Why do parents go through great lengths to get their children into AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really wish someone who is in top 50 school and was in Gen Ed classes, show up here and tell how AAP is not everything to be in a top school.

You can decline AAP for your child as a protest against the "AAP parent" mentality. Then in 20 years, your DC can come post on these threads and say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's a travesty that AAP demographics do not reflect the County demographics for blacks and Hispanic students. If TJ is headed in that direction, AAP certainly should make more progress or just have one system.

This is why I think AAP should be open to all. If you can keep up and make an A/B in the course, you get to stay. I feel like no one is pushing gen-ed kids to do better.

Instead, county policy is that homework should not be graded because some kids won't have family that is pushing their kids to do their homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Gen Ed were truly Gen Ed, i.e., a majority of the student population in any school, then Gen Ed would improve and not accorded a stigma. In Westchester County, NY, gifted or accelerated programs or for the true top 5%, not just the average Fairfax County household with a median HHI > $150k.

This is the answer. Should really be top 2%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Gen Ed were truly Gen Ed, i.e., a majority of the student population in any school, then Gen Ed would improve and not accorded a stigma. In Westchester County, NY, gifted or accelerated programs or for the true top 5%, not just the average Fairfax County household with a median HHI > $150k.

This is the answer. Should really be top 2%.

isn't this how it used to be in FCPS? when i was coming through (many moons ago), the GT classes were max 20 students and there were only center programs. some years there weren't enough for a full class and multiple grades would be sandwiched together for a slightly larger GT class (like a 4th/5th class of 25 students, for example).

i wonder why it changed. it seems like the push to expand GT (now AAP) has actually watered down curriculum across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Gen Ed were truly Gen Ed, i.e., a majority of the student population in any school, then Gen Ed would improve and not accorded a stigma. In Westchester County, NY, gifted or accelerated programs or for the true top 5%, not just the average Fairfax County household with a median HHI > $150k.

This is the answer. Should really be top 2%.

isn't this how it used to be in FCPS? when i was coming through (many moons ago), the GT classes were max 20 students and there were only center programs. some years there weren't enough for a full class and multiple grades would be sandwiched together for a slightly larger GT class (like a 4th/5th class of 25 students, for example).

i wonder why it changed. it seems like the push to expand GT (now AAP) has actually watered down curriculum across the board.

The AAP progam has always been larger than the top 2% or top 5%. It was originally designed to capture those students and then to add in more students to provide a large enough cohort to form the classes. It was originally around the top 10% and has been significantly expanded in an effort to reach more URMs. The effort to expand the program has watered down the GT curriculum but the watering down of gen ed has been for other reasons. While parents like to blame that on AAP, too, that's mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Gen Ed were truly Gen Ed, i.e., a majority of the student population in any school, then Gen Ed would improve and not accorded a stigma. In Westchester County, NY, gifted or accelerated programs or for the true top 5%, not just the average Fairfax County household with a median HHI > $150k.

This is the answer. Should really be top 2%.

isn't this how it used to be in FCPS? when i was coming through (many moons ago), the GT classes were max 20 students and there were only center programs. some years there weren't enough for a full class and multiple grades would be sandwiched together for a slightly larger GT class (like a 4th/5th class of 25 students, for example).

i wonder why it changed. it seems like the push to expand GT (now AAP) has actually watered down curriculum across the board.

Yes, it did used to be more exclusive and more rigorous:

http://www.fcag.org/gtfcps.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most parents around here were top students themselves.

Thanks for the laugh.