Reply to If your child was on the cusp or didn't get invited to AAP, what happened at your base school?

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Reply to "If your child was on the cusp or didn't get invited to AAP, what happened at your base school?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here --

I did some more research and was kind of disappointed with what I found.  If you don't go to the center (either b/c you were on the cusp or you were not invited after being in pool), the most you can get at the local school is one hour every other week and/or the advanced math class (which would be every day).  If math isn't your strong suit, then it's just one hour with the AART every other week in an area that is considered your strength.

That's a BIG difference from what a kid gets at the AAP center -- yet the CogAT score difference is just one percentile!  It seems to be an "all or almost nothing" situation.  I was hoping that the local school would have a lot more to offer to their higher performers, but apparently not.

It makes me realize why so many people push to get their kids into AAP.  And it has made me think twice about whether we want to parent refer.

I really appreciated the comments from PPs, especially the one who mentioned whether DC is a self-starter and generally gets homework done by him/herself.  DC is completely capable of doing the current homework, but is not a self-starter in the least and tends to get distracted and frustrated.  DC can answer a math fact five times but then will get frustrated when she has more questions involving the SAME fact and DC will start the tears and generally dramatize the process which would take 3 min. if DC attended to it.  I don't know if AAP would add more stress to DC's homework, but I fear that it would.

For that reason, and our own desire to keep things simple with just one school for two kids, we are not planning to refer.  (But it is with disappointment that there is so little AA time offered to those who are at the top of charts ar the local school.)[/quote]

[list]I said this in another post and boy did the fangs come out.  I to have a child "on the cusp" and I am very disappointed in what is offered in the Gen. Ed. curriculum.  Gen. Ed needs to differentiate the classrooms by ability and allow children to move in, or out, of the classrooms based on their individual academics achievements.  In this way, “all” children will have the opportunity to advance.  This is not tracking as some seem to think.  It is providing the best challenge to “all children” not just the “select few” allowed into the AAP program.  The AAP center program should be for the “off the charts” achievers and Advanced Academics should be afforded to all Gen. Ed. children with class differentiation (not within the same classroom).  Right now to many “on the cusp” children are being afforded the AAP center opportunity while many other “on the cusp” children are being denied this opportunity.  The process as it exists now for AAP/AAP center is “tracking”.   Selecting a certain group of children and affording them an advance curriculum which is not “reasonably” attainable by those students in Gen. Ed. is tracking.  Yes, Yes I know any child can be referred at anytime during their elementary school years but let’s get real here.  A lot of these children may not need the AAP center program but do need Advanced Academics in certain areas such as the “on the cusp” who were lucky enough to gain acceptance into the AAP program.  The group of children who need immersion in all core subjects is really small.  I believe these “on the cusp” children in the AAP center should be in Gen. Ed. schools with classes meeting them, and all of the other “on the cusp” children, in their academic successes.  FCPS needs to fix this problem.  I believe they are walking on the edge of a “class action” here.  They really need to look closely at how this AAP program is working.[/quote]

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