Is Level III even remotely like Level IV?

[Anonymous]

I'm reading old threads and my sense is that Level III could be as little as a one-hour a week pull out and is not related to math, for which placement into an advanced stream is determined separately. This doesn't sound awesome. If a child is at a center, would they likely do their Level III services with Level IV kids?

I also saw that some schools have a lot of kids in Level II/III and some not many at all. Anyone have any idea why?

[Anonymous]

Each school determines LII and LIII eligibility using their own standards, which is why there is a discrepancy in numbers.

LII at our school wasn’t anything that struck me as useful. DS had a special reading group and extra math work sheets. It did not sound like he had any specialized instruction or enrichment.

LIII is an hour a week pull out. DS likes it, they do some cool projects and discuss topics in greater depth. I know he has had classmates drop out of LIII because the parents did not want to to deal with finishing the work that the kid didn’t finish from their regular class at home.

He does Advanced Math as well which became it’s own class in 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

My child was in L3 before full-time L4. It was a one-hour weekly pull-out mainly focused on language arts and creative thinking.

[Anonymous]

OP again. Thanks for these responses so far. Level III sounds nice but so minimal. I guess understanding options for advanced math and science are of more interest to me.

From what I gather from reading previous threads, it varies when exactly advance math becomes an option (3rd or 5th grade) and criteria for admittance also varies, and also it's not guaranteed that your child will be able to access it if there is not space and other children are ahead in the queue (level IV kids). I might be confused about this last bit so clarification would be appreciated. Thanks! I am most concerned about whether a child who is not in level IV will be able to consistently access advanced subjects if they are flagged for them.

[Anonymous]

Two years ago my kid got maybe a dozen pull outs over the course of the year because the teacher had conflicts or other priorities. Last year we declined because pull outs would have been during language arts. To OP's concern, advanced math at our school is LLIV math and LA quality depends on the teacher.

[Anonymous]

When advanced math becomes avaible depends on the school and you need to ask them. It may be that schools without LLIV start advanced Math in 5th grade because it was not available at our school until 5th which is not a LLIV school.

[Anonymous]

As for science, in our experience it was barely taught except for 5th grade where they crammed for the sol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When advanced math becomes avaible depends on the school and you need to ask them. It may be that schools without LLIV start advanced Math in 5th grade because it was not available at our school until 5th which is not a LLIV school.

OP here. I hadn't thought about this but now it makes me wonder--do all schools that start advanced math in 3rd grade have LLIV? Or are they centers? Most are one or the other, but it sounds like a lot have experienced advanced math starting in 5th grade.

And same for science--more likely to start earlier if it's LLIV and/or a center? Science definitely starts in third grade if kids are in LIV right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When advanced math becomes avaible depends on the school and you need to ask them. It may be that schools without LLIV start advanced Math in 5th grade because it was not available at our school until 5th which is not a LLIV school.

OP here. I hadn't thought about this but now it makes me wonder--do all schools that start advanced math in 3rd grade have LLIV? Or are they centers? Most are one or the other, but it sounds like a lot have experienced advanced math starting in 5th grade.

And same for science--more likely to start earlier if it's LLIV and/or a center? Science definitely starts in third grade if kids are in LIV right?

No. They'll have a class they call science, but that starts before third grade. At our school its in an every other day rotation with history/social studies. In 4th where there is a history SOL, it got skipped - a lot. In 5th where there was a science SOL, it never got skipped. In 6th, math and LA can eat into it because it's time where the kids are with their classroom teacher and easier to reallocate than time when they are with a specials teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When advanced math becomes avaible depends on the school and you need to ask them. It may be that schools without LLIV start advanced Math in 5th grade because it was not available at our school until 5th which is not a LLIV school.

Same.

[Anonymous]

Level 3 students can be principal placed at a Local Level 4 school and get the AAP curriculum. I have a handful in my class each year.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on if you are at a center school or local.

I find that a local school - if your child is designated as a Level 3, they may be principal placed into the Level 4 class, full time, to even out the numbers. This is the best case scenario. You get the benefit of Level 4 without the official designation. Downside, it's a year by year decision. If you don't get placed into the Level 4 class, you are usually pulled into the advanced class for the one subject you child is entitled too and then goes back to their original class.

If you are in a Center school - only AAP kids are allowed the Level 4 classes. The principal does not have any discretion to pupil place kids to even out the numbers. However, a Level 3 kid could come in for math and then leave to go back to their own class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on if you are at a center school or local.

I find that a local school - if your child is designated as a Level 3, they may be principal placed into the Level 4 class, full time, to even out the numbers. This is the best case scenario. You get the benefit of Level 4 without the official designation. Downside, it's a year by year decision. If you don't get placed into the Level 4 class, you are usually pulled into the advanced class for the one subject you child is entitled too and then goes back to their original class.

If you are in a Center school - only AAP kids are allowed the Level 4 classes. The principal does not have any discretion to pupil place kids to even out the numbers. However, a Level 3 kid could come in for math and then leave to go back to their own class.

Is this at all FCPS schools or does it depend on the the particular school?