Falls Church City v. APS v. FCPS Advanced Academics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are currently in early elementary at APS and deciding if we should stay or move to another county. Our DC is highly gifted, and although already identified for gifted services, differentiation is pretty much not existent. DC mentioned they haven't learned anything in math at school all year, which isn't a surprise since they are able to perform multiple grade levels ahead. Not sure if we ride it out until middle school. Is the grass really greener elsewhere?

Do you like your neighborhood? Your house? Your community? Is your kid happy? Are you happy? What is your commute like if you have one? What type of lifestyle are you looking for as they get older and do you want them to have a walkable or bikable tween/teen adolescent experience or are you looking for something different? This last one is a critical thing to think about.

These are the things you should be thinking about and less about the services for giftedness in math. The math will be the same anywhere in the end and is easily solvable right now if you want to live where you are living.

100%. My 99th percentile in everything kid had times he was bored in APS but as parents who both worked outside of the home we valued a short commute. As he got older he could walk and bike places. Arlington has lots available for teens. Ended up in intensified classes and TJ. No regrets.

Yeah, if you get to leave APS for high school and go to the Governor School at TJ of course you like the outcome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are currently in early elementary at APS and deciding if we should stay or move to another county. Our DC is highly gifted, and although already identified for gifted services, differentiation is pretty much not existent. DC mentioned they haven't learned anything in math at school all year, which isn't a surprise since they are able to perform multiple grade levels ahead. Not sure if we ride it out until middle school. Is the grass really greener elsewhere?

You’ll do just fine in APS if they are highly highly gifted. Lucky for you every parent in APS I ever met had a child highly highly gifted in something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are currently in early elementary at APS and deciding if we should stay or move to another county. Our DC is highly gifted, and although already identified for gifted services, differentiation is pretty much not existent. DC mentioned they haven't learned anything in math at school all year, which isn't a surprise since they are able to perform multiple grade levels ahead. Not sure if we ride it out until middle school. Is the grass really greener elsewhere?

Do you like your neighborhood? Your house? Your community? Is your kid happy? Are you happy? What is your commute like if you have one? What type of lifestyle are you looking for as they get older and do you want them to have a walkable or bikable tween/teen adolescent experience or are you looking for something different? This last one is a critical thing to think about.

These are the things you should be thinking about and less about the services for giftedness in math. The math will be the same anywhere in the end and is easily solvable right now if you want to live where you are living.

100%. My 99th percentile in everything kid had times he was bored in APS but as parents who both worked outside of the home we valued a short commute. As he got older he could walk and bike places. Arlington has lots available for teens. Ended up in intensified classes and TJ. No regrets.

Yeah, if you get to leave APS for high school and go to the Governor School at TJ of course you like the outcome

Haha fair. But you can get there from any of the districts

[Anonymous]

Even in high school there is not a lot of differentiation other than AP classes. Sometimes the "intensified" classes are actually challenging but now always. So that means kids are locked into needing to take a lot of APs (or IB). At other schools there may be honors classes that cover more targeted topics that are not AP survey classes and are still challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If advanced academics are important to you APS is not the best choice.

Correct. If you're looking for teaching to the lowest common denominator type curriculum? APS is perfect.

There’s no meaningful difference in college outcomes between these choices. UVA admits about 10% of the class; their instas reflect one off HYP type admissions and a handful of T5-T10 depending on specific year. Bottom line: you serve gaining an advantage by choosing one over the other in the ultimate next round admission and colleges don’t see meaningful differences in the caliber of student coming from Rhee places. That being said, there are slight differences in pedagogy and school makeup and specific strengths (eg a really strong theater program or a really good lacrosse team). If your child has specific strengths then maybe these would be important to you.

The top students at APS are there because of parents supplementing mostly. It’s not the curriculum.

As a current elementary my child is not the most advanced but is so idle in class because teacher is focused on the high need kids. It’s been a wasted year honestly. I wish they just had more recess rather than iPad time. This is a NA school

No the top students at APS are not just there because of supplementing. This is a naive comment by an elem parent who doesn't know what they don't know. Wait until your kid gets to high school to pass judgment like that.

[Anonymous]

Many of the parents I knew at my son's North Arlington elementary school thought their kids were "gifted"... same story at most NA schools, LOL!

My son is definitely NOT gifted and a solid B student in middle school but in elementary he was also bored and flew through those math worksheets and/or iPad math lessons. He did not do well in middle school Algebra but his teacher was terrible (lots of Cs and Ds in the class) and he didn't do well until I started teaching him Algebra with some online resources added in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If advanced academics are important to you APS is not the best choice.

Correct. If you're looking for teaching to the lowest common denominator type curriculum? APS is perfect.

There’s no meaningful difference in college outcomes between these choices. UVA admits about 10% of the class; their instas reflect one off HYP type admissions and a handful of T5-T10 depending on specific year. Bottom line: you serve gaining an advantage by choosing one over the other in the ultimate next round admission and colleges don’t see meaningful differences in the caliber of student coming from Rhee places. That being said, there are slight differences in pedagogy and school makeup and specific strengths (eg a really strong theater program or a really good lacrosse team). If your child has specific strengths then maybe these would be important to you.

The top students at APS are there because of parents supplementing mostly. It’s not the curriculum.

As a current elementary my child is not the most advanced but is so idle in class because teacher is focused on the high need kids. It’s been a wasted year honestly. I wish they just had more recess rather than iPad time. This is a NA school

No the top students at APS are not just there because of supplementing. This is a naive comment by an elem parent who doesn't know what they don't know. Wait until your kid gets to high school to pass judgment like that.

I have kids older than elementary school. My experience is that APS isn't teaching math well in elementary and that can catch up with kids in middle and high school. Kids who succeed later do so, not just because they're smart, but because they have a strong math base. If there are gaps in elementary teaching, those are often filled by parents supplementing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Many of the parents I knew at my son's North Arlington elementary school thought their kids were "gifted"... same story at most NA schools, LOL!

My son is definitely NOT gifted and a solid B student in middle school but in elementary he was also bored and flew through those math worksheets and/or iPad math lessons. He did not do well in middle school Algebra but his teacher was terrible (lots of Cs and Ds in the class) and he didn't do well until I started teaching him Algebra with some online resources added in.

A kid can be gifted and not receiving good math instruction. Both can be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If advanced academics are important to you APS is not the best choice.

Correct. If you're looking for teaching to the lowest common denominator type curriculum? APS is perfect.

There’s no meaningful difference in college outcomes between these choices. UVA admits about 10% of the class; their instas reflect one off HYP type admissions and a handful of T5-T10 depending on specific year. Bottom line: you serve gaining an advantage by choosing one over the other in the ultimate next round admission and colleges don’t see meaningful differences in the caliber of student coming from Rhee places. That being said, there are slight differences in pedagogy and school makeup and specific strengths (eg a really strong theater program or a really good lacrosse team). If your child has specific strengths then maybe these would be important to you.

The top students at APS are there because of parents supplementing mostly. It’s not the curriculum.

As a current elementary my child is not the most advanced but is so idle in class because teacher is focused on the high need kids. It’s been a wasted year honestly. I wish they just had more recess rather than iPad time. This is a NA school

No the top students at APS are not just there because of supplementing. This is a naive comment by an elem parent who doesn't know what they don't know. Wait until your kid gets to high school to pass judgment like that.

I have students all 3 levels, elem, middle, high. We had classes together with all the top students at RSM; are their outliers, sure but in general that is the trend. So many kids getting English tutoring at our NA school as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If advanced academics are important to you APS is not the best choice.

Correct. If you're looking for teaching to the lowest common denominator type curriculum? APS is perfect.

There’s no meaningful difference in college outcomes between these choices. UVA admits about 10% of the class; their instas reflect one off HYP type admissions and a handful of T5-T10 depending on specific year. Bottom line: you serve gaining an advantage by choosing one over the other in the ultimate next round admission and colleges don’t see meaningful differences in the caliber of student coming from Rhee places. That being said, there are slight differences in pedagogy and school makeup and specific strengths (eg a really strong theater program or a really good lacrosse team). If your child has specific strengths then maybe these would be important to you.

The top students at APS are there because of parents supplementing mostly. It’s not the curriculum.

As a current elementary my child is not the most advanced but is so idle in class because teacher is focused on the high need kids. It’s been a wasted year honestly. I wish they just had more recess rather than iPad time. This is a NA school

No the top students at APS are not just there because of supplementing. This is a naive comment by an elem parent who doesn't know what they don't know. Wait until your kid gets to high school to pass judgment like that.

I have kids older than elementary school. My experience is that APS isn't teaching math well in elementary and that can catch up with kids in middle and high school. Kids who succeed later do so, not just because they're smart, but because they have a strong math base. If there are gaps in elementary teaching, those are often filled by parents supplementing.

Which elementary school? I had two kids go through the most advanced track (pre-algebra in 6th). We didn't supplement in elementary and both were prepared just fine. So maybe this is an issue with your kids' school and not systemic? Their school was sorely lacking in how they taught science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If advanced academics are important to you APS is not the best choice.

Correct. If you're looking for teaching to the lowest common denominator type curriculum? APS is perfect.

There’s no meaningful difference in college outcomes between these choices. UVA admits about 10% of the class; their instas reflect one off HYP type admissions and a handful of T5-T10 depending on specific year. Bottom line: you serve gaining an advantage by choosing one over the other in the ultimate next round admission and colleges don’t see meaningful differences in the caliber of student coming from Rhee places. That being said, there are slight differences in pedagogy and school makeup and specific strengths (eg a really strong theater program or a really good lacrosse team). If your child has specific strengths then maybe these would be important to you.

The top students at APS are there because of parents supplementing mostly. It’s not the curriculum.

As a current elementary my child is not the most advanced but is so idle in class because teacher is focused on the high need kids. It’s been a wasted year honestly. I wish they just had more recess rather than iPad time. This is a NA school

No it is just not true that the top students in APS are there because of parents supplementing. I say this as a parent of APS graduates. You don't know what you don't know as an elementary parent.