Anonymous wrote:Reading the appeals decisions thread about insane wisc scores getting denied makes me wonder if there is more to the story at FCPS AAP this year.

Does anyone know if race is now being taken into consideration?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP should be abolished if blacks do not make up 20%.

Wrong, we will not rest until it is 199% black

Anonymous wrote:AAP should be abolished if blacks do not make up 20%.

Anonymous wrote:The thing that really bothers me about racial quotas is that they're lumping groups together in a way that absolves them from including Latinx and AAs. In my kid's AAP classes, most of the Hispanic kids are white kids of Spanish origin and not Latinx. Likewise, most of the black kids are African immigrants and not African Americans. In both cases, it's kids from generally privileged groups taking spots that are nominally intended for underprivileged groups.

Anonymous wrote:Hindsight! What was that movie in the 80s where the actor checks off a different ethnicity to get into Harvard?! I'm joking ... but reading that other thread, I'm thinking people may be creatively applying the ethnic profile on themselves and their kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG. Do you even know who “the board” is? It’s 200 teachers that volunteer and get a sub day and spend the whole day at Willow Oaks reading packets. They rotate through over the course of 5 days. I’m an ESOL teacher and I’ve done it every year for 5 years. We aren’t specially trained and we look at the whole package and not just those test scores. We also are told to disregard parent work submitted because it’s often done by them or with a lot of help. We never look at the identifying info. Honestly after reading several hundred, no one cares if it’s a boy or girl, age, grade, etc. it’s draining. You can surmise all you want about the system but I’m here to tell you it’s a complete crapshoot. It has to get 4 yes or 4 no to be completed. Sometimes 3 people say yes, one says no, and then it goes to another reader. It’s a botched system. After completing the packet, your best chance it just to pray. All depends on who reads it and if they are feeling the love. There are also no limited spots (the only time that may come into play is during appeals since classes have been formed by then). Basically, have good scores and make sure the teacher likes your kid for good GBRS. Other than that pray and wait. 🙄

If this is true, then the school work samples are probably the single most important thing. Untrained people are unlikely to appreciate the significance of test scores or gifted traits. The main thing that will leap out at them is neatly done work samples with nice handwriting, good spelling, and pretty artwork. Sloppy work is likely to stick out in a negative way.

What happens to the packages after the 4 'yes' marks? What happens if only a handful of Hispanic or African American students get a 4? What happens if a center school ends up with 2 additional classes because of the reviewers marked too many applicants for 'yes'? The above seems unreasonable given all the ways that it can go wrong and not work out. What the ESOL teacher is probably not aware of is what happens after the packages leave her lap. Like in most other competitive admissions processes, there is probably an executive committee that meets to massage the number of entrants into the program in terms of race, capacity and other factors whether it be for the better or worse for any given individual.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's hard to know who is right. The report doesn't explain the methodology and data tables well.

Anyone with an iota of common sense recognizes that many kids get in who are "below threshold." PP honestly thinks that kids getting in with scores below 132 are quite rare. Just by sheer math, only 1400 kids are in pool, but 2200 get into AAP in each year. The PP won't address that point, though, since it doesn't fit her worldview that almost all kids in AAP have top 2% scores on the CogAT.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Board has been clear they take race into consideration.

It's on the front page of the application as is address school name and languages spoken.

They have goals to admit certain percentages and have discussed it in public meetings.

OMG. Do you even know who “the board” is? It’s 200 teachers that volunteer and get a sub day and spend the whole day at Willow Oaks reading packets. They rotate through over the course of 5 days. I’m an ESOL teacher and I’ve done it every year for 5 years. We aren’t specially trained and we look at the whole package and not just those test scores. We also are told to disregard parent work submitted because it’s often done by them or with a lot of help. We never look at the identifying info. Honestly after reading several hundred, no one cares if it’s a boy or girl, age, grade, etc. it’s draining. You can surmise all you want about the system but I’m here to tell you it’s a complete crapshoot. It has to get 4 yes or 4 no to be completed. Sometimes 3 people say yes, one says no, and then it goes to another reader. It’s a botched system. After completing the packet, your best chance it just to pray. All depends on who reads it and if they are feeling the love. There are also no limited spots (the only time that may come into play is during appeals since classes have been formed by then). Basically, have good scores and make sure the teacher likes your kid for good GBRS. Other than that pray and wait. 🙄

Anonymous wrote:At my school in western Fairfax, a lot of teachers have their own kids with them. Most - a large majority - of those kids are not in AAP. It's actually kind of surprising.