Reply to Gifted kid - APS, FCPS, or Nysmith?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid attends a school that is considered a strong AAP center, and is also one of the kids winning some of the big awards.  The school has a strong program in several areas not because the teacher or school do anything, but rather because motivated parents are running after school coaching programs.  Also, a lot of the students are taking outside enrichment courses.  The school is getting credit for kids who were going to win those same awards no matter where they attended school.  [/quote]

I suspect that you could say the same thing my kids at the "better" private schools. The truth of the matter is that if the parents are invested in their child's education, the child will likely do very well in school and academic extra curricular activities. Even parents who are not able to afford tutoring and Nysmith are probably able to afford some of the workbooks or can find similar enrichment at the library if they are highly invested and are looking to supplement.

I strongly suspect that there are a number of factors that influence the experience at AAP centers.

1) I do think that there are different standards for admittance based on the school and the pyramid. Centers need to have their seats full and FCPS does not bus kids to centers with empty seats. So kids who would not be accepted into AAP in the Langley/McLean and similar pyramids are more likely to be accepted into AAP in the Herndon pyramid.

2) Parents play a huge roll in how an individual student does as well as the school. So schools with a more involved set of parents can offer more programs because they have more coaches and more financial support. Those extra programs benefit all the kids who participate in them and the school as a whole.

3) The most obvious, the teacher and administration.

So AAP is not uniform across the county. Comparing one data point, Nysmith, to an entire program across the entire county is silly. The different personalities, abilities and access to resources for a child in AAP is massive. Nysmith can pick and choose. I expect Nysmith to do well in competitions because they hand select their students. AND because the parents pay the school a ton of money to insure small class size and individual attention for their child. AND because the school should have the best of technology and text books and the like.

And yet kids who come out of general education programs in FCPS tend to do well in life. Kids who come out of the AAP/AP/IB programs in FCPS tend to do well in life. The kids who come out of Nysmith tend to do well in life.

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