AAP school choice - local or center

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Also keep into consideration that AAP students will still be using the grade level basals coming out for next school year, not above grade level. AAP materials will most likely be supplemental. All schools centers and LL4 will be required to teach with these. Even if your kid is way above. Also, math standards and pacing is also changing next year.

Could you please provide more info. Thanks

K-6 are getting a new LA curriculum next school year. They are basals. Every K-6 students regardless of AAP standing will be required to use it. The concept based instruction units will mostly be for SS/Science and AAP materials will be supplementary but not the main curriculum. The 3rd grade AAP cohort will still use the 3rd grade basal and so forth. Teachers will have to differentiate up based off the content in basals. Teachers will be getting more info at training this summer but I guess my point is, even center schools will be using this curriculum. So I wouldn’t say centers will be doing a more rigorous curriculum than the LL4. The L4 pacing guides will predominantly be SS/Science based since the basals will be the curriculum for all.

Is this a substantial change from how things are done now?

Yes. Currently AAP pacing guides are concept based and include all of LA/SS/Science. All LA instruction(Reading/Writing/Word Study) will be done with basals and AAP materials for LA will be supplemental vs being the main source of curriculum.

Just so you know this is not just an FCPS thing. It is a Virginia law.

But I guess what I am trying to say is, if you think your kid will get a more rigorous curriculum at the center, they won’t necessarily with this new change.

We are at an AAP center, in a SES area. The teachers have always said that the only difference between AAP and gen end is Math. My kid is in AAP, I see this first hand. They have one weekly agenda for the grade and we see that the AAP kids are learning the same content that week in SS/Science/LA. In math I see the difference, my AAP kid is learning to multiply fractions (like the agenda states) while the agenda has measurements for regular math. The AAP teachers might go more in depth or add more activities for the other areas, I have no idea, but the content/pace is the same.

Another point, our center has communicated that the LA curriculum is the only one changing. Please provide the source that the other curriculums|pace kids are changing.

DP. We are at an AAP center and there is a big different between the AAP and gen ed classes, not including Math. The ELA, Science and Social Studies classes are very different, tailored to the different students. I can see how a county- or state-wide LA basal system would be good - maybe the center schools can provide both the basal LA instruction in one block and the AAP LA instruction in another block along with the AAP S/SS curriculum. If not, at least students at our school will receive the benefit of the AAP S/SS curriculum, which unfortunately others at other center schools do not appear to receive.

The AAP kids will be getting the basal curriculum and fitting in supplemental stuff. The basal includes reading, writing and word study. So the stuff the kids did for reading/writing this year won’t be part of the LA curriculum full time. The full time curriculum will be the basal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Also keep into consideration that AAP students will still be using the grade level basals coming out for next school year, not above grade level. AAP materials will most likely be supplemental. All schools centers and LL4 will be required to teach with these. Even if your kid is way above. Also, math standards and pacing is also changing next year.

Could you please provide more info. Thanks

K-6 are getting a new LA curriculum next school year. They are basals. Every K-6 students regardless of AAP standing will be required to use it. The concept based instruction units will mostly be for SS/Science and AAP materials will be supplementary but not the main curriculum. The 3rd grade AAP cohort will still use the 3rd grade basal and so forth. Teachers will have to differentiate up based off the content in basals. Teachers will be getting more info at training this summer but I guess my point is, even center schools will be using this curriculum. So I wouldn’t say centers will be doing a more rigorous curriculum than the LL4. The L4 pacing guides will predominantly be SS/Science based since the basals will be the curriculum for all.

Is this a substantial change from how things are done now?

Yes. Currently AAP pacing guides are concept based and include all of LA/SS/Science. All LA instruction(Reading/Writing/Word Study) will be done with basals and AAP materials for LA will be supplemental vs being the main source of curriculum.

Just so you know this is not just an FCPS thing. It is a Virginia law.

But I guess what I am trying to say is, if you think your kid will get a more rigorous curriculum at the center, they won’t necessarily with this new change.

We are at an AAP center, in a SES area. The teachers have always said that the only difference between AAP and gen end is Math. My kid is in AAP, I see this first hand. They have one weekly agenda for the grade and we see that the AAP kids are learning the same content that week in SS/Science/LA. In math I see the difference, my AAP kid is learning to multiply fractions (like the agenda states) while the agenda has measurements for regular math. The AAP teachers might go more in depth or add more activities for the other areas, I have no idea, but the content/pace is the same.

Another point, our center has communicated that the LA curriculum is the only one changing. Please provide the source that the other curriculums|pace kids are changing.

DP. We are at an AAP center and there is a big different between the AAP and gen ed classes, not including Math. The ELA, Science and Social Studies classes are very different, tailored to the different students. I can see how a county- or state-wide LA basal system would be good - maybe the center schools can provide both the basal LA instruction in one block and the AAP LA instruction in another block along with the AAP S/SS curriculum. If not, at least students at our school will receive the benefit of the AAP S/SS curriculum, which unfortunately others at other center schools do not appear to receive.

The AAP kids will be getting the basal curriculum and fitting in supplemental stuff. The basal includes reading, writing and word study. So the stuff the kids did for reading/writing this year won’t be part of the LA curriculum full time. The full time curriculum will be the basal.

The AAP office is still figuring out how this will shake out. Pretesting and compacting the basal material is one possibility to allow for more or the AAP LA curriculum. State law allows for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Also keep into consideration that AAP students will still be using the grade level basals coming out for next school year, not above grade level. AAP materials will most likely be supplemental. All schools centers and LL4 will be required to teach with these. Even if your kid is way above. Also, math standards and pacing is also changing next year.

Are you able to elaborate on what will change with math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Also keep into consideration that AAP students will still be using the grade level basals coming out for next school year, not above grade level. AAP materials will most likely be supplemental. All schools centers and LL4 will be required to teach with these. Even if your kid is way above. Also, math standards and pacing is also changing next year.

Could you please provide more info. Thanks

K-6 are getting a new LA curriculum next school year. They are basals. Every K-6 students regardless of AAP standing will be required to use it. The concept based instruction units will mostly be for SS/Science and AAP materials will be supplementary but not the main curriculum. The 3rd grade AAP cohort will still use the 3rd grade basal and so forth. Teachers will have to differentiate up based off the content in basals. Teachers will be getting more info at training this summer but I guess my point is, even center schools will be using this curriculum. So I wouldn’t say centers will be doing a more rigorous curriculum than the LL4. The L4 pacing guides will predominantly be SS/Science based since the basals will be the curriculum for all.

Is this a substantial change from how things are done now?

Yes. Currently AAP pacing guides are concept based and include all of LA/SS/Science. All LA instruction(Reading/Writing/Word Study) will be done with basals and AAP materials for LA will be supplemental vs being the main source of curriculum.

Just so you know this is not just an FCPS thing. It is a Virginia law.

But I guess what I am trying to say is, if you think your kid will get a more rigorous curriculum at the center, they won’t necessarily with this new change.

We are at an AAP center, in a SES area. The teachers have always said that the only difference between AAP and gen end is Math. My kid is in AAP, I see this first hand. They have one weekly agenda for the grade and we see that the AAP kids are learning the same content that week in SS/Science/LA. In math I see the difference, my AAP kid is learning to multiply fractions (like the agenda states) while the agenda has measurements for regular math. The AAP teachers might go more in depth or add more activities for the other areas, I have no idea, but the content/pace is the same.

Another point, our center has communicated that the LA curriculum is the only one changing. Please provide the source that the other curriculums|pace kids are changing.

DP. We are at an AAP center and there is a big different between the AAP and gen ed classes, not including Math. The ELA, Science and Social Studies classes are very different, tailored to the different students. I can see how a county- or state-wide LA basal system would be good - maybe the center schools can provide both the basal LA instruction in one block and the AAP LA instruction in another block along with the AAP S/SS curriculum. If not, at least students at our school will receive the benefit of the AAP S/SS curriculum, which unfortunately others at other center schools do not appear to receive.

The AAP kids will be getting the basal curriculum and fitting in supplemental stuff. The basal includes reading, writing and word study. So the stuff the kids did for reading/writing this year won’t be part of the LA curriculum full time. The full time curriculum will be the basal.

The AAP office is still figuring out how this will shake out. Pretesting and compacting the basal material is one possibility to allow for more or the AAP LA curriculum. State law allows for this.

AAP teacher here. I am not a fan of the interdisciplinary guides. I much preferred when they had units that matched the content of the grade level. I have to go hunting for things when I used to be able to just look at the AAP unit for a specific content area. I am very interested on how the basal will be implemented in an AAP classroom because even with Level 4 standing, not all kids are above grade level in reading.