Reply to How to improve AAP and General Ed Together

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FCAG has been posting about social issues in centers for years too. Here's an excerpt from 2006.

[b]Develop a framework for constructive, two-way communication to aid schools in promoting a positive climate in GT center schools.[/b] The framework would provide a menu of options to allow GT center schools to customize their own program to meet the individual needs of the school. The framework should also address barriers that might prevent positive communication, suggest possible solutions to overcome the challenges, and include models of partnerships that may be useful. 
[b]Schools that host GT centers often face challenges in managing the expectations and communications between parents, teachers, administrators and students in a respectful, mutually cooperative manner.[/b] Although all schools must manage issues of climate, their complexity can be heightened in schools with GT centers. [b]The administrators at GT center schools must address the often distinct needs of GT center and general education teachers and students as well as promote respectful interactions between center and non-center students.[/b] 
Respect in GT center schools needs to be intentionally built with committed leadership that seeks to improve communication between all parties. [b]Schools should integrate GT students[/b][b] and foster [/b]positive language choices and [b]opportunities for interaction between students without teasing or bullying[/b]. Schools can also integrate center populations through team building among teachers and increased awareness of the benefits of this team building among parents. 
It is suggested that a framework be formulated by consulting with a panel of principals, parents, and teachers from GT center schools that have successfully promoted integrated communities and positive climates. Based on these discussions, [b]a framework of recommendations for creating and fostering a positive school climate would be developed to help manage these diverse expectations[/b]. This may include improved communication, affirmation of advanced academic achievement, [b]stronger peer relationships between GT center and non GT center [/b]students, and others. Parent Teacher Associations may also serve as a bridge for better communication. 
[/quote]

Ha - I had to laugh at this line:  [b]"Schools should integrate GT students and foster positive language choices and opportunities for interaction between students without teasing or bullying." [/b] Nowadays, it's not the AAP kids who have to be "integrated" into the school - it's the Gen Ed kids. [b] AAP kids are the majority in many centers, for crying out loud.[/b][/quote]

This is true for our neighborhood school. It's a center and 3rd, 5th, & 6th grades each have 2 GE classes and 3 AAP classes (4th is 3 & 3). AAP is not the minority, GE is. [/quote]

Would you be happy if it were even? Or if Gen Ed was 3 classes and AAP were 2?  Would that solve everything?[/quote]

No, of course not. [b]I would rather have the option to send my GE child to a non-center school and avoid the issue entirely.[/b] Surely there's a spot left vacant somewhere due to someone else sending their AAP child to our school. Wouldn't it even out?[/quote]

I could have written the bolded, above.  My child's elementary school experience would have been so, so different- and exponentially better - if he had not had to attend a center school (it is our zoned base school).  We would have loved a "normal" neighborhood school.  Sadly, FCPS felt the need to turn our wonderful community school into a center, changing the entire dynamic.

I feel strongly that just as AAP kids are given a choice between their base school and a center, so too should Gen Ed kids be given a choice if they're zoned for a center school.  They should be able to choose the next closest school that is not a center, if that's what they and their parents prefer.  Why one group of kids is given this choice, but the other group is not is beyond me.[/quote]

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