Are you surprised at the kids not in AAP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can see the points on both sides of the argument for getting rid of the AAP centers vs. keeping them. For me (the PP with the chronically late bus), the problem could be solved if the bus didn't run a route prior to picking up the AAP kids (or if that route was shortened) so that the bus was not always late picking up the AAP kids at their school. We're getting to the point now where the "price" of AAP for kids at our base school is that you have to drive your kid to AAP and pick them up everyday b/c the bus is so late and unreliable. When your child gets home 1hr. and 20 min. or MORE after the dismissal bell on a regular basis, (and they already start 50 min. later than our neighborhood school), it's not reasonable.

There is a blind child on our street who has a 1.5 hour bus ride each way to her FCPS special ed school. Have some perspective. If you can, drive and pick your kids up. If not, they can at least read on the bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto to above PP. I think many parents just dont realize how bad their kids are. One kid told my DD that she was the fattest girl in the school. My DD ignored her. The brat then said "I hate your fucking mother." My DD ignored her. I called the school - no one talks about my DD, and definitely not me! Neighbors were shocked that the nice girl from a nice family acted like that. I replied that one never knows what is going on inside the 4 walls. Apparently, the nice girl from a nice family has a weird family life.[/[b]quote]\

Wait, you relayed this story, using names, to others in the same community? Clearly the kid was wrong, but you, as an adult, were wrong to then trash the kid. You also have NO idea other than a general conclusion you have drawn that she has a "weird family life."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

Our elementary center also does a wonderful job with 2E kids, but to say that AAP is for kids who behave is completely incorrect. Those classes are WILD, even with the teachers being very skilled at reaching those types of kids.

The pipe dream of AAP full of quiet, well behaved, compliant pleaser students is just that, a pipe dream.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple of super brights at our local school but they chose not to attend AAP. There's always that. Some parents still value a neighborhood school over the benefits of busing for a special curriculum in grade school.

I can see why! Our kids leave the local neighborhood school at 8:10 (if the bus is on time, which it hasn't been yet), and they are supposed to get back at 4:25, but so far they have come back at 5:10, 4:45 and 4:45. We are losing faith in the bus schedule and the system that thinks it's o.k. for an 8 yr. old to get back to his/her base school more than an hour after school gets out. Add another 10 min. on to that to walk home. Basically, our kids riding the AAP bus have a day that starts at 8:00 and ends at 5:00 (if they aren't REALLY late). That's too long and gives us pause in reconsidering our decision to forego the neighborhood school. The AAP school is literally 15 min. away from the neighborhood school... yet these kids are losing 2 hrs. every day just getting to and from the AAP school.

Center schools should be a thing of the past by now and kids should return to their neighborhood schools. It would solve a lot of problems.

It would solve a lot of problems for some people and cause a lot more problems for some people. The school district needs to meet the needs of all students.[/quote]

Think is would solve more problems than it would cause. School district could easily meet the needs of students with LLIV at base schools.

LLIV at all schools would be far worse.

Could you imagine the drama, the jockeying, the hurt feelings every single day at every single school?

At least now, there is a rip the band aide off approach at the base schools for the parents who are really upset about their kid not being at a center, and the long, daily reminders are limited to a few center schools.

The parents at the base school who still harbor resentment months or years afterwards are going to have that resentment whether or not there is a center or all the schools have LLIV. LLIV will cause many previously content parents to get upset where they weren't before.

The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

Wow, you clearly don't have a child who has to attend a center school as his/her base school. Centers are the worst scenario of all, if that child isn't in AAP. They then find themselves in a school where AAP is perversely considered the "norm," and are reminded every single day that they are in the "lesser" class -- that band-aid is never pulled off at all. In any normal, community school, Gen Ed would be considered the norm and very few kids would be in AAP or a gifted program. This is how school in FCPS used to be and there were no hard feelings. The way the center system is set up now, there are just as many and often more AAP kids than Gen Ed. IF FCPS is going to insist on continuing down this path, then I agree they need to have designated AAP-only schools and let all other schools be returned to their communities and neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

What a mess!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the genius special ed kid stayed at the base school for better services. It's a crying shame that kids like that can't be accommodated at an AAP center. We tried an AAP center for my son in 3rd grade, but returned him to the base school when we learned that special ed services at the Center just couldn't compare to the base school. Centers need to do a better job serving the "twice exceptional" student. If a child is accepted into the program on the basis of intelligence, an appropriate education should not be denied because the child also has a disability, whether autism or ADHD, etc. FCPS should really be careful about potential legal action by parents of gifted kids with disabilities.

Nobody is denying the "special 2E" kids anything. I just don't understand how their parents make such a fuss and talk about legal action just because THEY don't think the services are the same at the Center. Centers are generally bigger and more crowded. There are only so many resources to go around. How many special services does one special child need? This is PUBLIC school. If you want multiple special services for your special child, then pay and go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the genius special ed kid stayed at the base school for better services. It's a crying shame that kids like that can't be accommodated at an AAP center. We tried an AAP center for my son in 3rd grade, but returned him to the base school when we learned that special ed services at the Center just couldn't compare to the base school. Centers need to do a better job serving the "twice exceptional" student. If a child is accepted into the program on the basis of intelligence, an appropriate education should not be denied because the child also has a disability, whether autism or ADHD, etc. FCPS should really be careful about potential legal action by parents of gifted kids with disabilities.

Nobody is denying the "special 2E" kids anything. I just don't understand how their parents make such a fuss and talk about legal action just because THEY don't think the services are the same at the Center. Centers are generally bigger and more crowded. There are only so many resources to go around. How many special services does one special child need? This is PUBLIC school. If you want multiple special services for your special child, then pay and go private.

THANK YOU. I agree completely. The entitlement mentality that some parents have is astonishing. FCPS has for too long bent over backwards to be all things to all people. Enough is enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

You must live in a parallel universe. It's at middle school that GE kids often surpass AAP kids in advance courses they can get into like Algebra and Geometry. A better model would be no AAP and only honors in middle school. It's what all kids (AAP and non) get in high school anyway. How long do you really need your kid to have that label? Why are parents so fearful their supposedly brilliant kids will suffer in a class with students of different abilities? My husband and I were always among the smartest kids in our class and somehow we survived and didn't lose intelligence. I'm sure we can't be alone.

[Anonymous]

Our base school is a center school....when I volunteer there (I have a child in AAP and one in gen ed), it is obvious which classes are AAP. They are consistently the classes with the children that are more engaged and better behaved. I've tried multiple times to get my "gen ed" kid into aap so he too would be surrounded by different kids. Unfortunately even through private testing and appeal he hasn't been accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center school....when I volunteer there (I have a child in AAP and one in gen ed), it is obvious which classes are AAP. They are consistently the classes with the children that are more engaged and better behaved. I've tried multiple times to get my "gen ed" kid into aap so he too would be surrounded by different kids. Unfortunately even through private testing and appeal he hasn't been accepted.

But the thing is, your kid is probably quite bright and will do just fine in General Ed (two of mine, HS honor students< have). There's no better time to teach a kid to think for himself than when he's around other kids who aren't models of good behavior. The way people talk on here you would think that Gen Ed classrooms were zoos, which is hardly the case. People here need to lighten up -- it is grade school and NONE of it matters in the long run provided you teach your kid the right habits. Many boys don't even get the importance of school until middle school or high school, but go on to be wildly successful. In fact, their stories are the one's that inspire.

Way, way, way too much anxiety on these boards.

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify....it all matters. Everything your child is exposed to will shape the adult they will become. Saying it "doesn't matter" that they see kids throwing chairs at teachers etc isn't the case. Of course I will also be the parent that thinks "it matters" if my teenager is exposed to kids doing drugs and having sex. Call me old fashioned but I still believe kids should be well behaved, good citizens and expecting anything less is letting them down as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

You must live in a parallel universe. It's at middle school that GE kids often surpass AAP kids in advance courses they can get into like Algebra and Geometry. A better model would be no AAP and only honors in middle school. It's what all kids (AAP and non) get in high school anyway. How long do you really need your kid to have that label? Why are parents so fearful their supposedly brilliant kids will suffer in a class with students of different abilities? My husband and I were always among the smartest kids in our class and somehow we survived and didn't lose intelligence. I'm sure we can't be alone.

Beautifully stated. You are exactly right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center school....when I volunteer there (I have a child in AAP and one in gen ed), it is obvious which classes are AAP. They are consistently the classes with the children that are more engaged and better behaved. I've tried multiple times to get my "gen ed" kid into aap so he too would be surrounded by different kids. Unfortunately even through private testing and appeal he hasn't been accepted.

This school sounds like the polar opposite of our center school. The AAP classes are consistently full of the loudest and most obnoxious kids. You only have to walk down the hall to hear the difference. I feel sorry for the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify....it all matters. Everything your child is exposed to will shape the adult they will become. Saying it "doesn't matter" that they see kids throwing chairs at teachers etc isn't the case. Of course I will also be the parent that thinks "it matters" if my teenager is exposed to kids doing drugs and having sex. Call me old fashioned but I still believe kids should be well behaved, good citizens and expecting anything less is letting them down as a parent.

When wild things have happened at my kid's middle school -- fights in the hallways, kids throwing stuff at teachers (yes, even happens in "nice" NOVA neighborhoods) they've told me about it and I've been disappointed, but it's a teaching moment. Short of their endangerment, which I haven't seen, I see all of this as preparation for life. I would prefer some exposure to bad behavior than a bubble, quite frankly. I've had kids in AAP and GE.

And if you think that an AAP class or HS honors class will keep your kids from being exposed to those doing drugs and having sex, you're kidding yourself. Please let us know when you figure out a way to control the behavior of all the kids your child will be exposed to in FCPS.