening exam.

This would be as fundamentally assinine as telling an athlete or musician to refrain from any physical activity or musical rehersal, 9 months from a screening scouting combine or recital for fear the "wrong" individuals will gain admission into the elite NFL or AAP classroom due to better performance.

I hear the hooves of the envious and entitled in a panic-stricken stampede.

Their fear of hard work and preparation will lead these folk to shut down the school system and the AAP for the first time in history.


Marshall (8-year-old) and son of Peyton

[Anonymous]

Marshall,

I have news for you. Do you remember the 1950s and 1960s when the NCAA, NFL, and the NBA banned some folk because they were too good and "cheated"?

Well, it's coming back to haunt them. I am afraid your Dad may be too good because of all my dedicated hard work and preparation. They may soon ban me from playing quarterback in the NFL.

In other words, my dear boy, they will change the AAP rules again (e.g., TJ admission rules) to in effect ban certain individuals from gaining access. Many of us in this country are not students of geography and history but history does come full circle and repeat itself from time to time.

Your Dad-The Sheriff

[Anonymous]

What is the deal with the athlete fixation and the pretending to be different people?

[Anonymous]

These posts keep getting creepier and creepier. I would not want this guy teaching my kids!

[Anonymous]

What is the obsession that there is some kind of competition among different groups of people and one will be running away from the other? I don't know people who think this way. Is it some kind of older generational thing? I know my dad sometimes has a hard time realizing that the world is different than when he was young.