Why do parents go through great lengths to get their children into AAP?

[Anonymous]

I live in Alexandria so it's too avoid high FARMS rate school situations because they wanted a bigger house in a neighborhood that was still a decent commute.

[Anonymous]

There are resources, books, tutors who focus solely on test prep. There is definitely a market for it and parents are paying for it.

[Anonymous]

Hm. Well, we're poor (by DCUM standards). I wanted the kid to be in a setting where he would be challenged and where intelligence was perceived as an asset. Neither of those things proved true at our neighborhood school, and we can't afford private, so transferring to the AAP center seemed to be the right choice - the only choice, really.

[Anonymous]

Not a striver by any means, but we did fight like hell to get our kid in AAP. Why? Because they got no attention at our Title I base school. They read fluently but were in kindergarten with kids who had never held a book and did not know the alphabet. Many of these kids were recent immigrants and spoke no English. Do these kids have the right to an education? Absolutely! And I am glad that FCPS is providing it. Socioeconomic diversity is good. But my quiet, well behaved kid was forgotten in a corner doing math worksheets, while the teacher focused on the many other kids who needed help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a striver by any means, but we did fight like hell to get our kid in AAP. Why? Because they got no attention at our Title I base school. They read fluently but were in kindergarten with kids who had never held a book and did not know the alphabet. Many of these kids were recent immigrants and spoke no English. Do these kids have the right to an education? Absolutely! And I am glad that FCPS is providing it. Socioeconomic diversity is good. But my quiet, well behaved kid was forgotten in a corner doing math worksheets, while the teacher focused on the many other kids who needed help.

Well done on striving for your kid. I guess when you mean striver, you mean the other immigrants right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a striver by any means, but we did fight like hell to get our kid in AAP. Why? Because they got no attention at our Title I base school. They read fluently but were in kindergarten with kids who had never held a book and did not know the alphabet. Many of these kids were recent immigrants and spoke no English. Do these kids have the right to an education? Absolutely! And I am glad that FCPS is providing it. Socioeconomic diversity is good. But my quiet, well behaved kid was forgotten in a corner doing math worksheets, while the teacher focused on the many other kids who needed help.

Thank you. This is the kind of things I wanted to know. Valid reasons. I know my question came across as judging but it wasn’t my intention. Thanks again for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a striver by any means, but we did fight like hell to get our kid in AAP. Why? Because they got no attention at our Title I base school. They read fluently but were in kindergarten with kids who had never held a book and did not know the alphabet. Many of these kids were recent immigrants and spoke no English. Do these kids have the right to an education? Absolutely! And I am glad that FCPS is providing it. Socioeconomic diversity is good. But my quiet, well behaved kid was forgotten in a corner doing math worksheets, while the teacher focused on the many other kids who needed help.

Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do that many people really go to great lengths, or is it a DCUM thing?

Totally a DCUM thing. And a small percentage of DCUM. I would guess that it is the same 20 or so posters in the TJ threads.

Very few people are focused on AAP. I would guess that the people who are focused on AAP are the people who move to the area for TJ and are very invested in TJ being their kids HS.

My community is. Presentors show up at our sunday langauge school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder, do parents feel their children get better teachers when in AAP.?

I know our school gives the new teachers the AAP classes (probably because those classes have fewer behavior problems?).
To answer the first question, my DS was in classes with severe behavior problems in 1st and 2nd grade, and was not easy for him to learn in that environment, so we wanted him to be in AAP to get away from that. It has helped.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was the best education for my child so why not try to get the best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a striver by any means, but we did fight like hell to get our kid in AAP. Why? Because they got no attention at our Title I base school. They read fluently but were in kindergarten with kids who had never held a book and did not know the alphabet. Many of these kids were recent immigrants and spoke no English. Do these kids have the right to an education? Absolutely! And I am glad that FCPS is providing it. Socioeconomic diversity is good. But my quiet, well behaved kid was forgotten in a corner doing math worksheets, while the teacher focused on the many other kids who needed help.

What sort of fighting did you have to engage in? (not meant as snark, just wondering what exactly you had to do to... could be as simple as submitting appeal, but curious if it's something more what that looked like)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To keep my kids out of the general population and with kids whose families at least moderately care about academics and future success.

This is the correct answer. My kids are in the top 0.1% of IQ but all I really want is to get them away from the miscreants

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To keep my kids out of the general population and with kids whose families at least moderately care about academics and future success.

This is the correct answer. My kids are in the top 0.1% of IQ but all I really want is to get them away from the miscreants

Wow—-what an insult to all the children who don’t happen to get in but are great kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To keep my kids out of the general population and with kids whose families at least moderately care about academics and future success.

+10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To keep my kids out of the general population and with kids whose families at least moderately care about academics and future success.

This is the correct answer. My kids are in the top 0.1% of IQ but all I really want is to get them away from the miscreants

Wow—-what an insult to all the children who don’t happen to get in but are great kids.

There are a lot of great kids in the general classes. But there are also a lot of kids who don't care about school, and get in trouble a lot.

I was in advanced classes when I was a kid in Kentucky. One year, the school decided to mix the advanced and regular classes for one hour a week for "seminar", where we would read passages from a book and discuss. I remember reading an excerpt from "The Red Badge of Courage". When the teacher asked questions about it, no one answered. Finally I raised my hand and gave an answer about the meaning of one of the paragraphs. The teacher, who normally taught the regular classes, looked stunned, and there was a few beats of silence until one of the kids from the regular classes said in a robot voice "Translation please!", and the rest of the kids laughed.

That's the kind of stuff that our kids will be subjected to if they aren't in AAP.