Reply to How exactly do children get selected for AAP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Friend’s kid at low SES school. 99 percentile cogat. Rejected AAP. [/quote]

I knew a few kids that were rejected with scores in the 97th - 99th percentile rejected from AAP. All of them appealed and only one got in. Guess which one? The one with scores in the 99th percentile. We're in a mid level SES area btw. 
If you are not an URM scores in the mid/upper 90th percentile will certainly get you in. White/Asian, no chance.[/quote]

This makes me really curious to know what percent of say 2nd graders in FCPS is in this range (90th-99th). It must be the case that 99th is not sufficiently discriminating if a child from a low SES school can score that way and not get in.

Isn't it the case that they need to be in the top 20% at their school? Maybe in a given lower SES school you still may have 30% who score this way on the COGAT. Lower SES doesn't mean most kids are doing poorly. [/quote]
AAP takes around 20% of the FCPS kids.  In the old pool system, with a cutoff of 132 on either the NNAT or CogAT, around 12% of kids were "in pool".  It probably is the case that a kid scoring in the 90th percentile nationally would be on the bubble of being in the top 20% across FCPS.

That being said, the AAP equity report showed that GBRS is much more important than test scores.  Many kids are admitted into AAP with lower test scores, high GBRS, strong commentary in the GBRS form, and solid work samples.  Many kids with 99th percentile test scores are rejected from AAP if the GBRS score is low, the GBRS commentary is weak, or the work samples seem sub-par for AAP.  Thanks to so many kids prepping, the committee seems to assume that if the kid has a 99th percentile score, but the teacher isn't seeing giftedness, the kid is probably prepped.

Also, the AART at my kids' school has flat out acknowledged the randomness of the process.  Every year, some kids from my kids' school are admitted with nothing whatsoever in the AAP packet suggesting AAP placement.  Also, every year, some kids that the AART thought were obvious admits with very strong packets get rejected.  If the school is supporting your kid for AAP placement, but the kid gets rejected, the AART suggested reapplying and appealing each year.  Eventually, any kid who has the school's support will get in.   [/quote]

This is very helpful, thanks. I realize that I still lack some basic understanding of the process. What percentage at each school automatically gets a packet? And with that, goes GBRS at minimum and more if parents want to put in work samples, etc? And in additions, parents and teachers can refer those who are not in pool? Can teachers ever remove a child who is in pool from consideration?

Also you mention the committee could reason that if the teacher isn't seeing giftedness, the kid is probably prepped and they thus reject the kid, but my understanding is that it's not about giftedness so much as readiness for more advanced work (truly gifted would be a small %). If a child can be prepped to obtain stellar scores on these tests, I'd think it'd be unlikely that they'd be completely unprepared for advanced work? Not that I'm looking to intensively prep my kid because that sounds exhausting and would not be something DC would go for anyway. [/quote]

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