Level IV clustering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

My kid is local. The pitch that the principal made was that the presence of level IV kids allows the school to offer the level IV curriculum which is better for all children. The more kids who stay, the more they can spread clusters across different classes and any class with a cluster gets the level IV curriculum

Spoiler alert: the more the gifted kids stay, the higher your school's performance / test scores. That's that the principal wants. And it's to the detriment of the LLIV students who aren't keeping pace with the Center kids.

Our local school's advanced math students score better than our center's. If you're curious about how your center compares to your local, look at 7th grade math SOLs because only kids in advanced math will that test

Does your local school use the cluster model?

Yes, but kids switch class for math. Advanced math is all of the level IV kids plus other kids who test in. Out of for classes, two are advanced math

That's not the cluster model.

Yes it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

My kid is local. The pitch that the principal made was that the presence of level IV kids allows the school to offer the level IV curriculum which is better for all children. The more kids who stay, the more they can spread clusters across different classes and any class with a cluster gets the level IV curriculum

So glad to hear this approach is working well for your child, but clustering is much more common in Title I settings where there aren't enough LIV students to make up a full class. Because so many students are behind, the LIV curriculum can't reasonably be implemented for everyone.

You're actually wrong - a lot of schools have a lot of LIII students, but not enough to make two LLIV classes, so they choose to cluster. This is VERY common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

NP. I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I know the school system. It sounds like your children attend a well run school. I’d bet you have a solid principal and little teacher turnover. The cluster model can be very beneficial for all students when implemented with the right supports. The opposite is true, too. I know of a school that is losing students because of a poorly implemented cluster model. I’d consider yourself (or your children) lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I'm a pp who posted about my kid staying local. We stayed for a bunch of reasons which mostly boiled down to wanting a neighborhood school we could walk to. Our principle is clear that they will put students of all levels in with clusters. The presence of LIV kids in a class lets them use the LIV curriculum which the faculty and administration view as superior for all kids. Our school definitely doesn't have a bunch of LLIV students and a few LLIII kids mixed in to make a class. If it weren't for the accepted student info session, I would have no idea who the LLIV kids even are because the classes are mixed every year and DD is usually only with a couple every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

If it makes you feel better, I'm a parent of an AAP child who wants to tear the program down, because it's ridiculous. The AAP program was already diluted to appease people like you and let you feel like your snowflake is somehow special, rather than being indistinguishable from the LIII kids. Math was constantly slowed down for the AAP kids who struggled to grasp the materials. 6th grade AAP math was merely gen ed math given one year early with no AAP extensions. My kid's reading group was largely ignored due to the AAP kids who were at or below grade level and needed tons of the teacher's time. My AAP kid was bored out of his mind and learned next to nothing. Most of the kids in his AAP classroom would have been perfectly fine in regular gen ed and would have thrived in a cluster model. If a kid is merely one grade level ahead in reading and merely ready for FCPS advanced math, rather than far beyond, that kid is garden variety bright and in no need of a special "gifted" program.

tl;dr. The best solution would be to return AAP to a real gifted program serving only the top 2% of FCPS kids. The rest would be served perfectly well in a cluster setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

If it makes you feel better, I'm a parent of an AAP child who wants to tear the program down, because it's ridiculous. The AAP program was already diluted to appease people like you and let you feel like your snowflake is somehow special, rather than being indistinguishable from the LIII kids. Math was constantly slowed down for the AAP kids who struggled to grasp the materials. 6th grade AAP math was merely gen ed math given one year early with no AAP extensions. My kid's reading group was largely ignored due to the AAP kids who were at or below grade level and needed tons of the teacher's time. My AAP kid was bored out of his mind and learned next to nothing. Most of the kids in his AAP classroom would have been perfectly fine in regular gen ed and would have thrived in a cluster model. If a kid is merely one grade level ahead in reading and merely ready for FCPS advanced math, rather than far beyond, that kid is garden variety bright and in no need of a special "gifted" program.

tl;dr. The best solution would be to return AAP to a real gifted program serving only the top 2% of FCPS kids. The rest would be served perfectly well in a cluster setting.

Sounds like your snowflake is more fragile than mine, seeing how they were bored and ignored and all.

You are a parent who is well-served by choosing the LLIV program for your child. I'm glad that's an option for you. For my child, the center pace and program is a better fit.

See how that works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

If it makes you feel better, I'm a parent of an AAP child who wants to tear the program down, because it's ridiculous. The AAP program was already diluted to appease people like you and let you feel like your snowflake is somehow special, rather than being indistinguishable from the LIII kids. Math was constantly slowed down for the AAP kids who struggled to grasp the materials. 6th grade AAP math was merely gen ed math given one year early with no AAP extensions. My kid's reading group was largely ignored due to the AAP kids who were at or below grade level and needed tons of the teacher's time. My AAP kid was bored out of his mind and learned next to nothing. Most of the kids in his AAP classroom would have been perfectly fine in regular gen ed and would have thrived in a cluster model. If a kid is merely one grade level ahead in reading and merely ready for FCPS advanced math, rather than far beyond, that kid is garden variety bright and in no need of a special "gifted" program.

tl;dr. The best solution would be to return AAP to a real gifted program serving only the top 2% of FCPS kids. The rest would be served perfectly well in a cluster setting.

Sounds like your snowflake is more fragile than mine, seeing how they were bored and ignored and all.

You are a parent who is well-served by choosing the LLIV program for your child. I'm glad that's an option for you. For my child, the center pace and program is a better fit.

See how that works?

Your reading comprehension is truly terrible. My child is very poorly served by the AAP center, thanks to somewhat above average kids like yours slowing the pace down. Your child would be a perfect fit for LLIV, except that you're too arrogant to realize that your child is completely indistinguishable from the LIII kids who would be clustered with yours. Unless your child is 2+ years ahead in both math and language arts, your kid is garden variety bright.

[Anonymous]

Also, having AAP serve the top 20% rather than the top 2% is absurd. It leads to a huge overlap between the bottom 3/4 of AAP and the top 10% of gen ed. It leads to parents getting arrogant and thinking that their kids are much more special than they actually are. It leads to kids who need a truly advanced curriculum not getting it. The whole thing is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

If it makes you feel better, I'm a parent of an AAP child who wants to tear the program down, because it's ridiculous. The AAP program was already diluted to appease people like you and let you feel like your snowflake is somehow special, rather than being indistinguishable from the LIII kids. Math was constantly slowed down for the AAP kids who struggled to grasp the materials. 6th grade AAP math was merely gen ed math given one year early with no AAP extensions. My kid's reading group was largely ignored due to the AAP kids who were at or below grade level and needed tons of the teacher's time. My AAP kid was bored out of his mind and learned next to nothing. Most of the kids in his AAP classroom would have been perfectly fine in regular gen ed and would have thrived in a cluster model. If a kid is merely one grade level ahead in reading and merely ready for FCPS advanced math, rather than far beyond, that kid is garden variety bright and in no need of a special "gifted" program.

tl;dr. The best solution would be to return AAP to a real gifted program serving only the top 2% of FCPS kids. The rest would be served perfectly well in a cluster setting.

Sounds like your snowflake is more fragile than mine, seeing how they were bored and ignored and all.

You are a parent who is well-served by choosing the LLIV program for your child. I'm glad that's an option for you. For my child, the center pace and program is a better fit.

See how that works?

Your reading comprehension is truly terrible. My child is very poorly served by the AAP center, thanks to somewhat above average kids like yours slowing the pace down. Your child would be a perfect fit for LLIV, except that you're too arrogant to realize that your child is completely indistinguishable from the LIII kids who would be clustered with yours. Unless your child is 2+ years ahead in both math and language arts, your kid is garden variety bright.

Ohhhhh. Your kid is the top 2%! Congrats! You must be so proud. I'm sure they're real gems with a mom like you.

[Anonymous]

DCUM AAP forum: My 125 IQ kid *needs* AAP and isn’t slowing things down for the 140+ IQ kids.
Also DCUM AAP: my 125 IQ kid simply can’t learn clustered alongside the 120 IQ kids. They’ll slow everything down!
It’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

FCPS could deal with the AAP madness by being willing to simply do what everyone used to do and group classes so there's a quicker one, on level one, and slower one. Perhaps in some schools there are 2 quicker ones and one on level, or vice versa but it's the entirely broken "one room school house" model that is driving the huge AAP appetite - because it does NOT work well in K-2 to have these hugely mixed classes and it won't work well in 3 - 5/6 either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in a diverse (not title I) school and I am the child of a non LLIV in a class with LLIV kids. I will say that my child is doing MUCH better in this class than she was in a class with less advanced children. This is a boon for non-AAP kids - everyone is living up to their true potential. My child is in a class with ESOL kids, too, they're doing really well. It's great for ALL kids which is what we should all be wanting out of our school system.

#Sorrynotsorry if this is not what you want to hear.

As a parent of a rising 3rd grader at a similar school setting, this is great to hear. But I’m curious how you know that the ESOL students are doing really well. Do you work in the school?

This is what I gather from check-ins with the teacher and my friend who is a specialist at the school. My other child is in a class with a bunch of troublemakers and his teacher is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - but they're in 1st and from what I've read on DCUM and Reddit, first grade is a mess across the board!

Did I give you the "gotcha moment" you were looking for?

Wasn’t looking for a gotcha moment, but thought you had the inside scoop as a teacher at the school. Defensive much?

Absolutely -- there are so many AAP parents here who put down normal children and their parents. They don't want to hear that including normal kids in their advanced classes is beneficial for EVERYONE. They'll just deny, deny, deny. You can see it in the responses so far. The so-called teacher, for example. Sorry, I'm friends with teachers at our school, and they're not as discrete as that so-called teacher claims she is.

I would argue that there are more parents of non-AAP students here determined to tear down the program out of pure jealousy. It's hard to hear, I know, but not every kid can keep up with the AAP pace. There is nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame when, in the name of equity, the AAP program is diluted to appease these desperate parents.

Having "normal" students in a classroom is not beneficial for everyone. The pace is slowed, the learning is less, and the teacher is unduly burdened.

If it makes you feel better, I'm a parent of an AAP child who wants to tear the program down, because it's ridiculous. The AAP program was already diluted to appease people like you and let you feel like your snowflake is somehow special, rather than being indistinguishable from the LIII kids. Math was constantly slowed down for the AAP kids who struggled to grasp the materials. 6th grade AAP math was merely gen ed math given one year early with no AAP extensions. My kid's reading group was largely ignored due to the AAP kids who were at or below grade level and needed tons of the teacher's time. My AAP kid was bored out of his mind and learned next to nothing. Most of the kids in his AAP classroom would have been perfectly fine in regular gen ed and would have thrived in a cluster model. If a kid is merely one grade level ahead in reading and merely ready for FCPS advanced math, rather than far beyond, that kid is garden variety bright and in no need of a special "gifted" program.

tl;dr. The best solution would be to return AAP to a real gifted program serving only the top 2% of FCPS kids. The rest would be served perfectly well in a cluster setting.

So limit it to kids in-pool or with CogAT scores over? I am pretty sure that a CogAT of 132 is 99th percentile, I am not certain what the lowest 98th percentile score is but I would guess it is between 128 and 130? Or how are you going to determine that?

I wish that FCPS just moved to Advanced Math and Advanced LA and placed kids in the appropriate group. Math becomes Math and Science and LA is Social Studies and LA. We have two groups that kids can move between and can be adjusted based on performance during the school year and testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS could deal with the AAP madness by being willing to simply do what everyone used to do and group classes so there's a quicker one, on level one, and slower one. Perhaps in some schools there are 2 quicker ones and one on level, or vice versa but it's the entirely broken "one room school house" model that is driving the huge AAP appetite - because it does NOT work well in K-2 to have these hugely mixed classes and it won't work well in 3 - 5/6 either.

Idealistic, but it's not going to stop the nutty parents on this board and in the schools who complain when their kid is in the bottom group. Taking it out of the teachers' hands and putting the qualification for being in the advanced/AAP class is the solution to having parents arguing with admins and teachers about their kid's placement.

When I was in middle, we were in "sections." So 7-A was the top group, 7-B was the next level, and on down. Even back in the 1990s, there were parents who went insane when their kid was in section C or below.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS could deal with the AAP madness by being willing to simply do what everyone used to do and group classes so there's a quicker one, on level one, and slower one. Perhaps in some schools there are 2 quicker ones and one on level, or vice versa but it's the entirely broken "one room school house" model that is driving the huge AAP appetite - because it does NOT work well in K-2 to have these hugely mixed classes and it won't work well in 3 - 5/6 either.

Idealistic, but it's not going to stop the nutty parents on this board and in the schools who complain when their kid is in the bottom group. Taking it out of the teachers' hands and putting the qualification for being in the advanced/AAP class is the solution to having parents arguing with admins and teachers about their kid's placement.

When I was in middle, we were in "sections." So 7-A was the top group, 7-B was the next level, and on down. Even back in the 1990s, there were parents who went insane when their kid was in section C or below.

Believe it or not, our school had the "tortoises" and the "hares".