Reply to "AAP is not a gifted program"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Outside of FCPS, it's generally believed that about 2% of the population falls into the "gifted" range. It also isn't typically an across-the-board giftedness, usually a person is gifted in a particular area. Accordingly to a 2013 WaPo piece I found, nearly 17% of FCPS students qualified under the AAP standards. And then they get put into a program that treats than that way across all the core subjects. It's not a program for identifying truly gifted children, it's a program for identifying smarter-than-average kids who would benefit from a more rigorous curriculum.[/quote]
Agree with this, but don't really see the problem with it. All the kids who are smart at our neighborhood school are either identified LLIV or LLIII. They all get advanced instruction and are happy. There are plenty of kids in general ed who are smart, but aren't into school and wouldn't be happy with the increased workload of AAP. They're fine with their classes too. We're in one of those mixed AAP/Gen Ed schools though so there isn't the social divide talked about at other schools.[/quote]

We're in a center school, so mixed AAP and Gen Ed (though far more AAP kids in grades 3-6).  One of the major problems I have with AAP is the mindset, above, that "all the kids who are smart" are in AAP.  It does the Gen Ed kids a HUGE disservice to be labeled (by default) "not smart".  Even though the PP throws in the qualifier, "there are plenty of kids in general ed who are smart, but aren't into school, etc. etc.".  I'm sorry, but that is such B.S.  There are plenty of very bright kids in Gen Ed who are indeed "into school," but who may have missed the AAP benchmark.  And by just missing this benchmark, they really are [i]no different[/i] than the kids who did get into AAP - and here the resentment begins.  There is most definitely a social divide at our school, which is completely unnecessary and could be eradicated if AAP no longer existed, but instead a small gifted program was implemented to serve only those who actually have special learning needs.  The typical AAP kid does not have special needs, as I think we're all aware by now.

What many of us wish for, is a small, extremely selective gifted program that takes only those kids with extremely high IQs - not the run-of-the-mill good students found in abundance in FxCo.  A gifted program should be for kids who can't learn adequately in a regular classroom.  That was the original intent of GT, but AAP has strayed so far that it's now just slightly more advanced work - nothing that most kids couldn't do, including those in Gen Ed.  [/quote]

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