Reply to Did AAP L3 just disappear?

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Reply to "Did AAP L3 just disappear?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Sorry for the dramatic title, but here is my reality. DD did not qualify for full time AAP, despite advanced skills in all 4 core subjects. Her issue was attitude -- she has been inattentive in the classroom, and dreading any drills. So now she's starting 3rd grade in a GE track. Her typical modus operandus is to get ahead fast in one subject, then coast while others catch up. By fast, I mean get one or even two academic years ahead in 6 months. Then all learning is off, and she is coasting in the subject for the rest of the year, and well into the next. Next year, new subject of interest and she gets ahead fast, then coasts. And so on. Which explains her accross-the-board advanced skills, as well as her slightly exasperated teachers for the last two years. In her defense, she has ADHD, and operates in an all-or-nothing world most times.

I was pretty certain that at least she was going to get L3 services through pull-out programs in her areas of strength -- again, pretty much all core areas, which was something I was hoping would bring back her interest in learning across the board. She does well with a challenge a high goal and with some light-touch individualized attention. Perfect for L3, I thought.

When I chatted with the principal about my hopes for the year, I found out that the school no longer implements a L3 pull-out, and has instead instructed teachers to teach each unit with differentiated skills. Essentially everyone is getting what used to be L2 services, PER UNIT of study. Meaning each new unit is a big transition, an assessment and a decision on how to teach. No L3 pull outs anymore. For a child who has a hard time transitioning, and who prefers to go deep in any one subject, this can be really bad news. For a child who panics whenever she realizes she's ahead, it's even worse.

So I went to the FCPS AAP site, looking for an argument to still get my kid the pull out program that she really needs. The AAP now describes the model as a school-based continuum of services. No more pull outs, no more individualized teaching for children who advance fast in a given subject. The information for school-based services is completely new and watered down.

Does anyone know what happened? Are L3 pullouts completely out of the picture in FCPS? I thought it was school-by-school, and I was going to advocate to bring at least some pull out programs back.... What's left looks like simply two academic tracks, one for high achievers, one for the rest. Great if you happen to have the teacher who can manage differentiated instruction, though luck otherwise... Our school is a new AAP center, so we definitely have the resources, but they already seem exclusively focused on the AAP side.

How do others schools do L3 this year?

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