AAP.....good or bad? Experience with 2012 process. How is your kid doing?

[Anonymous]

Ok, I wasn't going to go down this path but feel I must at this point. The process of AAP level 4 center based schools and the selection of students. Clearly some children are gifted and should have extra and different challenges in school, but when schools are reporting that more than 25% are being accepted something is not right. In addition to this, no 7 or 8 year old child needs to know they are so gifted, unless they ask why they are different. It would seem if a child were this gifted they would have the sense to reason it out on their own.
Instead, we have kids now who go around saying what they made on their scores and how they will be going to a better school now. FCPS is doing a great injustice to these kids. What happened to neighborhood schools....we go with our friends? Gone, instead we create the upper class and the lower class and children are not prepared to deal with this emotionally. Nobody is better than anybody else. Testing should be done but careful observation by teachers who work with the kids should be demanded in the process. A central selection committee doesn't know x from y and really cannot see how a child works. In life, we do have to learn to get along with others and learn to pay attention and be polite. But the kids from my school are not doing any of these things.....parents lets them do anything! In addition, students who are doing well and thriving well beyond their grade level now hate school because they have been left out. I certainly didn't become a teacher to watch this go on. Schools can and do handle many types of students, don't take these "gifted" kids out of the neighbor hood school. Keep them there......remember INCLUSION!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Instead, we have kids now who go around saying what they made on their scores and how they will be going to a better school now.

Neither of my kids know there scores, yet both attend AAP centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead, we have kids now who go around saying what they made on their scores and how they will be going to a better school now.

Neither of my kids know there scores, yet both attend AAP centers.

Good! I guess my school just doesn't do it right. I am happy to hear from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, I wasn't going to go down this path but feel I must at this point. The process of AAP level 4 center based schools and the selection of students. Clearly some children are gifted and should have extra and different challenges in school, but when schools are reporting that more than 25% are being accepted something is not right. In addition to this, no 7 or 8 year old child needs to know they are so gifted, unless they ask why they are different. It would seem if a child were this gifted they would have the sense to reason it out on their own.
Instead, we have kids now who go around saying what they made on their scores and how they will be going to a better school now. FCPS is doing a great injustice to these kids. What happened to neighborhood schools....we go with our friends? Gone, instead we create the upper class and the lower class and children are not prepared to deal with this emotionally. Nobody is better than anybody else. Testing should be done but careful observation by teachers who work with the kids should be demanded in the process. A central selection committee doesn't know x from y and really cannot see how a child works. In life, we do have to learn to get along with others and learn to pay attention and be polite. But the kids from my school are not doing any of these things.....parents lets them do anything! In addition, students who are doing well and thriving well beyond their grade level now hate school because they have been left out. I certainly didn't become a teacher to watch this go on. Schools can and do handle many types of students, don't take these "gifted" kids out of the neighbor hood school. Keep them there......remember INCLUSION!

This is called the GBRS. And that is why it is considered so strongly in the process. Some kids score very well, but don't display any gifted behaviors in the classroom. Other kids display every gifted behavior imaginable, but don't score well. That is why the committee is provided with the complete picture.

There will always be nutty parents who involve their kids in the process and thier nutty kids who were told that they are smarter than everyone else. As an adult you should be able to ignore these people and teach your child to do the same and to have confidence in his/her own abilities and school.

[Anonymous]

I just don't find this nuttiness at my school. I have 2 AAP kids and it just wasn't a big deal. Yea, they had to tell their friends that they were moving to another school, but that was it. Kids move in/out of schools all of the time for many reasons. The adminstration doesn't make a big deal of it either. We still are in the same sports teams, preschools, churches as my kids' friends at their base school. My kids didn't get into Harvard or anything, they just moved to a classroom better suited for them.

[Anonymous]

OP, are we in the same schools district? While helping during lunch, I overheard a conversation between some kids, and I could not believe it. Some [u]of these kids really think they are better than everyone else in the world. What are parents doing to these kids? My kids are still in K and I really hope these AP craziness change soon.

[Anonymous]

Um, my school definitely did not have 25% selected to go to the center school. I think out of 4 (very large) 2nd grade classes, (don't know how many were in-pool originally) only 5 were selected to go to the center.

[Anonymous]

My school.....four large classrooms...(22 or 23)
20 kids selected.

[Anonymous]

If you look at the total enrollment county wide, there are something 18% of the kids in AAP. At some schools it can be much higher. (25%+ admitted).

Remember, there is a genetic component to intelligence, and the DC area has more advanced degree's per capita than any other region of the country. That probably means more smart people, which would mean more smart children.

Also, smart people tend to value education more than typical people.

One thing to consider is AAP does not cost significantly more per kid than general education. The only extra cost is transportation.

My opinion is any kid that can handle the load should be given the opportunity. However, if a kid can not keep up with the depth or pace, there should be a way to place them back in general ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Instead, we have kids now who go around saying what they made on their scores and how they will be going to a better school now.

Neither of my kids know there scores, yet both attend AAP centers.

[list]Did your kids make the pool with their test scores or by parent referral?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
[list]Did your kids make the pool with their test scores or by parent referral?

Test scores

[Anonymous]

I cannot connect with OP's experience. The kids in our 2nd grade are not talking about it. I dropped my 2nd grader off at a birthday party the weekend after the letter came -- no parent was talking about it. My 2 kids are in it and I did not mention it to them until the orientation. And, I made it very clear that this was not something to be congratulated upon. It was just a classroom assignment that would hopefully suit them better. And, I often make it clear that AAP placement does not make them better than anyone else that everyone has different gifts.

This board brings out those crazy people and then others think that is what the process is. Not everyone should be in AAP just as not everyone is going to excel at soccer or art or anything else. My kids need the additional challenge and it is not fair to deny meeting their needs just because some segment of parents get crazy about the process and dump all of that onto their kids. Leave the kids alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My school.....four large classrooms...(22 or 23)
20 kids selected.

That's not LARGE, that's small. Large is 30 kids like my 2nd grader has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot connect with OP's experience. The kids in our 2nd grade are not talking about it. I dropped my 2nd grader off at a birthday party the weekend after the letter came -- no parent was talking about it. My 2 kids are in it and I did not mention it to them until the orientation. And, I made it very clear that this was not something to be congratulated upon. It was just a classroom assignment that would hopefully suit them better. And, I often make it clear that AAP placement does not make them better than anyone else that everyone has different gifts.

This board brings out those crazy people and then others think that is what the process is. Not everyone should be in AAP just as not everyone is going to excel at soccer or art or anything else. My kids need the additional challenge and it is not fair to deny meeting their needs just because some segment of parents get crazy about the process and dump all of that onto their kids. Leave the kids alone.

+1
We haven't even mentioned anything to DC yet. Thanks for the good tips.

[Anonymous]

One thing to consider is AAP does not cost significantly more per kid than general education. The only extra cost is transportation.

My opinion is any kid that can handle the load should be given the opportunity. However, if a kid can not keep up with the depth or pace, there should be a way to place them back in general ed.

[list]However it is not happening and if AAP were offered in all schools this could be a viable solution. Herein lies the issues we see going back and forth on this thread. Why should so many children who "don't cut the mustard" get this "advanced" opportunity while others do not? The problem here is not the children who test into the program. It is the larger percentage of children in the AAP centers who are being afforded this opportunity based on the subjectivity, quotas, preferential treatment, etc..., being given by the screening committee and AAP resource teachers. This is wrong.

If the AAP center is for children with high IQ's then make it just that and keep the other children in their base schools. Then a truly advanced curriculum could be offered to all children, who are "academically qualified" for it, in all schools. Children could also be allowed to move in and out based on their grades. This would stop the "blanket" assumption, as it is now, that all children in AAP centers are "academically advanced".

The current program is not working for all children. If it is true, that so many children need a "different way of learning" the Fairfax County public school curriculum, that a separate school is needed, then create an "alternative learning" program. Stop giving "all" of these children the label of "advanced" throughout their K-12 education by allowing them in the AAP center program. The AAP program as it exist now is badly flawed and FCPS board needs to correct this!