How different is AAP from the GT and AP classes of fcps in the 90's??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about back in the 70's? We moved into FCPS when I was in the middle of 4th grade. Had a horrible 5th grade teacher, she didn't know how to handle me or what to do with me and I was constantly getting notes home. However, by 6th grade they figured out I was just bored.

I was tested - I remember loving that bc it was something different and I got out of class. I also remember being sent to the principals office and asked a lot of what I now know are IQ test type questions. So I'm not sure what the formal process was back then. Anyhow, I was sent to a GT middle school (and it was called GT back in the day)...........and HATED it! There was exactly one class of GT kids and we stood out. MS is not where you want to be so clearly marked as different.

The system was a mess back then, and IMO with w/ 2 kids in an AAP Center school, it's still a mess now. I wish I knew the answer to fixing what ails FCPS.

Back in the 70s! Wow. As an attendee of the practically one room Lorton elementary in the 80s, we can tell stories!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, for starters, the bar is much lower than it used to be. In GT, there was a composite score that had to be reached, making it much more difficult and selective. Nowadays, the appeal process is such that if your child does not make it into the pool (initial cut), parents can simply appeal and almost always get child into AAP. It is no longer a program for just gifted kids, who actually make up a tiny percentage of kids admitted; however, every parent who has a child in AAP says that their child is gifted even if they've just barely made the cutoff. The program is a ridiculous waste of time and money (testing, selection committees, center schools, busing to center schools, etc.) that benefits a very large group of FCPS kids but does nothing for the other large group of kids who remain in Gen Ed.

Are you one poster that continually posts this same complaint over and over again?

Are you the one poster who continually (and falsely) likes to make it appear that only one person feels this way? There are tons of people on this forum who make excellent and valid points about AAP. Whether you like to hear them or not.

I guess tons of people on this forum also have exact same writing styles and exact same choice of words. You sound very familiar. That is all.

Oh, wait! I know you.

You're the one

Who typically writes like this.

As if every response

is a haiku.

Hi!!

I'm not the same poster, but I share the opinion of the earlier poster. So I know there are two of us!

[Anonymous]

I taught 2nd grade in FCPS in the 90s to 2001 and my good friend taught a 3rd grade GT center classes in my same school. Now, my DC is in an AAP Center. It is MUCH easier than it used to be. It was much higher level work and the center teachers didn't go back to do lots of review like they do now. It was actually a little too intense back in the day in terms of homework load but it has become too watered down now.

In my daughter's 4th grade center class this year the teacher has had to do a lot of review because 4 of the 20 kids just got into AAP starting in 4th grade and are behind. I think the parents who refer their child for entry after 3rd grade should have to commit to some tutoring/catch up work in the summer because it's unfair to hold the class back. (Also, perhaps if your self-referred in 3rd grade child truly needed to be in a center than she or he shouldn't need tutoring?)

[Anonymous]

^^ Obviously I shouldn't go to an AAP center with all of my typos. I'm cold at the bus stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, for starters, the bar is much lower than it used to be. In GT, there was a composite score that had to be reached, making it much more difficult and selective. Nowadays, the appeal process is such that if your child does not make it into the pool (initial cut), parents can simply appeal and almost always get child into AAP. It is no longer a program for just gifted kids, who actually make up a tiny percentage of kids admitted; however, every parent who has a child in AAP says that their child is gifted even if they've just barely made the cutoff. The program is a ridiculous waste of time and money (testing, selection committees, center schools, busing to center schools, etc.) that benefits a very large group of FCPS kids but does nothing for the other large group of kids who remain in Gen Ed.

Are you one poster that continually posts this same complaint over and over again?

Are you the one poster who continually (and falsely) likes to make it appear that only one person feels this way? There are tons of people on this forum who make excellent and valid points about AAP. Whether you like to hear them or not.

I guess tons of people on this forum also have exact same writing styles and exact same choice of words. You sound very familiar. That is all.

Oh, wait! I know you.

You're the one

Who typically writes like this.

As if every response

is a haiku.

Hi!!

I'm not the same poster, but I share the opinion of the earlier poster. So I know there are two of us!

You share the opinion that 1) AAP is a ridiculous waste of time and money 2) there appears to be one very angry person who repeatedly posts AAP nowadays bashing rants or 3) that there is a poet among us?

[Anonymous]

Many of us

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, for starters, the bar is much lower than it used to be. In GT, there was a composite score that had to be reached, making it much more difficult and selective. Nowadays, the appeal process is such that if your child does not make it into the pool (initial cut), parents can simply appeal and almost always get child into AAP. It is no longer a program for just gifted kids, who actually make up a tiny percentage of kids admitted; however, every parent who has a child in AAP says that their child is gifted even if they've just barely made the cutoff. The program is a ridiculous waste of time and money (testing, selection committees, center schools, busing to center schools, etc.) that benefits a very large group of FCPS kids but does nothing for the other large group of kids who remain in Gen Ed.

Are you one poster that continually posts this same complaint over and over again?

Are you the one poster who continually (and falsely) likes to make it appear that only one person feels this way? There are tons of people on this forum who make excellent and valid points about AAP. Whether you like to hear them or not.

I guess tons of people on this forum also have exact same writing styles and exact same choice of words. You sound very familiar. That is all.

Oh, wait! I know you.

You're the one

Who typically writes like this.

As if every response

is a haiku.

Hi!!

I'm not the same poster, but I share the opinion of the earlier poster. So I know there are two of us!

You share the opinion that 1) AAP is a ridiculous waste of time and money 2) there appears to be one very angry person who repeatedly posts AAP nowadays bashing rants or 3) that there is a poet among us?

This is the AAP Forum, right? So anyone who has an opinion about AAP can post here, right? There's always the option of staring the AAP Fan Club Forum for those of you who only want to read opinions you agree with. There are plenty of angry people here and we don't plan on going anywhere. Sorry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anyhow, I was sent to a GT middle school (and it was called GT back in the day)...........and HATED it! There was exactly one class of GT kids and we stood out. MS is not where you want to be so clearly marked as different.

The system was a mess back then, and IMO with w/ 2 kids in an AAP Center school, it's still a mess now. I wish I knew the answer to fixing what ails FCPS.

A problem back then, be it good or bad, was there were so few GT elementary classes the students in them truly bonded to each other, to the exclusion of others when they hit middle school. DS1 was in GT resource, pull out, but the middle school did not have honors back then so the resource kids were thrown in with the center kids in middle school. Not a good situation due to the closeness of the smaller number who had been together for up to four years prior to MS. Now, with honors there are so many more choices in MS, plus so many more GT/AAP center kids, again be that good or bad.

FYI, kids really do turn out okay despite of AAP or not. DS1 who wasn't in a center then rebelled against the center kids in MS finished college in 3 years and is successful in the IT field. DS2, who was in the center, bounced around with temp jobs following his liberal art degree but eventually the male brain matured in mid 20's and now is getting the highest grades since elementary school in law school.

Despite popular belief life is not decided on making AAP in elementary school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anyhow, I was sent to a GT middle school (and it was called GT back in the day)...........and HATED it! There was exactly one class of GT kids and we stood out. MS is not where you want to be so clearly marked as different.

The system was a mess back then, and IMO with w/ 2 kids in an AAP Center school, it's still a mess now. I wish I knew the answer to fixing what ails FCPS.

A problem back then, be it good or bad, was there were so few GT elementary classes the students in them truly bonded to each other, to the exclusion of others when they hit middle school. DS1 was in GT resource, pull out, but the middle school did not have honors back then so the resource kids were thrown in with the center kids in middle school. Not a good situation due to the closeness of the smaller number who had been together for up to four years prior to MS. Now, with honors there are so many more choices in MS, plus so many more GT/AAP center kids, again be that good or bad.

FYI, kids really do turn out okay despite of AAP or not. DS1 who wasn't in a center then rebelled against the center kids in MS finished college in 3 years and is successful in the IT field. DS2, who was in the center, bounced around with temp jobs following his liberal art degree but eventually the male brain matured in mid 20's and now is getting the highest grades since elementary school in law school.

Despite popular belief life is not decided on making AAP in elementary school!

I think these are very good points.

When I think of a very small self contained class with just a tiny handful of the most exclusive and highest scoring kids, I always have a vision of Malcolm in the Middle Middle school is awkward enough. Being segregated to a tiny group (and not the cool group like the "popular" kids) sounds like torture and social stunting for these poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught 2nd grade in FCPS in the 90s to 2001 and my good friend taught a 3rd grade GT center classes in my same school. Now, my DC is in an AAP Center. It is MUCH easier than it used to be. It was much higher level work and the center teachers didn't go back to do lots of review like they do now. It was actually a little too intense back in the day in terms of homework load but it has become too watered down now.

In my daughter's 4th grade center class this year the teacher has had to do a lot of review because 4 of the 20 kids just got into AAP starting in 4th grade and are behind. I think the parents who refer their child for entry after 3rd grade should have to commit to some tutoring/catch up work in the summer because it's unfair to hold the class back. (Also, perhaps if your self-referred in 3rd grade child truly needed to be in a center than she or he shouldn't need tutoring?)

Can i ask -- which subjects are they "behind" in? I'm thinking I might defer on an AAP invite until DC is in 5th grade. What would DC be behind in (we have Adv. Math at our non-center/non-Level4 school and DC is strongest in math).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, for starters, the bar is much lower than it used to be. In GT, there was a composite score that had to be reached, making it much more difficult and selective. Nowadays, the appeal process is such that if your child does not make it into the pool (initial cut), parents can simply appeal and almost always get child into AAP. It is no longer a program for just gifted kids, who actually make up a tiny percentage of kids admitted; however, every parent who has a child in AAP says that their child is gifted even if they've just barely made the cutoff. The program is a ridiculous waste of time and money (testing, selection committees, center schools, busing to center schools, etc.) that benefits a very large group of FCPS kids but does nothing for the other large group of kids who remain in Gen Ed.

Are you one poster that continually posts this same complaint over and over again?

Are you the one poster who continually (and falsely) likes to make it appear that only one person feels this way? There are tons of people on this forum who make excellent and valid points about AAP. Whether you like to hear them or not.

I guess tons of people on this forum also have exact same writing styles and exact same choice of words. You sound very familiar. That is all.

Oh, wait! I know you.

You're the one

Who typically writes like this.

As if every response

is a haiku.

Hi!!

I'm not the same poster, but I share the opinion of the earlier poster. So I know there are two of us!

You share the opinion that 1) AAP is a ridiculous waste of time and money 2) there appears to be one very angry person who repeatedly posts AAP nowadays bashing rants or 3) that there is a poet among us?

This is the AAP Forum, right? So anyone who has an opinion about AAP can post here, right? There's always the option of staring the AAP Fan Club Forum for those of you who only want to read opinions you agree with. There are plenty of angry people here and we don't plan on going anywhere. Sorry!

Um. Ok. I guess your answer is #1, then? Anger is bad for the body and soul. Try meditation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught 2nd grade in FCPS in the 90s to 2001 and my good friend taught a 3rd grade GT center classes in my same school. Now, my DC is in an AAP Center. It is MUCH easier than it used to be. It was much higher level work and the center teachers didn't go back to do lots of review like they do now. It was actually a little too intense back in the day in terms of homework load but it has become too watered down now.

In my daughter's 4th grade center class this year the teacher has had to do a lot of review because 4 of the 20 kids just got into AAP starting in 4th grade and are behind. I think the parents who refer their child for entry after 3rd grade should have to commit to some tutoring/catch up work in the summer because it's unfair to hold the class back. (Also, perhaps if your self-referred in 3rd grade child truly needed to be in a center than she or he shouldn't need tutoring?)

Can i ask -- which subjects are they "behind" in? I'm thinking I might defer on an AAP invite until DC is in 5th grade. What would DC be behind in (we have Adv. Math at our non-center/non-Level4 school and DC is strongest in math).

My kid and some of the kids friends transferred into AAP in fourth grade from out of state.

They were behind in Virginia history, but very quickly caught up.

Some of them were also at a different place in math, but the teachers said there was no issue getting them on the right page very quickly. They said that since the first few weeks were usually a quick review of things covered in third grade, it would be no problem to get them quickly on the same page as everyone else.

As parents, we worried about holes, particularly in math, from switching from another state into the second year of AAP, but really, there were only one or two lessons where this became an issue.

The "behind" issues were just normal differences you would see when a kid moves between schools, and was not an issue that would be unique to AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught 2nd grade in FCPS in the 90s to 2001 and my good friend taught a 3rd grade GT center classes in my same school. Now, my DC is in an AAP Center. It is MUCH easier than it used to be. It was much higher level work and the center teachers didn't go back to do lots of review like they do now. It was actually a little too intense back in the day in terms of homework load but it has become too watered down now.

In my daughter's 4th grade center class this year the teacher has had to do a lot of review because 4 of the 20 kids just got into AAP starting in 4th grade and are behind. I think the parents who refer their child for entry after 3rd grade should have to commit to some tutoring/catch up work in the summer because it's unfair to hold the class back. (Also, perhaps if your self-referred in 3rd grade child truly needed to be in a center than she or he shouldn't need tutoring?)

Can i ask -- which subjects are they "behind" in? I'm thinking I might defer on an AAP invite until DC is in 5th grade. What would DC be behind in (we have Adv. Math at our non-center/non-Level4 school and DC is strongest in math).

Mostly math. They had to review doing operations with decimals to the thousandth place and long division, which they had already spent a lot of time on in third grade. The new students had a hard time getting the hang of having to explain their reasoning in writing all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the 90s, admission to GT was only by WISC. A score of 130+ would get you school-based services and a score of 140+ would get you into the center. The experience was vastly different. The center classes were reserved for the highly gifted and it was a tight cohort. The general Ed classes were still great because only those tippy top kids were removed from their base schools. There were definitely fewer centers. I went to the center at Louise Archer, then on to Longfellow, then back to Madison.

If you don't mind sharing, what did you go on to study and where? What do you do for a living now? Just curious if AAP made a difference in your life..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A problem back then, be it good or bad, was there were so few GT elementary classes the students in them truly bonded to each other, to the exclusion of others when they hit middle school. DS1 was in GT resource, pull out, but the middle school did not have honors back then so the resource kids were thrown in with the center kids in middle school. Not a good situation due to the closeness of the smaller number who had been together for up to four years prior to MS. Now, with honors there are so many more choices in MS, plus so many more GT/AAP center kids, again be that good or bad.

FYI, kids really do turn out okay despite of AAP or not. DS1 who wasn't in a center then rebelled against the center kids in MS finished college in 3 years and is successful in the IT field. DS2, who was in the center, bounced around with temp jobs following his liberal art degree but eventually the male brain matured in mid 20's and now is getting the highest grades since elementary school in law school.

Despite popular belief life is not decided on making AAP in elementary school!

I'm the PP 70's poster. Thanks for the back up!

BTW, I also have older kids. One who was most definetly not GT/AAP material at all, needed math tutoring to graduate, hated (still hates) to read. He graduated from VaTech with honors and is doing very well. Great job, good friends and recently bought his first home and is engaged. AAP really is NOT life-defining.