Regular classes vs AAP
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Anonymous
Depending on the school, gened classes have many disruptive and sometimes violent students. FCPS isn’t a monolith and either are these groups of students. But like many scholastic situations, the students reflect the parents in either group, so snobby kids probably have snobby parents and violent kids probably have a troubled home life. But ultimately, actual learning reflects the class ability. Cheering on kids with needs is fine as long as kids don’t have to wait for them. AAP is a better learning environment for many who choose it. |
Anonymous
+1 My older child would not have been able to handle the rigor of AAP but is doing just fine in middle school. My younger child is thriving in AAP. |
Anonymous
I'm sure there are jerk kids in AAP, just as I'm sure there are jerk kids in Gen Ed who pick on the AAP kids. There are kind, compassionate kids in gen ed, just as there are in AAP. There are 2E kids in AAP as well as Gen Ed. It's really going to be kid/school dependent. |
Anonymous
| Only the math has much difference at our school. The math gets accelerated into one grade above, but doesn’t go deeper into any level. Rather, it jumps ahead quicker and with less practice. This is why not all AAP got directly into Algebra in 7th grade. They can’t handle it. |
Anonymous
+1 Similar outcomes at our high school too. Graduation is always enlightening as we see all of these grossly underestimated kids being accepted to excellent colleges. AAP is really just a bunch of nonsense. They could easily make it the regular curriculum for the vast majority of students, while bringing in supports for those who need more help. |
Anonymous
+1 We deliberately did not put our child into advanced math because we wanted him to have a solid, thorough grounding in the basics before moving onto Algebra. Once in high school, he took every AP class he could fit into his schedule, and excelled. |
Anonymous
Wow. You're charming. AAP has plenty of minorities and Sped/2E. Nice try, though. |
Anonymous
| I do say that I would love a spot of tea in a China cup with some skim milk. |
Anonymous
Look at the data |
Anonymous
| My two kids went through AAP at our base school where kids would have done well in either AAP or GenEd. They were not the hardest workers. By the time they got to high school, many of their peers from GenEd were outpacing them. Got better grades (I assume), got high school awards, and got into better colleges. In our experience it was all about hard work. That's how kids excelled. |
Anonymous
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AAP is great for kids at Title 1 schools because it allows kids who are above grade level to move at a pace that meets their needs. The diversity of skills at Title 1 schools is massive, there are kids in class who are 2-3 grade levels behind and kids who are 1-2 grade levels ahead. The kids who are behind will get the lions share to the Teachers attention because they need that attention to try and catch up.
AAP at other schools is good for kids who are ahead and need something that challenges them or pushes them a bit. It is meant to keep kids who are ahead, due to overall intelligence, being inquisitive, or hard workers, engaged in school. There are other options for kids like this, we choose a LI school for DS because we liked the idea of that extra bit of a challenge. We knew we could move him to the regular class if the language was too much so why not give it a go? The language added some additional work and challenge to DS school day. He has really enjoyed it and choose to stay in the language program over moving to the AAP Center. Parents and Teachers can refer kids into AAP between 3 and 8th grade because the County knows that kids change and their are kids who were not ready for AAP in 2nd grade but who are in 4th or 7th. I know of kids who have moved into AAP throughout ES. AAP is not going to set AAP kids up for all AP classes or turn every kid into a genius or send all of the kids to Ivies. Plenty of kids from the Gen Ed program end up in AP/IB classes and do great in high school. Kids mature differently. The point of AAP is to keep kids who are ahead engaged in education at a younger age versus sitting in the classroom and being bored and disconnecting from school. |
Anonymous
In my experience very few people in AAP think this is somehow their kids' ticket to the Ivies. They just want the curriculum that, as you state, could easily be the regular curriculum for the vast majority of students. I really don't care much about what college my elementary school kid gets into at this point. I just don't want her bored out of her mind in math, which she was before AAP. |
Anonymous
FCPS posts the curriculum, yes. For third grade it's here. AAP kids get taught the "Extended Standards" listed under each subject and advanced math (other kids who are not in level IV can also access advanced math at many schools). Practically it's not that different, except for math. There's Caesar's English at some AAP centers and the projects often have a little less scaffolding (help from the teacher). |
Anonymous
DP. Fwiw, 2nd grade can be boring for a lot of kids because teachers are focused on the stragglers, getting them ready for 3rd grade when school gets real (reading to learn). For everyone, 3rd grade is a big step up. So it's inaccurate to compare the AAP curriculum to the 2nd grade experience. |
Anonymous
It’s not just the kids. It’s the parents. I had one straight up tell me, thinking my kid was in AAP, that those kids were better and it was best they keep separated from Gen Ed kids. This sort of opinion permeates AAP, parents and kids. And it is with great -though silent- pleasure that I now see my Gen Ed kid lappping lots of those AAP kids. |