New AAP proposal: what does it mean to me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not happy with the new proposal since my children's middle school AAP is Luther Jackson. We currently have a great AAP Center due to having the Vienna/Louis Archer kids with other AAP kids in our cluster. They created AAP center at Luther Jackson 5 years ago banking on pulling kids from Vienna to make Luther Jackson a better school. This proposal will not work and people will start moving out and Luther Jackson will be back on the bottom again! What is FCPS thinking? I'm against the new proposal! Most of the Vienna AAP kids are happy at Luther Jackson contrary to what people are saying on this board.

Contact your school board rep. She cares!!!

[Anonymous]

I would love to send my kid to a new center at Thoreau instead of the old center at Luther Jackson.

[Anonymous]

Do u really think think Vienna kids make Jackson that much better? I don't know. It makes the school more white, if that means better. We live in Vienna, mosby woods , Jackson, Oakton is our pyramid. DC is in aap, very bright, will succeed wherever. We are white, if that matters, don't think it does, but maybe it would to you.

[Anonymous]

New poster. Yes I do think the Vienna kids make it that much better.

[Anonymous]

I think the Vienna kids give Luther Jackson critical mass. The reason why I prefer Thoreau to Jackson is purly location: Gallows and 50 is a horrible place for a school and has terrible traffic.

[Anonymous]

I agree the Vienna kids give Luther Jackson critical mass. If the Vienna kids go back to Thoreau, they wouldn't have enough students to make two full AAP classes per grade to make for a successful AAP program. FCPS shoud leave the AAP middle school the way it is. Allow kids the choice to either go to a true Center, with critical mass and a full AAP program, or to take local Honors level courses. Don’t limit their choices to only the latter. Lots of Vienna kids made the choice to go to Luther Jackson for the AAP program. Don't take this choice away from them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree the Vienna kids give Luther Jackson critical mass. If the Vienna kids go back to Thoreau, they wouldn't have enough students to make two full AAP classes per grade to make for a successful AAP program. FCPS shoud leave the AAP middle school the way it is. Allow kids the choice to either go to a true Center, with critical mass and a full AAP program, or to take local Honors level courses. Don’t limit their choices to only the latter. Lots of Vienna kids made the choice to go to Luther Jackson for the AAP program. Don't take this choice away from them!

I totally agree. I posted a while back in this conversation as the person asking what it means to middle schools.

My child is at Louise Archer and though we live within easy walking distance to Thoreau, we (and she) want Jackson. As others here note, there will not be enough kids to have an effective, true AAP center at Thoreau starting in September, 2013. I just cannot see these kids getting the same level of teaching next year if they are forced into a brand-new center, cobbled together in less than a year, rather than being able to go to the established center.

I'm going to contact my school board rep and anyone else who'll listen and I urge others to do the same.

[Anonymous]

As a parent of a fifth grader in Archer AAP student, I wonder how much worse the teaching can be? And when you point out problems, instead of discussing the issues, to be told I am doing it correctly. And having the County instructional people tell the school that something is wrong, and the school not correcting it.

Thoreau will have critical mass. there are about 90 kids per grade who will go to thoreau. Jackson will be the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a fifth grader in Archer AAP student, I wonder how much worse the teaching can be? And when you point out problems, instead of discussing the issues, to be told I am doing it correctly. And having the County instructional people tell the school that something is wrong, and the school not correcting it.

Thoreau will have critical mass. there are about 90 kids per grade who will go to thoreau. Jackson will be the problem.

Are you saying that you don't care because it wouldn't be a Thoreau problem? To bad for the "poor" and minority kids at Jackson as long as you get what you want?

[Anonymous]

I am not saying I do not care. I am saying that the problem may be at Jackson rather than Thoreau. However, Oakton is a bigger school than Madison, and should be able to support a middle school AAP program.

I am saying that I prefer to have the AAP program for my daughter at Thoreau than Jackson. Period. Much closer to Vienna, and not as congested. I was not sure if DD was going to go to Jackson as the AAP center, or go back to the base. This will make it easier for me. I am in favor of short commutes. She can walk to Archer, and will walk to Madison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not saying I do not care. I am saying that the problem may be at Jackson rather than Thoreau. However, Oakton is a bigger school than Madison, and should be able to support a middle school AAP program.

I am saying that I prefer to have the AAP program for my daughter at Thoreau than Jackson. Period. Much closer to Vienna, and not as congested. I was not sure if DD was going to go to Jackson as the AAP center, or go back to the base. This will make it easier for me. I am in favor of short commutes. She can walk to Archer, and will walk to Madison.

Carson is in the Oakton pyramid and already has the county's largest middle school AAP program. Not that many Oakton students go to Jackson, which is in the Falls Church pyramid.

[Anonymous]

So what happens to kids like mine who are in Floris, zoned for Carson for Middle and Westfield for High. Carson is our base middle school even though its not in Westfield pyramid, and I live right behind Carson. So would be then have to go to the middle school in Westfield pyramid, and that would be Stone I think? If that happens, I would be so pissed.
Or does this proposal not alter the middle school you are zoned for irrespective of pyramid?

[Anonymous]

I hope the new super does the following...creates pyramids that make sense. Kids should go from ES to MS to HS with the same group of kids. Why some ES go to different MS is unacceptable and then some MS go to different HS. Case in point DC is in AAP at mosby woods. DC will go to jackson for AAP. DCs peers will go to thoreau, rocky run or jackson for MS AAP. That is 3 different MS for the AAP kids. From jackson, DC will go to Oakton. However, most of Jackson will go to Falls Church. Makes more sense if ES and all the AAP in the ES moved on to the same MS. ALL the MS kids, including AAP would move on to the same HS. A basic concept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the new super does the following...creates pyramids that make sense. Kids should go from ES to MS to HS with the same group of kids. Why some ES go to different MS is unacceptable and then some MS go to different HS. Case in point DC is in AAP at mosby woods. DC will go to jackson for AAP. DCs peers will go to thoreau, rocky run or jackson for MS AAP. That is 3 different MS for the AAP kids. From jackson, DC will go to Oakton. However, most of Jackson will go to Falls Church. Makes more sense if ES and all the AAP in the ES moved on to the same MS. ALL the MS kids, including AAP would move on to the same HS. A basic concept.

I read this a lot, but I don't think people realize how difficult it would be.

There are some areas where the MS/HS assignments do match up exactly: Herndon/Herndon, Cooper/Langley, Longfellow/McLean, Glasgow/Stuart, Twain/Edison, Sandburg/West Potomac, Whitman/Mount Vernon, South County/South County, Key/Lee, Irving/West Springfield, Frost/Woodson, Lanier/Fairfax, Liberty/Centreville. In addition, I think all of Stone feeds into Westfield and that all of Rocky Run feeds into Chantilly. It would also be easy enough for FCPS to adjust the boundaries for Marshall and Madison so that all Kilmer kids go to Marshall and all Thoreau kids go to Madison. However, that would still leave FCPS with a lot of elementary schools that are currently split feeders.

The biggest challenges are in the parts of the county served by Hughes, Franklin, Jackson, Rocky Run and Carson MS, and South Lakes, Chantilly, Oakton, Falls Church and Westfield HS. FCPS needs to build a new high school in the Oak Hill area, and then perhaps they can adjust the MS boundaries and create more logical pyramids. At a minimum, they ought to be able to keep a middle school from sending kids to three high schools, which is currently the case at Carson and Franklin.

[Anonymous]

Also, Edison now gets kids from Holmes as well as Twain. FCPS hasn't been able to keep the pyramids in the Annandale area intact since Jefferson was turned into a magnet. They tried to have both Poe and Holmes (the feeder to Jefferson) feed into Annandale, but Annandale ended up over-crowded, and eventually Poe ended up a split Annandale/Falls Church feeder and Holmes became a split Annandale/Edison feeder.