Feel like my well behaved 1st grader is basically ignored in FCPS
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Anonymous
Lucky you, then. This school district is huge. Some schools are good and others are bad. The problem is not that the schools are consistently bad - it's that there is no consistency to begin with and no quality control of administrators. It almost seems like fcps trains them to be terrible leaders. |
Anonymous
| I can tell you having one go through AAP and one go through Gen Ed - it is a dramatically different quality of education. |
Anonymous
Well that is certainly true regardless of whether or not they went the Gen Ed route or not. The most important thing in my view is that they gain a solid understanding of the subject matter. If they can do that in an AAP environment that is the right level for them. If they are constantly over their head, treading water then it might be confusing and frustrating them more than it's helping. It's a tough call. And every kid is different. |
Anonymous
It's the same material. Just taught at a quicker clip. I don't know that the feedback is any better in AAP than it is in Gen Ed. Granted, we have limited experience with AAP. |
Anonymous
Interesting OP. I really think is more about your specific school than anything. We moved out of our neighborhood in outside the beltway Alexandria for a lot of these reasons. Concern that large swaths of the classroom might need extra help and might come from families that don't value education. Daughter started K in a well regarded FCPS elementary and she seems to be learning a ton. |
Anonymous
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How to make sure your kids get a good education?
Some lessons learned with 9 years as a FCPS parent- 1. I'm a fan of FCPS but we've realized that you can't just leave it up to the school, nor the teachers. 2. You, as a parent, need to know what your child needs. If you think your child is advanced, you need to be able to quantify HOW your child is advanced. Same thing with weaknesses. 3. It's not a competition against other parents. Don't get caught up in the rat race. Do what's best for your kid according to his/her ability and motivation. 4. If your child is appropriately placed in school, don't worry about what the other curriculum looks like. It's not Gen Ed vs AAP. 5. There are good teachers and not so good teachers. You have to be able to work with all of them. 6. Testing is great for data but it doesn't tell you everything. Multiple data points are better than one data point. When multiple data points are consistent, then you have a pattern to go by. 7. Look outside of FCPS for enrichment opportunities. When my child was in 1st grade, he would always ask to try to do his 4th grade sister's Math homework. I'd make a copy for him. More often than not, he was able to answer correctly. I would ask him how he knows how to do these things and he said "i just know." His 1st grade worksheets looked nothing like the 4th grade worksheets. In 2nd grade, he was able to do 5th grade math. CoGAT came around and he wasn't in pool so we thought that his math knowledge was a fluke. His older sister needed tutoring in Math so we took her to a Math tutoring place. My son asked if he could go too. He told the director that he likes Math and so the director "interviewed" him and asked if he could give him an assessment. In 2nd grade, he pass advanced on a 4th grade test. The school would have never have tested him beyond 2nd grade so you never know that data unless you go somewhere else. The assessment showed what areas he was strong in and what 4th grade topics he didn't quite know yet. So we ended up going there for enrichment and he was so happy every single time he walked in and out of there. We had him tested in 2 other places with the same consistent results. He's in AAP now and is doing great with the curriculum, but guess what, he wants more stuff so we are still having to go outside the school for other enrichment. I've got a child in Gen Ed too and I can say that the curriculum is dramatically different. Much more detail in AAP. Do I feel my Gen Ed kid got robbed? Nope. Gen Ed is a good pace and level for her. |
Anonymous
| Sounds like your kid would enjoy a few years in private. He doesn't need to stay there forever. It's a place to grow a little differently, and try some different things, if that's an option and you can pay. |
Anonymous
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I got my normal, average kid a tutor for individual attention. It's been great for us.
Our tutor is a FCPS special needs teacher. She needs the cash and she's great with my kid. You might want to ask around. |
Anonymous
I don't need to pay someone to focus on my kid's social skills. They're just fine. Thanks though. Also, I'm raising children to work for themselves not for others. We're an entrepreneurial spirited family of extroverts who has no issues interfacing with others. |
Anonymous
Have you talked to the teacher? 7 year olds are not the most reliable reporters. DS is 7 and is in the highest reading group in his class. I was looking through his books from school a few weeks ago and notice they were lower than the ones he was reading at the start of the school year. I asked him why and he said it was b/c they read all the higher level books. Of course this didn't sound right. When I went in for the parent teacher conference a few days later the teacher told me the kids went to easier books for a week while she was teaching them some advanced concepts. She realized it was easier to teach the concept with lower level books and then shift them back to their higher level. So if I relied on what my son said I would have assumed he wasn't being challenged but as it turns out it was the opposite. She was helping that group learn higher level concepts DS is just an unreliable reporter. The teacher may be doing more with your son that you think. Talk to her. BTW we are in Arlington, not title 1 and DS has 23 kids in his class. I think it was 25 at the start of the year. |
Anonymous
OP here. DS's class started with 24 and now there are 27 or 28. One problem is that the newer kids can't speak any English. I think 1 child may never have been in school. I see the child wandering around the classroom. He is very disruptive. The one and only main teacher looks very overwhelmed. She doesn't necessarily looked stressed but it feels like she is spending all her time on these new kids. I actually asked her during parent teacher conference about help. She said she got the ESOL kids but no additional support. It isn't like they hired extra ESOL teachers because there were incoming ESOL kids. I lived in a different state. If I remember correctly, the brand new ESOL kids had their own class. My school had a ton of Japanese diplomats. I remember they were in their own class. I don't remember the early elementary years though. |
Anonymous
I never said they were Hispanic. At our school, the incoming kids are from Arabic and/or N African countries. The Hispanic kids can mostly all speak English even if their parents speak Spanish at home. |
Anonymous
Supplement at home like the rest of us then! You didn't answer the question of what you wanted them to do about your admittedly average kid. This is life. He will be an average adult and his supervisors aren't going to promote him just because they spend time on all the disciplinary issues that they need to fire or they spend time developing talent for those that will be promoted quickly. What do you want them to do for your child? |
Anonymous
ESOL students aren't going to be placed in their own separate class. Usually, an ESOL teacher will pull out beginners for one class per day if there are enough ESOL teachers. In my son's district, the ESOL students are spread out so much over so many schools that the ESOL teachers comes once a week. |
Anonymous
I agree with this. My DD is the same as the OP's "bright but not gifted" and I felt the same way about first grade (we're in an Alexandria City PS). She had a teacher for first grade who had only taught a couple of years and didn't know how to give each of the 21 kids what they needed. That teacher only focused on the kids that really needed help (a lot of ESOL kids in our school) or were labeled as TAG (Talented and Gifted -- a name I despise). Now in second grade she has a teacher who has been teaching 2nd for decades and very much can work with each child individually so she is thriving this year. I think so much of it depends on the teacher. |