Can my kid try for AAP again in 4th grade?
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Anonymous
| ^At many schools, you have to subscribe to your school in “News You Choose” to even get the school and PTA emails. 3rd -6th grade teachers may not send out info about AAP to their classrooms. OP didn’t necessarily drop the ball here. |
Anonymous
For some working parents, indeed it does make missing emails more likely. Why the hostility? |
Anonymous
Please explain to me exactly why being a working parent would make missing emails more likely. |
Anonymous
Um, because they are working and might forget to read something that comes in during the day from school. They might not be in a job that allows for constant email checking. They are tired and have a million things to do? How is this a serious question? |
Anonymous
I have to laugh because my mom-friend group definitely follows this. No point in placing blame though, for whatever reason OP missed deadlines and does jot seem familiar with the program details. Whatever the reasons putting you in that position OP, the onus is bow on you if you are interested to proactively find and apply next year for participation the following year. |
Anonymous
Let me guess - you have a very expensive education and need to justify not working by saying your kids would miss out on things if you did work. |
Anonymous
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It has nothing at all to do with working vs. not working and instead everything to do with how well the school communicates with parents. The first school my kids attended was wonderful with communications, and I didn't miss a beat on required materials, even when I was going through cancer treatment. Any parent with a kid who scored over 120 on the cogat was likely to get a personal call from the AART explaining AAP and how to apply.
The school my kids currently attend doesn't tell you anything, and I could have easily missed something like the AAP meetings or deadlines even while healthy. I feel like I never have a clue what's going on. Some school are terrible at communication and outreach. If a family is new to the school and the kid got a cogat near 132, either the AART or classroom teacher should have reached out to make sure OP's family understood AAP. |
Anonymous
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Yeah, that didn't happen at our school. DS scored a 135 on the NNAT and the CoGAT but the AART did not contact us. I contacted the AART after reading the NNAT letter and the AART basically said we just needed to wait until after the CoGAT. That led me to googling the NNAT and learning about the various test sites and this site and then AAP.
FCPS does not do a great job of letting parents know what options are available to them. I wonder how many parents have an idea about the language immersion programs or the magnet schools. I suspect that it is something like AAP with people who are very invested in a particular program know what is happening and the rest might find out if they read the emails and newsletters and research issues mentioned in them, like Language Immersion and AAP. I think we had 15 or so parents at the general AAP meeting in October and 10 at the level IV meeting in December. We did get emails reminding us that the meetings were happen, I don't know if only the parents of the second graders get those. I do remember getting emails about the AAP deadline last year when DS was in first grade. |
Anonymous
I think this experience is very much the exception, not the rule. My ES has great communication but there is no way the AART could make personal calls like that. I think that is expecting too much. Some, such as ours, are part time split between two schools. Schools have variable communication sure and parents take variable responsibility. Seriously OP forget about assigning blame and just get the info you need. If you really are interested and think it is right for your kid it shouldn’t be a big deal to ask for info. |
Anonymous
Huh? Lady, I don’t know what your deal is but you have a very big chip on your shoulder. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
I agree that it is the exception and not the rule, but it shouldn't be. The only people who would be called are the ones with high scores who are not in pool and who didn't already submit an AAP application or indicate that they would be submitting one. That's maybe 10 kids. It wouldn't even need to be a call. The AART could send out an email to the parents of those kids urging them to fill out an AAP parent referral. I wouldn't have applied for my older kid if the AART hadn't called. I knew about AAP, but was under the impression that the bar to get in was much higher than it actually is. I would love to see the stats on the number of kids who are high achieving, would get high GBRS, and have scores in the 120s who don't parent refer. |
Anonymous
They can't call people with high scores that did not submit a packet because then it is too late. And while there are some people who are very interested in getting their kids into AAP, there is a decent percentage who have kids accepted into AAP and choose to defer the option. The AART said that over half the kids accepted into AAP at our school defer that option. I know a bunch of families who deferred, some who accepted, and some who applied late (4th grade for 5th) and moved. I think the NNAT and COgAT scores need to go home with an AAP explanation so that parents have a better understanding of part of why these tests are given in the first place. There is a mention in the letter but it is a very brief mention. And the in pool letter we received did not provide much information at all. FCPS needs to do a better job of informing parents about the option. That means making sure more families know that AAP is an option when kids are in earlier grades and when older kids are being enrolled. |
Anonymous
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^Immersion program? I can't imagine why so many kids would defer otherwise.
I think they need to send home something with parents to make it clear that AAP accepts about 20% of the FCPS students, and any kid who is in the highest reading and/or math groups and who gets test scores above 120 should apply. People who are used to different school systems might otherwise assume that the 132 cutoff is strict, or that the school will automatically place kids in the proper program without parents needing to apply. |
Anonymous
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Yup, Immersion. If DS is accepted, me might defer and give Level III a go. The overall level of work is boring for our kid. He is doing the Level II work but it is not enough. That said, the language element is great and he has really opened up at the base school so we are not certain that moving him is in his best interest socially. And the social element is important.
But I know kids from his preschool group who had older siblings accepted into AAP who choose to defer for one reason or another, not involved in immersion programs. Some parents don't want to leave their base schools or are worried about the academic segregation, my friends words not mine. That said, all of them are attending base schools that are seen as being very good to excellent by any measure. I think that AAP is more of a push for parents with kids at Title 1 schools or more borderline schools. |