Possible AAP changes at ES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

GenEd is mind numbingly boring for a lot of kids.

AAP would be too frustrating for many more.

I love all the AAP parents who know absolutely nothing about the curriculum saying things like this. Do you really know the differences between what your child is learning and what your neighbor's kid is learning? Really???

As a matter of fact I do. Lots of us have one kid in AAP and one kid in gen ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

GenEd is mind numbingly boring for a lot of kids.

AAP would be too frustrating for many more.

What needs to happen is each grade level should have a ESOL teacher who pushes in all day. ESOL support is a huge problem in ES. They get waay more support in middle and high school with ESOL designated classes. We are lucky if ESOL kids get 20 mins of support in a given day. This is where change needs to start.

No, the problem is not ESOL students. You are vastly overestimating gen ed. You must be unfamiliar with students outside of your AAP bubble. [/quote


Um actually I am a teacher who has taught both Gen Ed and AAP. The support Gen Ed has for ESOL students is lacking which then falls on the classroom teacher. ]

This really, really depends on the school. 100% agree this is the case at my child's school, but you have to remember that most of the people on this board send their kids to all white or allwhite+asian schools that have low ESOL populations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Received word of a meeting coming up highlighting some proposed changes to "class placement" for next year. Some of the bulleted items include:

1. Additional classroom for student receiving Level IV services (i.e. a 2nd AAP classroom)
2. Teachers 3-6th provide Level IV curriculum to ALL (yes, it was capitalized)
3. Specific differentiation to groups

the Why? Access and Opportunity to ALL students (again, capitalized)

Our school is local level IV and our child is already in AAP, so it shouldn't affect us. Just wondering if there are other ES's going the same route. I have heard from some parents that there are a multitude of kids designated as "Level III" but the AAP can't accommodate them all (the AART teacher has taken on the load), so maybe that's what's driving it?

Hi OP,

This change sounds much like the approach under the “E3” or “E” cubed, approach discussed here:


https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1042885.page

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how they're going to handle Math with this approach? I believe we are at the same school and my Level IV kid will be going into 6th grade (doing 7th grade math) next year. How are those Level III kids going to keep up? Or perhaps I should ask how is the teacher going to handle this issue? Or are all the Level III kids very good at math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

I attribute the obsession of schools in FCPS to the large federal workforce in Fairfax County which on average earns a very solid upper middle-class living, but lags behind the lawyers and businessmen of the DC area. Because federal employee salaries simply can't compete with expensive housing in DC proper or higher-end Montgomery County, they settle for Fairfax County but use schools as a way to further differentiate their success relative to those in 'bad' schools or not in AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

I think that this is a school culture issue. My daughter is at a not particularly well regarded center. The kids are all friends with each other. During recess, they play together. For specials, they're in mixed groups. I have heard discriminatory nonsense out of kids at other schools, but not this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

I think that this is a school culture issue. My daughter is at a not particularly well regarded center. The kids are all friends with each other. During recess, they play together. For specials, they're in mixed groups. I have heard discriminatory nonsense out of kids at other schools, but not this one.

I think combining for specials and recess/lunch is a big deal. The more some kids are kept away from others, the more screwed up the school culture will get

[Anonymous]

Why aren't specials mixed together? They used to be. 100% agree that it leads to a nasty divide between the two and we're at a Local IV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

GenEd is mind numbingly boring for a lot of kids.

AAP would be too frustrating for many more.

What needs to happen is each grade level should have a ESOL teacher who pushes in all day. ESOL support is a huge problem in ES. They get waay more support in middle and high school with ESOL designated classes. We are lucky if ESOL kids get 20 mins of support in a given day. This is where change needs to start.

No, the problem is not ESOL students. You are vastly overestimating gen ed. You must be unfamiliar with students outside of your AAP bubble.

A gen ed kid who enters a school above grade level that has a heavily farms and ESOL student body will have a lot of trouble staying at grade level. There are plenty of none AAP kids who are capable of level IV work and there are schools that use the level IV curriculum for those kids. That's not really possible if they don't have a cohort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

I think that this is a school culture issue. My daughter is at a not particularly well regarded center. The kids are all friends with each other. During recess, they play together. For specials, they're in mixed groups. I have heard discriminatory nonsense out of kids at other schools, but not this one.

I think combining for specials and recess/lunch is a big deal. The more some kids are kept away from others, the more screwed up the school culture will get

The solution is do not send your child to center school. Opt for local level IV schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how they're going to handle Math with this approach? I believe we are at the same school and my Level IV kid will be going into 6th grade (doing 7th grade math) next year. How are those Level III kids going to keep up? Or perhaps I should ask how is the teacher going to handle this issue? Or are all the Level III kids very good at math?

Hello - there is a meeting literally TONIGHT where you can ask these questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

I think that this is a school culture issue. My daughter is at a not particularly well regarded center. The kids are all friends with each other. During recess, they play together. For specials, they're in mixed groups. I have heard discriminatory nonsense out of kids at other schools, but not this one.

This is entirely possible -- I was describing an LLIV school where the AAP kids have been with the same kids the past couple of years. They do all have recess at the same time, but don't mix for specials or lunch (they have assigned tables).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think parents in this area are obsessed with AAP. Kids will be gone even if they are not in AAP.
Selection process is holistic but test scores and GBRS are the main ones. Reading is important but done kids do become advanced readers in 3rd and 4th grade.

When I moved here, in my early 20s, my earnest co-workers said that I should move to Fairfax County when I had kids, for the GT program. This was in DC. AAP is well-known throughout the region and lots of families move here for it, including us.

I'm continually surprised at how oblivious the school board is to this. I mean, I've realized over the years that parts of the FCPS administration is openly hostile towards AAP and is trying to get rid of it. I thought the school board would have known better. But they don't.

It goes both ways. When I was pregnant with my first one of my co-workers we call “Tiger Mom” was prepping her kid for tests and even had the dad take the younger kid on vacation for a week so her older child would have no distractions during test week. That sealed the deal for us on moving to Arlington. As two former “gifted kids”, we wanted no part of the AAP competitiveness for our own kids. According to these boards, my kid’s unprepped CogAT would be considered high and yet he has peers on his level in his “regular” classes and is happy and doing great. I don’t get the Lake Wobegone obsession in FFX of making sure everyone knows all the kids are above average or creating a caste system within the schools.

Arlington has its own problems and we can't afford a house in a good arlington school district, but I agree with you on the segregation by test score issue. It's ridiculous. My DD is at the age where the AAP mean girls have started to exclude friends who are not in their class from outside activities (some of these girls are in sports, scouts, etc together, and have known each other since preschool, it's sad).

I think that this is a school culture issue. My daughter is at a not particularly well regarded center. The kids are all friends with each other. During recess, they play together. For specials, they're in mixed groups. I have heard discriminatory nonsense out of kids at other schools, but not this one.

I think combining for specials and recess/lunch is a big deal. The more some kids are kept away from others, the more screwed up the school culture will get

The solution is do not send your child to center school. Opt for local level IV schools.

Actually I think it's more common at LLIV schools where there's only ONE "special" class.