Reply to Those of you asking for differentiation in ES have unrealistic expectations

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=pettifogger][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went to an excellent public school system in New England, and we had no differentiation or G&T in elementary school. Honors classes (for a couple of subjects) started in middle school (7th grade), with expanded honors/AP options in high school. I graduated in 2002.

However, the parent population was pretty well educated and kept tabs on their kids. Not many behavioral issues or disruptions to distract the teachers. And class sizes were ~22 kids. Everyone was taught the same lesson though. I felt I received a good education (later went to HYP for undergrad)[/quote]

I completely agree. I think AAP is ridiculous and over utilized. I have a good friend who is an AAP teacher and she put it this way, which I agree with: an AAP/GT program is not for the truly advanced when half of the grade level is in that program. Then it's just to brag that "my kid is advanced." Most are not, and that's in her experience in a highly rated AAP center school. There are so many ways to press your way into AAP, at this point. I know people who've done it.

My kid did not do AAP. DC was not selected for advanced math in ES (but should have been, but I didn't complain). DC is in 8th. All honors 7th and 8th. Straight A's. [b]And our principal says that the kids taking all honors are taking the same curriculum as AAP kids. So DC is successfully doing AAP work.[/b]

I have no gripe with my kid not doing AAP in ES as DC didn't want to do it. I didn't care to push hard. DC was succeeding. [b]And now exceeding most of DC's peers. Hopefully that will continue, but who knows?[/b]

I believe ES AAP is not necessary based on our experience and my interactions / knowledge with AAP at our ES. It's a waste of resources. It should be eliminated.[/quote]

Irrespective of AAP or not, I would urge you to consider checking in detail what your child actually knows vs their gaps. Per your bolded statements it seems that you overly trust what school admins are saying. Doing well in middle school classes does not necessarily translate into doing well high school classes, as there are so many kids who get A's in middle school and end up struggling in high school.

There are so many more factors you need to consider; i.e is the teacher appropriately challenging the kids vs giving them easy assignments, is your kid actually working hard and getting A's or just coasting, is the school and teacher known for academic excellence or just average... etc, etc. The only way to find out all this is to investigate, as well as check your kid's understanding. Peruse the homeworks; is there critical thinking going on, or just basic memorization? Can your kid think independently and do they have some amount of problem solving skills? What do some of the tests they took look like? Are they very basic, or does earning an A on them involve being able to do more than that? Give them logic questions, or some easy math contest questions, or even some SAT type questions... can they figure it out? Or do they quit almost immediately saying something like "we weren't taught that" ? If the latter, and if it's something you believe they should know how to figure it out, then that should raise a red flag with you. These type of things will let you directly glimpse into how they are thinking and approaching problems. To be successful in high school, an 8th grader should be able to display a reasonable degree of problem solving and willingness to figure out something that they don't initially know how to do.

I'm not just saying this; I've tutored many high schoolers in math who were really struggling despite having been good students in middle school, and even having good grades in general in high school. Parents are always shocked and don't know what happened. I work with their kid and pretty quickly by far the most common patterns are a combination of: 1) They don't really understand basic fundamentals, i.e manipulating fractions, or basic algebraic skills, or 2) They cannot think beyond the examples the teacher gave in class; if a problem is even a little different they just shut down, which signifies a lack of any kind of problem solving ability.[/quote]

Agree (I'm the person you're responding to). That's why I said "hopefully it will continue." I'm well aware that HS is more difficult. But, that doesn't really change that DC is excelling and had no benefit from AAP in ES. Or are you saying only if they were AAP they'll do well in HS? That, I would take issue with.

My child also has a math enrichment tutor precisely b/c it is a HS level class and I was concerned the online would be an issue. I've listened to the class recordings and, by and large, DC's teachers are doing an outstanding job. My one concern is English. But, I've had concerns about how FCPS teaches that for the entirety of my child's time in school. [/quote]

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