APS Classroom placement K, 1, 2, 3...?
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Anonymous
| We are new to the Arlington school system and are trying to figure out how children in lower elementary school classes are placed. For example if an ES has 4 classrooms per grade will all of the classrooms be balanced with smart, younger, older, exceptional, slow, gifted...? Are some classrooms on a faster track? Do each of the classes have gifted children or are they put in the same classroom? |
Anonymous
|
At most of the elementary schools I have toured, there will be a mix in every class.
That said, every once in a while, I do hear that children with certain special needs are placed together- presumably so that an extra specialist can be in that classroom for those kids. |
Anonymous
|
In our school, the goal is to make sure every child has a peer. So a gifted kid will have other peers and so will a kid struggling in math, etc. They do group special needs kid or ESL somewhat in our school so that an aide can be with them.
No classroom is on a faster track. They’re all following the same rough plan and covering topics at the same time. Might vary by school somewhat though. |
Anonymous
| If you want this kind of differentiation, you’re in the wrong county. |
Anonymous
+1 - Arlington parent, happy with how APS handles differentiation/gifted support at the elementary level |
Anonymous
| Have you noticed most of the SOL Advanced pass students in the same classroom? |
Anonymous
I don't know how you would know which kids are which. And my kids have always gotten advanced pass on some and not on others anyhow. Or it differs by year. And SOLs don't start until 3rd. At any rate, CALM DOWN. Go over to the Arlington Education Matters page on Facebook and watch all the high school parents freaking out about mental health and all the pressure the kids are under and how horrible it all is and how there should be a movement to dial it all back down. You know who doesn't think there needs to be a movement about this? Those of us who don't give a @&!& about SOLs and whether there are a lot of other advanced pass students in our kids classrooms. That's where the pressure comes from--the PARENTS. |
Anonymous
What? If a school is doing that they aren't following policy, which means clusters of gifted students in every class (just going to assume that's what you mean by "advanced pass"). I think they also cluster SpEd and ELL, and, depending on the make-up of your school that could mean some in every class, or maybe only one class has a cluster of ELL or SpEd. That's the only way the "push-in" delivery model of services works. |
Anonymous
No. It has always been a healthy mix in my kids’ classrooms. |
Anonymous
I never knew who was 'pass advanced' or not -- if you do know then that is weird IMO. However, looking back, the kids who were getting all As in middle school (the honor roll lists are posted at school) seemed to be kids who had been spread out across the classes in our ES. I have one kid who is ID'd as gifted for all subjects and another just for math. Both seemed to be appropriately challenged throughout ES. |
Anonymous
I’m pp. I don’t know other kids’ SOL scores. But I know that there have been kids with a wide variety of abilities in my kids’ classes, so it follows that pass advanced kids aren’t clustered together. And as another pp pointed out, a kid might pass advanced in one subject but not others. |
Anonymous
Ditto. SOLs are not broken out by classroom in the data. Please elaborate first PP. |
Anonymous
| You sound neurotic, OP. Just go private. |
Anonymous
They try to cluster kids with like abilities, so there will he a handful of high achievers grouped together in each of several classrooms. They will not put them all in a single class. |
Anonymous
I guess if you work all the time and have a nanny raise your kids you wouldn't talk to the other parents. But we all make choices I guess. |