Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I wanted to post this in hopes that this experience helps other parents. This is a factual, not subjective account. I believe in facts.
We went through the AAP Level IV process when my son was in second grade (he is now in 4th), at his local neighborhood school which also offers Level IV services but is not an AAP center. It was the most chaotic, disorientating and debilitating process I have experienced as a parent. But I could not have compared it at the time to anything else as this was my only experience for our oldest son. The AART teacher split her time between two schools, incl ours, and her lack of organizational skills, passion, commitment defined our experience. She put together a file of extremely weak school samples. We had very strong home samples (from various enrichment programs), writing samples, recommendation and character letters. She lost the originally submitted home samples and rescheduled our meeting 3 times. I firmly believe that everything depends on your second grade teacher. We had above average (bot not great) NNAT scores from 1st grade but good CoGAT scores (though not in pool, just 1 point under cut-off). GBRS very extremely low (4). My son was not the favorite of the second grade teacher. I am not on PTA. Through my observations of the cliques of parents in the school, every single kid whose mother was on PTA got into the AAP starting in third grade. Only 2 extra kids got in. My theories were confirmed. I did not socialize with principal or vice principal or AART teacher. I did not lobby to pick the second grade teacher whose kids are KNOWN REGULARLY to get into AAP in 3rd grade. We were rejected. We did appeal (with strong WISC done at GMU and some other recommendations and samples). When I met with the principal of the neighborhood school, at the end of the third grade to get his opinion whether we should repeat this AAP process a year later, he said, verbatim "The AAP train has moved on, you cannot catch it anymore".
In hindsight, I firmly believe that if you have strong scores (Cogats and WISCs are better in my opinion than NNATs) but disproportionately low GBRS, strong home samples but disproportionately weak school samples, showing overall imbalance, you will be very lucky to get in. In hindsight, I am glad I got my son out of that school where principal believes that the AAP group is somehow unique and when you do not get into the program in 3rd grade, you will never get in. AAP kids are not unique. Every single child has potential. We also tried to apply, in 2nd grade, for Level II and Level III services and my son was found ineligible. Not good enough. He was deemed to have no potential.
As the second year was evolving, we applied for a lottery magnet program and got in. We pulled our son out of the neighborhood school and started a new journey in the magnet school, starting in 3rd grade. And we have never looked back. We got the best math teacher I have ever seen - he was placed with her on the basis of the profile which we completed that was meant to let the school know that, as a new incoming kid, he is extremely strong in quantitative subjects. That same fall, in 3rd grade, my son retook his CoGAT through school and got a perfect score. His passion for math evolved naturally. We knew he had POTENTIAL, as the AAP program leads you to believe. Then we sat on this for a year, did not apply for Level IV AAP in his third grade to get into fourth grade AAP - we wanted to see if this school is a good match for us and we wanted teachers to get to know our son and enable his academic strengths. AAP was not an end result we were seeking. We were on a new academic journey. We wanted our son to be passionate about something and he naturally gravitated toward math. At the end of third grade, he got a perfect SOL score in math (principal said she has never seen it in the school's history) and a very strong score in language/arts. He ended up, together with 5 more students with strong SOL scores, in a separate full-time AAP math program, created by this magnet school for the 4th grade. We could not have hoped for a better outcome. In his neighborhood school, he would have been in a trailer with 29 other kids, as opposed to now, being in a class of 6, in the best equipped classroom for STEM I have ever seen. The 4th grade full-time AAP math teacher was my son's 3rd grade home class teacher and she also became the school AART teacher, full-time. The best teacher ever. His home class 4th grade teacher cannot say enough good things about him. He is regularly hosted by the principal for his test achievements.
We did not do any more testings, based on the advice of the AART teacher at this magnet school, going into the AAP process again. We submitted that repeat CoGAT score from 2 years ago, 3rd grade math SOL score, character letters, recommendations from enrichment programs, home writing samples, school samples matched the quality of home samples. GBRS was 15. (note the significant imbalance between GBRS of 4, 2 years ago.).
This package was BALANCED and showed my kid's true potential. We love the magnet school and will finish it in 5th grade and defer the AAP until middle school, to start a new journey.
I hope this experience is helpful to some parents and I am happy to provide more details if desirable.
This is NOT a factual account but an overly emotional, subjective account .
And NO to your argument that every kid should get into AAP if they try.
From your own explanation, it sounds like developmentally in 2nd grads your DS was not at a place for advanced academic work mad that is the way development works.
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