Falls Church City differentiation in classroom

[Anonymous]

Hoping someone can share their experience regarding how FCC handles differentiation (in math and reading) in the classroom for early elementary (1st-3rd grade) students. TIA.

[Anonymous]

I have no personal experience with it but what I've heard is that it is fairly limited - a pullout once a week.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious about this too. We were thinking of moving, but don't know much about the schools. There was a posting just recently about the schools, so I'm hoping someone from Falls Church can chime in.

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, in those grades it's only for math.

[Anonymous]

In 1st grade, my DD was pulled out for math once a week and a general GT class once a week. Since enrollment has gone up, I'm not sure if that's still happening (more kids, same number of teachers).

In 2nd grade and 3rd grade she was pulled out once a week. They concentrated on logic and literature.

Once a week doesn't sound like a lot, but we've been satisfied. I've felt like the classroom teachers have given her the opportunity to explore and go beyond the curriculum if she has the interest.

[Anonymous]

In addition to the once a week advanced academic pull-out (which is pretty high-quality and a highlight of DD's week), the teachers assess reading ability at the beginning of each year. My DD's 1st and 2nd grade teachers were really great at differentiating in reading/LA and had several different reading/word study groups active at once, including a very high reading group. The 3rd grade teacher wasn't as good, generally running only 2 reading/word study groups at a time and DD was unchallenged in reading/LA in 3rd grade, so it's pretty dependent on the teacher.

The new elementary math curriculum is really pretty good, requiring higher-level thinking, and the kids bring home almost-daily math homework as well as some 'optional' homework (not overwhelming amounts of either) which DD is strongly encouraged to do by her teacher because it provides more challenge than the regular HW.

[Anonymous]

My understanding is the TAAP program (the once a week pull out) is on the chopping block if city council doesn't give the schools the budget they need. Classroom sizes will also increase making differentiation harder. You might want to wait a week if you are thinking of moving to see what happens with the budget.

My DC does a math pull out and a general pull out, so for now, that's still in place.

There is some differentiation within the normal classroom, but I haven't seen it in math. My schedule doesn't leave me time to volunteer during the school day, though, so I may be missing something.

[Anonymous]

My DS does math and reading pull-outs in KG but I too am wondering about the coming years. We love the pullout (the teacher is great) but it's so infrequent and is often skipped because of holidays or field trips, so it's actually even less than once a week. I am worried if the whole pullout program is in danger of being cut, as PP reports. Does anyone know how likely that is?

[Anonymous]

TAAP as a whole can't be on the chopping block...services for gifted learners are required by state law. The quality of it may change, but they must provide differentiation and a new plan for serving the gifted was just approved last year after a lot of effort. That plan includes a weekly pullout in elementary school plus other differentiation depending on needs.