Reply to FCPS Proposal to close down AAP Centers at Greenbriar West ES and Carson MS

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Reply to "FCPS Proposal to close down AAP Centers at Greenbriar West ES and Carson MS"

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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it's the beginning of the end of centers.  There are several board members who don't like them.  I could see them saying LLIV is the same and costs less.  [/quote]

It the same thing and does cost less.  It's a sensible solution that's been a long time coming.[/quote]

In some schools where there is critical mass, it is similar. [b]In other schools where is not critical mass, it is not.[/b] [/quote]

It used to be that this was true. Nowadays the AAP program has been expanded so much that the only difference between kids in that 85-95th %ile range who are in the program and those who aren't is that the former prepped better, appealed more and got expensive outside testing done. If you want to expand the program that much, fine, but you could just pull in those same kids from inside the school itself without resorting to expensive bussing and without overcrowding the center schools.[/quote]

Size of base school plays a role--our school is very small and often has only 2 classes per grade:   LLIV would turn into a "smart class" and a "dumb class" in each grade, not a good thing, IMO.  [/quote]

Well this is exactly how center schools play out.  My DC goes to one of the larger centers and while there are far more AAP classes (in fact, they outnumber the Gen Ed classes), there is the underlying - and false - assumption that the AAP classes are "smart" and Gen Ed "dumb".  In fact, center schools only magnify this insanity and further the false division of students.  It would be far less egregious if there was only one AAP class per grade, and the rest were all Gen Ed.  Kind of like real life.  [/quote]

In my son's case, he has two base school classmates that went with him to the Center.  One Center-eligible classmate chose to stay at the base school.  So he no longer goes to the Center school and has a Local Level IV class of four students?[/quote]

If there were four kids eligible for LLIV, then it would even easier for them to be integrated into a Gen Ed class and given differentiated work by the teacher.  These kids will not wither up and become comatose if they are in a mixed-level class.   :roll:[/quote]

My DC was bullied in a 2nd grade class, including repeatedly thrown down into the dirt on the playground.  So no, he did not wither up and become comatose, but I was not a fan of the school environment for him. [/quote]

What does that have to do with differentiated learning?  AAP/Gen Ed?[/quote]

I think that if my son were with more academic peers -- as in he had [b]more than one other kid[/b] that was at his academic level in his base school -- he might have been less isolated and subject to bullying.  He came home in tears so many times due to how poorly he was treated at recess.  In our case, he was thrilled to leave his base school to go to the Center as he escaped the tormenting.[/quote]

I'm sorry this happened to you, [b]but you need to realize that kids get bullied for a wide variety of reasons[/b]: because they're short, because they're tall, because they're bright and because they're not too bright, because they have disabilities...
The answer is to work to stop the bullying, not to say that these kids need to be protected by sending them to a different facility. I realize advanced students need to be able to work at their own level (my kids are in AAP) but bullying is not a good reason--and FWIW, one of my kids has been bullied because he's 2E, by kids both in AAP and in GenEd.[/quote]

Thank you, and yes, I do know and realize that kids get bullied for a wide variety of reasons. In my son's case, it doesn't help his cause by being the socially awkward, geeky kid that also is advanced academically, who is diagnosed ADHD with anxiety and has a 504 plan.  The counselor at his base school  wondered why things got "so bad" when my son wanted to walk home from recess after the first instance of bullying.

Now in third grade the counselor at his Center school has been an incredible resource to us (both my son and us as parents). She really gets him, and works with the teacher, the principal, the school psychologist and others on staff. The difference from one school to another is just incredible. I am thankful that it has improved so much.[/quote]

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