Why is the GT program in APS so anemic?

[Anonymous]

It leaves my child, who is 2e (needs support in one area and significant advancement in another) - at a loss with respect to both subjects. APS cannot seem to get it right for either support or acceleration. The “challenge” math is what my kiddo did two years ago.

This is elementary. They refuse to budge or expand on the math. Why is it so anemic? It’s giving me so much panic. This child was previously so far ahead and now is bored and just…depressed. We moved here from out of state and I am aghast. How can they fail to differentiate at all? What was the point of the beginning of year tests? If we move again, this kid will be so behind. Are all APS schools so stubborn? Maybe we could transfer? If your elementary differentiates well, can you plug them?

[Anonymous]

So you spent years accelerating your kid beyond the curriculum and now want APS to create an all-new math curriculum just for your kid? Ha, good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

APS seems to target its curriculum to the middle 50% of students. When students fall outside that band (which is somewhat dependent on whether a school’s address begins with an “N” or an “S”), there’s not much support available. It works for a lot of families, and avoids the divides of the Fairfax AAP program, but it’s far from perfect.

[Anonymous]

APS knows it’s market of chill parents who value short commute and no homework. Parents that want GT left for McLean FFX. It’s a mile away.

[Anonymous]

We don’t have GT. Move to mclean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS knows it’s market of chill parents who value short commute and no homework. Parents that want GT left for McLean FFX. It’s a mile away.

Never in all my years in Arlington have I collectively heard APS parents described as “chill”.

[Anonymous]

Yes, gunner parent, please move to McLean and leave us in peace.

[Anonymous]

My experience with APS is in elementary the focus is much stronger on remediation, which is probably fair and how they should be expending their resources.

What grade is your kid in? Mine is in 3rd and the push in for gifted kids got better at this age. Up until then she was pretty bored.

At the end of the day, public education is a mass product that needs to meet the needs of the most people. If your kid has unique needs in multiple areas and you're not happy with what you're seeing, look into private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS knows it’s market of chill parents who value short commute and no homework. Parents that want GT left for McLean FFX. It’s a mile away.

Never in all my years in Arlington have I collectively heard APS parents described as “chill”.

Talk to some of these Fairfax parents prepping to get into AAP like it's time to apply for Harvard. You will hear the panic in their voices and be glad you live in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused - is your child behind or ahead?

[Anonymous]

IME for a few reasons the GT program is unimpressive.

At most schools APS uses a push-in model, which basically means the RTG helps teachers develop lessons that supposedly scaffold the curriculum for individualized learning. There are few pull-outs where the RTG spends time with a small group of high ability kids to teach content. In many cases, the scaffold is based on things like choice boards, where three options are given to kids to complete for a particular lesson ranging from options that are easy to those that are more challenging. The goal of push-in is that all students benefit from activities like Jacob's Ladder. As a result, delivery of scaffolded academics usually falls upon the teachers who have a range of training and/or interest and/or time to address the needs of high ability kids.

Kids are supposed to be clustered with similarly high ability kids, but the cluster only has to be 5-8 kids because any bigger and you could run the risk of being accused of tracking. When so few in a classroom need that level of differentiation, the teachers are absolutely going to focus on the mid-range and low performers. Those 5 can float along and this was even worse during Covid.

Finally, APS's buzzword is equity. It is not fair to continue to allow certain kids to have a leg up on others because their parents have provided enrichment or they truly are high ability because in most cases that is a delineator between wealthier white kids and poorer brown kids. You can't offer anything to anyone unless you offer it to everyone, in which case it can't be too far advanced because it isn't accessible. Which is kind of the point, but whatever.

[Anonymous]

If you want more challenging schools you move a few miles west to McLean or Falls Church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IME for a few reasons the GT program is unimpressive.

At most schools APS uses a push-in model, which basically means the RTG helps teachers develop lessons that supposedly scaffold the curriculum for individualized learning. There are few pull-outs where the RTG spends time with a small group of high ability kids to teach content. In many cases, the scaffold is based on things like choice boards, where three options are given to kids to complete for a particular lesson ranging from options that are easy to those that are more challenging. The goal of push-in is that all students benefit from activities like Jacob's Ladder. As a result, delivery of scaffolded academics usually falls upon the teachers who have a range of training and/or interest and/or time to address the needs of high ability kids.

Kids are supposed to be clustered with similarly high ability kids, but the cluster only has to be 5-8 kids because any bigger and you could run the risk of being accused of tracking. When so few in a classroom need that level of differentiation, the teachers are absolutely going to focus on the mid-range and low performers. Those 5 can float along and this was even worse during Covid.

Finally, APS's buzzword is equity. It is not fair to continue to allow certain kids to have a leg up on others because their parents have provided enrichment or they truly are high ability because in most cases that is a delineator between wealthier white kids and poorer brown kids. You can't offer anything to anyone unless you offer it to everyone, in which case it can't be too far advanced because it isn't accessible. Which is kind of the point, but whatever.

This

[Anonymous]

To further the above point, the teachers are told to do the impossible. Differentiate and personalize but to everyone all at once so no one is served appropriately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS knows it’s market of chill parents who value short commute and no homework. Parents that want GT left for McLean FFX. It’s a mile away.

Never in all my years in Arlington have I collectively heard APS parents described as “chill”.

So you have never met a FCPS parent.