Gifted kid did not get through AAP - HELP please

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they tell the difference between hot housed and normal kids, lol?

My friend's son got in with very low scores but a decent GBRS. Why is he more "deserving" than someone like OP's kid? The whole process is nuts.

Idk. This poster here says there was discrepancy between school work samples and home work samples. That probably raised a red flag.
Other things I would personally look at include whether outside activities are Kahn academy type things or more child led activities such as Odyssey of the Mind.

How could a second grader be doing Odyssey of the Mind? It is not even offered at most schools, and then for older grades.

Most people don't list Kumon, prep schools, tutoring on their kids' applications.

Yeah they did odyssey in second grade. They can’t conpete, but they did

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all your comments. When teachers in every parent teacher meet say he is extremely advanced for his age, and when they write that even in the GBRS comments, especially in the highlighted skills of math science and social studies, parents will think their kid is advanced. Further when some coaches for STEM or even activities like Music, singing say he amazes them, parents make conclusions and sometimes you never realize your kids and only know when others tell you.

We are awaiting his WISC scores,the report. But the meeting after the test, the psychologist said, “his thinking and application skills is excellent, his factual reasoning is very high and sometimes those kids with high factual skills fair less on verbal creative writing”.

Anyway, whoever is just making assumptions on our kids, please stop. I am not defending any parent here, If you have a suggestion, pls do, we also struggle as a parent, and it hurts when your kid says it is boring at school, they only tell you about solid liquid gases, and I want to experiment on it, I want to ask my teacher why we can’t hold gas but can hold ice cube, but all other kids scream, and my teacher can’t answer me and just ask me to write this. We are looking for ways, when we think our child is gifted, it is not because we assume, because we are told continuously by people, coaches, teachers we meet that they are so. when we look at our kids, we look at them without any adjectives. And adjectives are added genuinely by people who mentor them and we learn a lot about our kids from them and also on our interaction.

So pls do help parents when they are in unique situations rather than judging that parent just think kids are gifted.

Are you an Asian family, by chance?

I bet - one of the Tiger Moms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all your comments. When teachers in every parent teacher meet say he is extremely advanced for his age, and when they write that even in the GBRS comments, especially in the highlighted skills of math science and social studies, parents will think their kid is advanced. Further when some coaches for STEM or even activities like Music, singing say he amazes them, parents make conclusions and sometimes you never realize your kids and only know when others tell you.

We are awaiting his WISC scores,the report. But the meeting after the test, the psychologist said, “his thinking and application skills is excellent, his factual reasoning is very high and sometimes those kids with high factual skills fair less on verbal creative writing”.

Anyway, whoever is just making assumptions on our kids, please stop. I am not defending any parent here, If you have a suggestion, pls do, we also struggle as a parent, and it hurts when your kid says it is boring at school, they only tell you about solid liquid gases, and I want to experiment on it, I want to ask my teacher why we can’t hold gas but can hold ice cube, but all other kids scream, and my teacher can’t answer me and just ask me to write this. We are looking for ways, when we think our child is gifted, it is not because we assume, because we are told continuously by people, coaches, teachers we meet that they are so. when we look at our kids, we look at them without any adjectives. And adjectives are added genuinely by people who mentor them and we learn a lot about our kids from them and also on our interaction.

So pls do help parents when they are in unique situations rather than judging that parent just think kids are gifted.

Are you an Asian family, by chance?

I bet - one of the Tiger Moms

It’s funny how people can easily pass comments and judge. You can continue, but just because the perosn whonis writing is interested and trying to help the kid, it does not make her/him tiger parent. The parent was only asking suggestions to help the kid, not to hear your evaluation of her/him. Probably you should be in the committee to decide if kids get through AAP or not based on tiger mom or not ? you seem to know parents very well. Or you tried to be a tiger mom but you could not cope up

[Anonymous]

I think if you are that thin-skinned, OP, that DCUM is not the right place to ask for advice.

The only good thing about this place is you do get brutal honesty.

[Anonymous]

OP, I have not read all responses but IF your child is everything you say, and I can’t say I have any real reason to doubt he is, then your child is advanced beyond AAP anyway. You can fight to get your child in, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but again if all is true I’m not sure you will be satisfied with even the AAP level IV program. Just something to consider.

[Anonymous]

I think they know you prepped. Did he attend a special prep class? Maybe they got the class roster.

[Anonymous]

Wait did I miss any explanation? They always do a GBRS - why does this parent say there isn’t one this year??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait did I miss any explanation? They always do a GBRS - why does this parent say there isn’t one this year??

They don’t have a scoring of 4-16.

But I think all parents are seeing how many times consisten, frequently is used.

I checked and he is 3C and 1F. Does anyone know if there is even a cut off for GBRS without the total
Score rating?

[Anonymous]

I know another parent whose kid’s GBRS was 1C and 3F and got rejected. Does anyone know the cut off?

[Anonymous]

Even if OP is wildly exaggerating about her child (which makes no sense on an anonymous forum, because what would be the point of that?) those score are just so high, that I am very surprised he didn't get in on those alone.

And so many comments on this forum, not just this thread, about how the committee assumes prepping! That seems like such a leap to make based on a file. I mean, prepping happens, but to make the big of an assumption seems wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if OP is wildly exaggerating about her child (which makes no sense on an anonymous forum, because what would be the point of that?) those score are just so high, that I am very surprised he didn't get in on those alone.

And so many comments on this forum, not just this thread, about how the committee assumes prepping! That seems like such a leap to make based on a file. I mean, prepping happens, but to make the big of an assumption seems wrong.

His scores on GBRS were 3C and 1F

[Anonymous]

I believe you OP. I’ll tell you my own experience. I have a TJ kid who scored full points on nnat and gbrs and went on to attend aap with no parental referral. Still I kept hearing from my kid SCHOOL IS BORING until 7th grade. The aap in current FCPS is totally watered down and not worth your fight. Aap teachers are not helping the really advanced kids. Do supplements on your own and your kid will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Everyone asking about a GBRS cutoff- there never was any true cutoff, even when it was a numerical GBRS. People here had ideas of what was good but there has never been any cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can they tell the difference between hot housed and normal kids, lol?

My friend's son got in with very low scores but a decent GBRS. Why is he more "deserving" than someone like OP's kid? The whole process is nuts.

Idk. This poster here says there was discrepancy between school work samples and home work samples. That probably raised a red flag.
Other things I would personally look at include whether outside activities are Kahn academy type things or more child led activities such as Odyssey of the Mind.

How could a second grader be doing Odyssey of the Mind? It is not even offered at most schools, and then for older grades.

Most people don't list Kumon, prep schools, tutoring on their kids' applications.

Oh, it’s offered at our based school and center school starting in K. I didn’t realize it is not like that through FCPS.

My sons school in FCPS had Odyessy of the Mind for First graders this year. We heard about it to late but will look into it next year, it sounds cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I think you need to relax for both your child and your family.. I know it is disappointing that your child with what appears to be scores high enough for admission to the program did not get it. I get that it seems unfair that people with lower test scores got it. What was the GBRS? All consistently, 3 C, 1F? Most of the posts with high score rejects did not know the GBRS so maybe that was the weak link in your file? I think the admission process is completely hit or miss. I truly have no idea how the admission committee makes their decision when everything in the file is strong and candidates still get rejected.

Having said that, AAP is not the end all be all of your child's education. Being in AAP does not mean that the child is set up for success and being in gen ed does not mean that the kids is doomed to be a second class academic citizen. There will be gen ed kids who surpass some of the AAP kids by the time high school graduation comes around. I have an older child in AAP and a younger child who will start next year. Honestly, AAP is not that advanced. The only subject that is more accelerated is the math and it still may not be enough for some kids. The work in the other subjects is just a little different not more accelerated. I don't think the program as it currently stands really serves gifted kids. We still supplement outside of school depending on the child's interests. I don't think any education will 100% meet your child's needs. We just made the decision that public school with outside supplementation made the best sense for our kids. I just don't think the private school around here are worth the money unless the primary benefit for your child is the small classes. Our calculus might be different if we were talking about some of the New England private schools.

I think people have an unrealistic expectation of AAP. It is not going to make a bored unengaged gifted child suddenly engaged with the school. It may help some kids but still not serve others. But you really have to look at your kid and see what type of education will serve him best. OP it sounds like your child really likes experiential learning and doing things hands on. In that case, your child might be better served in private school where they can provide more hands on learning experiences to your child because AAP is not going to be that different than gened in that regard. I do think the science education in public school elementary school is particularly weak. So if this is where your child thrives he might like the learning environment at a private school better.

I think you should still appeal but don't think that AAP is going to fix your kid being bored and unengaged at school, especially if the child is extremely gifted. You have to figure out what is causing the disengagement and address that. Being gifted is not usually the sole reason that the kid is disengaged. Know that your kids can be extremely successful with or without AAP as long as his educational needs are supported.

OP, have you read this post? I think this sums up things very nicely and might make you feel better about things.