Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op- what kind of instructors are writing letters for him outside of school?

His piano teacher, the instructor for a computer class he took, and a family friend who is an educator who knows him well. I know the last seems too in-house, but she has a lot of experience and her observations are very revealing. If the committee doesn't like it, they can discount it and just look at the other letters.

One of my DC's letters was from an aunt who's an educator and she said so in the letter. Doesn't get more in-house than that. I don't know if the committeed like it or not, but DC got in first round with just barely in-pool test scores.

Anonymous wrote:Op- what kind of instructors are writing letters for him outside of school?

His piano teacher, the instructor for a computer class he took, and a family friend who is an educator who knows him well. I know the last seems too in-house, but she has a lot of experience and her observations are very revealing. If the committee doesn't like it, they can discount it and just look at the other letters.

Information about supporting information you can submit is available in the Parent Information Packet which you can download at - http://www.fcps.edu/is/aap/forms/fcps.shtml

No matter what the test scores are, I'm a firm believer in submitting as much as you can within the limits of what's allowed and without making yourself insane over it. Everything from FCPS says they consider more than just test scores, so give them more than test scores to consider if you can. Our AART advises parents to at least submit the parent questionnaire even if they don't do anything else. Can't hurt, might help.

My kid was a point shy off on Nagliere and CogAt (she's 4th grade) so we parent-referred. We included a couple of work samples, but did not go over-board. I think the most important thing (other than test scores and GBRS) is the parent questionnaire. If kid is just a couple of points off and gets a good GBRS he/she should get in.

Op- what kind of instructors are writing letters for him outside of school?

OP - we are in the same boat. NNAT was a few points shy of what we expect to be the cut-off and we are still waiting on the FFX CoGat.

OP here. I don't know about his FxAT yet. His NNAT was two or three points short of the cutoff. So I figure I'll do the referral just in case.

Anonymous wrote:If the test scores are there you don't need to worry about work samples. Just give the best.

+1

If the test scores are there you don't need to worry about work samples. Just give the best.

I plan to send in a parent referral for my second grader. I think DS actually has a pretty good shot at AAP, but I figure it can't hurt.

In terms of the work samples and letters of commendation, etc., is this a case of "more is better"? I have two strong work samples and will get two good letters from instructors outside of school. I'd rather not dig through papers for more IF the committee is looking for quality over quantity. But if sending the maximum will help, I'll do so.