Reply to Why aren't children re-evaluated for AAP annually?

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Reply to "Why aren't children re-evaluated for AAP annually?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You can evaluate without the use of a CogAT type test. There are SOLs starting in third grade and in class grades and projects. Teachers should be able to evaluate their students and the SOLs should further point out kids who are struggling.

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Except the SOLs are a bit weird for AAP because they are not in great alignment with the accelerated content.  I don't want the AAP teachers to have to focus more on the SOLs than they already do because parents are concerned their kids will be kicked out.  [/quote]

Presumably, that should mean that AAP students should be able to pass them easily. [/quote]

Not really--they have content questions that are about topic areas they didn't study or worked on a year or more ago and they are not in the front of their minds.  Also AAP kids can tend to 'overthink' multiple choice questions (and if you have looked at these they are not the most well-written questions--there's often multiple answers that could be correct if you tend to overthink).  SOLs are not intended to be nor are they good measures of giftedness.[/quote]

They are a good measure of 'advanced' though. For the reading and math SOLs, if a kid is advanced, they should be able to pass. If they can't pass a grade level SOL, then maybe they aren't advanced. [/quote]

Not really.  I just don't think SOLs are good assessments (and my kids do always score pass advanced on them). I would value the teacher's opinion more.  I think I would be okay for a situation where if a kid did not pass the SOL and the teacher recommended it, they be re-evaluated for AAP.  But I think the number of kids in that situation would be vanishingly small based --though that's just based on my own 2 kids'  AAP class experiences.[/quote]

[b]The SOLs are objective.[/b] If the kid can't pass it then they likely don't need AAP (that's the standard the county sets for admission to AAP) and will be adequately served by gen ed. [/quote]

Just because something is "objective" doesn't make it a good measure of whatever you want it to measure.  SoLs were really designed to assess teachers--how well they are teaching the standards of learning, not the individual students potential or ability.  The SOL are tied to taught content not underlying thinking capacity.  Yes, AAP students usually do well on them as these things correlate, but I wouldn't bake that into policy.  They are not great tests and they don't measure advanced abilities well. Using them in this way would also never fly with the state requirements around gifted learners anyway.

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They measure knowledge of content. If a student can't pass something as basic as SOLs there isn't much point in measuring advanced. Look at any of the math or reading content areas and tell me which ones it's reasonable to not expect an advanced kid to know. [/quote]

Look at the actual questions and answers on the test--not the labeled content areas they are supposed to represent.  [/quote]

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