Reply to Instead of AAP, Honors classes starting in 3rd grade

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[quote=Anonymous]There is some merit to your ideas... but there are some flaws as well.

First, it's not 25% that are in AAP.  The actual, factual stats are around 15%.

Second, not all ES have 25-30 kids who are ready and willing to do "honors" work.  My kid's AAP center draws from 13 or so feeder schools.  There are three classes of AAP.  Certainly some of those feeder schools do not have a lot of AAP-ready kids.  Of course, there might be more kids/parents willing to do an "honors" curriculum at the base school than those willing to ship their kids to the center.  So, on the whole, schools like our base school probably could fill up an honors class even though about 10 students go to AAP center per grade.  Other ES may not be so willing.

One thing you would lose in this scenario is the efficiencies gained by the teachers in a center school as well as the support the other AAP teachers give to each other.  If there is only one class of honors per grade, then that teacher has to do everything.  At the center school, it seems that the AAP teachers for each grade combine efforts in setting up the curriculum.

Students also lose the combined energy and shared interests of the other kids.  Fewer parents to support the special after school activities and maybe not enough kids to support the Odyssey of the Mind team or Chess team or whatever.

On the whole, however, I would really like to have a level 4 or honor curriculum at our base school so that our lives would be easier.

I wonder if it might be worse for the non-honors kids in some way -- we often hear complaints on this board how awful the non-AAP kids feel at a center since they can see the AAP kids in their midst.  Maybe these are just over-dramatic parents?  I don't know.  But, I wonder if the opposite approach might be good -- fully dedicated AAP centers?  Only the AAP would attend them.

I know someone in another district (in DC metro) where the G/T kids are moved to a separate school starting in 2nd grade.  So, it can work.  [/quote]

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