Reply to FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "FCPS's "Obvious Elephant in the Room" - Does the West Potomac Expansion Foster Intolerance?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is the point that the AAP situation justifies the addition to West Potomac? [/quote]

I think it does.

Take the WSHS and LBSS en4ollment as an example.

Irving did not have an AAP center.  Lake Braddock served all of the middle schools in that area, including Irving and Robinson.

6 years ago, Irving (still not a center) added a LLIV AAP class to its school.

Prior to that, the AAP kids would do everything they could to stay at Lake Braddock for high school, such as signing up for specific languages like Japanese that were only offered at LB, so they could stay at that school with all their friends, the only kids they went to school with since 3rd grade.  Some would transfer back to WS, but many would stay at LB, even if they were zoned for WS.

That original pilot class at Irving was fairly small, around 24 kids.  A good number of the kids who went to LB for AAP stayed there for high school.

The Irving program continued to grow. Last year it had 2 very full classes, and I suspect it will be up to 3 classes in the next year or two.

My neighbor has a rising 9th graders.  A majority of that kids AAP classmates chose Irving for middle school over AAP because of attending WSHS for high school.  It was the opposite when my oldest went to Irving 5 years ago.  Most of their peers chose LB, because they expected to be able to find ways to continue at LB for high school with their friends.

I have a rising 7th grader, and all of the kids we know who were at the 2 AAP centers in our area have chosen Irving over LB for 7th grade AAP.  One of the top 3 reasons given by their parents is that the kids want to go to the middle school that all their friends are going to so they can get to know kids they will be going to high school with.

The only 7th grade AAP kid i know who is zoned for WSHS and choosing Lake Braddock is the kid with older siblings already at LB, who are there on foreign language waivers.  But even that parent has waffled a bit, because all of her kids friends are choosing Irving over LB.

The friends matter so much at that age.

If the AAP kids are with this same group from 3rd through 8th, they are going to do everything they can to stay with those friends for high school.  And if the district allows them through back channels such as foreign language waivers, who can blame them.

FCPS needs to change that first, by making sure every pyramid has an AAP elementary and middle school feeder.

It won't fix the WestPo MV issue right away, but it will in 2 to 5 years, as a ever growing cohort of the advanced kids start to see MV as a viable option.

Look at the Irving to WS numbers.

[/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