Reply to The difference btw the AAP class and the General Ed class

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Reply to "The difference btw the AAP class and the General Ed class"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^I am speaking from personal experience.  It wasn’t an advanced class but a class only offered at the school virtually.  It was a simple “Sorry, it’s filled.” They gave my kid two other completely unrelated options that would fit in his schedule.  It’s about what fits in, not what you want at that point.  We certainly weren’t demanding a class spot and bus transportation.  Lesson learned, we are already researching other virtual options outside of FCPS for next year.

[b]I firmly think they need to stop the transportation for AAP centers and one of mine went through AAP but stayed at the base school.  There are so many other things to spend the money on.[/b]  [/quote]

No way they’re going to do this. It’s an equity issue. You’d basically be excluding all the kids whose parents don’t have the resources to drive them every day. [/quote]

Okay. But there are centers that have every school with a Local Level 4. For example, every school that sends to Westbriar has a Local Level 4. Why should we be bussing kids when they can get a Level 4 class at their own school?[/quote]

The argument is that the Center schools allow for more classrooms so that the kids can be mixed up every year, just like the Gen Ed classes are shuffled every year. It is better for socialization for kids to have a larger cohort of kids and gives room to keep kids who clash apart.

I think the solution is that you have Advanced Math and Advanced LA in every school. Maybe it is Advanced Math and Science and Advanced LA and Social Studies since there are overlapping skill sets in the classes. Allow kids to move classes based on their areas of strength. Since many schoolshave 3 or more classrooms for each grade, you should be able to keep classes balanced in size and skill set. It would allow more kids to be challenged in their areas of strength. For even larger schools you would end up with 2 advanced classrooms for each of the areas.

The fluidity would be good for all kids and you wouldn’t have to worry about the cohort issues. You could also adjust the kids in each group annually so that kids who start to advance later in ES. It would also allow kids who were on the cusp and are struggling to be moved back into a group that works for them. You also remove the designation and hence the competitive aspect of LIV, that is ridiculous. LIII goes away, since there is Advanced LA, which allows the AART to do more with the LII type kids in K-2 and to provide support for the truly gifted kids who need more then Advanced Math or LA provides.

And you get rid of the Centers and busses and relieve over crowding at some of the Center schools. [/quote]

+100
I've been wishing they would do something like this for years.  
DP[/quote]

This was how my podunk ES did it in the 80's in of those open concept schools.  And by golly it worked.[/quote]

But this is tracking which is deemed Inequitable. There should be some sort of testing to determine who gets what but my suspicion is that it will be ignored. Fcps has already called out the low numbers of POC and low income in AAP and the goal is to even it out.  [/quote]

DP.  Isn't AAP simply tracking as well - but on a much greater scale?  In fact, sorting very young kids into two groups at age 7 is the very definition of tracking.  Flexible grouping would allow ALL children to progress at the pace that is right for them - moving up when ready, moving down when the work is too challenging.  AAP - and especially center schools - are blatant segregation.  [/quote]

Segregation and tracking are two different words.

And unfortunately, the state of Virginia requires a gifted program and this is how FCPS implements theirs.  So they have cover from your attack of tracking and segregation.  [/quote]

Except that it's not a "gifted" program and they very deliberately do not call it one.  And it is the very definition of segregation.[/quote]

FCPS is absolutely guilty of segregation, but that is accomplished by pyramid boundaries. I wouldn't fault AAP for that. If anything, AAP Centers are a temporary way out for capable kids that are stuck in hyper-segregated ES/MS zones. [/quote]

BS. Our Level IV center had equal numbers of kids in AAP and in gen ed. That's not gifted or more capable kids . . . it's separating kids out for very little reason, creating division and stereotyping, and is just unnecessary[/quote]

The reason is so that the low students can get the support they need without having to keep the higher kids “busy”.[/quote]

No, the higher performers are routinely paired with the lower ones for reading and group projects.[/quote]

No they're not, that is proven not to work and nobody does it, they send the high performers to AAP, obvs[/quote]

Not all high performers make it into AAP. [/quote]

+1
That's the truth.  I'm always amazed at the kids who blast to the top during HS, who were never in AAP.  [/quote]

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