Reply to No separate AAP student track in FCPS high schools, right?

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Reply to "No separate AAP student track in FCPS high schools, right?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
[b]It can't be the curriculum for everyone.[/b] Have you not heard about the achievement gap? Or the high level of ESOL students in the area? There is also growing concern at the elementary level already that academics are moving too fast for their kids. Not everyone wants to devote the time to be "above grade level" or has the ability to be "above grade level" in school. Those kids that want to learn more and can handle it should have the opportunity.

And AAP can be harder than general ed for some students. That's a ridiculous statement to say they are completely the same. They are not. [b]Perhaps more students can handle the AAP curriculum than are offered it, however this argument is about making that group smaller, not larger.[/b][/quote]

I agree that it can't be the curriculum for everyone.  It can, however, be a curriculum offered to the most advanced classes at the local school.  Nothing about the curriculum requires bussing to a separate school and a self-contained classroom [i]for all subjects[/i].  Regarding the second bolded point, I feel like AAP needs to be both larger and smaller.  The current AAP curriculum isn't very advanced, and many kids are excluded who would be more than capable of handling it.  Those kids should be allowed the opportunity to do so.  At the same time, AAP has been watered down by so much over-inclusion that the kids at the top are poorly served by the current model.  I'd be thrilled if FCPS reverted to the GT system of the past (including at most 5% of the kids), but then offered the AAP curriculum on an open-enrollment basis at all local schools.  [/quote]

There are some pros to this approach and it's been talked about before here, however there are some cons as well. 
AAP kids would have to travel further to schools that may not be within their middle and high school pyramid. My guess is that some parents would choose their local school instead although they already do that now.
Likely any local level advanced academics would fluctuate by grade and teacher so that students would have multiple teachers during a school day and possibly even switch from advanced to general ed quarter to quarter
The recommendations would come from the teacher verses a more comprehensive packet including testing and would be more arbitrary
Likely some kids would be in combination classes either with different grades or with different levels leaving less time for the teacher to work with kids on that particular grade level.

Does that all sound ok with you?[/quote]

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