Is FCPS getting rid of AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind them keeping AAP, but FCPS needs desperately to figure out how to help the students who are bright, solid upper-middle performers who didn't make the cut.

Our kids were kept in general ed, and were bored out of their minds for years. Bringing home a math worksheet with five problems, and they have been doing the same unit for five weeks. Getting to middle school was the best thing that happened to our kids because they could finally take some classes that challenged them to think. Grade school was a long slog of boredom.

Yep, us too.

My kids took Honors classes and thrived nicely....interestingly, there were a lot of AAP kids in those classes too - gasp! - I guess the AAP kids weren't as "elite" as the program makes them out to be.
And yhosr AAP didn't neccessarily do that great.

[Anonymous]

That would also be helped by making “aap” smaller to serve those with actual special needs from being gifted like the old program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God forbid FCPS should try to make AAP accessible to lower SES students instead of making a de facto private school for high SES students. Do you even hear yourself?

de facto private school for UMC families was the whole appeal of this program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind them keeping AAP, but FCPS needs desperately to figure out how to help the students who are bright, solid upper-middle performers who didn't make the cut.

Our kids were kept in general ed, and were bored out of their minds for years. Bringing home a math worksheet with five problems, and they have been doing the same unit for five weeks. Getting to middle school was the best thing that happened to our kids because they could finally take some classes that challenged them to think. Grade school was a long slog of boredom.

OMG. The drama. Your children must have been sobbing every.single.night because they were “kept” in that awful gen ed. 🙄 I guess they read the same Henry & Mudge book all the way through sixth grade. And they only learned the water cycle in science and memorized the 50 states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will this look like? What is the timeline?

I know at our school far less kids are getting into the AAP program already. We are at a high SES school and half the kids used to get into AAP. Now only about 1/4 of the kids get into AAP.

I have a great idea. We can select up to top 10% of each elementary school in the county to participate in the AAP. This way, we give opportunities to all students and not just the wealthy ones. We can increase black and Hispanic students to twice the current level. On top of this, reserve 20% of all the spots for black/Hispanic students to further increase black/Hispanic students and FARMS students.

We only have 5% of Hidpsnic/Black students at our school, so all of them will be in AAP according to your idea. Isn’t this another kind of “look down” when people assume certain races need help with “reserved spot”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind them keeping AAP, but FCPS needs desperately to figure out how to help the students who are bright, solid upper-middle performers who didn't make the cut.

Our kids were kept in general ed, and were bored out of their minds for years. Bringing home a math worksheet with five problems, and they have been doing the same unit for five weeks. Getting to middle school was the best thing that happened to our kids because they could finally take some classes that challenged them to think. Grade school was a long slog of boredom.

Yep, us too.

My kids took Honors classes and thrived nicely....interestingly, there were a lot of AAP kids in those classes too - gasp! - I guess the AAP kids weren't as "elite" as the program makes them out to be.
And yhosr AAP didn't neccessarily do that great.

AAP kids have the choice of AAP classes or Honors classes. Some AAP kids will defer because they don’t want to take all AAP classes, which is required, and so they take Honors instead. Also, some schools don’t have the AAP option and kids might be chosing to attend MS at their base school with friends instead of going to the Center school for the AAP classes.

DS was accepted into AAP and we deferred to stay in Language Immersion. Nothing about the program is “elite.” It is meant to be an outlet for kids who are ahead in school and need more of a challenge. Any parent who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. Plenty of Gen Ed Kids end up in Honors classes in MS and AP/IB classes in HS. The point of AAP is to meet kids where they are and help the kids who are ahead engage more in school with a slightly more advanced curriculum.

[Anonymous]

It'll never happen, but they really need to pair up the solid middle-of-the-road kids w/AAP kids rather than leaving those kids "behind" with the slower kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind them keeping AAP, but FCPS needs desperately to figure out how to help the students who are bright, solid upper-middle performers who didn't make the cut.

Our kids were kept in general ed, and were bored out of their minds for years. Bringing home a math worksheet with five problems, and they have been doing the same unit for five weeks. Getting to middle school was the best thing that happened to our kids because they could finally take some classes that challenged them to think. Grade school was a long slog of boredom.

Agree. We have friends that opted for private but that doesn’t seem right. Our kid was so extremely unchallenged in school because of the wide disparity among their classmates academic levels and thankfully got chosen for AAP.. Once the AAP chosen kids leave for the center school, those that didn’t make the cut are in an even tougher situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Local level iv doesn’t serve the kids who the original center gt program was designed for. They have special needs. FCPS has moved to dilute the program through local programs. They haven’t said they are killing aap but they’re doing it this way.

Several board members consistently rail against serving the needs of these students - Omeish, Andersen, meren and gamarra. Some even dislike young scholars. They only want to serve certain students based on their demographics.

AAP is NOT A GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It'll never happen, but they really need to pair up the solid middle-of-the-road kids w/AAP kids rather than leaving those kids "behind" with the slower kids.

AAP parents will never allow it. Our school started clustering this year for this reason and 1/3 of the AAP kids left for the center. I mean, I'm happy about that because my general ed kid gets a more challenging curriculum and is doing AMAZINGLY well this year, and our school was overcrowded and now it isn't, but there are still kids at the AAP center that are getting a much more privileged education than everyone else. FCPS Equity for everyone except the special rich white and asian kids.

[Anonymous]

If they don’t get rid of it, they need to have kids test into and out of it every school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So your “great idea” isn’t based on need for gifted services but representation?

The local norms for screening pool already addresses some underrrepresentation as do local level iv.

That is a reasonable system if the gifted ed is being done within each school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local level iv doesn’t serve the kids who the original center gt program was designed for. They have special needs. FCPS has moved to dilute the program through local programs. They haven’t said they are killing aap but they’re doing it this way.

Several board members consistently rail against serving the needs of these students - Omeish, Andersen, meren and gamarra. Some even dislike young scholars. They only want to serve certain students based on their demographics.

AAP is NOT A GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM.

DUH. That’s the point. FCPS has diluted services to gifted kids first by creating AAP and then by enlarging it to its bloated meaningless size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they don’t get rid of it, they need to have kids test into and out of it every school year.

That would be a huge windfall for the private diagnosis industry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Local level iv doesn’t serve the kids who the original center gt program was designed for. They have special needs. FCPS has moved to dilute the program through local programs. They haven’t said they are killing aap but they’re doing it this way.

Several board members consistently rail against serving the needs of these students - Omeish, Andersen, meren and gamarra. Some even dislike young scholars. They only want to serve certain students based on their demographics.

AAP is NOT A GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM.

DUH. That’s the point. FCPS has diluted services to gifted kids first by creating AAP and then by enlarging it to its bloated meaningless size.

Then allowing anyone entry with the resources to work the system.