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]
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]
Sure.  My kids already have to travel out of their middle and high school pyramid for AAP.  My kids also already have multiple teachers during a school day, and they're fine with it.  The local AAP would be open enrollment, like MS Honors, so the only fluctuation would be self-imposed.  And honestly, some fluctuation between gen ed and local advanced academics would be a good thing, since kids who are struggling would have less stigma behind dropping down to regular classes, and kids who find they need more of a challenge could move up.  [/quote]

The way it works now for LLIII and LLII kids and even LLIV kids that stay at some base schools is that they get advanced instruction when the numbers work out. WHen there is enough of a cohort of kids and when they can create even classes. This means that on any given year some kids may not get any advanced instruction except the 1 hour pullout when  the AART is available. We've known families to move because all of a sudden there aren't enough kids to offer compacted math, or a child in LLIII that is able to get advanced instruction one year but not the next. If the AART goes away, how does FCPS ensure kids get advanced instruction and how do they do that from year after year with class size changes? The teachers have an issue differentiating and say they don't have time to teach more than one level and many parents have had bad experiences with combination classes. The issue isn't that kids will sometimes have to be with general ed students. The issue is that even if they elect to take compacted math or advanced language arts, that it might not be offered at their school or they might not make the cut for that class which all would be determined by the teachers and principal.[/quote]

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