Feel like my well behaved 1st grader is basically ignored in FCPS

[Anonymous]

I get what you're saying Op. My two boys are like your child - nice, well behaved, good (but not necessarily gifted) students. I often felt that they were ignored and not really encouraged to improve on their skills because they were deemed "good enough".

It seems that the choice was to keep them at the Gen Ed (easy A) level or try to push them into AAP. In Gen Ed I was afraid they were coasting, in AAP I felt that the work might be a bit over their developmental readiness (too stressful).

The thing that made me sad is that my kids' writing, reading assignments in particular all seemed so dumbed down. Way below what they could do (and way below what I recall doing at that age) and there were times that the low expectations at school made me feel that my good learners were actually regressing. Concerned, I actually started to "assign" them books to read at home and I gave them tests on their reading along with a writing assignment. It helped quite a lot actually. And to a degree I think we managed to find that middle ground that was *right* and appropriate for my kids. FCPS does encourage kids to read at home and FCPS does encourage kids to do SOL practice at home even though they do all of that at school already. Do it.

There is an advantage to learning some things at a slower pace - they can really get the material down. That does wind up paying off down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a kid like OP too- was pretty much ignored by the teacher because he wasn't causing any trouble. He was a really good, calm kid and never had discipline issues.
By 3rd grade, my kid started to express frustration in the classroom. We were pretty floored about what our kid was saying in the classroom. It wasn't like him at all. He got 2s on citizenship.
We did talk to the teacher. The teacher said she had other pressing issues in the classroom (such as kids who were behind) that she needed to attend to.
The teacher did try to appease us by giving DS a more "advanced" math worksheet and sent him to the corner without giving him any context whatsoever.
Then she told us, see, he's not advanced in math at all since he couldn't do these problems on his own.

We had him tested and he scored 2 grade levels above in Math and 3 levels above in reading skills. We had many other tests done to make sure the first testing wasn't a fluke.
He's in an AAP center now and doing fantastic. All 4s on citizenship. He loves it that he stays busy and engaged all day long. I can't attest to the piles of homework other people have mentioned. Even when there is a lot of homework, he gets them done in less than 1 hour- and that's probably once a week. Most nights there is no homework, but our center school told us that they prefer for kids to do the work at school.

My advice to the OP is to get outside testing done. You need those other data points. Without that outside data, we would have taken the teacher's word and told DS to just suck it up in the classroom.

OP here. It feels like all the ESOL kids are being placed in DS's class. There were several new students who came mid-year who can't speak any English. This is very different than the ESOL students we knew in kindergarten where parents may speak another language at home but kids speak decent English. It isn't like the school hired more ESOL teachers and the sole teacher seems overwhelmed and distracted with these new kids. It feels unfair that the classes are not getting more resources even when there are new students who require additional support. At the same time, my well behaved kid gets blank sheets of paper to draw on and write. I have no idea what math instruction they get. DS is pretty good at math and the worksheets seem exactly the same from the beginning of the year until now - single digit addition and subtraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get what you're saying Op. My two boys are like your child - nice, well behaved, good (but not necessarily gifted) students. I often felt that they were ignored and not really encouraged to improve on their skills because they were deemed "good enough".

It seems that the choice was to keep them at the Gen Ed (easy A) level or try to push them into AAP. In Gen Ed I was afraid they were coasting, in AAP I felt that the work might be a bit over their developmental readiness (too stressful).

The thing that made me sad is that my kids' writing, reading assignments in particular all seemed so dumbed down. Way below what they could do (and way below what I recall doing at that age) and there were times that the low expectations at school made me feel that my good learners were actually regressing. Concerned, I actually started to "assign" them books to read at home and I gave them tests on their reading along with a writing assignment. It helped quite a lot actually. And to a degree I think we managed to find that middle ground that was *right* and appropriate for my kids. FCPS does encourage kids to read at home and FCPS does encourage kids to do SOL practice at home even though they do all of that at school already. Do it.

There is an advantage to learning some things at a slower pace - they can really get the material down. That does wind up paying off down the road.

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

[Anonymous]

I have felt this way about my first child -- now in fourth grade -- as well. I think FCPS does a good job of addressing gifted children and special needs kids, but the average kid who is on grade level largely gets ignored at our school unless he is in danger of failing the SOLs. DS in the past couple of years began to struggle a bit more in school, and was recently diagnosed with ADHD, which I guess he had been able to compensate for until now. We just got him a 504 and I am hopeful that will help him avoid falling through the cracks.

His younger sister is a more eager learner and more advanced in reading and writing, and I feel like that is recognized and she gets at least some differentiation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo DS is a nice kid, doesn't cause any problems and listens to the teacher. DS's FCPS Alexandria school is 30% free lunch/ESOL. He has 27 kids in his class. DS is a bright kid but probably not gifted. I feel like he is completely ignored in his class. I don't know if this is unique to his class or school or if it will be the same everywhere for a well behaved non-troublemaker who isn't profoundly gifted.

I don't know if things will change if we move to Arlington or Mclean, deemed better schools. I would like to move to Arlington for closer proximity to work and smaller class sizes. Mclean has nicer curb appeal but I believe class sizes are even bigger.

What does the 30% free lunch and ESOL have to do with him? So you are saying because the school is 30% Hispanic or poor (in your post you seem to conflate the two) your child is not made to feel special enough? What do you want them to do? Make him star of the week every week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo DS is a nice kid, doesn't cause any problems and listens to the teacher. DS's FCPS Alexandria school is 30% free lunch/ESOL. He has 27 kids in his class. DS is a bright kid but probably not gifted. I feel like he is completely ignored in his class. I don't know if this is unique to his class or school or if it will be the same everywhere for a well behaved non-troublemaker who isn't profoundly gifted.

I don't know if things will change if we move to Arlington or Mclean, deemed better schools. I would like to move to Arlington for closer proximity to work and smaller class sizes. Mclean has nicer curb appeal but I believe class sizes are even bigger.

What does the 30% free lunch and ESOL have to do with him? So you are saying because the school is 30% Hispanic or poor (in your post you seem to conflate the two) your child is not made to feel special enough? What do you want them to do? Make him star of the week every week?

This is actually a county wide issue. I went to a FCPS budget meeting recently and the graphs were eye opening. Our budgets are getting cut while our ESOL population is skyrocketing. Class sizes are growing. Teacher salaries are not keeping up with neighboring school districts.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I think the frustration is with how some students are highly encouraged to challenge themselves while the ones who find the regular work pretty easy are pretty much encouraged to coast and get by with little effort.

I do think that kids who put in a consistent good and successful effort, every day, every year are going to benefit in the long run - the material IS still being covered. What you won't see is any sort of targeted effort to help your child improve if your child is already "good enough".

My own kids were never really bored in elementary school even though a lot of the work came easy to them. There was usually enough going on in the classroom and actually around the school to keep them entertained.

They are teens now and I do still see areas that they could use some additional practice on at home. Like I said, there are FCPS practice SOL tests for them to take (including sample writing prompts). Classic literature and some of the more modern books are also good for reading outside of the classroom. They usually have time for that kind of practice in elementary school. It gets harder as they get older to carve out that time because the homework load from school tends to get heavier.

For a 1st grader, I would concentrate on making reading a fun and enjoyable normal, nightly activity at home. Just a part of the routine. When they get older, you can have them write a quick summary paraphrasing what they read making sure to use neat handwriting and complete sentences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

Ha. That isn't a one and done thing. If your kid needs that sort of prepping to get a high placement test score you can also expect to be giving them some mighty heavy duty help at home for the rest of their time in school. It is stressful because the kid needs so much help from home to stay on top of their schoolwork.

It's not like you send your kid to take a 3 week Cogat prep test as a 1st grader and their path is then forever paved. You can expect the time and expense to stay on that track to be enormous from there on out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo DS is a nice kid, doesn't cause any problems and listens to the teacher. DS's FCPS Alexandria school is 30% free lunch/ESOL. He has 27 kids in his class. DS is a bright kid but probably not gifted. I feel like he is completely ignored in his class. I don't know if this is unique to his class or school or if it will be the same everywhere for a well behaved non-troublemaker who isn't profoundly gifted.

I don't know if things will change if we move to Arlington or Mclean, deemed better schools. I would like to move to Arlington for closer proximity to work and smaller class sizes. Mclean has nicer curb appeal but I believe class sizes are even bigger.

What does the 30% free lunch and ESOL have to do with him? So you are saying because the school is 30% Hispanic or poor (in your post you seem to conflate the two) your child is not made to feel special enough? What do you want them to do? Make him star of the week every week?

This is actually a county wide issue. I went to a FCPS budget meeting recently and the graphs were eye opening. Our budgets are getting cut while our ESOL population is skyrocketing. Class sizes are growing. Teacher salaries are not keeping up with neighboring school districts.

But what does she want extra for her admittedly non special child? If he isn't receiving enough challenging work why is the onus not on her to participate in his education and supplement with extra reading and exposure to various experiences like museums. Also if he is middling to average how would the lack of ESOL or addition of ESOL change his situation? He would still be average if all the students were white and upper middle class and by DCUM logic he would actually become less than average. Is that her problem? That he is no longer less than average and thus is not getting special attention?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

Ha. That isn't a one and done thing. If your kid needs that sort of prepping to get a high placement test score you can also expect to be giving them some mighty heavy duty help at home for the rest of their time in school. It is stressful because the kid needs so much help from home to stay on top of their schoolwork.

It's not like you send your kid to take a 3 week Cogat prep test as a 1st grader and their path is then forever paved. You can expect the time and expense to stay on that track to be enormous from there on out.

OP here. I have no intentions of test prepping my child to get him into AAP. I may buy a book to familiarize my child with the questions so he knows the format. Our school recently mentioned computer testing. I think that would throw off DS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo DS is a nice kid, doesn't cause any problems and listens to the teacher. DS's FCPS Alexandria school is 30% free lunch/ESOL. He has 27 kids in his class. DS is a bright kid but probably not gifted. I feel like he is completely ignored in his class. I don't know if this is unique to his class or school or if it will be the same everywhere for a well behaved non-troublemaker who isn't profoundly gifted.

I don't know if things will change if we move to Arlington or Mclean, deemed better schools. I would like to move to Arlington for closer proximity to work and smaller class sizes. Mclean has nicer curb appeal but I believe class sizes are even bigger.

Be glad he's being ignored. It's way better than the alternatives, trust me. In FCPS, ignored is about the best you can hope for, unless your child is one of the "gifted and privileged" and gets an actual education.

OP here. I just reread your post three times. Are you saying that only the gifted kids in FCPS get a good education?

AAP kids get something better than everyone else. They get a private school quality education for free, while the rest of the kids sit around in over-crowded classrooms learning next to nothing.

Yes! plus, my GE kid got to "babysit" the other kids in class. I didn't appreciate my 4th grader being given a "job" in class. She needs to focus on her own work. Too many kids in the class for one teacher and an aid to manage. We moved to private and haven't looked back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

Ha. That isn't a one and done thing. If your kid needs that sort of prepping to get a high placement test score you can also expect to be giving them some mighty heavy duty help at home for the rest of their time in school. It is stressful because the kid needs so much help from home to stay on top of their schoolwork.

It's not like you send your kid to take a 3 week Cogat prep test as a 1st grader and their path is then forever paved. You can expect the time and expense to stay on that track to be enormous from there on out.

OP here. I have no intentions of test prepping my child to get him into AAP. I may buy a book to familiarize my child with the questions so he knows the format. Our school recently mentioned computer testing. I think that would throw off DS.

That sounds very reasonable. Keep it low key though. Very low key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

Ha. That isn't a one and done thing. If your kid needs that sort of prepping to get a high placement test score you can also expect to be giving them some mighty heavy duty help at home for the rest of their time in school. It is stressful because the kid needs so much help from home to stay on top of their schoolwork.

It's not like you send your kid to take a 3 week Cogat prep test as a 1st grader and their path is then forever paved. You can expect the time and expense to stay on that track to be enormous from there on out.

Kids in general are not a 'one and done' thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here. I hope my DS gets into AAP but I don't think he is gifted. Maybe he will test well in 2nd grade. If he doesn't test into AAP, we may have to go the private school route.

OK, this is going to sound racist, but if you want your kid in AAP you need to put him in test prep now. Those CogAT score follow your kid for the rest of his/her elementary career at least. Asian parents do this ALL THE TIME. One of the main reasons AAP is so over represented by Asians is they prep the hell of their kids. Same thing for the TJ testing and SAT. Good prep is not going to turn your kid into Einstein, but comfort with the test format and approach is HUGE in doing well. Good prep can easily bring your child up anywhere from 10 - 25% in the percentile rankings.

Google CogAT test prep - plenty of companies/individuals providing it. And if you spend $1000 on prep to get your kid an AAP education versus Gen Ed - that's a home run.

Ha. That isn't a one and done thing. If your kid needs that sort of prepping to get a high placement test score you can also expect to be giving them some mighty heavy duty help at home for the rest of their time in school. It is stressful because the kid needs so much help from home to stay on top of their schoolwork.

It's not like you send your kid to take a 3 week Cogat prep test as a 1st grader and their path is then forever paved. You can expect the time and expense to stay on that track to be enormous from there on out.

OP here. I have no intentions of test prepping my child to get him into AAP. I may buy a book to familiarize my child with the questions so he knows the format. Our school recently mentioned computer testing. I think that would throw off DS.

PP here. Give it some thought. I think it's crazy too, but that's the competition you face. FCPS reduces kids to a number - CogAt score. You can stand on principle, but know when you kid sits down to take that test, you will have disadvantage him/her. If you think your principle is worth potentially getting a lesser education, well...that might be what you get.