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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]LIV and other AAP services are necessary for a number of kids.

Kids who are ahead or advanced at a Title 1 school absolutely need AAP services. The kids who are ahead or advanced will not get the attention of the Teacher in a Title 1 school were kids are starting school not knowing their letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and the like. The kids who are starting behind are coming from households that do not have the ability/means/interest to help the child get to grade level or stay at grade level. The Teacher is going to be focused on trying to get those kids up to grade level or at least close to grade level. While it is true that you will have kids who are behind at every school, even the high SES schools, the number of kids in that position is far smaller, which makes it easier to have a child work with a specialist to get caught up versus 2/3 of the class in the same boat.

The kids at a Title 1 or near Title 1 school need LIV services so that they have a space that meets their educational needs and challenge them otherwise they will be sitting in a classroom with little to no attention while their peers are struggling to catch up.

Is LIV needed at middle class and high SES schools? Yes. There are kids who struggle in the regular curriculum for a variety of reasons. There are kids who do fine in the regular class but are not excelling. The Teacher is going to spend the most time with the kids who are struggling and a good amount of time with the kids on grade level. Kids who are ahead deserve an opportunity to be challenged and pushed. That is what LIV is, an opportunity to move at a pace that challenges them. It is less about kids being gifted and brilliant and more about having material that engages kids who are ahead so that they enjoy school and develop good habits.

Do we need Center schools and all of that? That is a different question. I would say no but we deferred LIV services to stay at the base school with Advanced Math and things have been fine. There are parents whose kids struggled at the base school but moving to the Center was great for them. There are parents very focused on a cohort of academically minded kids. I am not certain how many academically minded 4th graders there are vs how many 4th graders have parents who make them do their homework and read and make sure that they are prepared for school so that they look like they are academically minded. There are parents who are all about the prestige of their kid being in AAP, those are the same parents that will push for their kid to take 15 AP classes in high school.

[b]Do I think that kids in AAP are smarter[/b] or better prepared for MS/HS then other kids? Not really. I think most of the AAP kids are there because they needed a bit more and deserved attention from the Teacher that they would not get in the regular classroom. I think that kids learn and mature at different rates and that there are plenty of kids not in AAP who are capable of doing AP/IB level work once they get to high school but they were not as fast to grasp the foundational learning blocks as kids in AAP in ES. I am glad that there is a program to let those kids who have grasped that material more quickly move at a faster or more in depth manner in ES. I am glad that the regular classroom provides the support for kids to learn the material so that they are ready for honors, AP/IB classes in HS.  [/quote]

This is why my oldest needed AAP.  He is smarter, very smart.  And he had learned in 2nd grade not to raise his hand, not to say the right answer.  He had already learned that being smart wasn't a good thing or at least he had better not be smarter than the other kids.

AAP was a safe place for him to be smart.  He wasn't treated meanly when he got the top score in the kahoot etc.  The teachers called on him and it was fine when he knew the right answer.

My youngest doesn't really need AAP but he is learning from the deeper curriculum.  [/quote]

NP. These are exactly my oldest 2 kids. My oldest actually needed AAP and would have learned to hate school without it. My middle does not strictly need it, but is doing well and it's been beneficial.

I know kids who qualified for AAP and chose not to do it (we are at a center, so it wasn't about not switching to the center school). They will be well prepared for MS/HS and their families are happy with that choice. I expect those kids will be taking APs alongside mine some day. But for my kids it would have been a loss not to be in the LIV classes.[/quote]

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