PTO involvement in Grade 2 and AAP admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ding, ding. PTA/PTO doesn't help with AAP placement because that is decided by a central committee, but it does help with Principal Placement in an LLIV class. Your kid gets screwed in middle school, though.

Based on what my principal has said, they clearly understand what the application needs to look like for a student to be selected by the Central Committee. At our school, both the principal and the art teacher review all AP applications. I believe the principals actually have more influence in this process than many parents realize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a connection. I know alot of PTA moms whose kids are not AAP.

+ 1

+1, center school, a lot of very active PTO moms/ volunteers don’t have any kids in AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a connection. I know alot of PTA moms whose kids are not AAP.

+ 1

+1, center school, a lot of very active PTO moms/ volunteers don’t have any kids in AAP.

-1, center school. At our school, there seems to be a noticeable correlation between serving on the PTA board and having children in the AAP program, though this doesn't appear to extend to most general PTA members. I think this may be influenced by how the school structures the application process and who is involved on the selection committee. Personally, I wish our principal were not part of this process, as it would help eliminate any perception of bias. It’s always interesting to see how differently schools within the same district manage things—no two seem to be the same.

[Anonymous]

I'm a PTA board member and my kid is in AAP - but I didn't join the PTA until *after* we moved to the center school - our base school admin had no idea who I was. Some PTA/AAP parents might just be trying to find community at a new school. Clearly we're horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a connection between parent's involvement in PTO during 2nd grade and children who are placed in principal supported AAP placement? I have a feeling that it is happening at Crossfield Elementary.

If your kid is borderline in or out, there are a bunch of kids just like them. Most likely these kids will be holding back the other kids that passed with flying colors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the principal can prepare an excellent packet for submission to the central committee,

Isn't this supposed to be done by the parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the principal can prepare an excellent packet for submission to the central committee,

Isn't this supposed to be done by the parent?

The parents provide a small supplement. The bulk of the packets, including work samples and the HOPE ratings, are prepared by some combination of the classroom teacher, AART, and others.

[Anonymous]

A good way to find out is to become a PTA mom. They’re always looking for new members. If there’s a correlation, your kid will be principal placed.

[Anonymous]

Our school is a center and there is no principal placement. The AAP selection process is done outside of the actual school so I’m not sure how being on the PTA will help my child score high on the NNAT and Cogat.

I have been on the pta board on and off and know many other pta members. There are pta members with children with special needs, kids with anxiety, average kids and also kids who are in AAP. The kids in AAP have parents who are also smart.

[Anonymous]

This definitely is happening at Navy Elementary school. Not just AAP placement, but even teacher the student will be placed in each year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This definitely is happening at Navy Elementary school. Not just AAP placement, but even teacher the student will be placed in each year

If there is "definitely" a correlation, I would sign up to join the PTA board as soon as possible if I were you. It only takes one year for you to volunteer your time. Once your kid is in AAP, they will remain there until end of Middle school. The PTA board always have challenge filling all the spots, it's not like parents are lining up miles to fight for these positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a school with an exclusive PTO whose Board consists only of SAHMs of 3-5 children who meet twice a month during the school day with the Principal and AP. Some of those moms have been on the PTO Board for 10-15 years, so they are in tight with the admin. You'd better believe the PTO Board members' children are ALL in the LLIV classes in our school. My guess is that most of them are the principal placed kids who have to round out the LLIV class (because there's no way that 1/3 of the 75 kids in a grade are Level IV). It's a nightmare - the LLIV kids at our school are a very tight clique and there's no room for non-LLIV friends in their group. Even the moms are all good friends. They're in for a rude awakening come middle and high school when their little group gets opened up to so many more people.

Thanks for the laugh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it’s correlation rather than causation.

Almost always this.
Parents involved in PTA at whatever school tend to be the more affluent and/or parents with a high level of education. (Not all, but many). And standardized test scores, which are known to correlate with education and socioeconomic status of parents, are one of the big factors in determining eligibility.
And then on top of that—parents who attend PTA tend to plan or at least know more about events happening at school and will show up to fundraisers, community-building events, and voluntarily supply resources to support and supplement school needs. So teachers and admins may see them on campus more and friendly/cordial or familiar relationships with them—-and given that these interactions are usually centered around something positive, you can probably argue that this might create a bias in teachers or admins that results in them looking favorably on those parents and, by extension, their kids. And it’s possible that this unconsciously bleeds into the AAP selection system since one metric is the teacher ratings scale.

It’s unlikely that there is a sinister behind-the-scenes quid pro quo arrangement happening. They aren’t winking and nodding and shaking hands to make deals to get their kids into the program. And there are certainly many PTA parents whose kids do not get admitted to the program. But your observation that many PTA members kids end up in AAP also isn’t wrong.

[Anonymous]

We're at a small ES with three classes - 1 LLIV and 2 General Ed. The LLIV class is 100% filled out by the children of moms on the PTO Board and/or who teach or work at the school. It's been that way for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a school with an exclusive PTO whose Board consists only of SAHMs of 3-5 children who meet twice a month during the school day with the Principal and AP. Some of those moms have been on the PTO Board for 10-15 years, so they are in tight with the admin. You'd better believe the PTO Board members' children are ALL in the LLIV classes in our school. My guess is that most of them are the principal placed kids who have to round out the LLIV class (because there's no way that 1/3 of the 75 kids in a grade are Level IV). It's a nightmare - the LLIV kids at our school are a very tight clique and there's no room for non-LLIV friends in their group. Even the moms are all good friends. They're in for a rude awakening come middle and high school when their little group gets opened up to so many more people.

Thanks for the laugh!

No need to laugh at a really unfortunate situation. I can assure you this is 100% true.