Recommendations needed for great FCPS elementary school that is NOT a center school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16:31 Our kids K year there was no switching. Maybe that's the reason for the difference. Can't believe they're even switching already. Let them get used to the classroom their in first and the school! Can't this wait till Oct?

OP here: what does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow OP. I've never heard of what you're going through. The most I've heard is that the parents do this. Very strange to see children do this especially the first year. If your child is K, give it a little bit more time. It's only been a couple of weeks.

I actually have heard this and experienced it. Here is the thing - kids are observant. At any school they are noticing who is in which reading or math group, who goes to the reading specialist, etc. It is human nature to take note of one's environment and "place" yourself within the levels that you see. At AAP center schools, especially, kids are very aware of who is in which class. I do not hear mean or degrading comments but I do hear a lot of comments about who "is smartest" and even a few who "works harder".

An AAP child at ds's bus stop told ds that he could be in AAP if he would "grow a bigger brain and work harder". Nice.

[Anonymous]

Westgate, shrevewood, kent gardens, anything McLean

[Anonymous]

17:02 I was responding to this. There's very little tracking in K at our school.

At any school they are noticing who is in which reading or math group, who goes to the reading specialist, etc

[Anonymous]

We are at Forestville Elementary in Reston which is not an AAP center school, and we really like it. The teachers are very good, and the school is friendly with involved parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Westgate, shrevewood, kent gardens, anything McLean

...ssshhhhh...enrollment has leveled off and we'd like to keep the class sizes small, ok?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at Forestville Elementary in Reston which is not an AAP center school, and we really like it. The teachers are very good, and the school is friendly with involved parents.

Forestville is in Great Falls. It has LLIV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow OP. I've never heard of what you're going through. The most I've heard is that the parents do this. Very strange to see children do this especially the first year. If your child is K, give it a little bit more time. It's only been a couple of weeks.

I actually have heard this and experienced it. Here is the thing - kids are observant. At any school they are noticing who is in which reading or math group, who goes to the reading specialist, etc. It is human nature to take note of one's environment and "place" yourself within the levels that you see. At AAP center schools, especially, kids are very aware of who is in which class. I do not hear mean or degrading comments but I do hear a lot of comments about who "is smartest" and even a few who "works harder".

Same here. We have had kids at both a Local Level 4 and a Center, and both were friendly, community-oriented, friendships across all the different classrooms in each grade. It was a very positive experience. Obviously, it seems there are other schools where this is not the case. So, I agree with the suggestion to consider schools individually and not presume anything, good or bad, just on the basis of being a center, level 4, or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to add -- clearly the school you're at right now is not a good environment and I'd want to change, too. Just encourage you to be open to all options.

[Anonymous]

Vienna parent here- Vienna Elementary is good if you don't ever want level IV services - if you do, you will have to go to Louise Archer. Wolftrap has a class size issue and they switched their level IV services approach to more general ed mix. I would not say Wolftrap was a bunch of laid back parents- there are a lot of AAP/level IV students for a reason (parent appeals). It is very competitive and the kids feel it (such as those who get level IV for language arts but not math). In a way- the new gen ed mix is worse given the huge amount of AAP accepted students- and resources are slim there (lots of shared resources).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

Wow, the anti-AAP attitude on DCUM is finally becoming, "I want to avoid any chance of my child being in a school with an AAP center even if my child is in general ed." Without regard for the quality of the general ed in that school, or the overall "community feel." Yes, center schools are also community schools with community involvement.

Seriously, OP, look at any school as a whole. AAP students are just kids, and in four years when my child has been in an AAP center I haven't seen the kind of elitism or crazed intensity that DCUM posters constantly claim exists in the kids and the parents. I just never saw it, and I spent a lot of time in the school every week working directly with kids and teachers.

Don't make assumptions about an entire school just because it has a center or Level IV classes, and don't dismiss a school outright for just that reason. You might be denying your child a very good general ed program just because it is under the same roof as a center.

OP here: Why would you think a Gen Ed program in a non-center might be inferior to GE within a center? And I haven't jumped to any conclusions or made any assumptions here. My child has been at a center school since kindergarten and while you may not have experienced any of the above (crazed intensity, etc.), I certainly have. The children are constantly comparing who is in which class and it's not healthy at all. So thanks for your advice, but I'll keep searching for a more wholesome environment for my child.

Sorry you misunderstood but I do not "think that a gen ed program in a non-center might be inferior to GE within a center." I never said that above. I only said that there might be a very good general ed program at some theoretical center school but you'd apparently refuse to send your child to that general ed program solely because it shared a roof with an AAP center. That is not saying that somehow non-center general ed is therefore inferior.

It seems it would be more productive to compare general ed to general ed among schools if you have a choice of schools, rather than refusing to send a child to a particular school's general ed program solely because it happens to be in a school with a center. In other words, it would seem to be more productive to seek out the general ed program that's best for your kids rather than focusing on avoiding another program in which you don't plan to participate anyway.

Those assumptions I said you're making aren't about your own school. You do have your own real observations there and the atmosphere may have been truly awful. But you are making assumptions when you dismiss any school with a center because you had a bad experience at one school with a center. There are center schools where the kids and parents are not like you experienced.

[Anonymous]

Terra Centre

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Terra Centre

Is that the school where it's underground and has no windows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hunt Valley or Orange Hunt.

Great neighborhoods, great people with smart kids that seemingly could care less about AAP.

Agree.

The feeder schools score in the same range as the center school. All of the schools have different character, and everyone is proud of the school they go to, be it the neighborhood school or the center.

In all of the Sangster feeder communities, Cherry Run, Hunt Valley and Orange Hunt, the neighborhood center school kids and non-center kids play together and get along well. The parents do not fixate on whether or not the kids are or are not in the center. The kids know that some kids go to a different school for AAP, but there is no judgment on either side of what the other kids are doing.

The schools are exceptional, with the added bonus of there being no need to be competitive about where the kids attend school.

The attitudes shown on this board regarding all the AAP drama, from either side, are just not a reality over in this area. Reading the boards on that topic is like watching some alternative universe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terra Centre

Is that the school where it's underground and has no windows?

That school always fascinates me, especially when they started digging up the front this summer. Not to derail the discussion, but how did they start school this year with half of the front missing?