Anonymous wrote:Back in the 80’s in FCPS, a school would maybe have 4-5 kids in the whole school do gt programs. There was one elementary school for them. Now a school can have half the population in the program. Why they changed the name of the program. It used to be called gifted and talented. These kids now in aap can be neither gifted or talented , just well coached to get in the program.

Back in the 80's kids were tracked in classes. You had the G&T, the advanced kids, the grade level kids, and the struggling kids. We don't track any more. Partly because there are studies that show that kids who are struggling, but not far behind, are motivated to keep up with their peers and do better in a regular classroom. Partly because many of the kids who were in the struggling group came from poor families of color and it looked like classes were segregated. And partly because tracking became a method for wharehousing kids who were struggling instead of trying to teach them.

AAP is the only way to move a child into a more advanced group, which is why so many parents want it. But we can't have a smaller G&T program that serves only 5 kids in a school because of the pressure to get more kids into that group. AAP has been expanded to handle the kids who somewhat advanced, the kids who are advanced, and the G&T. It isn't working great but parents prefer it to the gen ed class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is not about gifted. Really it only leap frogs the students one year ahead in math. It is reliant on parents supplementing to do so. They don’t teach or drill the basic math facts anymore so that is on you. But it’s really nothing that great in AAP. They have to teach the Social Studies curriculum in all classes. And the same holds true with Science. The math is really the only accelerated subject and even it’s not so terrific for all the frantic mess that we hear and see on DCUM. Not even all the AAP students make it into Algebra by 7th grade yet they were suppose to be so accelerated for 4 grades. Even some AAP students make it to Algebra by 7th grade and then get move back a grade. So, the program isn’t great. You are better off doing your own creative and fun supplemental work. You can create your own learning lab at home that’s leaps and bounds more creative and impactful than this program.

We have friends whose kids choose Math 7H over Algebra. The kid would have been fine in Algebra but the parents knew that their child was not excited by math and did not think Multi Variate Calculus as a senior would be a good fit. They knew their child so they pulled him back a year. And there are kids who are not ready for the pace of the work in Algebra 1 H even if they are good at math.

I don't think LIV is all that special. I think it is far more important at lower SES schools where kids who are in the top 20-30% are going to be bored to tears in a classroom where many of the kids are grade levels behind. I think it is nice to have in higher SES classes, but that Advanced Math is the real need.

I know full time AAP families who definitely agreed with your friend for their kids also. Yes full time AAP is important for kids who adore math (my 7th grader in A1H does), but it also serves kids who merely can keep up (my 5th grader meets this definition) and are smart in other ways.

Back in the 80’s in FCPS, a school would maybe have 4-5 kids in the whole school do gt programs. There was one elementary school for them. Now a school can have half the population in the program. Why they changed the name of the program. It used to be called gifted and talented. These kids now in aap can be neither gifted or talented , just well coached to get in the program.

Anonymous wrote:AAP is not about gifted. Really it only leap frogs the students one year ahead in math. It is reliant on parents supplementing to do so. They don’t teach or drill the basic math facts anymore so that is on you. But it’s really nothing that great in AAP. They have to teach the Social Studies curriculum in all classes. And the same holds true with Science. The math is really the only accelerated subject and even it’s not so terrific for all the frantic mess that we hear and see on DCUM. Not even all the AAP students make it into Algebra by 7th grade yet they were suppose to be so accelerated for 4 grades. Even some AAP students make it to Algebra by 7th grade and then get move back a grade. So, the program isn’t great. You are better off doing your own creative and fun supplemental work. You can create your own learning lab at home that’s leaps and bounds more creative and impactful than this program.

We have friends whose kids choose Math 7H over Algebra. The kid would have been fine in Algebra but the parents knew that their child was not excited by math and did not think Multi Variate Calculus as a senior would be a good fit. They knew their child so they pulled him back a year. And there are kids who are not ready for the pace of the work in Algebra 1 H even if they are good at math.

I don't think LIV is all that special. I think it is far more important at lower SES schools where kids who are in the top 20-30% are going to be bored to tears in a classroom where many of the kids are grade levels behind. I think it is nice to have in higher SES classes, but that Advanced Math is the real need.

I volunteer in the classroom/at school a lot. We are at a center school on the eastern side of the county. Our pyramid is not high SES (compared to the western part of the county), but the neighborhood that houses the center school is one of the more well-off neighborhoods in the pyramid (again—this is comparatively).

The difference between the Gen Ed kids and the AAP kids at our school is night and day. High ESL, behavioral issues, and a lot of blank stares. Maybe the Gen Ed curriculum is fine, but if it’s being presented in a classroom of kids who aren’t equipped to learn, no one is going to learn it.

At our school, the “average/bright” neighborhood kids need access to the AAP classroom to escape what’s happening in Gen Ed. Those kids who are denied full time AAP end up going to the local Catholic school, which makes the difference between AAP and Gen Ed even more stark.

I think in a higher SES area you have fewer disruptions in a Gen Ed classroom, which means there is likely not a huge difference between Gen Ed kids with LIII pull-outs and full-time LIV kids.

On the western side of the county, OP’s child (whose math score is low) would be fine in Gen Ed with a pull-out. On the eastern side, I would push hard for AAP.

AAP is not about gifted. Really it only leap frogs the students one year ahead in math. It is reliant on parents supplementing to do so. They don’t teach or drill the basic math facts anymore so that is on you. But it’s really nothing that great in AAP. They have to teach the Social Studies curriculum in all classes. And the same holds true with Science. The math is really the only accelerated subject and even it’s not so terrific for all the frantic mess that we hear and see on DCUM. Not even all the AAP students make it into Algebra by 7th grade yet they were suppose to be so accelerated for 4 grades. Even some AAP students make it to Algebra by 7th grade and then get move back a grade. So, the program isn’t great. You are better off doing your own creative and fun supplemental work. You can create your own learning lab at home that’s leaps and bounds more creative and impactful than this program.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS AAP is about top 20%-30%. You child should be admitted. Did you do parents' Questionnaire?

To 20% at some of the schools around here is pretty close to 99th percentile.

I’m surprised the teacher told op her child was not gifted. I’m guessing op was pushing so teacher had to explain. My meetings with teacher have always been 10-15 min.

A few years ago, my very bright 2nd grader got rejected despite very high marks and GBRS. I was told to appeal by teacher and AART and given instructions in less than five minutes. No one talked of giftedness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher spent 25 minutes telling us how our daughter is very bright but she’s not gifted. She gave examples that I don’t think were a proper interpretation of gifted vs just a bright child. It was pretty upsetting. We clearly have a different impression vs the classroom teacher and yes maybe biased but we definitely know our DD better than the teacher. Nnat 99% cogat I believe was 134. Iready reading 99% iready math 89%. In pool but did not get it but I did appeal.

I thought part of AAP was the potential for high achievement. I’m disappointed in the teachers impression. Are all kids truly geniuses?

Go get an IQ test for your daughter and include the result in the appeal package.

Or work on her math skills.

It appears that she tool the iReady seriously. The iReady's main flaw is that kids rush through it and the scores are not accurate. For kids who don't rush through it and make their best effort, the iReady helps identify gaps that need to be looked at and where kids are ahead. Kids scoring in the high 90th percentile are kids who are ahead in math. They are the ones who get enough grade level questions correct that they start to get the next grade level questions. The more of those that they get correct, the higher the score. A kid in the 99th percentile is showing that they understand concepts several grade levels above their current grade. That is a kid that belongs in Advanced Math, according tot he test.

An 89th percentile in math is a kid who is understanding grade level math and is maybe a bit ahead but not really advanced in math. There is nothing wrong with that. Is the OP seeing her daughter loving math and farther ahead then what the test says or the Teacher is seeing? If so, include that in the appeal.

My bright, not necessarily gifted, 2nd grader was admitted to AAP. She scored 89th percentile in math in first grade. We had never done math outside of school. I knew she had to score higher to get into AAP. Over the summer, we got a math workbook at Barnes and nobles. We did very basic addition, subtraction and easy multiplication. She scored 98th percentile on fall math iready and 719 out of 720 on the VALLS. She loves to read.

AAP is basically all the kids who are capable of learning at a slightly faster pace than gened with only real difference in math. If your child is not advanced in math, that child could be in not advanced math class. If child is not in full time AAP, the kids attend the AAP math class. OP’s child wouldn’t need to be in AAP math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS AAP is about top 20%-30%. You child should be admitted. Did you do parents' Questionnaire?

It depends on the school. At a school with a large Asian population, OP's child is unlikely to get in.

OP said that her kid was in-pool. It's probably not a super high SES school.

A 134 CoGAT/NNAT is in the 99th percentile but would not be in-pool in many of the high SES ES. It would be in a lot of MC ES. A 134 is a high score and a great score, DS had a 135. He had been tested by the school for some issues in K and those scores had his Teachers amazed because of how high they were, I am assuming they were in line with the CoGAT/NNAT. It is plenty smart in the eyes of a lot of educators. This is probably one of the few places where you say “My kid scored in the 99th percentile” and people ask “What were the decimals?”

I think the lower math iReady is the reason OPs kid wasn’t initially accepted, the Committee probably thought LIII was more than enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS AAP is about top 20%-30%. You child should be admitted. Did you do parents' Questionnaire?

It depends on the school. At a school with a large Asian population, OP's child is unlikely to get in.

OP said that her kid was in-pool. It's probably not a super high SES school.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS AAP is about top 20%-30%. You child should be admitted. Did you do parents' Questionnaire?

It depends on the school. At a school with a large Asian population, OP's child is unlikely to get in.

Oh gosh, no it's absolutely NOT a gifted program. In fact, with the new HOPE rating and the emphasis put on that by the committee, it is purely a popularity contest. If the teacher doesn't like your child, then they won't get in. We also go to a high achieving school - my child who gets 99th percentile on iready tests and 132+ NNAT and COGAT didn't get in to AAP in 3rd or on appeal and we're just like f* it, she'll be a year behind the fake advanced kids in math and there's no other difference at all in the curriculum. We'll probably apply again in 6th grade to see if she can get into AAP classes in middle school solely because of the cohort.

I don’t know if this is helpful, but here goes. I’m a pretty smart guy. Not a genius, but pretty smart. I did very well at a hard college in a difficult program. I got a 760 in the math section of the SAT in the old days. I think my IQ is 138, or so. I’ve been around a lot of smart people. Like a lot of really smart people. I have encountered one person who I think is a legitimate genius. One person. There aren’t that many of them out there.

FCPS AAP is about top 20%-30%. You child should be admitted. Did you do parents' Questionnaire?