Reply to What’s the big fuss about AAP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To address OPs point, I'd say that it just makes home life easier.  There are sooo many little problems that are lessened, or just disappear once you segregate out the majority of troublemakers from the class.  The teachers are on top of their curriculum, have more time for individual engagement with more children instead of the ones falling behind, and my child isn't being used as an indirect tutor to help the class progress.  My needs for home enrichment actually decreased as DC appears to be staying engaged in class and progressing, which wasn't happening in K-2nd.  Maybe it's my child's increased maturity (I doubt it), but there are less distractions and social implications to be worried about that makes for less anxiety and fights at home.

I'd say it's 100% not about the stated "advanced" nature, and the benefits are more intrinsic based on the peer group differences.  I recognize it's elitist, but it's working for us.[/quote]

+100 the peer group is miles above the gen ed peer group. I had one kid who got into AAP and one who didn’t. The one who didn’t unfortunately was influenced by the lack of academic rigor from gen Ed over the years - doesn’t want to/isn’t used to working hard, doesn’t know how to study for tests, doesn’t seem to care as much about school. Cares more about being popular. We notice that more of the gen Ed girls are all about clothes, make up and nails by 6th grade whereas the AAP girls are not.[/quote]

AAP 6th grade teacher here. My AAP girls are ALL about brand names!![/quote]
Next thing you'll tell us is how much you are into brands yourself. [/quote]

Kids are kids, some are into brands and some are into sports and some are into books and some are into math, that incudes AAP kids. There are AAP kids who are problems with regulation and there are well behaved kids in AAP. There are kids who are brand obsessed and kids who could careless in AAP. Too many people on this board want to portray AAP as this bastion of amazingly well behaved kids who are all young academics learning from each other when it is a classroom filled with a small number of gifted kids, a lot of advanced kids, and some kids who work really hard. It is probably more parental involvement that leads to kids being ahead and reasonably well behaved then anything else.

The AAP descriptions match the language immersion descriptions and there is not a selection committee for language immersion. You end up with fewer kids with serious, or even moderate, learning issues. Fewer kids with behavior issues. Mainly you end up with a classroom full of kids whose parents are involved and actively seleccting programs that they think will challenge their kid. [/quote]

This. Not all of the AAP kids are super studious. In my career, I have had studious, athletes, musicians, popular kids, etc. They are kids like everyone else. They say the same lingo and watch the same stupid YouTube videos.

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The point is that AAP does not have the bottom tier kids who are disrupting class with chair throwing, or taking up all the teacher's time because they can't do math from two grade levels ago. Even if there are a lot of average kids who don't exactly "deserve" to be there, not having that bottom tier makes the learning environment so much better. That's a big reason why people want AAP. It's also true in opt-in dual language programs, you're not going to have  parents of bottom tier kids signing up for that either because it's too demanding for the kids at the bottom.[/quote]

I would not use the phrase "bottom tier", I would use the phrase "struggling kids." The issue in the regular classroom is that there are too many groups at different levels and it is next to impossible for teachers to differentiate. There are kids who are grade levels behind, kids struggling but on grade level, kids on grade level, kids who are a bit ahead, and kids who are far ahead. Then there are the gradations inbetween. Teachers cannot effectively plan lessons that engage all of the kids at the different levels.

The schools have not done anyone a favor by leaning as fully into full inclusion as they have. Kids who are struggling are more likely to act out and disrupt the class. They are frustrated in the classroom and are young so struggle to understand their emotions or have an appropriate method for dealing with those emotions. So now we are asking teachers to differentiate between 5-8 groups in their class and help kids who are frustrated, struggling and might not have a lot of support at home learn to deal with those emotions while trying to get them to grade level. It is a recipe for disaster.

Programs like AAP and language immersion give parents a classroom environment where there are fewer groups to teach and students with more support at home. There are still kids who are not well regulated, my kids class had one kid who threw up whenever stressed. There is a LI class that had the classroom evacuated at least twice because one of the students was out of control, but it is better than the stories we have heard from friends who had kids in the regular classroom, and we are at a MC/UMC school. Our base school was a LI school, I promise you that every class had a few kids that needed lots of support. The school did encourage parents to move their kids into the gen ed class, but a decent number of parents saw through that and kept their kids in LI, some because they were moving from a poorly performing school to LI and some because they knew their kid's behavior would be even worse in the regular classroom.

The reality is, AAP and LI are programs that parents use to try and increase the chance of their kid being in a classroom with fewer behavior issues, more kids on grade level, and a better opportunity to learn. Until the pendulum swings back towards allowing classes that are more grouped based on ability, and we see an increase in classes that address kids with serious emotional issues, people are going to continue to press for AAP and choose LI. 
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