Sandy Evans (Mason District) reply re: AAP Expansion proposals

[Anonymous]

Just received this email

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From: Partlow, Kathy On Behalf Of Evans, Sandy (School Board Member)
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 12:17 PM
To: Partlow, Kathy
Cc: Evans, Sandy (School Board Member)
Subject: Advanced Academic Program (AAP) Issues and Proposals

Sent on behalf of Sandy Evans

Dear FCPS Parent and other advocates,
Thank you for writing to me about Advanced Academic Program (AAP) issues and proposals being considered by the School Board. Because we have received an overwhelming number of emails on this subject, I unfortunately am not able to respond to each of you personally but did want to let you know my position on the proposals put before us and on AAP in general.

It has been some time since the School Board has done a thorough review of our Advanced Academic Program, and I believe it is time we do such an in-depth analysis, not just of our AAP centers but of the full range of strategies used to serve our advanced learners. Who are we serving and how? Are we using best practices to make sure that each child is taught at the right level and pace? How do we prepare and identify students for services, including the AAP centers, and what are the overall goals of the centers? What is the “critical mass” needed to have a vibrant AAP center? Does our AAP curriculum need revision? Do we have enough teachers trained and well-qualified in delivering advanced instruction? These are just some of the questions I would like to see addressed by an analysis, with input from parents, teachers and students themselves.

I also want to make sure that children get the advanced academic services they need, regardless of where they live. Are all of our AAP centers equally rigorous and challenging? If not, that needs to be addressed, and not by eliminating access to innovative courses but by expanding access to make them available to all who can benefit.

This then brings me to the Superintendent’s proposals to restructure the AAP centers to put one in each middle school and to add several elementary school AAP centers, both to relieve overcrowding at three elementary schools with large AAP centers (Haycock, Louise Archer and Hunters Woods) and to create new ones within certain high school pyramids.

I support creating new elementary school centers next fall to relieve overcrowding at Haycock, Louise Archer and Hunters Woods. I have been talking and working with the School Board members who represent those school communities and potential receiving school communities on the best approach for creating the new centers and providing for grandfathering to avoid disruption to individual students and families.

Beyond the centers needed to relieve those critical situations, I don’t at this point support creation of other new centers next fall. Before we move forward with any other new centers, we should do the larger in-depth analysis of all of our AAP programs. There are a number of implications, including facilities and staffing issues as well as potential cost, which have not been fully considered. I don’t believe that a piecemeal approach is the best way to go about revisiting these programs. That said, once we have looked at all of this more carefully, we may decide that creating new centers would be part of an improved AAP program.

I very much appreciate all of the advocacy on this issue. While this is a group reply, please know that I have read and absorbed your individual emails and will take each into account as we continue our discussion on this important topic.

Sincerely,
Sandy Evans
Mason District