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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Aren't you all tired of beating this drum about getting rid of AAP/AAP centers? In every post possible these people run over  to dump on the program. Well guess what, even if they scrapped AAP and did flexible groups based on ability instead, the kids would still be able to tell who is in the "smart" group and who isn't and comment on it.

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I don't agree.  Flexible groups could be moved in/out of over time and kids could be grouped differently for different subjects.  Homerooms/ specials would be a complete mix.  The fully segregated class system that FCPS has implemented, based on completely subjective measures of 7 year olds does more harm than good.  The parents of the 50% of kids who get in don't complain and the other 50% of parents are completely dismissed as bitter.  So it persists.  But that doesn't make it a good way to educate, even if it helps a lot of kids/ parents feel superior.
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+1000
Flexible groupings are absolutely the solution.  No one would be permanently labeled anything - kids would cycle into and out of groups as appropriate.  It's really unbelievable to me that AAP has persisted as long as it had.  Whatever happened to the very small, very selective GT program along with flexible groupings for everyone else?[/quote]

Have you set foot in an FCPS elementary classroom? 1) 50% of students are not in AAP 2) there’s absolutely no way teachers are going to successfully implement differentiated teaching and identify students to regularly cycle through flexible groupings in class sizes of 28+. In theory, sure, sounds great. In practice, never going to happen. My kid couldn’t even get a math worksheet with higher level content she was begging her teacher for. “I’m sorry, I have nothing more to give you” is what she was told. Flexible groupings. lol. [/quote]

Good grief.  How many times must this be repeated to you?  [u]Flexible grouping does NOT mean multiple groups in one classroom.[/u]  It means each teacher takes a group for all four core classes.  So Mrs. X has advanced language arts, Mrs. Y has grade-level, and Mr. Z has remedial.  Then the teachers have different groups for math, science, and social studies.  The kids switch for each subject anyway.  The kids can cycle into and out of these groups as they improve/need more help.  No one is locked into any group or label.  And each teacher only has one level to worry about.[/quote]

I think what they are saying is even with that set up it can vary.

Example:

80 kids in the grade. 3 teachers.

20 kids are above grade level. 
20 are on
40 are below.

You only have three teachers. You can’t have a class of 40 kids. [/quote]

I think teachers are smart enough to make this work.  Each teacher does the lesson planning for their base level.  Doing 2 levels in one classroom isn't usually that hard.  It's the planning that takes up the most time.  So higher "on level" kids would go to the above grade level class.  Kids who are near "On level" could go to the middle class and you would still have a "below" class.  Then border line kids who would potentially be shifting wouldn't overburden one class.  It worked in the 80's and it can work now.[/quote]
Sure. back when many schools in FCPS had a smaller special education population, very few ESOL, and a FARMs rate of below 10% across the county. [/quote]

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