Why won't FCPS kick kids out of AAP or re-evaluate them annually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

If you could afford litigation, you could afford private

I'm both cheap, and vindictive, and don't want my child to be elitist at private schools (I recognize this is a gross assumption), even though I'm practicing those behaviors in certain instances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

To be fair, if FCPS were to kick kids out of AAP or re-evaluate, they wouldn't force parents to go through another entire application process. That would be too large of a time sink for too little gain. It's more likely that kids scoring below a specific SOL threshold (maybe 480) would be booted or at least re-assessed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't this weed out the kids who were prepped in? My kid is definitely in classes with kids who don't belong in AAP but because they don't get counseled out or reevaluated annually, they're just stuck there and it's (a) hard for those kids and (b) annoying for the truly advanced kids who they are holding behind.

You wouldn't be weeding out prepped kids, you would be weeding out the kids that are referred by parents.
On the whole, test scores reflect ability whether it is prepped or not. An unprepared kid can underperform but a well prepared kid will not outperform.
Don't excuse your child's failure with the fact that other kids have studied.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You are absolutely NOT supposed to prepare for tests like NNAT and COGAT. You can ABSOLUTELY trick those tests into believing your child is gifted because you have taught your child the strategies to answer the questions as opposed to actually gifted children who can intuitively answer the questions without any help at all. You don't see the difference there?

You can prep if you want to prep. The tests aren't particularly meaningful. Exactly what giftedness are they testing, when doing one practice test for an hour results in a kid having a very good understanding how to work those problems? If a kid has become gifted by practicing, that's great.. the more the merrier! You're suggesting that not prepping AT ALL results in tests identifying 'actually gifted children'. This is clearly ridiculous if you've looked at some of the questions on this test. Besides, as others said, AAP doesn't give anything tailored for 'gifted children'. Have you seen the math? It's straightforward math facts on random pages off the web, often with errors in them. Each family can choose to 'prep' in whatever way they want; the Cogat and NNAT are not some mystical things that determine innate ability, it's silly to think otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

To be fair, if FCPS were to kick kids out of AAP or re-evaluate, they wouldn't force parents to go through another entire application process. That would be too large of a time sink for too little gain. It's more likely that kids scoring below a specific SOL threshold (maybe 480) would be booted or at least re-assessed.

I think the fair thing would be SOLs both above 500 puts a kid in and below a certain threshold pushes them out. The kids in advanced math already have the pressure to score high to stay in, so FCPS doesn't really mind doing that to kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't this weed out the kids who were prepped in? My kid is definitely in classes with kids who don't belong in AAP but because they don't get counseled out or reevaluated annually, they're just stuck there and it's (a) hard for those kids and (b) annoying for the truly advanced kids who they are holding behind.

It won’t work because parents are lying, cheating, and stealing to get their kids into AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

To be fair, if FCPS were to kick kids out of AAP or re-evaluate, they wouldn't force parents to go through another entire application process. That would be too large of a time sink for too little gain. It's more likely that kids scoring below a specific SOL threshold (maybe 480) would be booted or at least re-assessed.

I think the fair thing would be SOLs both above 500 puts a kid in and below a certain threshold pushes them out. The kids in advanced math already have the pressure to score high to stay in, so FCPS doesn't really mind doing that to kids

Teacher here. I disagree with this. If a kid has an off day they shouldn’t be kicked out. Also SOLs are very teacher dependent. My adv math class last year there were only 4 pass advance. After having me my pass adv rate was 80 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The “truly advanced” kids will be okay.

Let's remove AAP then, since they'll be okay anyways

I have long advocated this. Do away with program. Would solve a LOT of problems. And money.

What money would it save? Students will still need teachers, transportation, materials, etc. The cost of a handful of AAP Center buses is negligible.

The only problems it would solve would be freeing up the parents who continually slam a program their kids didn't get in.

Find another hobby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The “truly advanced” kids will be okay.

Let's remove AAP then, since they'll be okay anyways

I have long advocated this. Do away with program. Would solve a LOT of problems. And money.

What money would it save? Students will still need teachers, transportation, materials, etc. The cost of a handful of AAP Center buses is negligible.

The only problems it would solve would be freeing up the parents who continually slam a program their kids didn't get in.

Find another hobby.

When the AAP 4 kids and parents get off their high horse about how much better they are I will have a better opinion of the program.
When my kid has to listen to other kids at THE POOL OVER THE SUMMER talk about how much better their class is it's too much. It's constant!
Seems like the AAP families who are constantly harping about it need a better hobby...

[Anonymous]

AAP should be done away with it. Both the pressure and sadness for not getting into AAP at 8 years is terrible for the child and parents. My kid got around 130 in Cogat but that was not enough. Since then he is always Pass Advanced in SOL, mostly 4s in his report and can easily fit into AAP. But now that AAP is not possible he is supplemented with higher curriculum at home.

[Anonymous]

Why AAP not possible? Don’t give up, keep trying.

[Anonymous]

Keep trying meaning can you take exam again? Or apply every year with the same test score?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

If you could afford litigation, you could afford private

I'm both cheap, and vindictive, and don't want my child to be elitist at private schools (I recognize this is a gross assumption), even though I'm practicing those behaviors in certain instances.

And most importantly, you probably don’t know how to cheat (sorry, prep and create work samples) your kid’s way into an elite private school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

If you could afford litigation, you could afford private

I'm both cheap, and vindictive, and don't want my child to be elitist at private schools (I recognize this is a gross assumption), even though I'm practicing those behaviors in certain instances.

And most importantly, you probably don’t know how to cheat (sorry, prep and create work samples) your kid’s way into an elite private school…

It’s easier to cheat their way into AAP because the program is looking at test scores and not the whole child. Most of you parents who work FCPS into taking your child into AAP could never get your kid into The Langley School, The Potomac School, Saint Albans, Sidwell School, Georgetown Day School, or any similar privates. And if they did get accepted, you’d have to pay around >50g per year. Certainly no special treatment because they have high test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

To be fair, if FCPS were to kick kids out of AAP or re-evaluate, they wouldn't force parents to go through another entire application process. That would be too large of a time sink for too little gain. It's more likely that kids scoring below a specific SOL threshold (maybe 480) would be booted or at least re-assessed.

There is

I think the fair thing would be SOLs both above 500 puts a kid in and below a certain threshold pushes them out. The kids in advanced math already have the pressure to score high to stay in, so FCPS doesn't really mind doing that to kids

Teacher here. I disagree with this. If a kid has an off day they shouldn’t be kicked out. Also SOLs are very teacher dependent. My adv math class last year there were only 4 pass advance. After having me my pass adv rate was 80 percent.

I think sticking a label on a kid in 2nd grade and locking out kids that maybe had a bad day in 2nd grade and giving social promotion to kids that got parent referred in seems a bit unfair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm under no delusions my child is "gifted". We worked hard on a parent packet to get him into AAP partially because AAP classrooms have less distractions, move faster, and cover a larger depth of materials. More importantly, as poor and elitist as it sounds, the peer groups tend to be better.

He's not falling behind, but he's not the smartest kid at his table either. I'm fully aware there are just as qualified kids as him in General Ed that could be swapped out with no difference.

All that to say, OP, stay away from your silly ideas that I'd have to re-qualify every year! It was stressful enough the first time, and kid (and parents) don't need the added hardship year to year! Also imagine the social implications of being relegated... Ouch!

This is such a terrible argument! If you admit that any other kid could swap in with yours, and that the environment is better, why would you think you can lay claim to a spot?

I didn't say it was fair. I asked that you stay away from all these "silly" ideas! I selfishly don't want to have to go through that process again and get lucky each and every year. If my child was kicked out, I'd be raising up a storm of litigation.

If you could afford litigation, you could afford private

I'm both cheap, and vindictive, and don't want my child to be elitist at private schools (I recognize this is a gross assumption), even though I'm practicing those behaviors in certain instances.

And most importantly, you probably don’t know how to cheat (sorry, prep and create work samples) your kid’s way into an elite private school…

It’s easier to cheat their way into AAP because the program is looking at test scores and not the whole child. Most of you parents who work FCPS into taking your child into AAP could never get your kid into The Langley School, The Potomac School, Saint Albans, Sidwell School, Georgetown Day School, or any similar privates. And if they did get accepted, you’d have to pay around >50g per year. Certainly no special treatment because they have high test scores.

These places care about test scores but only to a point.
They care about parents.
The in person interview of the child is mostly selecting for parents not children.
It's like picking your 7U AAU basketball team based on general athleticism and the parent's height (and income).