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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow.  2 different people misread “neighborhood” as “school”.  That’s truly bizarre.  [/quote]

Even more chance then that these assumptions are false. Who knows test scores and reading levels of half the kids in the neighborhood? Move on.[/quote]

You're crazy.  Or you're so antisocial that you don't talk to neighbors of similarly aged kids at the bus stop or at other gatherings or when your kids are playing together.  Most likely, you're just trying to cover for your truly terrible reading comprehension by deflecting.

Anyway, they're not assumptions.  One parent was quite open that she parent referred her kid, the kid got into AAP, and then washed out in 3rd grade because the math was too hard.  Another parent flat out said that her kid got a 119 CogAT composite and didn't get pass advanced on any of the 3rd grade SOLs.  One parent consistently asked me for help with her kid's 2nd grade math word problems, because neither she nor her DD could understand how to do them, and my kid was getting them correct.  Her kid had a <100 NNAT and a 122 CogAT, which she acknowledged freely.  Her kid prepped for the CogAT score, which she also acknowledged.  After her kid got accepted into AAP, she wouldn't shut up about how the committee saw something special in her kid, and her kid is truly gifted, despite the bad test scores.  Yet another parent said they parent referred their kid.  Even after prepping like crazy for the IAAT, the kid told other kids that he only got a 68th percentile.  One parent was worried about parent referring for AAP because her kid was completely average in math on all metrics.  The kid still got into AAP and then slowed it down for everyone else.  All of these kids were the types standing around the bus stop reading Magic Treehouse or the like in 2nd, so we're not talking about very advanced readers.

These are the types of kids getting accepted into AAP, and it's not unexpected.   In the old system, under which all of these kids were accepted, 10% of FCPS kids earn scores in the top 2%, many due to prepping.  Only 2/3 of those kids get accepted into AAP, meaning 6.7% of the FCPS kids are both in-pool and in AAP.  AAP includes 20% of the kids per eligible grade level.  The remaining 13.3% of the kids in AAP  had scores in the 120s or even lower.  The AART at my kids' school flat out said in the parent presentations that parents should refer any kid with over 120 on any subsection of CogAT.  If the kid is above average, the school will support their application packet, and most of those will get admitted by the central committee.  [b]The AAP equity report pretty deliberately hid the CogAT composite data of admitted kids, but the subscore data they released was honestly quite low.  It should be quite apparent to everyone that the majority of kids in AAP are merely somewhat above average[/b].  [/quote]

Agree that the AAP report was surprising and I found the test scores to be surprisingly far below the "old" cutoffs.  Clustering makes sense, in that light, when coupled with center schools for kids nearer to or above the cutoffs.[/quote]

Yeah.  The big problem is that the overwhelming majority of AAP kids are only slightly advanced and somewhat above average, yet the parents of those kids are the ones fighting tooth and nail against clustering and LLIV.  They're convinced that their somewhat above average kids simply can't have their needs met among the unwashed masses, and that their kids are somehow better than or more worthy than the LIII kids from whom they are indistinguishable.  [/quote]

The issue in our cluster school has nothing to do with level III kids.  I would be happy to see my kid in a separate class with a combination of Level III and Level IV students.  My issue is that our local program only provides Level IV material (beyond the math component) three days a week--sometimes two, depending on the AART's availability.  [/quote]

Your AART provides the LLIV content, not the classroom teacher? I can see how that would be problematic, and easily bumped if something comes up. Do you have the option to go to a Center? The full-time immersion would be a different experience.[/quote]

We do have the center option but chose to remain local for social reasons. All DC’s friends opted to stay.[/quote]

We gave our son the option to choose each year that he has had the choice. There was only one year that he wanted to move and that was because math was boring. We did some research and gave him the choice explaining that both the Center and his Base school would be teaching Grade 6 math in 5th grade. Based on that, he decided to stay at his base school with his friends. He didn't want to leave his friends but the math being slow was bothering him enough that he was willing to move.

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I don't understand parents like this.  Where a child goes to school is not a decision for a 3rd grader, or a 6th grader.  Why do parents put such a decision on their child?  [/quote]

Because he is a smart kid who likes school and we think it is better for him to be involved in his education. We give him information, take him to the open house, and let him choose. He is at a solid base school. We don’t think that the AAP program is so special that he is harmed by staying at his base. The Center is great but so is the base. He choose the base because he wanted to stay with his friends. We were fine with that.

Would we have given him a choice if the Base school wasn’t good? Maybe not. The kids we know who were in Gen Ed are taking AP/IB classes in high school and doing fine. AAP is nice but it is not all that. We are happy with his Teachers and the program at the Base. And DS feels like he had a say in his choice and has some ownership over his education.

Moving a child who doesn’t want to move screams like a recipe for disaster to me. [/quote]

Barring something awful like bullying, no child ever wants to move or change schools.  That's why parents make these decisions and then sell it to their children.  [/quote]

My child asked us about maybe moving for fifth grade because he wanted more challenging math. We discussed what the difference would be and decided that he would stay at the base since both classes move into grade 6 math. But he approached us to discuss the option.

We know our child and can appreciate that he enjoys school and he likes being challenged. He asked to do RSM and asked to do math competitions. So yes, we trust that he will think about making choices that will benefit him even in ES. Maybe not every kid would do that but he does. 
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