Possible AAP changes at ES

[Anonymous]

Received word of a meeting coming up highlighting some proposed changes to "class placement" for next year. Some of the bulleted items include:

1. Additional classroom for student receiving Level IV services (i.e. a 2nd AAP classroom)
2. Teachers 3-6th provide Level IV curriculum to ALL (yes, it was capitalized)
3. Specific differentiation to groups

the Why? Access and Opportunity to ALL students (again, capitalized)

Our school is local level IV and our child is already in AAP, so it shouldn't affect us. Just wondering if there are other ES's going the same route. I have heard from some parents that there are a multitude of kids designated as "Level III" but the AAP can't accommodate them all (the AART teacher has taken on the load), so maybe that's what's driving it?

[Anonymous]

Some schools already teach the AAP curriculum (except for Advanced Math) to all students. The critical thinking teaching is excellent at our school and a parent who has kids in both AAP and Gen Ed is frustrated that the program is not rolled out to the entire school. She admits that it would have to be differentiated, with different texts, etc., for students who are not above grade level.

It could be done but it would be asking a lot of the teachers, IMO, the AAP teachers are experienced at teaching their materials and the gen ed teachers are experienced at teaching their materials but new materials would have to be generated to do it properly.

[Anonymous]

I think a good number of kids would benefit from the deeper dive into Social Studies and Science. There are schools already doing this. Even better would be kids changing classrooms for each subject so that the kids who are ready for more are all grouped together, and large enough, to be in their own group working with a Teacher and the kids who are not can be working with the other Teachers at a pace that makes sense. Kind of like Advanced Math, but do it for LA, Science, and Social Studies as well.

[Anonymous]

NP at the same school and I'm very confused by this too and hoping for clarification at the meeting next week. There is just NO WAY that there are enough kids to have another AAP class in every grade unless they want segregated classrooms. Is this 1960?

[Anonymous]

It would be nice to provide access to AAP curriculum for all the elementary students (similar to Honors and AP courses in high school) and students could opt for it provide some some pre-reqs are met and/or teacher recommendations. I never liked AAP selections based some test kids take in 1st and 2nd grades.

[Anonymous]

Would some Level3 kids push into the Level4 classroom instead of pull-outs with the AART? I can see that.

I would not be in favor of dumbing down the AAP curriculum for all students. Flame me if you will.

[Anonymous]

Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

What qualifies them as truly gifted? Test scores? Back to square 1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

What qualifies them as truly gifted? Test scores? Back to square 1.

Test scores much higher than the current cut-offs, for one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Received word of a meeting coming up highlighting some proposed changes to "class placement" for next year. Some of the bulleted items include:

1. Additional classroom for student receiving Level IV services (i.e. a 2nd AAP classroom)
2. Teachers 3-6th provide Level IV curriculum to ALL (yes, it was capitalized)
3. Specific differentiation to groups

the Why? Access and Opportunity to ALL students (again, capitalized)

Our school is local level IV and our child is already in AAP, so it shouldn't affect us. Just wondering if there are other ES's going the same route. I have heard from some parents that there are a multitude of kids designated as "Level III" but the AAP can't accommodate them all (the AART teacher has taken on the load), so maybe that's what's driving it?

Is one additional classroom only for students receiving level 2 services in grade 2? Currently they are in same classroom as all other kids.
Fees kids receiving level 2 services in grade 2 do not get selected for level IV services. How will that work out? Level IV starts from grade 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

What qualifies them as truly gifted? Test scores? Back to square 1.

Test scores much higher than the current cut-offs, for one.

A 132 on a test such as the Cogat or NNAT reasonably identifies gifted students. The complaints are about the students who are admitted who scored much lower on both tests and on all subsections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

What qualifies them as truly gifted? Test scores? Back to square 1.

Test scores much higher than the current cut-offs, for one.

A 132 on a test such as the Cogat or NNAT reasonably identifies gifted students. The complaints are about the students who are admitted who scored much lower on both tests and on all subsections.

It honestly doesn’t. Mine had a CogAT of 138. She’s smart. She’s not gifted. She has a friend who had a perfect score on the NNAT. Also not gifted. The gifted kids I know (handful) that have taken the CogAT scored in the 150s (without any prep). You’d probably need to use IQ tests to identify most of them.

I have a friend elsewhere in the country, whose daughter was screened for gifted services after she was identified by her teachers. They don’t have this sort of let’s give everyone an ability test and call it done approach, and since the screening test is an IQ test, is much more likely to actually identify giftedness.

[Anonymous]

Will both classrooms be teaching advanced math? Or will only the advanced math kids be getting those services? Will the designated level IV students be divided equally between both classrooms?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make opt-in AAP available for all, but then create a true gifted program for truly gifted--not just bright--kids.

What qualifies them as truly gifted? Test scores? Back to square 1.

Test scores much higher than the current cut-offs, for one.

A 132 on a test such as the Cogat or NNAT reasonably identifies gifted students. The complaints are about the students who are admitted who scored much lower on both tests and on all subsections.

It honestly doesn’t. Mine had a CogAT of 138. She’s smart. She’s not gifted. She has a friend who had a perfect score on the NNAT. Also not gifted. The gifted kids I know (handful) that have taken the CogAT scored in the 150s (without any prep). You’d probably need to use IQ tests to identify most of them.

I have a friend elsewhere in the country, whose daughter was screened for gifted services after she was identified by her teachers. They don’t have this sort of let’s give everyone an ability test and call it done approach, and since the screening test is an IQ test, is much more likely to actually identify giftedness.

I'm sorry that you don't realize what gifted means or that your DD is actually quite smart, compared to the population at large and compared to the highly educated population of Fairfax County and other similarly-highly educated areas.

Also, the Fairfax County approach of testing every child is great compared with systems that only test students identified by teachers. Teachers can be good at spotting gifted kids, but they miss some. Those kids are just out of luck, in that system. You apparently wouldn't identify them either...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be nice to provide access to AAP curriculum for all the elementary students (similar to Honors and AP courses in high school) and students could opt for it provide some some pre-reqs are met and/or teacher recommendations. I never liked AAP selections based some test kids take in 1st and 2nd grades.

+1 to this idea