Reply to Are you in AAP?

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Are you in AAP?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Putting kids in separate AAP classrooms, as is done at center schools, does no one any good.  [/Quote]

P!ease do not speak for my kids, who benefitted greatly from attending AAP Center classes where teachers and staff partnered to identify, document, and implement the necessary supports for my children with LDs. We tried the Local Level IV option at our base school and it was a failure. At the recommendation of our kids' doctors, we switched them to the Center program, where both kids were successful.

Maybe the Center did not work well for your kids. However, your kids do not represent the needs of all kids.[/quote]

NP here.  It is good your child's needs were met.  I know a couple of other brilliant children with disabilities who were served very well by AAP.  That said, I think they would be even better served if AAP was still an actual gifted program.  As PPs have noted, too many kids of similar abilities arbitrarily consigned to in GE, too many prepped and parentally pushed children getting a better education than their intellectual peers simply because mom and dad know how to work the system.  Too many gifted SES kids dropping through the cracks, while well-heeled parents brag that their non-gifted child still needs AAP.  Too much entitlement, not enough equity.  The current method for separating kids into AAP and GE is a scam.    [/quote]

There is no scam, myth, or conspiracy with AAP.  It is actually a very transparent, thorough, and fair screening system.  I guarantee you, if parent referral or appeals options were taken away, parents would complain that the system is terrible because it is all based on test scores and one score on one day (or 2 NNAT and CoGAT) does not give a complete picture - and DCUM would be full of these complainers.  Likewise, if the the required test scores were raised, parents of children who just missed the benchmark would complain that their children are NO DIFFERENT than the kids who made the benchmark.  If Centers were eliminated, parents would complain about preferential treatment for Local level IV students in their school.  FCPS tries to be as inclusive as possible and we live in a highly educated area.

The 'stress' really is parent driven.  AAP is not that big of a deal.  I tell my kids - yeah, you do well with an accelerated academic curriculum, good for you, big deal.  There are kids in Gen Ed and/or AAP that can speak 3 languages, or are brilliantly artistic or are incredible athletes. The fact that you are academically gifted is great and all, but success is more determined by a positive attitude, a spirit of gratitude, hard work, determination and the way in which you approach challenges. No way do my kids think they are superior for being in AAP.  And if they were in Gen Ed, I would be saying the exact same thing! [/quote]

It would be great if more AAP parents were like you.[/quote]

It's nice that you don't make a big deal about AAP for your kids.   But throwing your hands up and saying we can't change AAP or make the standards higher because people would complain is a cop-out acceptable only to folks comfortable with the inequitable status quo.  A program that was designed to meet the needs of "gifted" kids has been turned into something that primarily rewards high SES households where parents have the means to enrich their kids.  That's not what I'm paying taxes for and I'd wager plenty of other FFX residents feel the same way.  A public system needs to meet the needs of all kids and not the better prepared more than others.  If FCPS is going to segregate kids by academic potential they need to find a better way to do it.  [/quote]

Be careful what you wish for. Know where there is no GT program? DC. That's working out realllll well for everyone. [/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