Does AAP create unhelpful elitism and separation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You hit the nail on the head. My two oldest are now in HS. One came up through the AAP program and the other did not. To all you parents with younger kids worrying about this for one minute, just stop. It all evens out by middle school and high school. We know AAP kids who dropped out of TJ, AP classes, or the IB program and know exactly as many Gen Ed kids who are academically at the top of their class now. In the end, effort will make the difference. I wish I knew this years ago so I could tell my non AAP kid (who was reminded constantly by classmates she was "not smart", etc etc) that it all eventually evens out and to let comments roll off her back. The only damage done by the AAP program is the seed that is planted very young that a kid "isn't as smart" and that is just not true.

Contrast AAP with DCPS' "we don't do gifted programs" gifted program. Most gifted children in DCPS either leave or languish. AAP is one method of keeping gifted children in the system until they reach MS/HS, at which point they can choose Honors or AP/IB or regular, just as everyone else can.

[Anonymous]

Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

A good start is keeping them in the same school. Different classes, maybe, but the same school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

A good start is keeping them in the same school. Different classes, maybe, but the same school.

For the large number of elementary schools that send 5-10 children to a center school, including mine, how do you propose challenging those 5 gifted children?

[Anonymous]

I attended a W school in MoCo. Many friends stayed in MoCo and raised children there. I came to FCPS. We compare notes frequently. Their kids did splendidly with differentiation in the classroom at their local elementary, went to BCC and on to Dartmouth & Middlebury. I viewed it as a much better model than FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

Falls Church City, Arlington, and Montgomery all manage to differentiate learning for exceptional kids without labelling and segregating them at a very young age as the Fairfax Schools do. As an earlier poster mentioned, kids grow at different ages. The way Fairfax does this through 2nd grade tracking through 6th grades creates a class system within the schools and is horribly damaging both to the kids who are left behind as "not so smart" as well as kids who may end up with an inflated sense of "smartness". Mindblowing to me that it continues.

[Anonymous]

MoCo would be smart to resist adopting the FCPS model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

Falls Church City, Arlington, and Montgomery all manage to differentiate learning for exceptional kids without labelling and segregating them at a very young age as the Fairfax Schools do. As an earlier poster mentioned, kids grow at different ages. The way Fairfax does this through 2nd grade tracking through 6th grades creates a class system within the schools and is horribly damaging both to the kids who are left behind as "not so smart" as well as kids who may end up with an inflated sense of "smartness". Mindblowing to me that it continues.

MoCo does. LoCo does. APS parents either like or dislike the push-in model, depending upon how each school implements it.

[Anonymous]

Falls Church City, Arlington, and Montgomery all manage to differentiate learning for exceptional kids without labelling and segregating them at a very young age as the Fairfax Schools do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

A good start is keeping them in the same school. Different classes, maybe, but the same school.

For the large number of elementary schools that send 5-10 children to a center school, including mine, how do you propose challenging those 5 gifted children?

Making a class of the smartest kids in that school, including *gasp* kids who may not have the cut to the center. You do realize that even at your center school some kids are smarter than others and everyone still does fine, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very bright kids can be damaged by not being challenged enough and by not getting an education that addresses their needs.
How do we help those kids while avoiding a lot of the problems such as elitism noted in the thread?

A good start is keeping them in the same school. Different classes, maybe, but the same school.

For the large number of elementary schools that send 5-10 children to a center school, including mine, how do you propose challenging those 5 gifted children?

Are they really that much ahead of the next 10 kids, ability-wise, in each subject? Most AAP kids would be fine with just receiving advanced math and language arts one grade level ahead. For those who aren't, perhaps the best solution is to dispense with strict age level groupings and let them join the advanced math or reading class with a higher grade. FCPS already does this for the kids who are beyond AAP level math.

Also, part of the problem with the elitism and the labeling is that many AAP kids are good students with scores in the 120s. Many gen ed kids are also good students with scores in the 120s. It seems silly to label half of them as gifted and elite, while letting the other half of these bright kids remain bored and unchallenged in gen ed.

[Anonymous]

MoCo has a very well established truly gifted program, which happens in center schools. It is NOT as inclusive as that of FX county.

Arlington Co has an unwritten policy about NOT advancing children in math, so their model does not work as well when it comes to math and sciences.

FCC - I don't know enough about them, but I know that if they can't provide adequate education for a student, they will pay for private placement of that student, thus still taking that student out of the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For the large number of elementary schools that send 5-10 children to a center school, including mine, how do you propose challenging those 5 gifted children?

How do you propose challenging the 5 or so actually gifted children stuck in watered down AAP classes with a bunch of non gifted children? If a middle of the road AAP kid can't be challenged or educated alongside bright gen ed kids who barely missed the cut, then how can children who are actually gifted be educated and challenged alongside those middle of the road AAP kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For the large number of elementary schools that send 5-10 children to a center school, including mine, how do you propose challenging those 5 gifted children?

How do you propose challenging the 5 or so actually gifted children stuck in watered down AAP classes with a bunch of non gifted children? If a middle of the road AAP kid can't be challenged or educated alongside bright gen ed kids who barely missed the cut, then how can children who are actually gifted be educated and challenged alongside those middle of the road AAP kids?

Please refer to the title of this thread and pause for self-reflection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Falls Church City, Arlington, and Montgomery all manage to differentiate learning for exceptional kids without labelling and segregating them at a very young age as the Fairfax Schools do

Are you unfamiliar with Montogomery County? They do.