Reply to AAPAC report to Fairfax County School Board

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "AAPAC report to Fairfax County School Board"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NNAT and CogAt supposedly get at a different type/level of thinking than the SOLs. There's a big difference between a high achieving student and a gifted learner. So maybe honors in ES might work. The problem is that it's not good for the lower achieving students to be grouped with only lower achieving students.

Of course theire are children with SN at all levels. What I was saying is that in the education field "tracking" is a bad word. [/quote]

Probably the best system depends on the goal. Is the goal to bring all students up to a certain level, so that mixing lower-achieving and higher-achieving students would be desirable even if the higher-achieving are "held back" while helping to pull the lower-achieving ahead? Or is the goal to provide special enrichment for the very highest achievers and fastest learners so that they may reach their fullest potential and make future contributions in medicine, literature, energy-efficiency, world peace? It seems that our current system (select few in AAP and mixed group in gen ed) is an attempt to strike a balance in an imperfect world.[b] The high achievers in gen ed are there not because they could not do more but because they are needed to help the slower learners not fall farther behind.[/b] These gen ed high achievers were not chosen to run ahead the fastest, but they are playing an essential role in leading and teaching others. I am not saying that I advocate this system but see how we have ended up at this point, given a combination of goals and beliefs.[/quote]

[b]That's fine, but then why are students of similar or even in some cases lesser ability in AAP?  [/b] This is where the program has gone most off the rails, imo.   My feelings of dismay at the continued inequities are tempered by the fact that I don't believe grade school is that important and smart kids will catch up -- just as they did with early readers, Kumon artists, etc. But I'd much rather FCPS reserve the "gifted" designation and special treatment for those who actually are. [/quote]

Wherever you draw the line, some will think that certain kids should have been on the other side of that line. Unfortunately there is no foolproof litmus test where if it turns red it's in and if it turns blue it's out. Judgment calls will always need to be made, the reason for six people reviewing each file and considering a range of factors. Can you suggest a foolproof in or out criteria that everyone would agree with? I believe that FCPS uses the same gifted criteria as the rest of the nation, trying for IQ at or above 132. At least that was the benchmark on the NNAT. In years past CogAT cutoff was also 132, until the CogAT started being gamed. So generally you need to be at around the 98th percentile for the nation. In our highly educated area, 10-15% of children may meet that 98th percentile national criteria. WISC IV FSIQ percentile may be lower, brought down by WMI and PSI, but the biggies VCI and/or PRI still need to be in the range. In other states children of similar aptitude are receiving gifted services. [/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