virtual academy 2022-2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The dean of the upper school is fantastic. He worked so hard to create this school from scratch, and did his best to hire the best teachers. Now I have to say my junior has one dud math teacher. But the rest of his AP or advanced courses teachers are solid, and his AP English Comp teacher is particularly excellent. My tween is in middle school and all her teachers are good.

Just to confirm. Are you talking about virtual academy or in person learning at school building? This is with reference to the "upper school"

The virtual academy is split between upper school which is high school and middle school and lower school which is elementary school. So, both those kids are part of the upper school. They also call it an academy and there are deans instead of principals. There are two deans, one for each school.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if they're going to allow enrollment in a single course next semester? Like a kid attends in person, and takes one or two classes virtually?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind your long-term plans and risks as you consider the VA path. MCPS hasn’t identified alternative funding for VA going beyond the 2023-2024 school year (when the ESSER funds expire).

We send kids in person at this point but due to the COVID infections, cold and other reasons, teachers and the kids were on and off for several weeks with subs covering the topics. I can feel for subs who are expected to hit the ground running but kids also notice that they were on their phone most of the time. Kids did what they could but the progress has been very slow this year compared to online learning in 2020-2021 where they focused on the work and progress was much better. We are also considering virtual for 2022-2023 school year. Are there any issues with cohorts for highly abled kids in VA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do kids in the VA get their social needs met? Are there any in person meet ups coordinated?

That is one of the big issues. They formed a parent group this year and held two socials and hope to hold more next year. Everyone is trying but since everything is so new it’s taking time. Some of the grades have had parents pull together things too. In theory you can participate in home school activities but some schools are inclusive and some are not.

That sounds incredibly awkward.

It is. Hopefully it is something that will change next year. Our home school did not allow us to participate so we did outside activities. Other schools worked really hard to include the virtual students.

In time, it will all get worked out. They’ve done a really good job with what they have.

VA does have some clubs that just started at lunch but they are all virtual and an SGA. They are trying and listening to feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The dean of the upper school is fantastic. He worked so hard to create this school from scratch, and did his best to hire the best teachers. Now I have to say my junior has one dud math teacher. But the rest of his AP or advanced courses teachers are solid, and his AP English Comp teacher is particularly excellent. My tween is in middle school and all her teachers are good.

Just to confirm. Are you talking about virtual academy or in person learning at school building? This is with reference to the "upper school"

The virtual academy is split between upper school which is high school and middle school and lower school which is elementary school. So, both those kids are part of the upper school. They also call it an academy and there are deans instead of principals. There are two deans, one for each school.

Thank you for the detailed response.

[Anonymous]

Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just keep in mind your long-term plans and risks as you consider the VA path. MCPS hasn’t identified alternative funding for VA going beyond the 2023-2024 school year (when the ESSER funds expire).

We send kids in person at this point but due to the COVID infections, cold and other reasons, teachers and the kids were on and off for several weeks with subs covering the topics. I can feel for subs who are expected to hit the ground running but kids also notice that they were on their phone most of the time. Kids did what they could but the progress has been very slow this year compared to online learning in 2020-2021 where they focused on the work and progress was much better. We are also considering virtual for 2022-2023 school year. Are there any issues with cohorts for highly abled kids in VA?

We have not seen any issues and they’ve worked hard to keep kids who are on accelerated track on it. They don’t have all the class offerings so you have to be a bit flexible with electives but they have classes our home school does not have and the one we choose has been really good. The stability has been really nice. Things were chaotic for the first month as they kept moving the kids around to reduce class sizes as more staff was hired but after that it’s been very smooth. We had one teacher leave mid year and had some subs but they quickly hired a replacement. It’s been really rare for us to have a sub. It’s very different in terms of academics and class time than last year. It has equal class time this year with the bonus being that the teachers offer extra support after the last class of the day which has been really helpful. Many of the teachers are also very responsive. My kids made a lot of progress this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

I have to say..no student or parents should be in such a situation where they have to wonder what is MCPS plan for highly abled students who were left out in the lottery process. No plan in sight to support these kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

It would be equal to your home school but they do have some kids in Algebra in 6th. Your situation is pretty common. You just have to talk to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

I have to say..no student or parents should be in such a situation where they have to wonder what is MCPS plan for highly abled students who were left out in the lottery process. No plan in sight to support these kids.

My child was left out too. Mcps only offers accelerated math. Kids will be fine. VA has a fantastic middle school computer science teacher. She’s been one of the best teachers if your child is interested in computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

It would be equal to your home school but they do have some kids in Algebra in 6th. Your situation is pretty common. You just have to talk to them.

Who will be best person to contact for this? We applied for VA this week and are waiting to hear back.

Apologize in advance as we are new parents and learning as we go. Any help will be much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

I have to say..no student or parents should be in such a situation where they have to wonder what is MCPS plan for highly abled students who were left out in the lottery process. No plan in sight to support these kids.

My child was left out too. Mcps only offers accelerated math. Kids will be fine. VA has a fantastic middle school computer science teacher. She’s been one of the best teachers if your child is interested in computers.

Very happy to hear this. ours is very much into coding and robotics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

It would be equal to your home school but they do have some kids in Algebra in 6th. Your situation is pretty common. You just have to talk to them.

If it is pretty common, I wonder why don't MCPS fix this so that every child has an opportunity to reach their potential. Isn't that school's primary responsibility? Why introduce not so transparent lottery and deny opportunity for some highly abled students?
I have to wonder if these decisions are politically driven. If that is the case, they will continue to disadvantage some kids to promote others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

It would be equal to your home school but they do have some kids in Algebra in 6th. Your situation is pretty common. You just have to talk to them.

If it is pretty common, I wonder why don't MCPS fix this so that every child has an opportunity to reach their potential. Isn't that school's primary responsibility? Why introduce not so transparent lottery and deny opportunity for some highly abled students?
I have to wonder if these decisions are politically driven. If that is the case, they will continue to disadvantage some kids to promote others.

Lots of threads here on the topic. It makes no sense not to have more gifted programs, especially in middle school. There is no reason to call everything honors and have no real honors classes. But, they aren’t going to fix this so if you want extra for your child, you’ll have to provide it. It hurts regular kids as they are met having their needs met either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let us say if some one from CES with MAP-R and MAP-P 270's were to move to VA for 6th grade, what kind of program rigor can we expect? Due to the lottery system now, did not get into any of the regional or consortium programs. Local school is at the bottom of the ranking list and is not an option

It would be equal to your home school but they do have some kids in Algebra in 6th. Your situation is pretty common. You just have to talk to them.

Who will be best person to contact for this? We applied for VA this week and are waiting to hear back.

Apologize in advance as we are new parents and learning as we go. Any help will be much appreciated.

Wait till you get accepted. I have not heard the timeframe on acceptance but my understanding is they should have the space. Then talk to the counselor as they do the scheduling. They are hard to get in touch with. They do a lot of class changes the first two weeks so if you cannot get it done before school starts they will help that first week or two. This goes for any middle school.