One compelling reason centers need to go

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

How on earth does the rest of the country manage to educate bright kids? In their zoned schools? Oh, the horror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

How on earth does the rest of the country manage to educate bright kids? In their zoned schools? Oh, the horror.

Many other districts bus GT students to central ESs. Many other programs are one-day-a-week, which is arguably more visible and more disruptive for all students. But FCPS is not unique in having a GT elementary school program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

How on earth does the rest of the country manage to educate bright kids? In their zoned schools? Oh, the horror.

Many other districts bus GT students to central ESs. Many other programs are one-day-a-week, which is arguably more visible and more disruptive for all students. But FCPS is not unique in having a GT elementary school program.

"Many"? Name them. I can name many top districts across the country that do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in AAP when it was still called GT. For 6 months during 4th grade I went to the local school and was in gen ed after an inter-county move. Parents thought it would help me to meet the neighborhood kids.

Well, I made alot of friends. But it was obvious to me as a fourth grader that I was not getting challenged and not getting the education I needed.

Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

Melodrama much?

I would be more concerned about budget proposals that make it harder for teachers, such as increasing class size and cutting pay via reduced hours.

That would be a disincentive for teachers to find FCPS appealing, which is a bigger problem than a few parents getting snitty about having G/T programs in their home schools rather than getting to say their child is at a center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

Oh, please. Do you just not get it that the white-hot focus for FCPS over the past decade or so has been rolling out these AAP centers and vastly increasing the amount of kids admitted to them? All the while, the quality of the general education has been ignored and left to go downhill. General Ed classes have been steadily depleted of average, mainstream kids who are somehow getting into AAP. At some schools, AAP classes outnumber General Ed, making it appear that AAP kids are somehow the norm and GE kids are somehow inferior.

When are you and others going to drop the "oh, they're just jealous" nonsense and realize that the rest of the taxpayers in FCPS would very much like some attention paid to our own kids' educations and needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in AAP when it was still called GT. For 6 months during 4th grade I went to the local school and was in gen ed after an inter-county move. Parents thought it would help me to meet the neighborhood kids.

Well, I made alot of friends. But it was obvious to me as a fourth grader that I was not getting challenged and not getting the education I needed.

Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

Melodrama much?

I would be more concerned about budget proposals that make it harder for teachers, such as increasing class size and cutting pay via reduced hours.

That would be a disincentive for teachers to find FCPS appealing, which is a bigger problem than a few parents getting snitty about having G/T programs in their home schools rather than getting to say their child is at a center.

+1000
I find it laughable when people use the silly argument, "oh, but families with gifted kids would cease to move to Fairfax!" We've already established AAP isn't a GT program. So families who have highly gifted kids (few and far between) aren't hanging all their hopes on a move to FxCo for its "world-class gifted program". People move to Fairfax for all kinds of reasons - mostly because of the many great job opportunities in the area. Not because of AAP, for crying out loud.

[Anonymous]

OP, I TOTALLY agree. My oldest went through AAP. He was great in language and very good in math. My middle son had borderline test scores, but our AART encouraged me to parent refer. I did, and despite a 16 GBRS did not get in. We dropped it. He has autism and ADHD, so we were worried about the change. The only disadvantage to staying is that most of the more advanced peers did in fact leave, we have no LLIV at our school. The next year, my youngest DD was found center eligible. We were really in a quandary. In the end, we decided to send her, and did a sibling transfer request for DS. Within the first week he got pulled to advanced math, but gets support in his IEP for reading. The perfect solution. If this was possible at our home school, we would stay. The main reason we moved him was to keep from having 3 kids at 3 schools and me at a 4th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

AAP kids are the minority. Look at the data yourself.

[Anonymous]

Membership report:

http://schoolprofiles.fcps.edu/schlprfl/f?p=108:42:29753245691618:::::

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

AAP kids are the minority. Look at the data yourself.

I have looked at the data and stand by what I said, bolded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

AAP kids are the minority. Look at the data yourself.

I have looked at the data and stand by what I said, bolded.

In SOME Center schools there are more AAP students per grade than Gen Ed. But not in all Center schools; not even in a majority of Center schools. Therefore, not a majority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

AAP kids are the minority. Look at the data yourself.

I have looked at the data and stand by what I said, bolded.

In SOME Center schools there are more AAP students per grade than Gen Ed. But not in all Center schools; not even in a majority of Center schools. Therefore, not a majority.

+1

In the case of overcrowded Centers, FCPS has tried to correct issues. But other Centers are nothing like those overcrowded Centers.

Some samples from Dashboard:

Overcrowded Haycock:


and Greenbriar West:


compared to not overcrowded centers:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Closing centers would be an extreme disservice to Level IV kids, unless there are enough students to have a level IV class at the local school, which we all know is often not the case.

Why some parents refuse to accept this is truly sad. Jelousy or whatever it is, it's extremely petty and shameful to try to detract from the quality of education level IV kids need.

There seem to be a number of posters who choose not to believe this.

As is to be expected in any majority vs. minority scenario.

DS plays the trumpet, so I think orchestra should be eliminated. The cost of stringed instruments is too high and we can save money by moving all the orchestra students to band.

Are you actually claiming AAP kids are the "minority"? Uh, maybe ten years ago or so. Today these kids outnumber gen ed kids in many schools. Try again.

A handful of Centers have more AAP kids than GE-- because they are CENTERS. Your argument is like saying TJ has more STEM than humanities kids. They are magnet schools. I'd be shocked if you could name a single base school where more of the kids who were assigned to the school (assigned, not attend) are AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in AAP when it was still called GT. For 6 months during 4th grade I went to the local school and was in gen ed after an inter-county move. Parents thought it would help me to meet the neighborhood kids.

Well, I made alot of friends. But it was obvious to me as a fourth grader that I was not getting challenged and not getting the education I needed.

Closing centers would be bad for the kids. It'd be bad for the county as well, as it would be a disincentive for families with gifted children to move to or stay in Fairfax.

Melodrama much?

I would be more concerned about budget proposals that make it harder for teachers, such as increasing class size and cutting pay via reduced hours.

That would be a disincentive for teachers to find FCPS appealing, which is a bigger problem than a few parents getting snitty about having G/T programs in their home schools rather than getting to say their child is at a center.

+1000
I find it laughable when people use the silly argument, "oh, but families with gifted kids would cease to move to Fairfax!" We've already established AAP isn't a GT program. So families who have highly gifted kids (few and far between) aren't hanging all their hopes on a move to FxCo for its "world-class gifted program". People move to Fairfax for all kinds of reasons - mostly because of the many great job opportunities in the area. Not because of AAP, for crying out loud.

A quick look at the sharp decline in the number of Asian kids the second you cross into Arlington tells you otherwise, as does the very small number of NMSF in APS compared to FCPS. But please keep arguing the same point over and over again. It's like watching a gerbil.