New Budget Recommendations -- eliminate AAP busing and centers
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Anonymous
I think about 4, maybe 5 not including centers. Typically only one advanced classroom per grade. Some schools only have 2 classes per grade. |
Anonymous
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Interesting . . . Hm, I wonder who will fill up all that empty center space. . .
I have a VERY good idea of where this is going. And I don't like it, considering our school is a center school. |
Anonymous
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Nope, our base schools in Restom and Herndon can't fill a whole class with level IV kids, either.
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Anonymous
| Our LLIV can't fill a class each grade level either. There is a "lottery" for the extra spaces that is not an actual lottery. High SES school in a good pyramid. The politics behind the lottery are ugly. |
Anonymous
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Wouldn't establishing level 4s at all ES require a lot of planning -- they would need at least a few trailers at many schools and additional teachers. And also need to figure out the number of students qualified for each class + picking more to fill them out. + changing bus routes to include the formerly-center kids into the base schools.
And then there are schools like my child's center that would literally be decimated if the center left -- I'm assuming it is one that wouldn't be changed since many schools feed into the center. It seems like a lot of logistics would have to be addressed that would be hard to accomplish if the decision happens in late May. I'm sure other programmatic changes would also require significant re-structuring as well. Seems like FCPS would need to have a pretty firm plan in place and start working the logistics by February. |
Anonymous
+1. We must be neighbors! This is my kids LLIV ES. The politics of pupil placement made the school environment toxic. Until the principal gave up and stopped placing kids altogether. Then the AAP class had 16 kids and the Gen Ed classes had 29. Which also created a nasty "the AAP kids get all the resources "environment. Seriously, everyone pushing for LLIV so that you go back to a "regular, neighborhood school" needs be careful what they wish for. Turns out lots of people (parents and kids) get unhappy when some kids get "chosen" for the "special" class and others don't. |
Anonymous
I seriously doubt there is much in the way of savings. ES AAP is 4 years worth of kids. MS AAP is 2. ES kids go to neighborhood schools. Those that are bused to the Base school aren't bused far and many would be walkers at their base schools. MS students to are bused much further to the base schools, and most MS bases don't have walkers. |
Anonymous
My friend's school has a LLIV program where the AAP teacher teaches half the class at the AAP level and the other half at an advanced level in between general ed and AAP. I think there's another split level classroom with some at the LLIII level and some at the general ed level. Seems to work ok for them. There are also schools that combine say 3rd and 4th grade AAP together. |
Anonymous
I'm curious about this. What politics could be at play? Why wouldn't the class just be filled with level III kids?? |
Anonymous
Turns out that building a single AAP class is a very Goldilocks thing. When you add level III, you can get more than a full class and some level III kids don't make the cut and the principal has to choose who. Or that even with level III there aren't enough kids and you still have to subjectively choose the remainders. And you know her child was only chosen because she is a PTA officer/ does this that or the other for the school / etc. As a PP said-- every parent thinks her kid should fill out the class. And is deeply upset when Larla isn't chosen by the principal. Often, much more upset than when Larla isn't selected for level IV to begin with. And very nasty to Larla's now former BFF who is in the class, and will be at the same school but in a separate, "better" class for the next 4 years. My eldest DC got a great education staying at his affluent ES LLIV program (95% of the qualified kids stayed)-- and don't have to change schools and stayed in our neighborhood, with kindergarten friends. DC went on to a very competitive center MS and more than held their own. But watching the AAP vs GE parents each year was nauseating. You really don't want this atmosphere at your neighborhood school. |
Anonymous
Your center school would not be decimated. The schools would be re-balanced a la boundary changes. If they remove the centers, but don't change the boundaries, I would have a lot of questions. |
Anonymous
| I'm confused. Our school just had a meeting on AAP last week. There it was explained that AAP is Level IV, just at a center. AAP is not akin to a Level V, but that's what folks make it out to be. |
Anonymous
| As an added bonus base school great school's scores would go up. |
Anonymous
| OK my husband says his understanding is that if they do away with AAP centers, there will be no Level IV anywhere. I'm lost. |
Anonymous
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Anecdotally, the Centers are stronger, and while I wouldn't call them "Level V," there is a strong sense among many that the ES Center kids are much better prepared (for Algebra, for example) than the ES LLIV kids. When you've increased the % of kids in AAP to such high levels, then you're making the AAP teachers differentiate much more than they used to... when there are also Level III kids mixed into LLIV classrooms (or others just to "fill out" a class), that may also require more differentiation. So, again, anecdotally, many believe the Centers are stronger. Supposedly, the curriculums are the same, but in practice there may be a stronger peer group in Centers.
Just repeating what I've been told. Don't shoot the messenger. |