AAP in elementary school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

[Anonymous]

NB that local level IV will generally be taught in the same classroom as I-III. They don't even necessarily cluster students, e.g. I had one child in an immersion program that had two classrooms. They split the advanced math students 50/50 between classrooms instead of grouping them all together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

[Anonymous]

^ 12:11 PP here. Also, I had one child in 5th grade advanced math at the base school and one in 5th grade AAP math at the center at the same time. The base school program was stronger, had much better projects and extensions, and was consistently a chapter or two ahead of the center class.

Maybe the center teacher was especially weak. It more seemed to me like the bottom kids in the center were completely average in math, didn't belong in an advanced class, and slowed everything down for everyone. Meanwhile, the bottom kids in the gen ed advanced class were all above average at math, because they wouldn't have been placed there if they couldn't handle the program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

+1 to this. Bad teachers are bad teachers, and while we are in General Ed at a Center school, we know for a fact that the principal has switched bad teachers (the ones who can't manage their classrooms, have a hard time differentiating between kids at different levels, etc.) to AAP classrooms because they are supposedly easier. It just means that the easy kids get the bad teacher and aren't getting the advanced instruction they should be getting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

And by having these crappy teachers the AAP students have to teach themselves and finally get the academic challenges they need?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

And by having these crappy teachers the AAP students have to teach themselves and finally get the academic challenges they need?

Honestly, in my experience, some schools, teacher, and principals don't care about giving academic challenges to advanced kids. The only thing they care about is maximizing their SOL pass rates. In this type of school, the kids who enter the grade already at a level where they'll pass the SOLs aren't a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

And by having these crappy teachers the AAP students have to teach themselves and finally get the academic challenges they need?

Honestly, in my experience, some schools, teacher, and principals don't care about giving academic challenges to advanced kids. The only thing they care about is maximizing their SOL pass rates. In this type of school, the kids who enter the grade already at a level where they'll pass the SOLs aren't a priority.

Which is precisely why centers have value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

This. I'll also acknowledge that my child had some shockingly terrible teachers at the AAP center. Some teachers choose to get AAP certified because they expect the AAP classes to be easy and not because they're particularly interested in helping very advanced kids maximize their potential.

And by having these crappy teachers the AAP students have to teach themselves and finally get the academic challenges they need?

Honestly, in my experience, some schools, teacher, and principals don't care about giving academic challenges to advanced kids. The only thing they care about is maximizing their SOL pass rates. In this type of school, the kids who enter the grade already at a level where they'll pass the SOLs aren't a priority.

Which is precisely why centers have value.

LOL. This happened at the center in the AAP class. The AAP teachers were pretty weak and ineffective. They also focused on the handful of kids who didn't belong in AAP and might fail the SOL over the kids who needed extensions. Math was especially bad, since several kids were admitted centrally to AAP who were great in language arts and nowhere near the level that they needed to be to handle AAP math. The entire class had to slow down for them. I don't think any extensions at all were used. Instead, AAP 5th and 6th grade math were simply gen ed math taught at gen ed pacing, but given a year early.

[Anonymous]

AAP Teacher here at LL4. Every AAP class regardless of center or local has the following population.

1-2 truly gifted kids.
5-10 kids who are really strong students in all subject areas and do well in all areas but aren’t necessarily gifted.
4-5 kids who are really smart and maybe even gifted but have poor executive functioning, don’t complete assignments and don’t work to their full potential even though the teacher sees it in them.
2-4 kids who you are shocked they got into AAP based on class performance.
1-4 kids who are 2E and have IEP or 504 and struggle with ADHD, Autism or LD.


This is approximate and varies by year. But LL4 and centers have them all. So everyone who thinks there kid is getting a better education at the center, this is the makeup of your child’s class that is all L4. The only difference is I also have Level 3 students who sometimes perform higher than my Level 4 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

YMMV. Our family experience is that the center school was a better learning environment than the base. A teacher would have a harder time being objective.

[Anonymous]

Opinion: FCPS is just too large. It is impossible to have much consistency in any school system so large. And Gatehouse is just such a boat anchor impeding education…

No guarantees in life except death and taxes, but if the school system were cut into 3-5 separate pieces, each of the pieces might be more successful. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school level IV is not the same quality as a center school

Please stop saying this. It is the same curriculum. Some centers don’t have certified AAP teachers and some base schools do. Some base schools out perform the center schools. Ask me how I know - I am a teacher at a LL4 that was shocked at some data I saw with VGA regarding centers vs base schools. It all comes down to the teacher.

YMMV. Our family experience is that the center school was a better learning environment than the base. A teacher would have a harder time being objective.

I am not saying every base school is better than a center. But the data I saw shows that not every center is better than the LL4. Like i said, I was shocked that many LL4 schools outperformed the centers in math VGA in the winter. At a center school you can have teacher trainees, long term sub, or non certified gifted teachers (you have three years to do so). You can also have this at base school. I guess my point is, while I absolutely believe your experience may have been better that does not mean LL4 schools are not strong. I am just sick of this narrative. I do think transportation to centers should be taken away if the kids can get their needs met at the neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got this letter from my kid's AART teacher. They are calling it "AAP Subject Specific Advanced Differentiation". There's also a part-time and full-time designation, and there's a chart listing the differences but I don't exactly understand what it means on-the-ground.

Email or letter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AAP Teacher here at LL4. Every AAP class regardless of center or local has the following population.

1-2 truly gifted kids.
5-10 kids who are really strong students in all subject areas and do well in all areas but aren’t necessarily gifted.
4-5 kids who are really smart and maybe even gifted but have poor executive functioning, don’t complete assignments and don’t work to their full potential even though the teacher sees it in them.
2-4 kids who you are shocked they got into AAP based on class performance.
1-4 kids who are 2E and have IEP or 504 and struggle with ADHD, Autism or LD.


This is approximate and varies by year. But LL4 and centers have them all. So everyone who thinks there kid is getting a better education at the center, this is the makeup of your child’s class that is all L4. The only difference is I also have Level 3 students who sometimes perform higher than my Level 4 kids.

And the difference between your class and the general ed classes is that we get all the bullies, ESOL, kids who are super disruptive, special ed who don't belong in a separate classroom, and everyone else, even though many of our kids are significantly smarter than those bottom 7-20 kids on your list (you know, the ones whose parents prepped them or who are BFF with the principal and/or teachers at the school)..