Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

It's a factor, but not necessarily the most important one.

My opinion is that parental determination to get a child into AAP is the most important factor. Parents who are really invested in having their child in AAP are the ones doing test prep, paying for outside enrichment, creating work samples with their kids, assembling impressive portfolios, getting recommendations, making sure that their kids are ahead and stand out, sucking up to the teachers to get a better recommendation, and paying for IQ tests when their kids aren't accepted. Parents who are much less invested in the process won't prep, won't spend much time on the referral, and won't necessarily appeal.

The bright kids I know in gen ed have fairly laid-back parents. The not-so-bright kids I know in AAP seem to have intense parents who were highly aware of AAP starting in kindergarten.

But the Gbrs and work samples are put together by the AART and second grade teacher...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

I don’t think there is any consensus.

It seems like this year there was a large emphasis on GBRS and work samples, and in some cases that was more important to the selection committee than test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

I don’t think there is any consensus.

+1

If PPP wants to draw that conclusion, fine. That's not what I think.

What do you think?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

I don’t think there is any consensus.

+1

If PPP wants to draw that conclusion, fine. That's not what I think.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

No, the consensus is that you have really poor reasoning and critical thinking skills, and that some parents will grasp at anything to lay blame for their child not getting into a program that, in the end, really doesn’t matter but instead makes a parent feel good.

OK, you love general ed classes, great. Keep your children in them. Then why are you lurking and posting on this board?

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

No, the consensus is that you have really poor reasoning and critical thinking skills, and that some parents will grasp at anything to lay blame for their child not getting into a program that, in the end, really doesn’t matter but instead makes a parent feel good.

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

I would say it's hugely important in the kinds of cases that come up here all the time, and the kinds of kids AAP is reportedly trying to reach out to: Very bright, motivated kids who missed the cutoff by a couple points and whose parents didn't understand how parent referral or getting help with the extra testing to appeal works. This is why, in my opinion, schools that have over a certain percentage of ESL/ FRMS kids should have a full-time AART on staff.

As an aside, one of my kid's friends missed the cutoff narrowly. Parents don't speak much English, which is fine because I speak their language and offered to help the mom navigate the appeals process and set up a test at GMU. Everyone was very nice there, but they could not guarantee a bilingual tester (which the kid most likely will not need) or translator to help interpret results (parents WILL need that, and I'll probably just do it myself or see if our parent liaison could take a look). I called and scheduled the appointment myself, because there was no one available to translate when the mom called. Getting a test there is obviously voluntary and they're not required to provide translation services, but I mentioned being somewhat surprised they don't, based on the # of kids in FCPS who use their services and have parents who don't speak great English, and the lady said they hear comments about it all day long. My guess is that this is another piece of why some URM kids aren't even trying to appeal. When we took my kid, whose first language is not English, we went to a tester who was bilingual and it was a very good experience, but it was quite expensive and not very close to home. We could afford it, but there are a lot of parents (like my kid's friend) who are a bit too well-off to receive the fee waiver through the county, but can't come up with more than Mason charges.

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

I don’t think there is any consensus.

Anonymous wrote:So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

And knowing about/caring AAP. While obvious, it needs to be mentioned. None of my sons teachers have mentioned AAP, it is not something I have heard the other kids parents discuss. Not sure if they are oblivious or just happy wiht the base school.

So the consensus is the quality of the second grade teacher and AART are the most important factors for getting in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn't . There are tons of services for esl and n
Low income children.

Yeah, except not all the kids in question are ESL or low income. Our neighborhood is solidly middle class and most parents hold at least a bachelor’s degree, but there are exactly four kids, total, on the bus to the AAP center.

Our school is similar. I think we had 5 accepted this year and though we have a 25% FARMS school, the rest of the families I meet are upper middle class - lawyers, government worker, GSA, FBI, software developers, professors at GW, etc. I really think it's that our school is not a center school and doesn't have a culture of putting together referral packets or doing extra testing. By and large people are happy with our school.

We lived in a similar neighborhood previously. Think it was 30% FARMS/ESOL. We always had around 20 kids per year go to AAP center. I wasn’t overly impressed with the AART but the packet she put together for my child was pretty good and my child got in.

We moved to a more affluent neighborhood. 2% FARMS. AART seems knowledgeable but my child’s packet was crap and child was rejected despite having better scores than older sibling in AAP. We are appealing.

I actually think the AART at the school matters. If that person is advocating for a smart URM or FARMS child, AART can put together a great packet and get AAP admission. If AART isn’t doing great exercises and puts together crap work and parent doesn’t submit work samples, your kid may not get in.

My older child had a friend who went to a title 1 60% FARMS school. Very few kids go to AAP from there compared to the 20 or so kids from our old school. That kid was super smart in preschool, far smarter than my child. He is wasting away at a bad school. He is constantly getting in trouble and mom says he is bored and getting bad grades. If he was at our old school, I bet our AART would have gotten him in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn't . There are tons of services for esl and n
Low income children.

Yeah, except not all the kids in question are ESL or low income. Our neighborhood is solidly middle class and most parents hold at least a bachelor’s degree, but there are exactly four kids, total, on the bus to the AAP center.

Our school is similar. I think we had 5 accepted this year and though we have a 25% FARMS school, the rest of the families I meet are upper middle class - lawyers, government worker, GSA, FBI, software developers, professors at GW, etc. I really think it's that our school is not a center school and doesn't have a culture of putting together referral packets or doing extra testing. By and large people are happy with our school.

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn't . There are tons of services for esl and n
Low income children.

Yeah, except not all the kids in question are ESL or low income. Our neighborhood is solidly middle class and most parents hold at least a bachelor’s degree, but there are exactly four kids, total, on the bus to the AAP center.

Anonymous wrote:It really doesn't . There are tons of services for esl and n
Low income children.

But low income parents tend not to even know about parent referral packets or assume their child should have one. And they certainly don't pay for extra testing like families can do.