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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our AAP center experience has been amazing and absolutely life changing for our DC. My other DC isn’t in AAP and doesn’t need it. They are happy and there isn’t some kind of smart / dumb type of animosity in our house.

Inevitably, my guess is the SB will probably move to dismantle the center system as LLIV is finally up and running everywhere. And even more, my guess is that LLIV will probably be moved to the cluster model in most places due to the segregation like optics of separate classes which really aren’t any better than separate schools if we look at it through an equity lens.

Given all the issues present in many low SES/ middle SES elementary schools, the cluster model will likely result in poorer outcomes for those kids.

I’m just happy my DC will have received a top notch elementary/MS education before the AAP system is changed. Sorry some kids said some mean things though.[/quote]

Could you explain how your center experience has been life changing?  My kid attended an AAP center and was still underwhelmed by everything.  He felt like he learned more in 3 hours of AoPS math and language arts classes than he did in an entire week of school.  My kid's center was at best mildly accelerated and largely still filled with the station model for math, reading groups that never saw the teacher, lots of busywork, and lots of powerpoint presentations.  I know that not all centers are the same, and I'm curious about what your center did differently to make the experience life changing for your kid.  [/quote]

NP.  My first DC's center school experience was also life changing, a bit less dramatic for my second DC.  The academics are a part of it, more the ELA and S/SS than Advanced Math since the teachers have generally only been so-so math teachers. The focus on critical thinking in the AAP curriculum has been targeted towards DC's weaknesses and has helped him learn and think.  More importantly, the cohort and the teachers' comfort, familiarity with GT students who will question and correct errors and think out of the box.

[b]My older DC found a group of kids who accepted and did not belittle his intelligence and quirks, unlike his GE classes. My younger DC found a group of kids who are very similar to him, playing pretend, writing fan fic, terrified of fire alarms, etc. [/b]

The center school model is unusual and a relic from a time when GT was considered important.  It isn't anymore and FCPS is trying to dismantle it.  There are a lot of people in the administration who are hostile to it and they are doing their best to get rid of it.  OP's opinion is the majority opinion.[/quote]
For the bolded, really?!  At which school are kids belittling another kid's intelligence and quirks in the 2nd grade?  Statistically, there were even another 4 or 5 AAP kids within your kid's 2nd grade classroom, and there should have been several kids above grade level.  In FCPS, if anything kids are belittled for being "dumb" - not for being "too smart."

Also, you don't think gen ed kids play pretend or write fan fic?  WTH?[/quote]

DS has a friend that is smart and could careless about school. He is in Advanced Math and LIII but is not curious and has no external motivation to learn about a subject outside of what he has to at school. There are plenty of smart kids just like him. He was in-pool for LIV and had poor GBRS and HOPE scores (his parents applied this year.) There is no doubt that he is smart he is not motivated. His parents know this and applied for LIV again because they know he will do fine in it but he does the bare minimum at school and at home. Statistically, he is that kid you are talking about but he doesn't show it no matter who goads or prods him.

[b]Kids are picked on for being smart and quirky. It happens all the time. The book worm, the kid always raising their hand, the kid who wants more math. Most of the kids could care less but there are kids who will use another kids intelligence and curiosity to target them. [/b]

I know kids from our neighborhood who moved to the Center due to bullying in the classroom, mainly because they stood out for their intelligence and other kids were ostracizing them for that reason. I can think of 3 off the top of my head who moved for that reason. The three kids, none were in my kids class but I spoke to their parents as we were deciding on moving to the Center or staying, all said that the kids just fit in better at the Center. They loved it there and have friends from the program still.

I know of one in my sons class who was loudly announcing he was going to the Center in 4th grade because he was smart and heard plenty of kids commenting that they were glad he was leaving. DS told me that he had issues in the classroom because of how he acted towards the other kids and his interests. I am not sure if his issues were that he was quirky or if he thought he was smarter then the others well before leaving for the Center and the other kids ignored him. No one seemed to be sad when he left. I saw him at a party the next year and his Mom said that he was struggling socially at the Center so I suspect it was personality more then anything else. 
[/quote]

Again, I'm really curious about where this is happening.  My kids attended a Title I ES.  There were still quite a lot of bookworms, kids always raising their hands, and kids who loved math in every classroom.  It wasn't some sort of weird thing that would cause a kid to be ostracized.  The nerdy, AAP bound kids + the bright, nerdy kids who didn't get in were like 30% of the grade.  Maybe boy vs. girl dynamics are different.  Maybe things are different in an even lower SES school that places very few kids in AAP.  Otherwise, at any school placing 15% or more of the grade into AAP, the whole idea of kids being picked on for nerdiness seems weird to me.  
[/quote]

The bulk of the 15% who go to AAP aren't out of their element - the 1-3% who would still go to a more restricted G and T program probably are.[/quote]

I have one of those kids.  The old, more restricted GT program would have been life changing.  AAP certainly was not.  If anything, it was worse for my kid since he went from being a kid who didn't fit in and was bored with school, but wasn't picked on to being a kid who still didn't fit in, was still bored with school, but had to deal with other kids' jealousy.  He was skipped up in math starting in 1st grade, so that stood out to his AAP peers and not necessarily in a good way.

To bring this back to OP's post - The parents of the mildly advanced, above average kids who get in think that AAP is the best thing ever, their kids truly need it, and their kids would never in a million years be mean to the kids not in the program.  So, of course they see AAP as a net positive.  It's a net negative for pretty much everyone else.  Bringing the mildly advanced kids back to their base schools would prevent "smart" and "not smart" labels being permanently affixed to kids at the age of 7.  It would give schools the flexibility to create leveled classes that can move kids up or down as needed based on performance.  The truly gifted would benefit from a much more exclusive GT program.

FCPS is doing the right thing by moving to a cluster model, providing that they implement the clusters correctly.  Some LLIV cluster schools have the kids switch classrooms for both math and language arts, where the top kids, whether they are AAP or not, are all grouped in the top classroom and so on down.  Everyone's needs would be met without all of the drama and labeling.  [/quote]

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