What will be the future purpose of "Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)" forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh as long as they don't water down the curriculum any further I don't care

It can't get any more watered down than it is. As of two years ago, teachers are only required to execute one AA activity per quarter. Not one each subject per quarter - one activity for the WHOLE quarter. Of course, some teachers do more, but that is the minimum requirement.

What is AA?

Advanced academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

This is simply not true. For English and social studies, fine. Nobody said that intelligent people develop language faster or understand history better ("wow, they learned about the civil war REAL GOOD!" lol). It's mostly about math. I was in a top private school 30 years ago that is very respected for its math and science. My son is doing the same math in AAP that I was doing in the advanced math class at that school. AAP is basically one year ahead math work. That's what it was designed to be and that's what it still is.

But I think that is the point trying to be made here. It's only advanced in one subject There are four subjects that students could do advanced work in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

This is simply not true. For English and social studies, fine. Nobody said that intelligent people develop language faster or understand history better ("wow, they learned about the civil war REAL GOOD!" lol). It's mostly about math. I was in a top private school 30 years ago that is very respected for its math and science. My son is doing the same math in AAP that I was doing in the advanced math class at that school. AAP is basically one year ahead math work. That's what it was designed to be and that's what it still is.

NP. I've heard anecdotally that the AAP/GT program of 10-20 years ago was brutal. Much more work in class and hours of nightly homework. Not so much better or a higher level as just more work.

We're at one of the "middle" centers, not one of the most watered down centers or one of the highest level/most competitive ones. It seems like a good program for DC, who is an "average gifted" student, not a prodigy nor a kid who thrives on hours of homework.

What the heck is a "watered down" center? Don't all centers teach the same curriculum?

Teachers at the same center and in the same grade don't even teach the same curriculum. So, it's definitely not uniform across the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

This is simply not true. For English and social studies, fine. Nobody said that intelligent people develop language faster or understand history better ("wow, they learned about the civil war REAL GOOD!" lol). It's mostly about math. I was in a top private school 30 years ago that is very respected for its math and science. My son is doing the same math in AAP that I was doing in the advanced math class at that school. AAP is basically one year ahead math work. That's what it was designed to be and that's what it still is.

But I think that is the point trying to be made here. It's only advanced in one subject There are four subjects that students could do advanced work in.

Level IV does include all four subjects. Advanced LA and S/SS are not as quantifiable as math so many posters either pretend they don't know that or actually don't. Or a few lousy center schools actually don't provide any advanced academics outside of Advanced Math and have many vocal complaining posters on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, if everyone can get into AAP and TJ is lottery, what is the purpose of this forum ? How else can parents motivate their children to compete in academics ?

Since when was academics a competition? I view my children's education as fostering a lifelong love of learning, teaching them about the world, and most importantly helping them to rightly order the things they love so they can rightly order their lives. It just so happens that at least one of them is in AAP because the curriculum is the best fit.

What a piece of hypocrite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, if everyone can get into AAP and TJ is lottery, what is the purpose of this forum ? How else can parents motivate their children to compete in academics ?

Since when was academics a competition? I view my children's education as fostering a lifelong love of learning, teaching them about the world, and most importantly helping them to rightly order the things they love so they can rightly order their lives. It just so happens that at least one of them is in AAP because the curriculum is the best fit.

So, that goes with Sports too ? no need to compete.. Wow..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP. I've heard anecdotally that the AAP/GT program of 10-20 years ago was brutal. Much more work in class and hours of nightly homework. Not so much better or a higher level as just more work.

We're at one of the "middle" centers, not one of the most watered down centers or one of the highest level/most competitive ones. It seems like a good program for DC, who is an "average gifted" student, not a prodigy nor a kid who thrives on hours of homework.

What the heck is an "average gifted student?" If your kid is gifted at all, he would be at the top in his AAP class. If he's an average AAP student, then he's probably around a 120 IQ and is bright but nowhere near gifted.

Also, to the PP who said that AAP is intended to be one year advanced math and nothing more: That's available for most gen ed students. Every school could easily offer advanced math starting in 3rd, so what's the point of a separate AAP program then?

Not PP, but I once saw something about "levels of giftedness." The IQ level you mentioned would be "high acheiver," and then above that were 4 tiers of gifted kids roughly grouped by IQ and education needs. Most kids in AAP probably fit that bright, high achiever group. Plenty of kids at TJ do too.

Not plenty just the bottom ten percent which is going to be majority of the students under lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, if everyone can get into AAP and TJ is lottery, what is the purpose of this forum ? How else can parents motivate their children to compete in academics ?

Since when was academics a competition? I view my children's education as fostering a lifelong love of learning, teaching them about the world, and most importantly helping them to rightly order the things they love so they can rightly order their lives. It just so happens that at least one of them is in AAP because the curriculum is the best fit.

So, that goes with Sports too ? no need to compete.. Wow..

Elementary school is not graded on a curve.

I'm telling you this because it seems you don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a TJ forum. Also AAP still exists. Our local base school still doesn’t offer adv math until 5th grade so local level iv looks a long way off from where I sit and we will still hope for AAP at center for our youngest child (older kids already in).

AAP will soon face the same fate as TJ.

That's not going to happen. The benchmarks considered are not absolute so can be manipulated to let whomever they want in. What AAP centers need to do is separate classes by ability. That way, they can still serve the gifted kids while appearing more inclusive. There were two or three AAP classes, sometimes four, in each grade in my kids' elementary school. My oldest belonged in the highest class. My youngest was in pool but just not as interested in academics so would have done fine one tier down.

Benchmarks under the current TJ admissions system are manipulated as well. It is a holistic review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

This is simply not true. For English and social studies, fine. Nobody said that intelligent people develop language faster or understand history better ("wow, they learned about the civil war REAL GOOD!" lol). It's mostly about math. I was in a top private school 30 years ago that is very respected for its math and science. My son is doing the same math in AAP that I was doing in the advanced math class at that school. AAP is basically one year ahead math work. That's what it was designed to be and that's what it still is.

Then why do parents fret over having their kids be in level IV vs just advanced math? Kids can be in advanced math only, at least in our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is essentially a normal class minus the disruptive kids.

My child’s AAP class is full of extremely smart kids. I am often impressed by so many of these kids. We came from a school that was 30% FARMS/ESOL. AAP and gen ed are worlds apart depending on your school.

I’m curious, what school was this? Did it happen to be in Vienna?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly, if everyone can get into AAP and TJ is lottery, what is the purpose of this forum ? How else can parents motivate their children to compete in academics ?

This forum extends beyond Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

I teach AAP and taught Gen Ed for many years. My class curriculum is completely different. I am not even at a center, just a Local Level 4. There is absolutely curriculum materials that should be used for each subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is going to be watered down. I mean every school is now going to be center school. Everyone can get into AAP.
No purpose of TJ , as it is going to be diluted with lottery selection on not best of the best.

So, is there a place for this forum in future ?

AAP has been watered down by the county for the past 5 to 10 years. And it will just continue to be watered down. AAP is the new Gen Ed. I taught general education for years. I'm using the same material that I used 15 years ago in general education for my current AA students.

This is simply not true. For English and social studies, fine. Nobody said that intelligent people develop language faster or understand history better ("wow, they learned about the civil war REAL GOOD!" lol). It's mostly about math. I was in a top private school 30 years ago that is very respected for its math and science. My son is doing the same math in AAP that I was doing in the advanced math class at that school. AAP is basically one year ahead math work. That's what it was designed to be and that's what it still is.

Then why do parents fret over having their kids be in level IV vs just advanced math? Kids can be in advanced math only, at least in our school.

Because some base schools have neither LLIV nor advanced math until 5th grade. If your kid is above average in math, they're going to spend a lot of time in 3rd and 4th grade playing math games and peer teaching while the teacher tries to get the lower kids up to grade level so they'll eek out a 400 on the SOL. I let my kid stay at the base school for 3rd grade and saw this firsthand. In 4th grade at the center, he was a lot more engaged and his math SOL score increased over 100 points. I really doubt this was a coincidence. The base schools that aren't willing to provide these services are missing the forest for the trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP is essentially a normal class minus the disruptive kids.

My child’s AAP class is full of extremely smart kids. I am often impressed by so many of these kids. We came from a school that was 30% FARMS/ESOL. AAP and gen ed are worlds apart depending on your school.

Very true. Our base is 60% Farms. Our center is now 50% Farms. Big push to have AAP demographics to match school population.