AAP parents only, please

[Anonymous]

I think relationships between kids and parents would be far healthier if centers would simply become a thing of the past.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just looking for a safe place to ask the following:

What do you like about the program? How has it benefitted your child? What advice would you give to parents who are choosing to keep their child at the base school rather than move to a center?

There is nothing wrong with keeping your child at the base school. Take into account all the factors for your life. social, SACC and the school itself. Of course people will judge you no matter what you do. But with all choices, you make it and you own it and you be proud of the choice you made for your family. It's your kid not anyone elses. AAP works for some kids, but not for others. It works for some family, but not others.

Remember AAP doens't matter in middle school, and sure doesn't matter in high school. The AAP Honors English just have less time to read the required book. They do the same books. Honors Alegebra placement is based on SOL testing.

It comes down to the school, frequently the pricniple, and even sometimes other kids in the class and how they all mix with your kid.

If you choice to keep your kid at the base school, I would say good for you for making the choice that is best for your family and kid. (and you can always change your mind at later grades)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of one in AAP now and one in TJ who was in AAP.

Older one was our first experience with this whole process. We moved DC from base school that had just instituted LLIV bc we wanted a larger peer group and the ability to move around in class groupings for the next 4 years due to specific issues at the base school. Younger child was found eligible after we parent referred him into the pool (ie no appeal, but we did ask him to be considered.) We did this to make our lives easier by having both kids at the same school. Flame away on that one. To tell the truth though, younger child excelled in AAP and at the school - more so than older child. Younger may have excelled at base as well. We were not at all impressed with the AAP Center for ES, but LOVE the MS AAP Center.

So my advice is that you really need to figure out what will work best for YOUR child and YOUR family.

AAP parent of MS kid - I am not thrilled with my DS's MS expeirence. The kids are all groups together and so his circle is a smaller one. I was kinda looking forward to him expanding his circle. But he's got the same kids in all his classes except PE and one elective. He's happy and I'm happy. I think it did make middle school easier that he's in a small group of the same kids, but I was expecting the tracking and smaller social cirlce to happen later. The teachers are all great, but they also teach on level classes also. And by great teachers I mean my DS has a schedule of the kind of teachers that you expect to get just 1 a year and he has a whole schedule of teachers. The one teacher he complains about is a "normal" teacher - she's good, just not a super star like the others.

[Anonymous]

To OP - FWIW, we really wish we had the option for local L-IV. It's sad for us, and will be for our son, to have to pull him out of his base school and send him to a new school...one that is much larger and where I hear the kids don't integrate very well with each other in the APP let alone with kids in Gen ED. There are many other parents from our base school that feel the same way. I'm not saying you should not choose the Center option, just that I think you're lucky to have a choice. I agree with a PP in that you just need to do what's best for your family and your child. Good luck with your decision!

[Anonymous]

My DD is in MS. I am not happy with many things about the MS experience. ES was overall excellent -- we did not have a choice on schools as our base is also the AAP center. MS, we had a choice, and chose the center vs. community Level IV.

Her MS is Luther Jackson. My frustrations with LJ are two fold: first, this may have been the only chance for DD to be exposed to people not middle to upper middle class, but all of her exposure has been to the same socio-economic background.

A bigger problem is the workload. She just does not have time to live life and do school work.

[Anonymous]

AAP parent who loved AAP MS and not ES. Funny thing was ES was a Center (not our base) but MS was our base. Really wish the our base ES had it's act together regarding LLIV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of one in AAP now and one in TJ who was in AAP.

Older one was our first experience with this whole process. We moved DC from base school that had just instituted LLIV bc we wanted a larger peer group and the ability to move around in class groupings for the next 4 years due to specific issues at the base school. Younger child was found eligible after we parent referred him into the pool (ie no appeal, but we did ask him to be considered.) We did this to make our lives easier by having both kids at the same school. Flame away on that one. To tell the truth though, younger child excelled in AAP and at the school - more so than older child. Younger may have excelled at base as well. We were not at all impressed with the AAP Center for ES, but LOVE the MS AAP Center.

So my advice is that you really need to figure out what will work best for YOUR child and YOUR family.

AAP parent of MS kid - I am not thrilled with my DS's MS expeirence. The kids are all groups together and so his circle is a smaller one. I was kinda looking forward to him expanding his circle. But he's got the same kids in all his classes except PE and one elective. He's happy and I'm happy. I think it did make middle school easier that he's in a small group of the same kids, but I was expecting the tracking and smaller social cirlce to happen later. The teachers are all great, but they also teach on level classes also. And by great teachers I mean my DS has a schedule of the kind of teachers that you expect to get just 1 a year and he has a whole schedule of teachers. The one teacher he complains about is a "normal" teacher - she's good, just not a super star like the others.

Well boo hoo for your child that he's only getting "normal" teachers in a public middle school. Do you expect that just because someone teaches an AAP class they're going to be great? The funny thing is, good teachers are important, but motivated, critically thinking students who love learning are important to the process as well. This isn't about getting spoon-fed from some great mind, or some special formula. It's about trying to expose extremely bright kids to more advanced material. My GT kid complained about some of his teachers too, but if he was interested in the area he did plenty of exploring and learning on his own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is in MS. I am not happy with many things about the MS experience. ES was overall excellent -- we did not have a choice on schools as our base is also the AAP center. MS, we had a choice, and chose the center vs. community Level IV.

Her MS is Luther Jackson. My frustrations with LJ are two fold: first, this may have been the only chance for DD to be exposed to people not middle to upper middle class, but all of her exposure has been to the same socio-economic background.

A bigger problem is the workload. She just does not have time to live life and do school work.

Perhaps the AAP work is too hard for her? My kids somehow managed to get their school work done and still have time for plenty of extracurriculars and fun.

And if LJ middle school is the "only" chance for your daughter to get exposed to people in lower classes, that says more about how you've raised her than the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 kids in AAP Centers, and yes, they have benefited from the program and we are generally happy with it. But, DS, who is older, clearly needed AAP. He was bored and unhappy in k-2, and he had behavioral problems. He has really flourished in a more demanding academic environment, and moving him was absolutely the right call. DD is a much closer call. She is a kid who has the ability to succeed in AAP, but would have also been fine in a Gen Ed setting. We center tracked her largely because we did not want to send a message that she is less capable than her brother and because having two kids close in age in 2 different elementary school was going to be very difficult. But, if she was a first/only & her base school was strong, and she was thriving there, I honestly don't know what we would have done. I think a lot of it can depend on the strength of the base school, and whether you have a kid who "qualifies" for AAP, or really needs it.

What utter BS! THIS is what's wrong with AAP. Center-tracked her did you? Absurd.

NP. Yes, same situation as above but more because of issues w/base school. Second child doing well with AAP anyway. Need to fix base schools then people won't take their children out. After reading teacher survey from base school we made right decision. www.fcpswcs.org.

No we need to fix parents who are so insecure about their child's intelligence and ability to learn that nothing short of a special program in a different school is good enough for them. There's a reason McLean now offers AAP to all kids and why Vienna schools may start doing that as well. Because of people like you, AAP will be phased out in many parts of FCPS in upcoming years.

If all base schools offered AAP to all kids, that would fix the base schools. Problem solved. Where do I sign up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 kids in AAP Centers, and yes, they have benefited from the program and we are generally happy with it. But, DS, who is older, clearly needed AAP. He was bored and unhappy in k-2, and he had behavioral problems. He has really flourished in a more demanding academic environment, and moving him was absolutely the right call. DD is a much closer call. She is a kid who has the ability to succeed in AAP, but would have also been fine in a Gen Ed setting. We center tracked her largely because we did not want to send a message that she is less capable than her brother and because having two kids close in age in 2 different elementary school was going to be very difficult. But, if she was a first/only & her base school was strong, and she was thriving there, I honestly don't know what we would have done. I think a lot of it can depend on the strength of the base school, and whether you have a kid who "qualifies" for AAP, or really needs it.

What utter BS! THIS is what's wrong with AAP. Center-tracked her did you? Absurd.

NP. Yes, same situation as above but more because of issues w/base school. Second child doing well with AAP anyway. Need to fix base schools then people won't take their children out. After reading teacher survey from base school we made right decision. www.fcpswcs.org.

No we need to fix parents who are so insecure about their child's intelligence and ability to learn that nothing short of a special program in a different school is good enough for them. There's a reason McLean now offers AAP to all kids and why Vienna schools may start doing that as well. Because of people like you, AAP will be phased out in many parts of FCPS in upcoming years.

If all base schools offered AAP to all kids, that would fix the base schools. Problem solved. Where do I sign up?

How would it help the gen ed kids who do not need or want AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of one in AAP now and one in TJ who was in AAP.

Older one was our first experience with this whole process. We moved DC from base school that had just instituted LLIV bc we wanted a larger peer group and the ability to move around in class groupings for the next 4 years due to specific issues at the base school. Younger child was found eligible after we parent referred him into the pool (ie no appeal, but we did ask him to be considered.) We did this to make our lives easier by having both kids at the same school. Flame away on that one. To tell the truth though, younger child excelled in AAP and at the school - more so than older child. Younger may have excelled at base as well. We were not at all impressed with the AAP Center for ES, but LOVE the MS AAP Center.

So my advice is that you really need to figure out what will work best for YOUR child and YOUR family.

AAP parent of MS kid - I am not thrilled with my DS's MS expeirence. The kids are all groups together and so his circle is a smaller one. I was kinda looking forward to him expanding his circle. But he's got the same kids in all his classes except PE and one elective. He's happy and I'm happy. I think it did make middle school easier that he's in a small group of the same kids, but I was expecting the tracking and smaller social cirlce to happen later. The teachers are all great, but they also teach on level classes also. And by great teachers I mean my DS has a schedule of the kind of teachers that you expect to get just 1 a year and he has a whole schedule of teachers. The one teacher he complains about is a "normal" teacher - she's good, just not a super star like the others.

Well boo hoo for your child that he's only getting "normal" teachers in a public middle school. Do you expect that just because someone teaches an AAP class they're going to be great? The funny thing is, good teachers are important, but motivated, critically thinking students who love learning are important to the process as well. This isn't about getting spoon-fed from some great mind, or some special formula. It's about trying to expose extremely bright kids to more advanced material. My GT kid complained about some of his teachers too, but if he was interested in the area he did plenty of exploring and learning on his own.

Let me clarify - I do not support my child in his complaining about his one "normal" teacher. The teachers my kid has are all great - he has a whole schedule of the kinds of teachers that you usually only get one or two teachers a year. These great teachers are not just AAP teachers, they also teach on level classes, so on level kids also get these teachers. You do not have to be AAP to get the good teachers. I am thrilled with the teachers and school (base school), I just don't like the fact that the kids don't mix with the general population. We didn't go off to middle school and have a "normal" time, they are still segmented. It could just be a fluke of the schedule, but the same group of kids go to all their core classes together and 1/2 of them are in the same Hr. Alegebra class (reminder, Hr. Alegebra isn't an AAP class).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 kids in AAP Centers, and yes, they have benefited from the program and we are generally happy with it. But, DS, who is older, clearly needed AAP. He was bored and unhappy in k-2, and he had behavioral problems. He has really flourished in a more demanding academic environment, and moving him was absolutely the right call. DD is a much closer call. She is a kid who has the ability to succeed in AAP, but would have also been fine in a Gen Ed setting. We center tracked her largely because we did not want to send a message that she is less capable than her brother and because having two kids close in age in 2 different elementary school was going to be very difficult. But, if she was a first/only & her base school was strong, and she was thriving there, I honestly don't know what we would have done. I think a lot of it can depend on the strength of the base school, and whether you have a kid who "qualifies" for AAP, or really needs it.

What utter BS! THIS is what's wrong with AAP. Center-tracked her did you? Absurd.

NP. Yes, same situation as above but more because of issues w/base school. Second child doing well with AAP anyway. Need to fix base schools then people won't take their children out. After reading teacher survey from base school we made right decision. www.fcpswcs.org.

No we need to fix parents who are so insecure about their child's intelligence and ability to learn that nothing short of a special program in a different school is good enough for them. There's a reason McLean now offers AAP to all kids and why Vienna schools may start doing that as well. Because of people like you, AAP will be phased out in many parts of FCPS in upcoming years.

If all base schools offered AAP to all kids, that would fix the base schools. Problem solved. Where do I sign up?

How would it help the gen ed kids who do not need or want AAP?

How does the current AAP system help kids who want AAP and aren't allowed? How does it help kids who are in and can't handle it? There will be kids who are not effectively served either way. That's why Gen Ed with elective AAP curriculum makes the most sense, but some genius deemed that a problem, as opposed to say the current system that is worse than any tracking that took place before because it's not fluid, but (for the most part) a one time determination for six years.

[Anonymous]

^^If the student receiving general education services shows gifted potential, the child should receive appropriate services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^If the student receiving general education services shows gifted potential, the child should receive appropriate services.

Link to more information about services:

http://fcps.edu/is/aap/gradelevel.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 kids in AAP Centers, and yes, they have benefited from the program and we are generally happy with it. But, DS, who is older, clearly needed AAP. He was bored and unhappy in k-2, and he had behavioral problems. He has really flourished in a more demanding academic environment, and moving him was absolutely the right call. DD is a much closer call. She is a kid who has the ability to succeed in AAP, but would have also been fine in a Gen Ed setting. We center tracked her largely because we did not want to send a message that she is less capable than her brother and because having two kids close in age in 2 different elementary school was going to be very difficult. But, if she was a first/only & her base school was strong, and she was thriving there, I honestly don't know what we would have done. I think a lot of it can depend on the strength of the base school, and whether you have a kid who "qualifies" for AAP, or really needs it.

What utter BS! THIS is what's wrong with AAP. Center-tracked her did you? Absurd.

NP. Yes, same situation as above but more because of issues w/base school. Second child doing well with AAP anyway. Need to fix base schools then people won't take their children out. After reading teacher survey from base school we made right decision. www.fcpswcs.org.

No we need to fix parents who are so insecure about their child's intelligence and ability to learn that nothing short of a special program in a different school is good enough for them. There's a reason McLean now offers AAP to all kids and why Vienna schools may start doing that as well. Because of people like you, AAP will be phased out in many parts of FCPS in upcoming years.

If all base schools offered AAP to all kids, that would fix the base schools. Problem solved. Where do I sign up?

How would it help the gen ed kids who do not need or want AAP?

its called differentiated classrooms. It's being done in Some center schools already. Say you have 5, 3rd grade classes. When they are in Math class the kids are all in different classes being taught at different levels(all of which are at least on grade level). They have opportunities to work really hard and move into different levels as units change throughout the year. The kids are being taught to their ability.