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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]i feel it's so crazy that all of this is behind a veiled curtain - like, we get it, it's the whole child you're looking at, but there are definitely "cut-offs" they have determined.

and if a teacher was new or didn't know what papers to assign and collect/ What if a teacher was overwhelmed by personal circumstances and was not really invested in the kids. What if a teacher had a predetermined notion that one race is more gifted than another. There is too much weight on what the teacher says.

This whole program is ass-backwards. It should open up the floodgates and all students should be allowed - no, encouraged to have higher level thinking and challenges. as they grow, we see which kids thrive and which kids need more support and then support them so that they can succeed. This whole thing of pitting kids against each other and having parents prep and train their kids is asinine. I found out after taking my kid to take his WISC that the other parents prepped and found tests online and practiced with their kid. I asked the GMU people if there was anything i needed to do (after learning parents prepped their kids for COGAT) and she said no, there was no way to prep, it was a one-on-one evaluation that they would either know or wouldn't... clearly that was not 100% true. [/quote]

Or maybe your kid is getting their needs met and will do fine in the gen ed classroom. You sound like a conspiracy theorist; not a good look. [/quote]

Where is the conspiracy? my child told me he was bored. my neighbors and colleagues told me they prepped their kids. what is the conspiracy?

i taught him at home for the past 2 years through COVID. I know where he is. my daughter got into level IV with less, but higher GBRS - her teacher advocated for her. My sons did not and told me at the beginning of the year that he was struggling and i asked what she was talking about because i had received no work at home indicating that he was struggling. neither did she - it was just her "feeling", yet all of his work was complete and correct.

And just so you know, I've been in education for 25 years here in FCPS, Alexandria and Arlington. You bet your butt that some of these teachers treat different races differently, You're kidding yourself if you don't think that's the truth. I have sat in meeting after CT meeting, after administrative meeting where it was obvious what the teachers were saying without saying it (and some flat out did). I'm Caucasian and I'm seriously offended by comments made by my colleagues. I have reported them, but have learned to just keep quiet because you get in more trouble repeating the racists than the racists do making their comments. My child's needs may be met at the school, but he is not being challenged.

"advanced" curriculum should be open to all elementary students - just like honors is in middle school "open enrollment". why do we limit their growth and education in elementary only to open the floodgates in middle school?

additionally, i'm not worried what the "look" is. I'll advocate for my children no matter what. You can worry about what people think of you on an online forum.
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Honors open enrollment is not great because you have kids below grade level who decide to take it and struggle and then content gets watered down.[/quote]

yes, i can see that argument, but that's what is happening in the regular classrooms as well. that is what the administration at our kids' schools told us. "due to the covid pandemic, many students lost or were not able to stay on track and now, we have to catch them up". meanwhile, kids who did succeed in covid, are left to the side. it's the whole closing the gap, but they bring the top down instead of bringing the bottom up. [/quote]

As a teacher, I truly think there are not enough ESOL/Sped support in ES. ES parents don’t realize but secondary schools have specialized subject classes for ESOL students. So Level 1-2 ESOL students are in special classes for core subjects. Sped kids are in team taught or self contained. At our ES the ESOL is lucky to meet with kids for 20 mins a day cause they have multiple grade levels. SPED is a scheduling nightmare. If the county focused on getting the resources to these kids at a younger age, perhaps Gen Ed could be more challenging. [/quote]

Parent here (not a teacher, but have teachers in my family) -- this is it right here (note above). We're expecting teachers to teach ESOL, SPED, on grade and above grade level every day.  We're asking them to meet everyone's needs in one classroom and that is nearly impossible. But... the kids above grade level are left unchallenged because they will take care of themselves.  I'm not blaming the teacher. It's survival mode.  I'm at a center school with three assistant principals, but no reading specialist, nor math specialist.  And the hate on this page for programs like AAP is wild. [b] We should meet the needs of all students, and that should include expanding AAP.  Kids with perfect (or near perfect) GBRS scores and 99% on the exams shouldn't be left out.[/b] [/quote]

I'll take it a step further.  Considering that prepping can only get a kid so far on these tests, I think any kid with 99th percentile CogAT composite or 99th percentile WISC FSIQ should automatically get in.  Really, there should be a scale that interpolates the range from 90th percentile CogAT or WISC + perfect GBRS through a 99th percentile CogAT or WISC + minimum GBRS, and any kid above that line is in.  Period.  Then, kids below the line could apply with a portfolio review and teacher recommendations to see whether they holistically get in, too.  It would streamline the process and stop excluding kids who clearly need to be in a program serving the top 20%.  [/quote]

+1 They seem to be against this though. [/quote]

+2 This is what I'm saying - give us clear parameters as a starting point. That way, if our kid isn't at that level, at least we know where we stand. 3 years (maybe 2) years ago, a 132 on any one piece of the cogat got you in the pool. For me that was valuable information because that told me that was the range that indicated it was within an acceptable range. I dunno though, maybe in the end, it is what's best. Who knows. I just wish there was more clarity and transparency, that's all.[/quote]

I think the FCPS is too big and too diverse to apply uniform/automatic AAP admissions criteria across all schools. Whether we like it or not, the fact of the matter is that while the concept of uniform or automatic criteria makes logical sense, it would immediately produce lopsided results. Some centers would be severely overcrowded; other centers would be under-enrolled.

I'm not a fan of the current system, but I think it's the least imperfect system available to a division as large as FCPS.[/quote]

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