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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Why is one full classroom horrible?[/b]  I attended a large high school where we were put into ability level classrooms by subject, but we basically had the same 25 or so people in every single class for 4 years - we just were the high level kids, and that was that.

Frankly, MS (which started at 6th for us) was very much the same.  We saw the other kids in our homerooms and stuff like gym and home ec, but our academic subjects?  Yeah, same kids, all day for years.[/quote]

I don't think it's horrible at all, necessarily. But at the Center presentation, a lot of emphasis was placed on the benefits of having two AAP classrooms per grade level at the centers so that teachers could plan vertically and horizontally (as in within among the same grade level with their AAP partner teacher) and also how wonderful it was to be able to shift the kids around to mix personalities from one grade level to the next. I can see the benefit of that, of course. But when pushed on the "oh, do you have two classrooms in 3rd grade?" the principal conceded that no, they do not this past year. And may not next year if they don't hit that critical mass of over 30 students. So all those benefits were touted in an effort to sell parents on sending their kid there only applied if they actually got enough kids to split into two classrooms. They have that in the upper programs because there is no LLIV yet in those grades at the feeder schools. I'm sure it's a great Center, but that argument about the benefits of two classes per grade level doesn't hold up if you don't have the numbers to make it work.

So when considering the option of one "full" class of AAP kids at the center, which could be 24 kids,...(but also could be as high as 32 before they could split into two classes) vs. staying at the base neighborhood school with potentially 20-22 in math and 24 in language arts, it seemed to be a safer bet to stay put. When you put the apples under the microscope, it looked the same, with the added benefit of remaining with other non-AAP friends in a familiar environment and a school we already like.

Again, both schools seem like viable options, as I didn't see any big red flags with either situation, but the issue is that the schools/principals end up pulling out all the stops in an effort to compete for AAP students to make the core of their program workable. I think each is doing what they can to build a solid program, but they are put in a unenviable position of having to "convince" parents to "buy" their program as one would buy a used car! And it feeds the ugliest part of all of us. I just don't like it, and it's a predicament that FCPS should recognize and try to address, IMO.[/quote]

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