Young scholars?

[Anonymous]

My child is in young scholars at fcps. He doesn't fit the description for the program listed on the website and any information the school/aart has sent home makes no mention of the underrepresented/ minority aspect featured on the website. Do some schools just not follow that protocol? I feel weird asking them about this. He's in K.

[Anonymous]

Search this forum and you'll find several posts from parents that have children in Young Scholars and the child is not in the historically underrepresented population.

Each principal runs Young Scholars as they wish at their school.

[Anonymous]

That's how it seems to be across the county. It was intended for populations that are underrepresented in the AAP program, but it has become a tool in schools with a high FARMS population to provide pull-outs for the Caucasian kids who are ahead of the rest of the class.

[Anonymous]

My kids are multicultural, yet since I am a SAHM our principal did not feel that young scholars was for them. Instead the kids of double income households got the benefit. It used to really bug me, but not so much now. My kids get the benefit of doing fun stuff everyday after school, going to the natural center, frying pan park, or some other fun activity.My kids are in AAP and fit the description for young scholars, even the guidance counselor was confused as to why they weren't being pulled. The AART informed me of what I noted above.

[Anonymous]

We fit the definition for Young Scholars, Latino child who performs above grade level, but we don't receive any additional support. We do receive pull-out supplements as a level III service. I tried to ask the school last year, but our school really doesnt do much with the program. FWIW, our school is a center AAP school. With all the talk of how Hispanic and black children are underrepresented in AAP I thought they would've worked harder to provide some support to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's how it seems to be across the county. It was intended for populations that are underrepresented in the AAP program, but it has become a tool in schools with a high FARMS population to provide pull-outs for the Caucasian kids who are ahead of the rest of the class.

The Young Scholars program at our school is not all pull-outs. In 2nd grade it's a full-time Young Scholars class.

[Anonymous]

See this description about Young Scholars from the NAGC conference:
http://nagc.org/uploadedFiles/Conventions_and_Seminars/School%20Programs%20Panel.pdf

First implemented in 12 schools in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia in 2002, the program
is currently in 82 schools, serving more than 6,400 students. The Young Scholars Program identifies
students from diverse cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds, who are not likely to be considered for
gifted programs using traditional methods of identification, and who are less likely to pursue advanced
levels of learning without intervention.

In 2009 – 2010, 2,253 Black and Hispanic students were enrolled in the Young Scholars Program
in K – 8. In 2012 that number increased by 21% to 2,724.

From the materials posted, it is not known whether the remaining 3,600+ of Young Scholars students are in the low-income group, but I tend to doubt it.