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Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
FCPS comprehensive boundary review
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Anonymous
Agreed. There's no point in changing any boundaries before they decide what to do with AAP centers. |
Anonymous
DP. I can't agree with this enough. So well said. |
Anonymous
+100 |
Anonymous
DP. This is true to, so it seems the only fair solution is this: if advanced learners are to be pulled out of mainstream classes for separate instruction, then remedial/SPED/ELL should *also* be pulled out into separate classrooms. As the PP said, it's not ok to leave the kids with deep learning issues in with the GenEd kids. GenEd kids deserve just as much targeted learning as AAP kids are getting, without the distractions of kids who need aides and intervention. |
Anonymous
| ^^ too not to |
Anonymous
The above posts are a prime example of just how convoluted the whole AAP center nonsense is. No one even knows how many students are assigned to the BASE schools. AAP centers need to end, and everyone needs to return to their base school. Only then should new boundaries be redrawn, based on those numbers. |
Anonymous
AAP centers are a prime example of segregation. |
Anonymous
DP. I actually had one kid in AAP and another in Gen Ed. They both attended the center school since it was also our base school. The Gen Ed kids were treated abysmally by many of the AAP kids, even those they had been friends with prior to the start of 3rd grade, segregated AAP. My AAP student didn't get some kind of magical curriculum - our Gen Ed kid was perfectly able to do all the same work at home. It was a ridiculous exercise in - yes - segregating and labeling kids. I would be all for getting rid of AAP centers. As other posters have said, flexible groupings for all kids, as well as a very small and selective GT program in each school is the way to go. |
Anonymous
+1 Most Gen Ed kids completely overlap with AAP kids. It's absurd to divide them up. |
Anonymous
Nope. The issue is that it is illegal by federal law to put those ESL kids in self contained classrooms. ESL students must be mainstreamed into the regular classrooms with all the other students, with very rare exception. I am no fan of FCPS right now, but their hands are tied on this one, especially at the elementary level, but also at high schools like Lewis. The ESL elementary kids cannot be placed anywhere but the regular classes, and the ESL high school students cannot be shuffled off to an alternative school simply because they don't speak or write English. Not only that, schools must allow these ESL speakers to remain as students in our 9th-12th grade high schools and 7th to12th grade secondary schools (soon to include 6th graders if Reid gets her way) until they turn 21 years old. Yes, you can have a 20 year old ESL man who turns 21 mid year, in your secondary school with your 12 year old 7th grader. Again, federal law, written for a different time with different immigration. In contrast, it is perfectly legal to segregate the advanced kids. It can even be required by state law if the kids fall under the "gifted" classification of special ed. FCPS has a higher proportion of extremely educated and high IQ parents, combined with significant affluence of most of its population, and a higher asian population than most of the country. Of course we have a disproportionally high gifted population. We have the high IQ trifecta of wealth, high education levels and IQs of the moms, and lots of asians. If you hate the AAP model and don't want to have ESL kids in the mainstream classes, then you need to work to change state and federal education laws, not blaming the AAP parents and kids, particularly the kids who fall into the highly and profoundly gifted range, and not blaming the ESL kids, who are placed where federal law requirestgem to be placed. By the way, the highly and profoundly gifted kids might shock you, because quite often, those kids often have behavioral problems like ADHD, or have very difficult personalities that are far from the model students, who are usually well behaved, mature, driven girls with pleaser personalities. If you stick labels on which kids you think are "actually gifted" you would probably be wrong on at least half of them. "Truly gifted" kids often struggle in school. That is one of the reasons why gifted programs fall under special ed. The ESL laws were written for a different times, when we had reasonable levels of immigration and not wide open borders, sanctuary counties, and universal basic income programs like FCPS started last year for specific zip codes. When immigration was managed well, it made sense to have the handful of non English speaking students in an immersion model in the mainstream classroom. But the reasonable immigration ship left the port 4 years ago, so here we are. FCPS has to follow the law on this one. If you don't like it, lobby Connolly to change the law. Talking to Connolly about this issue sounds like a complete joke given his views on the subject, but it really is your only option if you want the classroom placement to change. The laws need to be updated, sanctuary policies dropped, and border fixed. Otherwise, you need to find a way to work within the law, which unfortunately might mean moving to a reasonable district, moving to a school like Robinson that is unlikely to be rezoned, or putting your kids in private. |
Anonymous
You are completely wrong The highest IQ kids have disproportionately high behavior related special needs such as ADHD, Aspergers, and general behavior problems. The highest IQ kids tend to have many struggles in school and a higher amount of failure to launch than the general population and your average smart "good student" That is why gifted programs exist. Not for the well behaved bright kid that turns everything in and makes teachers happy. They exist for the boy with the 150 IQ that won't quit arguing with classmates and interrupting the teacher, the girl with the 140 IQ who keeps crying because she can't do her work unless it is perfect, and the kid with a photographic memory that doesn't turn in their homework and spends class sneaking books and math games because they know the answers before being taught. A class full of "truly gifted" kids is going to have way more behavior problems and special needs than a regular classroom. |
Anonymous
You balance it by removing IB so the families that purchased homes zoned for Lewis fill those "wealthy l" spots, instead of rezoning kids whose families paid an arm and leg to attend a different school. You start with the people who chose Lewis. |
Anonymous
It is illegal to pull ESL and special ed kids out of their classes and put them in a self contained class. What you want violates federal law. Learn education laws and lobby Connolly for changes. |
Anonymous
You don't need to physically move kids to count them. FCPS knows where every student lives and can count them for each base school just fine. Your hatred for AAP is overtaking your common sense. |
Anonymous
Agree. But I don’t see why the solution to this is to ruin AAP process for the kids it’s working well for rather than fixing the gen ed experience. Simply shoving the AAP kids back into gen ed will not magically fix it. It will just be like 2’s grade again where the brighter kids are mostly left to their own devices a lot of the time. |