APS Overcrowding Solved — Thanks Pandemic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools are terrible and you should definitely leave. Go go go!

Report back when your kid starts apply to colleges. Let’s see how great APS is.

Thanks, I have two in college! APS served them well.

Oh, wait, I mean it was a complete cluster and you should leave.

Right your kids were in school before overcrowding and eliminating differentiation took over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s too early to tell. Families may have stretched for private or homeschool this year but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or desirable long term.

There was a sudden expansion of private schools overnight. Most of the attrition is permanent. Expecting a rebound, or positive change, requires evidence. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm sorry, who is hoping any of these kids come back? It's great for those of us who stayed that these kids are gone. The ones who left in my kids' circles were honestly kids who were distractions in class too. Not sad to see them go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s too early to tell. Families may have stretched for private or homeschool this year but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or desirable long term.

There was a sudden expansion of private schools overnight. Most of the attrition is permanent. Expecting a rebound, or positive change, requires evidence. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm sorry, who is hoping any of these kids come back? It's great for those of us who stayed that these kids are gone. The ones who left in my kids' circles were honestly kids who were distractions in class too. Not sad to see them go.

Really? All the best students left out middle school. And the biggest PTA donors. (Not necessarily the same )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools are terrible and you should definitely leave. Go go go!

Report back when your kid starts apply to colleges. Let’s see how great APS is.

Thanks, I have two in college! APS served them well.

Oh, wait, I mean it was a complete cluster and you should leave.

Right your kids were in school before overcrowding and eliminating differentiation took over.

One graduated in June; I don't know how much more he could have been affected by the current state of APS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools are terrible and you should definitely leave. Go go go!

Report back when your kid starts apply to colleges. Let’s see how great APS is.

Thanks, I have two in college! APS served them well.

Oh, wait, I mean it was a complete cluster and you should leave.

Right your kids were in school before overcrowding and eliminating differentiation took over.

One graduated in June; I don't know how much more he could have been affected by the current state of APS

Right which means he was in elementary 7 years ago, when they still did pull out. And the demographic bulge for WL is this years freshman class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools are terrible and you should definitely leave. Go go go!

Report back when your kid starts apply to colleges. Let’s see how great APS is.

Thanks, I have two in college! APS served them well.

Oh, wait, I mean it was a complete cluster and you should leave.

Right your kids were in school before overcrowding and eliminating differentiation took over.

One graduated in June; I don't know how much more he could have been affected by the current state of APS

Right which means he was in elementary 7 years ago, when they still did pull out. And the demographic bulge for WL is this years freshman class.

(Population of students stopped shrinking with kids born in 2007 when housing market halted, and all these folks with babies suddenly couldn’t sell their condos and move to Fairfax. Raising a family and settling in, more decided to stay, and suddenly apartments, condos, and townhouses were teeming with school age kids). As well as the explosion of apartments since then (because no one builds condos anymore) with affordable units, and no funding for schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s too early to tell. Families may have stretched for private or homeschool this year but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or desirable long term.

There was a sudden expansion of private schools overnight. Most of the attrition is permanent. Expecting a rebound, or positive change, requires evidence. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm sorry, who is hoping any of these kids come back? It's great for those of us who stayed that these kids are gone. The ones who left in my kids' circles were honestly kids who were distractions in class too. Not sad to see them go.

Really? All the best students left out middle school. And the biggest PTA donors. (Not necessarily the same )

The big PTA donors makes sense. I have a middle school kid and my observation is the same as PPs. The kids I personally know who left had executive functioning issues and virtual learning was a dumpster fire for them. They were kind of barely hanging on before and the pandemic just really put them behind. And the parents (understandably) panicked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s too early to tell. Families may have stretched for private or homeschool this year but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or desirable long term.

There was a sudden expansion of private schools overnight. Most of the attrition is permanent. Expecting a rebound, or positive change, requires evidence. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm sorry, who is hoping any of these kids come back? It's great for those of us who stayed that these kids are gone. The ones who left in my kids' circles were honestly kids who were distractions in class too. Not sad to see them go.

Really? All the best students left out middle school. And the biggest PTA donors. (Not necessarily the same )

The big PTA donors makes sense. I have a middle school kid and my observation is the same as PPs. The kids I personally know who left had executive functioning issues and virtual learning was a dumpster fire for them. They were kind of barely hanging on before and the pandemic just really put them behind. And the parents (understandably) panicked.

Pretty sure virtual learning was a dumpster fire for every student. My kid is a totally different student this year compared to last. The pandemic effects were awful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Right which means he was in elementary 7 years ago, when they still did pull out. And the demographic bulge for WL is this years freshman class.

Pull-out meant that the quality of a school's gifted services depended entirely on the quality of its resource teacher, and ours stunk.

It would have been better for my kid if she'd been better, but it was fine, thanks to his other teachers.

I get it. Everything is harder for you and your kids. But if your worry is gifted services for ES kids, your actual problems are microscopic and your attitude means everyone will be happier if you go private. So go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s too early to tell. Families may have stretched for private or homeschool this year but that doesn’t mean it’s sustainable or desirable long term.

There was a sudden expansion of private schools overnight. Most of the attrition is permanent. Expecting a rebound, or positive change, requires evidence. Hope is not a strategy.

I'm sorry, who is hoping any of these kids come back? It's great for those of us who stayed that these kids are gone. The ones who left in my kids' circles were honestly kids who were distractions in class too. Not sad to see them go.

Really? All the best students left out middle school. And the biggest PTA donors. (Not necessarily the same )

The big PTA donors makes sense. I have a middle school kid and my observation is the same as PPs. The kids I personally know who left had executive functioning issues and virtual learning was a dumpster fire for them. They were kind of barely hanging on before and the pandemic just really put them behind. And the parents (understandably) panicked.

Pretty sure virtual learning was a dumpster fire for every student. My kid is a totally different student this year compared to last. The pandemic effects were awful

Yes, they were. Some kids struggled way more though and if your kid was already barely on grade level, well the impact was a lot worse. Just reality. I would think my kid was struggling and then I would talk to friends and hear about what their kids were going through and it was perspective.

My kid is also a totally different student too though. So no arguments the virtual learning sucked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Right which means he was in elementary 7 years ago, when they still did pull out. And the demographic bulge for WL is this years freshman class.

Pull-out meant that the quality of a school's gifted services depended entirely on the quality of its resource teacher, and ours stunk.

It would have been better for my kid if she'd been better, but it was fine, thanks to his other teachers.

I get it. Everything is harder for you and your kids. But if your worry is gifted services for ES kids, your actual problems are microscopic and your attitude means everyone will be happier if you go private. So go.

Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Pull out allowed the gifted kids to work together, form a community of kids who wanted to more more academic things, just like school sports let’s kids who want to do baseball more get together. They often got assigned longer term projects that they would present to each other, rather than only daily or weekly assignments. Push in became simply additional worksheets in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Right which means he was in elementary 7 years ago, when they still did pull out. And the demographic bulge for WL is this years freshman class.

Pull-out meant that the quality of a school's gifted services depended entirely on the quality of its resource teacher, and ours stunk.

It would have been better for my kid if she'd been better, but it was fine, thanks to his other teachers.

I get it. Everything is harder for you and your kids. But if your worry is gifted services for ES kids, your actual problems are microscopic and your attitude means everyone will be happier if you go private. So go.

Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Pull out allowed the gifted kids to work together, form a community of kids who wanted to more more academic things, just like school sports let’s kids who want to do baseball more get together. They often got assigned longer term projects that they would present to each other, rather than only daily or weekly assignments. Push in became simply additional worksheets in class.

I’m pretty happy with the model. There is a cohort of 10 gifted kids in my class, so there is lots of opportunity for working together and in-class differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Having a gifted resources teacher means that the more-challenging activities are implemented by a classroom teacher who is (A) better at teaching and (B) more in touch with students' abilities and needs.

Obviously.

Academically gifted kids don't need more isolation. They don't need to form a clique based on how smart they are. They need to learn to interact constructively with kids of all abilities.

To use your sports analogy, we don't have gifted gym class, but there are travel teams outside school. Similarly, lessons need to be able to engage all learners, but beyond that, kids can join a math circle, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Having a gifted resources teacher means that the more-challenging activities are implemented by a classroom teacher who is (A) better at teaching and (B) more in touch with students' abilities and needs.

Obviously.

Academically gifted kids don't need more isolation. They don't need to form a clique based on how smart they are. They need to learn to interact constructively with kids of all abilities.

To use your sports analogy, we don't have gifted gym class, but there are travel teams outside school. Similarly, lessons need to be able to engage all learners, but beyond that, kids can join a math circle, etc.

Somewhat tangential, but this analogy only works if gym is dedicated to teaching skills and not just constructive opportunities to run around. So, if your gym class was doing a unit on softball, but they couldn't play until little Timmy learns how to throw a ball properly, or remove the hitch in his bat swing. If your response is "well just let the kids who know how to play go play rather than wasting their time," congratulations, you just invented gifted learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Pull out or push in, obviously the quality of the gifted program depends on the gifted teacher. Why would that not be self evident?

Having a gifted resources teacher means that the more-challenging activities are implemented by a classroom teacher who is (A) better at teaching and (B) more in touch with students' abilities and needs.

Obviously.

Academically gifted kids don't need more isolation. They don't need to form a clique based on how smart they are. They need to learn to interact constructively with kids of all abilities.

To use your sports analogy, we don't have gifted gym class, but there are travel teams outside school. Similarly, lessons need to be able to engage all learners, but beyond that, kids can join a math circle, etc.

Somewhat tangential, but this analogy only works if gym is dedicated to teaching skills and not just constructive opportunities to run around. So, if your gym class was doing a unit on softball, but they couldn't play until little Timmy learns how to throw a ball properly, or remove the hitch in his bat swing. If your response is "well just let the kids who know how to play go play rather than wasting their time," congratulations, you just invented gifted learning.

DP. Huh? Timmy in your analogy would be a kid who is below grade level. Just because the other kids know how to play doesn’t make them gifted at baseball either. So those would be the grade level kids.