AAP Center Elimination Rumors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t you take this to the AAP forum?

That is where AAP posts are suppost to be.

If you report it to the moderator, he will move the thread to AAP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

when they could be in a class where they have 30 other kids to push them.

Myth. Do you really think all the AAP kids are on the same level? A handful may be gifted, but there is a wide span there.

It doesn't hurt to be in a heterogenous class. In fact, it is better.

Teacher

There is a wider span in the general ed class. This is a terrible idea.

It worked very successfully in FCPS for many, many years. Again: AAP is not GT.

+1
And flexible groupings across grade levels is the answer, not "clustering." Kids rotate classrooms and groups for all core subjects. No one is locked into any one "level" (or label) - they can move up (or down) as needed.

Note - this doesn't mean many different levels in one classroom. It means each teacher takes a level for each subject, so all the students in the class are at the same level.

I agree that leveled classes are best pedagogically, but it always cracks me up when people think that will solve the angst around AAP. The truth is even with "flexible" classes the bulk of the top class will stay the same and the bulk of the bottom class will stay the same and the parents with kids in the middle will wail and gnash their teeth. Honestly, the jockeying and grasping from parents would only increase and continue all year every year. The added angst for teachers and principals is probably one big reason they don't do this.

I completely agree with you, for elementary, not middle school. The AAP obsession dies down by middle school.

The angst will be worse.

What fcps needs to do is make sure there is AAP at every middle school, with at least one center in each high school pyramid, so no students attend an out of pyramid school for AAP.

That should have been phase one of rezoning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center and I would fully support this! The kids who come from other schools are like outsiders, no connection to our neighborhood.

Holy cow I hope this is a joke.

Not a joke. Really it’s just one of the schools I have a problem with. I'm sure they are nice kids, but they are bussed from 20 minutes away, are not in the same extracurricular circle, and are not zoned for the same HS. Sorry but I think they would be better off in their own pyramid.

Who assigned to Lemon Road is being bussed 20 minutes from out of pyramid to attend? The only students who are “out of pyramid” would be from the McLean zoned portion of Westgate, and they are less than 10 minutes away.

I’m also questioning this. We are zoned to Shrevewood but moved to Lemon Road bc of the cluster model at Shrevewood. We live 7 minutes from school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center and I would fully support this! The kids who come from other schools are like outsiders, no connection to our neighborhood.

Holy cow I hope this is a joke.

Not a joke. Really it’s just one of the schools I have a problem with. I'm sure they are nice kids, but they are bussed from 20 minutes away, are not in the same extracurricular circle, and are not zoned for the same HS. Sorry but I think they would be better off in their own pyramid.

Who assigned to Lemon Road is being bussed 20 minutes from out of pyramid to attend? The only students who are “out of pyramid” would be from the McLean zoned portion of Westgate, and they are less than 10 minutes away.

I’m also questioning this. We are zoned to Shrevewood but moved to Lemon Road bc of the cluster model at Shrevewood. We live 7 minutes from school.

Not sure why you're assuming the center school in question is Haycock. It's not. There's well over 100 ES in this county. Take off your blinders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center and I would fully support this! The kids who come from other schools are like outsiders, no connection to our neighborhood.

let me guess haycock...

No Lemon Road. The bussed in kids cause a lot of problems.

Or it could be Canterbury. Some kids coming aren’t in the Woodson pyramid and they get/3’t back to Annandale for HS.

Or they claim some sort of injustice and go to Lake Braddock since they don't want to go to Annandale. Woodson is closed to transfers but the parents know LB is a good back up. Kids should have to stay in their pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

when they could be in a class where they have 30 other kids to push them.

Myth. Do you really think all the AAP kids are on the same level? A handful may be gifted, but there is a wide span there.

It doesn't hurt to be in a heterogenous class. In fact, it is better.

Teacher

There is a wider span in the general ed class. This is a terrible idea.

It worked very successfully in FCPS for many, many years. Again: AAP is not GT.

+1
And flexible groupings across grade levels is the answer, not "clustering." Kids rotate classrooms and groups for all core subjects. No one is locked into any one "level" (or label) - they can move up (or down) as needed.

Note - this doesn't mean many different levels in one classroom. It means each teacher takes a level for each subject, so all the students in the class are at the same level.

I agree that leveled classes are best pedagogically, but it always cracks me up when people think that will solve the angst around AAP. The truth is even with "flexible" classes the bulk of the top class will stay the same and the bulk of the bottom class will stay the same and the parents with kids in the middle will wail and gnash their teeth. Honestly, the jockeying and grasping from parents would only increase and continue all year every year. The added angst for teachers and principals is probably one big reason they don't do this.

Exactly, if there are 80 kids in a grade, the top 20 and bottom 20 will generally be the same for all subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center and I would fully support this! The kids who come from other schools are like outsiders, no connection to our neighborhood.

Holy cow I hope this is a joke.

Not a joke. Really it’s just one of the schools I have a problem with. I'm sure they are nice kids, but they are bussed from 20 minutes away, are not in the same extracurricular circle, and are not zoned for the same HS. Sorry but I think they would be better off in their own pyramid.

Who assigned to Lemon Road is being bussed 20 minutes from out of pyramid to attend? The only students who are “out of pyramid” would be from the McLean zoned portion of Westgate, and they are less than 10 minutes away.

I’m also questioning this. We are zoned to Shrevewood but moved to Lemon Road bc of the cluster model at Shrevewood. We live 7 minutes from school.

Lemon Rd. parent, it's frustrating that so many Shrevewood kids have flooded the school in the past year. It has made the class sizes larger and behavior is worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center and I would fully support this! The kids who come from other schools are like outsiders, no connection to our neighborhood.

Holy cow I hope this is a joke.

Not a joke. Really it’s just one of the schools I have a problem with. I'm sure they are nice kids, but they are bussed from 20 minutes away, are not in the same extracurricular circle, and are not zoned for the same HS. Sorry but I think they would be better off in their own pyramid.

Who assigned to Lemon Road is being bussed 20 minutes from out of pyramid to attend? The only students who are “out of pyramid” would be from the McLean zoned portion of Westgate, and they are less than 10 minutes away.

I’m also questioning this. We are zoned to Shrevewood but moved to Lemon Road bc of the cluster model at Shrevewood. We live 7 minutes from school.

Lemon Rd. parent, it's frustrating that so many Shrevewood kids have flooded the school in the past year. It has made the class sizes larger and behavior is worse.

NP. It’s frustrating to me that you’d accept the Lemon Road expansion from 2013 and then carp about their actually making use of that space.

But I’m also not fully convinced you’re actually at Lemon Road anyway…

[Anonymous]

My youngest is graduating high school this year. When she was found eligible in 2nd grade, I actually met with the principal of our school (Title I) as I really wanted to stick with our neighborhood school. (We were walkers, we had had a positive experience with teachers) At that time they did not have Local Level IV, but even if they did, there were only a handful of students found eligible. I had a meeting with the principal as I really wanted her to tell me there would be enough challenge if we kept her there, but the principal told me point blank that if I wanted her truly challenged, I should choose the center. I do know the school does have LLIV now, but only a few grades as they build to having it in all grades. It really is different at Title I schools, but I agree, if there are enough students at a base school to create at least a full class, then the center option can reasonably go away. My oldest (2020 grad) attended a LLIV program which was just starting at that time. One disadvantage was that there was one class, so the same exact students were stuck together, for better or worse for 4 years. As a teacher at a center school where we typically have 2 classes of AAP, and 2 general education in upper grades, I find it much preferable. You are able to mix classroom groups much better that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is graduating high school this year. When she was found eligible in 2nd grade, I actually met with the principal of our school (Title I) as I really wanted to stick with our neighborhood school. (We were walkers, we had had a positive experience with teachers) At that time they did not have Local Level IV, but even if they did, there were only a handful of students found eligible. I had a meeting with the principal as I really wanted her to tell me there would be enough challenge if we kept her there, but the principal told me point blank that if I wanted her truly challenged, I should choose the center. I do know the school does have LLIV now, but only a few grades as they build to having it in all grades. It really is different at Title I schools, but I agree, if there are enough students at a base school to create at least a full class, then the center option can reasonably go away. My oldest (2020 grad) attended a LLIV program which was just starting at that time. One disadvantage was that there was one class, so the same exact students were stuck together, for better or worse for 4 years. As a teacher at a center school where we typically have 2 classes of AAP, and 2 general education in upper grades, I find it much preferable. You are able to mix classroom groups much better that way.

My third grader goes to a title 1 school. There are 10 level IV kids that chose to stay. They fill out the classes with level III kids. If the 5 or 6 that chose to go to the center stayed they would have an even larger cohort locally. I am very much in favor of if you choose to go to the center school and it is offered locally you are required to provide transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is graduating high school this year. When she was found eligible in 2nd grade, I actually met with the principal of our school (Title I) as I really wanted to stick with our neighborhood school. (We were walkers, we had had a positive experience with teachers) At that time they did not have Local Level IV, but even if they did, there were only a handful of students found eligible. I had a meeting with the principal as I really wanted her to tell me there would be enough challenge if we kept her there, but the principal told me point blank that if I wanted her truly challenged, I should choose the center. I do know the school does have LLIV now, but only a few grades as they build to having it in all grades. It really is different at Title I schools, but I agree, if there are enough students at a base school to create at least a full class, then the center option can reasonably go away. My oldest (2020 grad) attended a LLIV program which was just starting at that time. One disadvantage was that there was one class, so the same exact students were stuck together, for better or worse for 4 years. As a teacher at a center school where we typically have 2 classes of AAP, and 2 general education in upper grades, I find it much preferable. You are able to mix classroom groups much better that way.

My third grader goes to a title 1 school. There are 10 level IV kids that chose to stay. They fill out the classes with level III kids. If the 5 or 6 that chose to go to the center stayed they would have an even larger cohort locally. I am very much in favor of if you choose to go to the center school and it is offered locally you are required to provide transportation.

This. Parents should be responsible for getting their kids to school if they can get services at their base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My youngest is graduating high school this year. When she was found eligible in 2nd grade, I actually met with the principal of our school (Title I) as I really wanted to stick with our neighborhood school. (We were walkers, we had had a positive experience with teachers) At that time they did not have Local Level IV, but even if they did, there were only a handful of students found eligible. I had a meeting with the principal as I really wanted her to tell me there would be enough challenge if we kept her there, but the principal told me point blank that if I wanted her truly challenged, I should choose the center. I do know the school does have LLIV now, but only a few grades as they build to having it in all grades. It really is different at Title I schools, but I agree, if there are enough students at a base school to create at least a full class, then the center option can reasonably go away. My oldest (2020 grad) attended a LLIV program which was just starting at that time. One disadvantage was that there was one class, so the same exact students were stuck together, for better or worse for 4 years. As a teacher at a center school where we typically have 2 classes of AAP, and 2 general education in upper grades, I find it much preferable. You are able to mix classroom groups much better that way.

My third grader goes to a title 1 school. There are 10 level IV kids that chose to stay. They fill out the classes with level III kids. If the 5 or 6 that chose to go to the center stayed they would have an even larger cohort locally. I am very much in favor of if you choose to go to the center school and it is offered locally you are required to provide transportation.

This. Parents should be responsible for getting their kids to school if they can get services at their base school.

I would happily provide transportation to stay at the center.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a huge fan of Local Level IV because we are at a small elementary school. Most of our grades only have 2 classes, so there just would never be a dedicated Level 4 classroom. And inevitably the level 4 kids will not get differentiated teaching, they'll just get an extra project or worksheet occasionally and they do the level 3 pullouts once or twice a week. That is nowhere near the same as a center school that has a dedicated Level 4 classroom. Of course, at any school where you have enough kids to fill a whole classroom parents think it sounds great. But for the rest of us, not so good.

Also, most of our elementaries don't have room to take all those kids back, plus our center school was expanded and would be half empty without all the level 4 kids. And then hello more boundary changes that no one wants.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I hope so !! (eliminating AAP centers)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a huge fan of Local Level IV because we are at a small elementary school. Most of our grades only have 2 classes, so there just would never be a dedicated Level 4 classroom. And inevitably the level 4 kids will not get differentiated teaching, they'll just get an extra project or worksheet occasionally and they do the level 3 pullouts once or twice a week. That is nowhere near the same as a center school that has a dedicated Level 4 classroom. Of course, at any school where you have enough kids to fill a whole classroom parents think it sounds great. But for the rest of us, not so good.

Also, most of our elementaries don't have room to take all those kids back, plus our center school was expanded and would be half empty without all the level 4 kids. And then hello more boundary changes that no one wants.

Yep. Our base school is over capacity and the center would lose 1/3 of students in 3-6. Huge problem. If they were going to cut centers, realistically it would have to be the first change because all the other changes will be affected.