The difference btw the AAP class and the General Ed class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ I bet they don't think twice about dedicating their evenings and weekends to their kids' sports.

Stop being so mean Susan. BTW, my observation is that the parents who pressure their kids in ECs also pressure them in academics. In this area, many of the jocks are in AAP and advanced classes.

[Anonymous]

OP is correct. AAP is not only a brain drain, taking all the best students out of the population of a school and classroom, leaving mediocre-poor lumped together behind. It's also a parent drain. I used to be volunteer coordinator for my child's ES, and when 3rd grade came and all the AAP kids left, so did all the volunteers. It's time to get rid of AAP. It's good for a handful of people, and bad for the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is correct. AAP is not only a brain drain, taking all the best students out of the population of a school and classroom, leaving mediocre-poor lumped together behind. It's also a parent drain. I used to be volunteer coordinator for my child's ES, and when 3rd grade came and all the AAP kids left, so did all the volunteers. It's time to get rid of AAP. It's good for a handful of people, and bad for the rest of us.

Yes, clearly what is best for our country and society as a whole is to avoid challenging the motivated, hard-working, smartest kids, so that they do not reach their potential. Equity! If family backgrounds/genetics mean that some kids can't work as hard or as well, we shouldn't allow any kids to strive for more. Eventually, we will have total equity. Other countries will eat our lunch, but that's totally worth it to avoid any kind of ability grouping that is "bad for the rest of us."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is correct. AAP is not only a brain drain, taking all the best students out of the population of a school and classroom, leaving mediocre-poor lumped together behind. It's also a parent drain. I used to be volunteer coordinator for my child's ES, and when 3rd grade came and all the AAP kids left, so did all the volunteers. It's time to get rid of AAP. It's good for a handful of people, and bad for the rest of us.

Huh? The parents of your 3rd grade class aren't volunteering enough so you want to get different parents in there to do a better job? Maybe you should change how or what you ask from volunteers instead of trying to get different parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ I bet they don't think twice about dedicating their evenings and weekends to their kids' sports.

DS is in LI and plays a rec sport and does Scouts. It is pretty normal for kids to have extra curricular activities. There is nothing wrong with that.

There are also parents who see school as the schools job and don't get involved in school because that is not their job. Some parents see it as their responsibility to be engaged in school and make sure that they know what their kids are doing and that the Teachers have what they need to work with all the kids. I tend to find that the parents of the kids the LI program fall into the engaged category and that the parents of the kids in Gen Ed tend to be less engaged with school. There is nothing wrong with either approach, they are simply different. And there are parents who are too involved in their kids schooling and parents who are not involved enough, but that happens at every school.

AAP is not a brain drain. There are kids who are ahead who deserve to have a chance to be challenged in school. Since we have decided that tracking is bad, Teachers have kids who are 2 years behind and kids who are ahead. Teachers need to focus on the kids who are behind to help those kids catch up. That means that there is less time for kids who are on grade level and no time for the kids who are ahead. AAP allows kids who are ahead a chance to to be in a classroom where they are engaged. It also reduces the Teachers in the Gen Ed class work load by allowing the Teacher to focus on the kids who are behind and on grade level. If we allowed for tracking, there would not be a need for AAP since the kids who are ahead and above grade level would be in the same class anyway.

But no, I don't want my kid who is ahead to sit in his ES classroom and twiddle his thumbs for 6 years while waiting for MS when he can move into Honors classes and finally be able to be challenged in school. I don't want the kids who are struggling and behind to feel like crap because my kid completes his work quickly and is free reading or coloring or doing whatever the Teacher says that he can do while the other kids are doing the class work. I don't want my kid to turn into a tutor to help other kids because he is done with the work early and has the time, that is not his job.

The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is correct. AAP is not only a brain drain, taking all the best students out of the population of a school and classroom, leaving mediocre-poor lumped together behind. It's also a parent drain. I used to be volunteer coordinator for my child's ES, and when 3rd grade came and all the AAP kids left, so did all the volunteers. It's time to get rid of AAP. It's good for a handful of people, and bad for the rest of us.

First, the kids in AAP are not the "Best students" they are students who are ahead academically for some reason.

Second, kids in Gen Ed are not Meiocre or Poor. They are learnign at a different pace for some reason. For some kids it is because they have learning issues. Some kids mature at a different pace and it takes time for them to learn the foundational material. Some kids parents didn't read to them at home so they started at a different place. That does not make them mediocre or poor students.

Most kids will end up in Honors classes in MS or HS. A large number will take AP classes, regardless of if they were in Gen Ed or AAP. Different kids learn at different paces and that is fine. Calling them "Better" or "mediocre" or "poor"

[Anonymous]

"The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids."

+1
The notion that a single teacher can teach so many different levels of kids in 1 room is what's killing our ES teachers. It's too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids."

+1
The notion that a single teacher can teach so many different levels of kids in 1 room is what's killing our ES teachers. It's too much.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids."

+1
The notion that a single teacher can teach so many different levels of kids in 1 room is what's killing our ES teachers. It's too much.

100%

+100% as a parent

I volunteer at school and the AAP class is so much easier than the GenEd for this reason.

Separate them out. Make it easier for the teachers and for the kids. I’ve never been so broken hearted than to see a child not know addition in second grade because no one could spend the extra time with him to explain help him process it.

I don’t understand how people want to get rid of AAP when it’s the reason the best teachers stay at our school. Our principal is cool with not doing 6-8 levels in one class and understands the need to help teachers. They are doing enough stuff as is- making them teach 6-8 levels doesn’t work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older child is in the LLIV class at our school and my younger child is in 2nd so there is no AAP. We are in a diverse (25% FARMS, lots of immigrant families from all over the world, very mixed income families) school. Both room parents sent out sign up geniuses for almost the exact same things for the class holiday party. The LLIV sign up genius is fill, the 2nd grade one has only had three parents sign up so far.

Let's talk about equity....it's clearly the wealthier families in LLIV who can afford to contribute. Anyone who says AAP doesn't discriminate is a liar, liar, pants on fire.

Of course it does. I know, at LEAST, 6 people whose kids didn't get into AAP w/o additional (paid) testing and appeals. They had the time, money, and knowledge to get their kids in. GMAFB to anyone who says otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids."

+1
The notion that a single teacher can teach so many different levels of kids in 1 room is what's killing our ES teachers. It's too much.

100%

+100% as a parent

I volunteer at school and the AAP class is so much easier than the GenEd for this reason.

Separate them out. Make it easier for the teachers and for the kids. I’ve never been so broken hearted than to see a child not know addition in second grade because no one could spend the extra time with him to explain help him process it.

I don’t understand how people want to get rid of AAP when it’s the reason the best teachers stay at our school. Our principal is cool with not doing 6-8 levels in one class and understands the need to help teachers. They are doing enough stuff as is- making them teach 6-8 levels doesn’t work.

They maybe little robots by I have an opposite opinion. My kid was "gen ed", which fwiw and imo, means nothing as she is smoking the AAP kids in HS. But I digress. I was room parent for most of the ES years and would go in for parties and so forth. Some of them had AAP mix in with the miscreant gen ed kids who were my DC and her classmates. Those AAP kids were anxious, hyper-focused on rules and "that's not fair!", socially awkward (not all but most), and pretty annoying to be around. And it wasn't a one off but every time I had to monitor those kids crafts, games, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Keep AAP but get rid of centers.

[Anonymous]

It's completely involvement. People who spend a lot of time and effort on their kids have smarter kids who do better in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The complaint should be that Teachers are being required to differentiate too much because of how classes are set up and that it benefits no one. The kids who are behind are not catching up. The kids who are on grade level could use more but are not getting it. The kids who are ahead are ignored in the Gen Ed classroom. Teachers cannot teach to 6-8 different levels in the same classroom. It isn't possible. It is burning out the Teachers and it is not helping the kids."

+1
The notion that a single teacher can teach so many different levels of kids in 1 room is what's killing our ES teachers. It's too much.

100%

+1. Please separate kids out by classes!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep AAP but get rid of centers.

You've got it backwards. Keep centers but get rid of Local Level IV.