APS is failing my gifted child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

This is why we need separate classrooms.

that just increases the pressure on identification. It's a whole thing in FFX.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

so what do the AACs do now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Yup, the people on here smack of white privilege

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

so what do the AACs do now?

Activities to enrich all students. They don't push in, but develop options that teachers can use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

APS has taken big steps to address this, including universal screening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

google is your friend. no one said it's intentional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

google is your friend. no one said it's intentional.

APS is following best practices in gifted identification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

google is your friend. no one said it's intentional.

APS is following best practices in gifted identification.

So there is no actual data and people are just assuming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

This is why we need separate classrooms.

This is a joke comment right?

What joke? FCPS has AAP and TJ. Loudoun has similar. If you get the gifted kids out of the classroom, the gen ed kids would learn better, too.

DP. Agree gifted education in APS is lacking, but I’m not a fan of the Fairfax AAP model. Note that APS sends kids to TJ. I know because my kid goes there. Plus, APS also has Arlington Tech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

https://nagc.org/resource/resmgr/2020-21_state_of_the_states_.pdf

Table 15, PDF page 110

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

APS has taken big steps to address this, including universal screening.

Universal screening is a great start, and I know some schools screen off site-based norms from ability tests, which is also good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

https://nagc.org/resource/resmgr/2020-21_state_of_the_states_.pdf

Table 15, PDF page 110

What are we supposed to do with this? Where's the testing data? This is literally percentage of population data and irrelevant. Where is the percentage of kids who were denied gifted services based on total number of kids who were above the testing threshold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

Every single kid has at least 2 screening tests (NNAT and COGAT) and any kid with a qualifying score is considered and further evaluated. And APS schools have a large percentage of identified students, so it's very hard to imagine that under identification is a reason to end the program.

Besides, my statement was not about pull outs, but about APS ending push ins. They've effectively ended all gifted services, as AACs are no longer offering differentiation for advanced and gifted students.

Children of color have always been under-identified

Are there actual empirical test data on this? Or is it a percentage of population nonsense reasoning backed by some self-fulfilling equity agenda study?? I just read some studies and none of them said a bunch of high scoring children of color were being deliberately denied gifted services.

https://nagc.org/resource/resmgr/2020-21_state_of_the_states_.pdf

Table 15, PDF page 110

Page 116
"Virginia Code requires that each school division identify gifted students and provide differentiated services to meet their needs."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is failing other parents' non-gifted kids, too. You're not special.

APS only job is to get kids to pass the SOLs. Period.

I mean, if you look at where the bulk of their money and effort gets directed, that’s certainly what it seems like. But I think that would be a rather embarrassing admission of institutional failure.

Can you imagine the motto? “Come to APS, where we will spend 13 years teaching your kid to pass a test that they probably could have passed after the first 8 or 9.”

I am very annoyed that APS has reassigned the former gifted teachers, now AACs, from supporting advanced learners to being directed to supporting all students. Most APS elementary schools have a large portion of gifted or advanced students (~30+%) and it was good having at leasr one person per elementary school who was tasked with making learning more appropriate and challenging for these students. There are lots of other teachers supporting students who need help passing SOLs, as well as it being the main classroom focus. And in the past, the main classroom teacher often got extra bandwidth to help those students when the gifted teacher was working with the advanced students. It's a shame APS has ditched this model and the AAC is now told to only work on materials and projects for the whole class and all learners. It's very anti-differentiation, when it is necessary and appropriate to differentiate. Ignoring gifted and advanced students isn't equitable, despite what APS admin is touting.

To those with middle and high schoolers chiming in, this is a new change as of last year and has had a big impact for my kids. Far less is being offered to challenge them than was available pre-covid.

The old policy had drawbacks too. Some kids were not identified who should have been. The AACs were too resistant to identification because it increased their caseloads. So students couldn't access those pullouts. Also the pullouts had no connection to the instruction in the classroom either.

This is why we need separate classrooms.

F no. Head to FCPS if you want segregation.