AAP diversity?

[Anonymous]

My kid is the only Latino kid in his AAP class. The AAP class is majority Asian/South Asian.

It hasn't made a difference to him. Being the only Latino parent feels a bit strange, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
To be fair, the OP asked specifically about racial diversity, the nationality of the child was not mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:My adopted child is half-Hispanic and has brown skin. In choosing a school, I have been careful to find an environment where DC would be surrounded by children from a diverse racial background, even while I've been looking for positive role models across the board.

With the AAP program starting next year, I'm worried that the children accepted will end up being all white or asian, leaving DC as an outsider. Are there any experiences folks would care to share about diversity in the AAP program? Ours would be a new program starting next year, so I have no previous experience to base a decision on. Looking for comments across all programs...

Hispanic is not a race either

[Anonymous]

OP, the program at our center is pretty diverse though there are few African-American kids (but the local area the center serves has few African-American families living in it, so the school is reflecting that fact).

I wanted to add, as parent of an older kid, that you'll find your child is going to be fine whatever the makeup of his classes. That makeup will change and change again over the years, and you cannot choose or even influence it -- you might have some choice now, at the start of AAP, but after that you really can't choose his schools or classes based on this, and it's out of your hands. I definitely would not keep a kid out of AAP just because of concern that he might not have many peers who look like him; from what I have seen (and I spend a lot of time in our school volunteering and working directly with AAP kids), kids really don't focus on this.

[Anonymous]

OP here -- to all posters, thank you very kindly for sharing your experiences, as well as for your words of wisdom! In particular, pp, thank you!

[Anonymous]

At AAP meeting at Churchill Road ES this year, there was not a single AA or Hispanic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At AAP meeting at Churchill Road ES this year, there was not a single AA or Hispanic.

It depends on the center and the demographics of the schools that feed into the center. At DC's center there are quite a few AA and Hispanic kids.

[Anonymous]

Do children of underrepresented populations (Hispanics and African-Americans in particular) receive preference in the process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do children of underrepresented populations (Hispanics and African-Americans in particular) receive preference in the process?

No. It's done by test scores first and foremost. I am not aware of any part of AAP that takes race into consideration for admission.
Anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do children of underrepresented populations (Hispanics and African-Americans in particular) receive preference in the process?

No -- there is no Affirmative Action...
However there is no quota, any qualified kid can get in. So the fact that a large percentage of Asians get in, does not decrease the number of Hispanics or AA who qualify.

[Anonymous]

14:32 here. I was just curious because reading the AAP threads there seems to be some contradiction. Quotas were out years ago, but FCPS Young Scholars is focused on these populations which might lead one to believe FCPS is interested in increasing these populations in this program. It would seem that this might be a factor for 'borderline' applications/scores. Then there's anecdotal information on the board about no AA children at certain AAP centers. I'm not for or against anything, just curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The program is very diverse.

really? my white kid is a minority. Overwhelmingly Asian. Not a shot at them; just a fact.

but is he a German, Italian, Irish, British, Australian, Polish, Czech, Serbian, Greek, Slovakian, Scottish, Russian etc. native or any of those ethnicities and American?

Similarly Asians can be Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Laotian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Cambodian, Indonesian, Burmese etc. or any of those backgrounds and American. To lump all Asians together is silly.


There's plenty of diversity in these schools.

those are nationalities, not races.

And don't be naive. The Asians that dominate AAP are from ony a small handful of those nationalities. [/quote

Americans interpret "nationality" as an ethnicity, when it fact it should be country of citizenship. That's what is says in my passport anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14:32 here. I was just curious because reading the AAP threads there seems to be some contradiction. Quotas were out years ago, but FCPS Young Scholars is focused on these populations which might lead one to believe FCPS is interested in increasing these populations in this program. It would seem that this might be a factor for 'borderline' applications/scores. Then there's anecdotal information on the board about no AA children at certain AAP centers. I'm not for or against anything, just curious.

Although young scholar' focus is listed as underrepresented groups, it's not administered that way. Many Caucasian kids are in young scholars.

[Anonymous]

Surely FCPS releases demographic data on AAP program, doesn't it? Does anyone have the numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surely FCPS releases demographic data on AAP program, doesn't it? Does anyone have the numbers?

It may be part of the AAP Program Review, to be provided to the School Board at their June 10 work session.