If you were designing the AAP program, what would you keep? Add?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. More ability grouping, especially in math. Since AAP has grown so much, kids are working at different levels. The center is there to develop the kids and offer academic challenge.
2. Smaller class size. Some AAP classrooms have more than 30 kids per teacher, and it's not fair for the teachers. It's also not fair on quieter students since squeaky wheels get the grease in a big group.

At our center, there are so many AAP classes that each one is about 25 kids. The Gen Ed kids, on the other hand are in classes of 30+. What's wrong with this picture? Answer: far too many kids in AAP.

Which center?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing an advanced or gifted program can do for kids is to help them in dealing with the emotional aspects of being highly intelligent. Highly intelligent kids can benefit from learning how to deal with being different from their peers. They can benefit from learning study techniques: many learn so easily that they truly don't know what studying means. Yes, challenging academics across the board (not just STEM subjects) are important, but helping kids deal with the psychological aspects of being so bright will have long term benefits in all aspects of a child's life.

You are describing a gifted program. The kids in AAP are, by and large, not gifted. They are not the children who are "different from their peers" and who "learn so easily". Those would be the exceptionally gifted, who are few and far between in AAP.

+1. AAP has become the filter school for learning "disabled" students who are by and large average/above average kids struggling to say focused and/or interact with peers for various reasons. It is a great place for them but it provides an artificial and temporary comfort zone as they eventually have to function in the real world own their own. As it stands today, the AAP center program is absolutely not an "exceptionally gifted" center anymore. The name given to the center and the assumption given to every center child that they are "advanced learners" needs to be revamped, or, the center program needs to go back to it's original reason and provide advanced academic enrichment for only the "exceptionally gifted" children. IMO it is just another FCPS school and what is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing an advanced or gifted program can do for kids is to help them in dealing with the emotional aspects of being highly intelligent. Highly intelligent kids can benefit from learning how to deal with being different from their peers. They can benefit from learning study techniques: many learn so easily that they truly don't know what studying means. Yes, challenging academics across the board (not just STEM subjects) are important, but helping kids deal with the psychological aspects of being so bright will have long term benefits in all aspects of a child's life.

You are describing a gifted program. The kids in AAP are, by and large, not gifted. They are not the children who are "different from their peers" and who "learn so easily". Those would be the exceptionally gifted, who are few and far between in AAP.

+1. AAP has become the filter school for learning "disabled" students who are by and large average/above average kids struggling to say focused and/or interact with peers for various reasons. It is a great place for them but it provides an artificial and temporary comfort zone as they eventually have to function in the real world own their own. As it stands today, the AAP center program is absolutely not an "exceptionally gifted" center anymore. The name given to the center and the assumption given to every center child that they are "advanced learners" needs to be revamped, or, the center program needs to go back to it's original reason and provide advanced academic enrichment for only the "exceptionally gifted" children. IMO it is just another FCPS school and what is the point.

Absolutely agree. I have older kids who were in elementary school when the GT program was around. That was when only the exceptionally gifted kids made up the program but the vast majority of kids (like my own) were in Gen Ed. No one resented that system because it was very clear that only the kids who absolutely needed a different learning environment were in the program; it was special education. To be frank, it was obvious who needed to be in GT; those kids were extremely quirky and so bright that they often had a hard time socially, so it made sense to give them their own peer group. AAP is very, very different; the majority of kids in it are indistinguishable from the majority of kids in Gen Ed. It is such a shame that FCPS has allowed it to grow into this ridiculous, bloated program that essentially does nothing more than divide two virtually identical groups of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing an advanced or gifted program can do for kids is to help them in dealing with the emotional aspects of being highly intelligent. Highly intelligent kids can benefit from learning how to deal with being different from their peers. They can benefit from learning study techniques: many learn so easily that they truly don't know what studying means. Yes, challenging academics across the board (not just STEM subjects) are important, but helping kids deal with the psychological aspects of being so bright will have long term benefits in all aspects of a child's life.

You are describing a gifted program. The kids in AAP are, by and large, not gifted. They are not the children who are "different from their peers" and who "learn so easily". Those would be the exceptionally gifted, who are few and far between in AAP.

+1. AAP has become the filter school for learning "disabled" students who are by and large average/above average kids struggling to say focused and/or interact with peers for various reasons. It is a great place for them but it provides an artificial and temporary comfort zone as they eventually have to function in the real world own their own. As it stands today, the AAP center program is absolutely not an "exceptionally gifted" center anymore. The name given to the center and the assumption given to every center child that they are "advanced learners" needs to be revamped, or, the center program needs to go back to it's original reason and provide advanced academic enrichment for only the "exceptionally gifted" children. IMO it is just another FCPS school and what is the point.

Not really. There aren't many kids who don't know how to behave in AAP. That is a very unfair assumption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing an advanced or gifted program can do for kids is to help them in dealing with the emotional aspects of being highly intelligent. Highly intelligent kids can benefit from learning how to deal with being different from their peers. They can benefit from learning study techniques: many learn so easily that they truly don't know what studying means. Yes, challenging academics across the board (not just STEM subjects) are important, but helping kids deal with the psychological aspects of being so bright will have long term benefits in all aspects of a child's life.

You are describing a gifted program. The kids in AAP are, by and large, not gifted. They are not the children who are "different from their peers" and who "learn so easily". Those would be the exceptionally gifted, who are few and far between in AAP.

+1. AAP has become the filter school for learning "disabled" students who are by and large average/above average kids struggling to say focused and/or interact with peers for various reasons. It is a great place for them but it provides an artificial and temporary comfort zone as they eventually have to function in the real world own their own. As it stands today, the AAP center program is absolutely not an "exceptionally gifted" center anymore. The name given to the center and the assumption given to every center child that they are "advanced learners" needs to be revamped, or, the center program needs to go back to it's original reason and provide advanced academic enrichment for only the "exceptionally gifted" children. IMO it is just another FCPS school and what is the point.

Not really. There aren't many kids who don't know how to behave in AAP. That is a very unfair assumption.

AAP teachers, care to respond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most important thing an advanced or gifted program can do for kids is to help them in dealing with the emotional aspects of being highly intelligent. Highly intelligent kids can benefit from learning how to deal with being different from their peers. They can benefit from learning study techniques: many learn so easily that they truly don't know what studying means. Yes, challenging academics across the board (not just STEM subjects) are important, but helping kids deal with the psychological aspects of being so bright will have long term benefits in all aspects of a child's life.

You are describing a gifted program. The kids in AAP are, by and large, not gifted. They are not the children who are "different from their peers" and who "learn so easily". Those would be the exceptionally gifted, who are few and far between in AAP.

+1. AAP has become the filter school for learning "disabled" students who are by and large average/above average kids struggling to say focused and/or interact with peers for various reasons. It is a great place for them but it provides an artificial and temporary comfort zone as they eventually have to function in the real world own their own. As it stands today, the AAP center program is absolutely not an "exceptionally gifted" center anymore. The name given to the center and the assumption given to every center child that they are "advanced learners" needs to be revamped, or, the center program needs to go back to it's original reason and provide advanced academic enrichment for only the "exceptionally gifted" children. IMO it is just another FCPS school and what is the point.

Not really. There aren't many kids who don't know how to behave in AAP. That is a very unfair assumption.

PP said nothing about an inability to behave. So you think your own assumption of "There aren't many kids who don't know how to behave in AAP", is unfair? Does your child not know how to behave in AAP? Sound a little sensitive.

[Anonymous]

So how would the PP identify "exceptionally gifted" students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So how would the PP identify "exceptionally gifted" students?

Here is a rubric:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/underserved.htm

Level IQ Range Prevalence
Mildly (or basically) Gifted 115 - 129 1:6 - 1:44
Moderately Gifted 130 - 144 1:44 - 1:1,000
Highly Gifted 145 - 159 1:1,000 - 1:10,000
Exceptionally Gifted 160 - 179 1:10,000 - 1:1 million
Profoundly Gifted 180+ Fewer than 1:1 million

So the Exceptionally Gifted child would be those with an IQ of 160 - 179
The Exceptionally Gifted child is somewhere between one out of 10,000 to one in 1 million.

Since it is Fairfax County (with its highly educated population) it makes sense that the one out of 10,000 prevalence would be more applicable.

Since the total number of students in grades 3 -8 in school year 2013-2014 is 81,028 that means there should be roughly 8 students identified as Exceptionally Gifted.


I wonder what the transportation costs would be for those 8 students?

[Anonymous]

I wonder what the transportation costs would be for those 8 students?

Somewhat less than the 4-5 million currently budgeted!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I wonder what the transportation costs would be for those 8 students?

Somewhat less than the 4-5 million currently budgeted!

+100

[Anonymous]

what about highly gifted and up?

[Anonymous]

split the difference: 150 and above- and no private testing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:split the difference: 150 and above- and no private testing

I wonder what the cost would be for IQ testing of every student in 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

FCPS could used the standardized test--just like it used to do. However, because the tests have been compromised so much, there would have to be individual screening. That would not be so expensive, it would just weed out the cheaters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS could used the standardized test--just like it used to do. However, because the tests have been compromised so much, there would have to be individual screening. That would not be so expensive, it would just weed out the cheaters.

I wonder who would do the individual testing? Does FCPS have enough qualified staff to administer all those IQ tests?

what IQ test did FCPS administer in the past?