AAP at Every Middle School

[Anonymous]

FCPS has a forum topic on adding Level IV at every middle school.

This is being pushed by Ricardy Anderson in Mason, who wants AAP at Poe and Holmes and not just Glasgow.

Ironically, these are the schools where there has been the strongest argument for an AAP center so there can be a "critical mass" of AAP students.

If they downsize Glasgow AAP, for sure Carson AAP will follow. I don't know why they don't start there.

[Anonymous]

I generally support this idea (along with a Level IV in every ES) to stop "brain drain" from schools. And before you bite me, I come from Title I schools - both ES and MS - and kept my kids in Local Level IV at ES - from my perspective, the additional resources of Title I balanced out the appeal of a larger "cohort" at a center AAP ES.

I think that getting AAP into every school will help cast a wider net - more kids will be principal placed in ES and then can apply for Level IV for MS based on success in ES.

[Anonymous]

just combine honors and AAP in middle school - its pointless to have three track, two of which are supposed to teach the same content

[Anonymous]

Currently Cooper, Lanier, Longfellow and South County are the only four middle school AAP programs that only draw from one pyramid (Langley, Fairfax, McLean and South County). It will be quite a change for some of the parents in western Fairfax if they have to send their kids to Franklin rather than Carson or to Stone rather than Rocky Run (and then rely on a lottery for TJ).

[Anonymous]

This will only work if there are sufficient numbers of students who merit-based qualify at each and every school. Need to be able to seat an entire classroom in each grade or else parents will try to argue that the program is a waste of money. Look east to Arlington and see what a mess this can become. Arlington has suffered a brain drain from parents moving to Fairfax/Loudoun or sending their kids to private instead of dealing with the SJW school board members that think putting a sticker on kids saying they're gifted is more important than having actual gifted students. A critical mass of gifted students at centralized locations will help prevent politics from intervening in education. However, there are no guarantees either since TJ will likely soon be worse than the top-5 non-TJ schools in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will only work if there are sufficient numbers of students who merit-based qualify at each and every school. Need to be able to seat an entire classroom in each grade or else parents will try to argue that the program is a waste of money. Look east to Arlington and see what a mess this can become. Arlington has suffered a brain drain from parents moving to Fairfax/Loudoun or sending their kids to private instead of dealing with the SJW school board members that think putting a sticker on kids saying they're gifted is more important than having actual gifted students. A critical mass of gifted students at centralized locations will help prevent politics from intervening in education. However, there are no guarantees either since TJ will likely soon be worse than the top-5 non-TJ schools in FCPS.

given the size of FCPS middle schools, if they can't seat a class in every school, then it's pretty fair to say that the second grade selection process is a joke

[Anonymous]

I support this

I also support scrapping the whole AAP insanity. No one has any clue who is gifted vs just smart when kids are 6-7 years old anyway

Just go back to tracking and multiple levels. I remember growing up you would separate the classrooms in each grade for math for high average and remedial. That would also cut down on the insanity of kids taking Algebra I in 6th grade. No one should be doing that. 7th grade is plenty early and you could have at least one section at each middle school. Those classes would form your TJ pipeline and go from there.

[Anonymous]

What's the minimum number of AAP students per grade for a viable AAP middle school center?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the minimum number of AAP students per grade for a viable AAP middle school center?

it depends on if you are willing to have the snowflakes mix with the unwashed masses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support this

I also support scrapping the whole AAP insanity. No one has any clue who is gifted vs just smart when kids are 6-7 years old anyway

Just go back to tracking and multiple levels. I remember growing up you would separate the classrooms in each grade for math for high average and remedial. That would also cut down on the insanity of kids taking Algebra I in 6th grade. No one should be doing that. 7th grade is plenty early and you could have at least one section at each middle school. Those classes would form your TJ pipeline and go from there.

Thankfully you're not in charge.

[Anonymous]

Stone Middle School doesn't even have an AAP center or local level 4 in any of its feeder ES's. Is that normal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stone Middle School doesn't even have an AAP center or local level 4 in any of its feeder ES's. Is that normal?

No, that can't be right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support this

I also support scrapping the whole AAP insanity. No one has any clue who is gifted vs just smart when kids are 6-7 years old anyway

Just go back to tracking and multiple levels. I remember growing up you would separate the classrooms in each grade for math for high average and remedial. That would also cut down on the insanity of kids taking Algebra I in 6th grade. No one should be doing that. 7th grade is plenty early and you could have at least one section at each middle school. Those classes would form your TJ pipeline and go from there.

Why do these two things have to be mutually exclusive? Gifted kids need to be with other gifted kids for a number of social and intellectual reasons. The idea that some form of blended classrooms are good for everyone equally is a fallacy and only serves to engender the problem of the smarter kids being overlooked/ignored in favor of helping less intelligent or struggling students. The worst thing a teacher can do to an immature, intellectually curious, gifted child is to tell her that her knowledge is good enough to pass already so all she has to do is sit in the corner and twiddle her fingers while less fortunate, more important kids are taught things they should already know. This is why the U.S. is losing in education vs. the rest of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stone Middle School doesn't even have an AAP center or local level 4 in any of its feeder ES's. Is that normal?

No, that can't be right.

Cub Run, Deer Park, Virginia Run and London Towne feed to Stone. None have AAP. The kids in that area are sent to another pyramid for AAP, and that center (Bull Run) is tiny (only one or two classes per grade). So under this proposal, Stone would have an AAP center of maybe 15 kids per grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stone Middle School doesn't even have an AAP center or local level 4 in any of its feeder ES's. Is that normal?

No, that can't be right.

Cub Run, Deer Park, Virginia Run and London Towne feed to Stone. None have AAP. The kids in that area are sent to another pyramid for AAP, and that center (Bull Run) is tiny (only one or two classes per grade). So under this proposal, Stone would have an AAP center of maybe 15 kids per grade.

Which makes me wonder why FCPS isn't finding any kids from those elementary schools eligible for AAP. 15 kids per grade from 4 elementaries? Are they heavy FARMs/ELL?