LLIV - Process for Starting it at a School?
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Anonymous
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Anyone know how long and extensive the process is for starting LLIV at your home school? I plan to encourage our school to look at this (don't know if they have already but i have not heard it's been discussed if so) but also wanted to get an idea from those that have already successfully campaigned for LLIV at their school - how long is that process and how much work is it really for the principal vs. not having LLIV?
Is it simply: 1) hiring an AAP teacher (who then uses the FCPS established AAP curriculum) instead of a regular teacher and 2) filling in the rest of the class with additional kids below the level 4 cut-off? Or more complicated than that? |
Anonymous
Typically, the board makes this decision. And I would assume (just from anecdotal information) if the school that you are interesting in starting LLIV has enough students to send an entire class (say, 20-25 kids per year) to a center, then LLIV would be investigated. It takes a couple of year, min. from my recollection. I also know that it requires the numbers. Meaning, if you have like 5 AAP kids, it's not happening. |
Anonymous
| That is a decision that comes from above (district or pyramid level) not from below (parents). |
Anonymous
Irving's LLIV was put together very quickly, I believe just a few months from idea to implementation. |
Anonymous
| You need enough students first |
Anonymous
I think there was talk about Irving going in for years, before it was approved and implemented. But it still took the right numbers, the right admin, the right politics. It's definitely not parent driven. If you don't fit the right metrics, they won't do it because they need to be able to fill the center schools too. I know of one center that lost in entire class this year because of LLIV started in another school. The numbers have to work regardless. |
Anonymous
| Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I kinda wish they’d do away with centers. Uprooting your 8 year old just as they’ve gotten to make friends, feel comfortable (if not challenged) at school, know who/where everything is sucks. Plus leaving friends behind. I know it’s not like your child getting into a center means they have to go, but at the same time declining doesn’t change the system; it just pulls your child from an opportunity. |
Anonymous
Absolutely. But once the district decided to do it, the process went VERY quickly from notification to Irving to the announcement at the feeder school to enrollment. I believe the school found out in late spring, the announcement came in a day or two and parent presentations were a week after the announcement. Irving moved very quickly. They had teachers who had formerly taught at center schools, so those were the ones put in charge of the program. That announcement came after kids had committed to LB AAP or Irving Honors, so the first year was small. The program has definitely grown though. All of it was district driven. The administration at Irving preferred to not be a center school. |
Anonymous
You have the choice of staying at the base school. No one is uprooting anyone, except for the parents. One of mine stayed at the base with friends. One of mine went to the center. Both qualified and both did what was best for them. If changing schools is traumatic for your kid, keep them at the base school. |
Anonymous
Yes of course. As I said though, declining doesn’t change the system. Just deprives your child of an opportunity. My kid is not traumatized, but that doesn’t mean it’s a great system. It’d be great not to have to chose between the two is all. |
Anonymous
Which is why AAP at a center is not mandatory. For us, the problem is that the school offers no differentiation within the classroom. DD was bored to tears (literal ones), and we ended up moving her to private, so she won't cry every day about her brain getting rusty (yes, she's melodramatic). |
Anonymous
If you don't like the system then just don't use it. I never understand the people who insist that if they are not wanting to do something then no one else should be allowed to either. |
Anonymous
*shrugs* not really insisting on anything. Is this where I say I never understand the people who think expressing an opinion on something means suggesting “no one else should be allowed to” do whatever it is?? At any rate I imagine OP doesn’t love the center either or s/he wouldn’t be asking about how to get a local level IV. |
Anonymous
In OPs case, odds are strong that her kid did not qualify for the center and she is hoping that by having LLIV at her school her kid will get pupil placed into the class instead. |
Anonymous
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OP -- you can find the number of kids who have transferred out of your school for AAP in the FCPS dashboard site. That will tell you if there are enough kids to make it work.
That said, I will caution you against thinking that LL4 is all sunshine and roses. It seems like it would be ideal, but in practice it can cause a bunch of headaches, heartaches, and end up being a lesser substitute for the center. I do understand why you would prefer to have your child at your local school. That said, I think in 6 mos or so, you will probably integrate into the center and not look back. Some of the downsides to LL4 involve the sense that there is probably only ONE AAP classroom per grade -- which sets up the dynamic of parents angling to get their kid into "the smart" classroom even if their kid didn't get identified for AAP. Sometimes they need to balance the classes out (i.e. one grade of AAP only has 20 kids, but the non-AAP group is 40 kids. They can't have a class of 40 kids, so they have to pick the top 10 non-AAP-identified kids and put them in the AAP classroom... now every parent wants to know why their kid can't be moved into the AAP classroom.) The overall admin support for AAP programing is likely not going to be the same at a LL4. The principal will bend over backwards to make sure that the AAP teachers/kids are not given the appearance of doing anything more than any other classroom gets so that it doesn't look like favoritism. In a center, where there are multiple AAP classes, the principals understand that they have an obligation to provide something different for AAP -- they are more committed to the concept of gifted education without feeling hamstrung by the non-AAP kids/parents. On the classroom level, when there are multiple teachers teaching AAP for the same grade, they can work together in planning, split up the workload, encourage and share with each other, etc. When there is only ONE AAP teacher per grade, s/he is not challenged to do more and has to come up with everything on her own. You get better results when the teachers have a bigger base of support b/c they are working with others who are certified in advanced learning. There are other factors as well -- the synergy of having a larger group of kids who bring their A game -- and being able to switch up socially -- not being with the same 25 kids every year (as might be the case with LL4), the benefit of having librarians and other staff who understand and challenge advanced learners at a different level, having support for certain afterschool activities that are sought by AAP kids/parents, etc. And on a practical level, as you look at the transfer stats, you have to assume that some of those kids would still choose to go to the center. So, the LL4 would not keep all of those kids. -- that makes it hard to know if a whole class can be filled with AAP kids at the local school. It is something you can investigate and discuss with other parents. I would also suggest you ask other parents of kids at your center if they are happy with it.... b/c you might just be going through a transition with your child being at a center this fall (or perhaps you are anticipating the difficulty of leaving your local school next year), -- but you may find that you will be more satisfied with the center than you expect. |