AAP parents only, please
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Anonymous
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Just looking for a safe place to ask the following:
What do you like about the program? How has it benefitted your child? What advice would you give to parents who are choosing to keep their child at the base school rather than move to a center? |
Anonymous
| I'm a recent poster on the "Why do schools not let mingle gen ed kids with AAP". I'm actually an AAP parent. Most of us are and just don't really like the way it's currently run if we post negatively. Don't assume people posting negatively don't have children in the program. I think the base school is better than a center if it's well run because I want my child to be around children of many abilities. I want them to help others who need help and I want them to learn from kids who are good at many things, not just academics. If you live in a center boundary, this wouldn't be the case, but I also like having my children at the same school with their neighbors and I like that my oldest and youngest are at the same school together while one is in 1st and the other is in 4th. We have friends in other districts who don't have an AAP program and their children get plenty of advanced work, so children can be accelerated without having to attend a center school especially if they have decent class sizes and great teachers. |
Anonymous
+100 I much prefer the neighborhood (base) school to the center environment. I think relationships between kids and parents would be far healthier if centers would simply become a thing of the past. |
Anonymous
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OP, go to the orientation and then make up your mind. We were 95% sure we were not going to put our DC in AAP (taking him away from our neighborhood school), and the orientation changed our minds. There have been some bumps along with way (1st quarter is a hard adjustment mainly b/c more independence and initiative is required of 3rd graders than 2nd graders whether AAP or not). There is more homework than non-AAP. The schedule is "off" from our other child. But academically, DC in AAP is doing very well and it IS superior to what is happening at our neighborhood school.
So, we will stay with it b/c we know DC is getting a better education. |
Anonymous
| 2 kids in AAP Centers, and yes, they have benefited from the program and we are generally happy with it. But, DS, who is older, clearly needed AAP. He was bored and unhappy in k-2, and he had behavioral problems. He has really flourished in a more demanding academic environment, and moving him was absolutely the right call. DD is a much closer call. She is a kid who has the ability to succeed in AAP, but would have also been fine in a Gen Ed setting. We center tracked her largely because we did not want to send a message that she is less capable than her brother and because having two kids close in age in 2 different elementary school was going to be very difficult. But, if she was a first/only & her base school was strong, and she was thriving there, I honestly don't know what we would have done. I think a lot of it can depend on the strength of the base school, and whether you have a kid who "qualifies" for AAP, or really needs it. |
Anonymous
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From an academic perspective, you just need to know your child and your base school. Will the child get the challenge he/she needs or wants? Are you otherwise happy with your base school?
From a social perspective, I seem to have a different view than some I've seen on other threads. My older child is in 4th grade AAP, and my younger one is in 2nd and accepted for next year. Our base school IS a center, so going is kind of a no-brainer for us. But I will say, our center is pretty good about mixing the gen-ed and AAP kids (mix for all specials, mix at lunch, whole grade (6 classes) goes to recess together). My older one has loved meeting new kids from other schools-- or having teammates that he has played sports with over the past few years now in school with him. Yes, you might have to drive a little farther to get to a new friend's house or birthday party. But it's expanding their view beyond the borders of your neighborhood school boundary. |
Anonymous
I'm glad my son's school had a strong AAP program and he chose to stay there instead of going to the AAP center. His classroom is not separated from the rest. They all do activities together and a few kids from other classrooms come to their class for instruction for certain subjects. I like this. |
Anonymous
+1. We have a really strong Level IV program at our school. In fact, most kids stay at the base instead of going to the center - even though center's reputation is probably one of the best in the county. The kids get mixed for home room, specials, etc. and DS gets to see his neighborhood friends everyday. So glad we choose to stay at the base school. But, I do understand parents who choose to go center when there local base school does not have a strong Level IV program. I think that is the key. |
Anonymous
Like PP, we knew our kid would just get a better education at the center school. A lot depends on your base school, OP, but don't let the "keep kids in the neighborhood" drumbeat on DCUM influence you if your base is unable to challenge your kid academically. Our base school was friendly and nice and had great families there, etc. but at that time, had nothing to offer other than one weekly pull-out class for AAP kids. No level III or IV at that time at all. Teachers were told to "differentiate in the classroom" among different learning levels and what we saw in first and second grades was that it didn't work -- kids who were ahead or ready for more challenges were just given more busy work or told to help other kids. Friendly and cooperative, perhaps, but not challenging. After visiting the AAP center there wasn't really any question of staying at the base. That was just our experience. Bear in mind -- it was and is a base school with issues and has a lot of work to do with kids who need remedial help, so that got all the focus and we were told by some of the teachers there to move our child to the center in order to find a challenge. If you have a solid Level IV program in the base school and don't have the issues our base school had, it may be fine to stay with the base. But listen to the PP and go to the center orientation and ask for examples of how a center is different from in-base Level IV. It might or might not be better for your particular kid. There is a lot of anti-AAP and anti-center talk all over DCUM but you need to get the information by going in person to your possible center (take your child) and really talking to the teachers for Level IV at your[i] base. Don't let any general sentiments for or against the AAP system sway you. |
Anonymous
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Parent of one in AAP now and one in TJ who was in AAP.
Older one was our first experience with this whole process. We moved DC from base school that had just instituted LLIV bc we wanted a larger peer group and the ability to move around in class groupings for the next 4 years due to specific issues at the base school. Younger child was found eligible after we parent referred him into the pool (ie no appeal, but we did ask him to be considered.) We did this to make our lives easier by having both kids at the same school. Flame away on that one. To tell the truth though, younger child excelled in AAP and at the school - more so than older child. Younger may have excelled at base as well. We were not at all impressed with the AAP Center for ES, but LOVE the MS AAP Center. So my advice is that you really need to figure out what will work best for YOUR child and YOUR family. |
Anonymous
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Parent of two in AAP - one in 8th grade and one in 6th grade, both at center schools.
Older DS was in a Young Scholars classroom in 1st and 2nd grades at our base school with Local Level IV. (We are not URM or FARMs.) He was found Center-eligible and we attended the orientations both at the Center and the base school. DC was one of 3 students found Center-eligible. We had a tough time getting a 504 for DC (with ADHD) at the base school and felt the Center counselors and teachers would have more experience with kids with 504s. Younger DS (also with ADHD) was in Level II in K - 1st grade. In 2nd grade, he was in a Young Scholars classroom. We had a tough time getting a 504 for him as well, but then a new assistant principal started at the school and she really understood DS. We got the 504 in spring of 2nd grade, right after we received the Center-eligibility letter. He wanted to attend the Center school with his older brother, so we were pretty much set on the Center. If we had opted to stay for Local Level IV, he would have been one of two Center-eligible students in 3rd grade. Both kids have learned great self-advocacy skills for their 504 Plans thanks to the counselors and teachers at the Center schools. I'm not sure if they would have been as successful at the base schools (ES and MS). Older DS (at an AAP MS Center) opted not to apply to TJ as he did not feel it was the right fit for him. I think his peer group over the years and the staff/teachers have helped him sort out what type of learning environment he prefers. |
Anonymous
What utter BS! THIS is what's wrong with AAP. Center-tracked her did you? Absurd. |
Anonymous
| ^^ And I am an AAP (actually GT) parent, btw. I just believe that busing kids who are not gifted is a phenomenal waste of money and detrimental to school communities. But as long as you were able to keep up the fiction that your daughter wasn't "less able".... FWIW, my oldest was clear GT, and I resisted efforts by teachers to push my two others into AAP. They're in high school now, doing great with a wide variety of friends, and they're not inhibited by thinking they need "special" teaching methods or an advanced track to learn and excel. |
Anonymous
NP. Yes, same situation as above but more because of issues w/base school. Second child doing well with AAP anyway. Need to fix base schools then people won't take their children out. After reading teacher survey from base school we made right decision. www.fcpswcs.org. |
Anonymous
No we need to fix parents who are so insecure about their child's intelligence and ability to learn that nothing short of a special program in a different school is good enough for them. There's a reason McLean now offers AAP to all kids and why Vienna schools may start doing that as well. Because of people like you, AAP will be phased out in many parts of FCPS in upcoming years. |