Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here we go again, why come on this forum if your child is not in AAP and you don't have a basic understanding of the need for the program?! "Different" is not special or better. It's just appropriate education for each and every public school child as suits their needs. We should all be happy to be in a school system that seeks to provide appropriate challenge & education for every child.

OP, to answer your question, FCPS allows teachers 5 years to obtain the additional training for AAP education. Since many teachers move in and out of AAP classrooms, the number of teachers with long-time AAP experience and/or certification is very low & seems to me to be decreasing (I say this as FCPS of many years). As previous posters said, quality varies just as with GE classroom teachers.

I understand the "need" for the program for a minority in it; the "want" for the program by the majority. Different, increasingly does mean better for children who are no more "advanced" or "smarter" than many kids in GE. I think that's what rankles.

btw, I had a child in GT and continue to be involved with his school, so I am very aware of the program and the course of its evolution. if AAP was still a program for kids who really "needed" it, I don't think most people would care.

APPLAUSE. This is what parents at my child's school and I have been saying for the last couple of years. AAP has really become not only somewhat of a joke, but also a sham program that labels and segregates similar groups of kids. For no real reason. When it was GT, and most kids remained in Gen Ed, there wasn't this divisiveness you see now.

Anonymous wrote:Here we go again, why come on this forum if your child is not in AAP and you don't have a basic understanding of the need for the program?! "Different" is not special or better. It's just appropriate education for each and every public school child as suits their needs. We should all be happy to be in a school system that seeks to provide appropriate challenge & education for every child.

OP, to answer your question, FCPS allows teachers 5 years to obtain the additional training for AAP education. Since many teachers move in and out of AAP classrooms, the number of teachers with long-time AAP experience and/or certification is very low & seems to me to be decreasing (I say this as FCPS of many years). As previous posters said, quality varies just as with GE classroom teachers.

I understand the "need" for the program for a minority in it; the "want" for the program by the majority. Different, increasingly does mean better for children who are no more "advanced" or "smarter" than many kids in GE. I think that's what rankles.

btw, I had a child in GT and continue to be involved with his school, so I am very aware of the program and the course of its evolution. if AAP was still a program for kids who really "needed" it, I don't think most people would care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids have had many first-year and not-yet-certified teachers in the AAP centers over the years. Just like anywhere else, teachers vary from crap to mediocre to superb. People shouldn't think the kids in the AAP centers are getting better teachers. For the most part, they're not.

This was our experience as well.

Our experience as well, although AAP teachers are far better working with our 2E DS.

Here we go again, why come on this forum if your child is not in AAP and you don't have a basic understanding of the need for the program?! "Different" is not special or better. It's just appropriate education for each and every public school child as suits their needs. We should all be happy to be in a school system that seeks to provide appropriate challenge & education for every child.

OP, to answer your question, FCPS allows teachers 5 years to obtain the additional training for AAP education. Since many teachers move in and out of AAP classrooms, the number of teachers with long-time AAP experience and/or certification is very low & seems to me to be decreasing (I say this as FCPS of many years). As previous posters said, quality varies just as with GE classroom teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Boy, I can't wait till they get rid of AAP, or it collapses on itself. Good and bad teachers exist at every kind of school. Better to teach your kid how to get the most out of class, even with a less than perfect teacher. So many more important things to worry about.

+100
Really tired of special this and special that (teachers, endorsements, center schools) for the AAP crowd. No one seems to remember this is public school.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids have had many first-year and not-yet-certified teachers in the AAP centers over the years. Just like anywhere else, teachers vary from crap to mediocre to superb. People shouldn't think the kids in the AAP centers are getting better teachers. For the most part, they're not.

This was our experience as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boy, I can't wait till they get rid of AAP, or it collapses on itself. Good and bad teachers exist at every kind of school. Better to teach your kid how to get the most out of class, even with a less than perfect teacher. So many more important things to worry about.

I don't share pp's hope that AAP collapses on itself, but I have to agree that there are good and bad teachers at all point of schooling. The AAP program does now guarantee an extraordinary teaching staff from beginning to end.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Boy, I can't wait till they get rid of AAP, or it collapses on itself. Good and bad teachers exist at every kind of school. Better to teach your kid how to get the most out of class, even with a less than perfect teacher. So many more important things to worry about.

I don't share pp's hope that AAP collapses on itself, but I have to agree that there are good and bad teachers at all point of schooling. The AAP program does now guarantee an extraordinary teaching staff from beginning to end.

Our kids have had many first-year and not-yet-certified teachers in the AAP centers over the years. Just like anywhere else, teachers vary from crap to mediocre to superb. People shouldn't think the kids in the AAP centers are getting better teachers. For the most part, they're not.

Boy, I can't wait till they get rid of AAP, or it collapses on itself. Good and bad teachers exist at every kind of school. Better to teach your kid how to get the most out of class, even with a less than perfect teacher. So many more important things to worry about.

Anonymous wrote:

It's our first year in the program, and we are not thrilled with the teacher so far. I found out that he is not certified, which I know is not required, but I wonder how frequent this will be.

If you have had kids in the program for a while now, overall, how have you found the quality of the teachers?

Certified as what? He must be a certified teacher if he is teaching in a VA public school. Do you mean additional training for gifted instruction?

Yes, there is an additional endorsement/certification for teaching advanced or gifted children.

We had one kid in AAP and one who was not.
Overall, I thought the GenEd teachers were better--more experienced in strategies to help different types of students, as well as more patient. I found some of the AAP teachers to be high-strung.
However, the project work in AAP was more thoughtful and in-depth than GenEd.

It's our first year in the program, and we are not thrilled with the teacher so far. I found out that he is not certified, which I know is not required, but I wonder how frequent this will be.

If you have had kids in the program for a while now, overall, how have you found the quality of the teachers?

Certified as what? He must be a certified teacher if he is teaching in a VA public school. Do you mean additional training for gifted instruction?

Like any other classroom, the teachers run the spectrum from exceptional to meh. AAP is no different.

Overall we have been pleased with the teachers our kid had. The fourth and sixth grade teachers were exceptional. Those years were amazing learning experiences.

Fifth grade? Hit and miss.

With all of the teachers, the common thread was that they dealt very well with the "quirky" and 2E type kids. I don't know how that played out with the bright, pleaser, compliant, "good student" type kids.

It's our first year in the program, and we are not thrilled with the teacher so far. I found out that he is not certified, which I know is not required, but I wonder how frequent this will be.

If you have had kids in the program for a while now, overall, how have you found the quality of the teachers?

Thanks.