Reply to How to improve AAP and General Ed Together

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "How to improve AAP and General Ed Together"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, let's add an item to get parents out of their bubbles and intermingle more.[b]  My kids are not at a base or center[/b], but I suspect that there may not be many parent meetings or events that are integrated.  There are people on both sides with their heads in the sand.  [/quote]

Every fcps elememtary and middle school is either a base or a center.

So your kids do not attend fcps?

Then you are not aware of how this program works, and also not aware [b]that this anti aap angst and fixation represents a very small part of the county and not the schools or provram as a whole.[/b]

Most places just do not fixate on AAP the way the dcum crowd does.[/quote]

OMG, you must be joking.  How would you know anything about AAP "angst" if your kids are in the program?  It's those of us whose kids are NOT in the program who are pointing out what the reality actually is.  And it is absolutely not limited to a "very small part of the county" or just DCUM.  [/quote]

I have three kids.

One who went through the center.

One who is an average bright kid with some struggles.

One who did not qualify for AAP level IV in 2nd, retested in an upper grade and qualified Level IV, and decided to stay at the base school with friends and receive level 3 pull outs. She will do the middle school LLIV program next year.

I look at it from the parent perspective of all three types of students represented here.  I think AAP as currently structured is a very good program that does its best to provide enrichment and challenges for as many students as possible. I think the screening process, with minor exceptions, works exceptionally well.  I think the teachers in both AAP and gen ed are strong, motivated, dedicated professionals wh work very hard to challenge all of their students and are not trying to either shortchange/call it in for the gen ed kids or run away from "those terrible" AAP kids.

I think there are zoning issues that can be fixed in those crazy for TJ areas and I think in all but the lowest performing pyramids every middle school should have an AAP level IV program, with middle school centers limited to poorly performing areas.  I think the opposite should occur with elementary schools: mostly centers except for the TJ crazy areas. Those limited zones should have AAP level IV at every elementary.

As a parent of two kids not currently in AAP, I think that a lot of you are so ego damaged about your kids not being accepted into AAP that you are blind to the facts and quite frankly, having a long, drawn out, public virtual temper tantrum.

Most of the elementary schools in fcps are exceptional, as are most of the teachers, gen ed or AAP (well, except for the one stealing beer with her boyfriend student)

My youngest who is an averagely bright student by fcps has always struggled a bit at school. This year, most of his close friend group ended up at the center, which mad him a little sad.

Guess what? He is having the best school year ever. He is confident, understanding things, and not struggling or cyring.  I asked him why he thinks this year is going so well for him.

His answer? "I don't know why but this year I feel like I am one of the smart kids. Last year all my friends were reading bigger bookds that I couldn't understand and always got their work done before me. I thought I was a dummie. But this year I am smarter."

My kid's ability did not change. His cohort did. And having those kids who work quickly and/or grade levels ahead move to the center was the best thing for my kid, and I suspect many others.

Before my youngest went through this transition I was an advocate for AAP because of the benefits for kids like my oldest. Now seeing the confidence in my youngest from having those other kids move off to the center, I am an even stronger advocate for AAP oevel IV because of the benefits for kids like my youngest who is now starting to build confidence in his abilities as a student.

I have no doubts that with this confidence along with the time to work at his pace and the chance to sometimes be a leader in the classroom will help to give him the skills that he needs to be successful in school and perhaps even catch up to many of his friends who went to center by the time he reaches middle or high school.

That "catching up" or even passing happens often. THAT shows that the way AAP is structured does indeed work.  Meeting kids where they are at NOW and letting them work at a pace that works for them, so they can build a strong foundation to be ready for challenges in high school.  Different paths. Different journeys. More or less the same destination.

[/quote]

I don't have this experience but I believe What you say to be the case generally.  I'm not advocating that my kids must be in AAP.  The issue in our Title I school is what I'll call capping at L3.  I'm not saying that these kids are necessarily L4 qualified, but they don't get the same enrichment.  The AART deals a lot with parents trying to get kids out of the school (not a knock on them, but it is time consuming), so L3 has once a month pullouts.  And there are a lot of people trying to address the needs of ESOL kids and kids are struggling.  Comparatively speaking within the school, the kids who are done with their class work and homework have small problems.  Teachers expect these kids to keep themselves busy.  I don't think this happens as much at other L3 schools.  Weekly pullouts?  Not at our school.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics