Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

The math moves faster for sure. We had a kid transfer from LLIV to the center after 3rd and they were behind the rest of the class--a number of concepts hadn't been covered. Center also has way more homework. Our LLIV program is a cluster model and the kids don't get LIV LA/science/SS every day. LIV LA is only twice a week and science/SS is only once. On off-days they get the gen ed curriculum. Center gets LIV material in every subject every day.

It looks like your situation is school specific. I have a kid at a LL4 and they have a class filled with Level 4 and 3 students. Math is at the same pace as my neighbor’s kid at the center. We have kids come back from the center every year. I think a lot comes down to the following: how Level 4 is structured, school community and teacher. We have been so impressed with our kid’s teachers at our LL4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

I was pretty concerned about this when I kept my kid at a local level IV school. But now she is at an AAP MS and doing really well. I've heard that center schools have more busy work/homework. The homework amount has been the only adjustment.

Not PP but we had experienced less work in the form of reading and writing for my youngest. Oldest went to the not-so-high poverty center but my youngest opted to stay with friends at higher poverty MS. The high poverty MS chose to eliminate novels as required reading. Homework was eliminated. If anything was assigned, there was time to do it in class. Kids were encouraged to write what they wanted just so they write SOMETHING. My youngest only received praise. No critical analysis essays on subjects they didn't know or topics requiring a bit of research. Also, the free study period was broken out differently at the center. The center had one class that met daily but was split with the study time so kids remained in their respective classes. High poverty MS had an entire 90 minute block where all grades were mixed in classes and spent most of the time talking about how to behave better.

Ah ok. My kid when from a local level IV ES to a center MS. I don’t know about regular MS schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our ES not ever teachers’ kids are in AAP, and several of PTO moms whom volunteered a lot didn’t get their kids into AAP.

At ours, they definitely did get into the APP Program. As well as all the leads in school musicals, solos in band, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence but who knows? (FWIW, my DC tried for none of those things -musical leads, for eg- so DC was not affected by that. Just telling you what I saw).

Your ES does school musicals? Damn

DP. Our center school does them but base does not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

The math moves faster for sure. We had a kid transfer from LLIV to the center after 3rd and they were behind the rest of the class--a number of concepts hadn't been covered. Center also has way more homework. Our LLIV program is a cluster model and the kids don't get LIV LA/science/SS every day. LIV LA is only twice a week and science/SS is only once. On off-days they get the gen ed curriculum. Center gets LIV material in every subject every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

I was pretty concerned about this when I kept my kid at a local level IV school. But now she is at an AAP MS and doing really well. I've heard that center schools have more busy work/homework. The homework amount has been the only adjustment.

Not PP but we had experienced less work in the form of reading and writing for my youngest. Oldest went to the not-so-high poverty center but my youngest opted to stay with friends at higher poverty MS. The high poverty MS chose to eliminate novels as required reading. Homework was eliminated. If anything was assigned, there was time to do it in class. Kids were encouraged to write what they wanted just so they write SOMETHING. My youngest only received praise. No critical analysis essays on subjects they didn't know or topics requiring a bit of research. Also, the free study period was broken out differently at the center. The center had one class that met daily but was split with the study time so kids remained in their respective classes. High poverty MS had an entire 90 minute block where all grades were mixed in classes and spent most of the time talking about how to behave better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

I was pretty concerned about this when I kept my kid at a local level IV school. But now she is at an AAP MS and doing really well. I've heard that center schools have more busy work/homework. The homework amount has been the only adjustment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our ES not ever teachers’ kids are in AAP, and several of PTO moms whom volunteered a lot didn’t get their kids into AAP.

At ours, they definitely did get into the APP Program. As well as all the leads in school musicals, solos in band, etc. I don't think it's a coincidence but who knows? (FWIW, my DC tried for none of those things -musical leads, for eg- so DC was not affected by that. Just telling you what I saw).

Your ES does school musicals? Damn

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

How so? Can you give specific examples?

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

We have one kid at the center and one in local level IV. The center is definitely more rigorous than our specific elementary. The situation may be different for others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^I am speaking from personal experience. It wasn’t an advanced class but a class only offered at the school virtually. It was a simple “Sorry, it’s filled.” They gave my kid two other completely unrelated options that would fit in his schedule. It’s about what fits in, not what you want at that point. We certainly weren’t demanding a class spot and bus transportation. Lesson learned, we are already researching other virtual options outside of FCPS for next year.

I firmly think they need to stop the transportation for AAP centers and one of mine went through AAP but stayed at the base school. There are so many other things to spend the money on.

No way they’re going to do this. It’s an equity issue. You’d basically be excluding all the kids whose parents don’t have the resources to drive them every day.

They are starting LIV at every ES so there will be no need for Centers. Kids will be able to participate at their schools. Larger ES will have LLIV classes, smaller schools that cannot fill an entire class will end up with the cluster model.

Centers are not the answer for equity issues. The MC and UMC families at Title 1 schools use the Centers to leave their Title 1 school. It doesn’t actually do much for the Low SES kids at the title 1 schools.

If they get rid of centers there obviously would be no need for bussing to centers. My point is that as long as centers continue to exist they will keep the bussing. Agree that they’re moving towards doing away with the center model.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^I am speaking from personal experience. It wasn’t an advanced class but a class only offered at the school virtually. It was a simple “Sorry, it’s filled.” They gave my kid two other completely unrelated options that would fit in his schedule. It’s about what fits in, not what you want at that point. We certainly weren’t demanding a class spot and bus transportation. Lesson learned, we are already researching other virtual options outside of FCPS for next year.

I firmly think they need to stop the transportation for AAP centers and one of mine went through AAP but stayed at the base school. There are so many other things to spend the money on.

No way they’re going to do this. It’s an equity issue. You’d basically be excluding all the kids whose parents don’t have the resources to drive them every day.

Okay. But there are centers that have every school with a Local Level 4. For example, every school that sends to Westbriar has a Local Level 4. Why should we be bussing kids when they can get a Level 4 class at their own school?

The argument is that the Center schools allow for more classrooms so that the kids can be mixed up every year, just like the Gen Ed classes are shuffled every year. It is better for socialization for kids to have a larger cohort of kids and gives room to keep kids who clash apart.

I think the solution is that you have Advanced Math and Advanced LA in every school. Maybe it is Advanced Math and Science and Advanced LA and Social Studies since there are overlapping skill sets in the classes. Allow kids to move classes based on their areas of strength. Since many schoolshave 3 or more classrooms for each grade, you should be able to keep classes balanced in size and skill set. It would allow more kids to be challenged in their areas of strength. For even larger schools you would end up with 2 advanced classrooms for each of the areas.

The fluidity would be good for all kids and you wouldn’t have to worry about the cohort issues. You could also adjust the kids in each group annually so that kids who start to advance later in ES. It would also allow kids who were on the cusp and are struggling to be moved back into a group that works for them. You also remove the designation and hence the competitive aspect of LIV, that is ridiculous. LIII goes away, since there is Advanced LA, which allows the AART to do more with the LII type kids in K-2 and to provide support for the truly gifted kids who need more then Advanced Math or LA provides.

And you get rid of the Centers and busses and relieve over crowding at some of the Center schools.

Anonymous wrote:True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

How so? My kid is at a Local Level 4 and our neighbor is at a center. I don’t see much of a difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^I am speaking from personal experience. It wasn’t an advanced class but a class only offered at the school virtually. It was a simple “Sorry, it’s filled.” They gave my kid two other completely unrelated options that would fit in his schedule. It’s about what fits in, not what you want at that point. We certainly weren’t demanding a class spot and bus transportation. Lesson learned, we are already researching other virtual options outside of FCPS for next year.

I firmly think they need to stop the transportation for AAP centers and one of mine went through AAP but stayed at the base school. There are so many other things to spend the money on.

No way they’re going to do this. It’s an equity issue. You’d basically be excluding all the kids whose parents don’t have the resources to drive them every day.

Okay. But there are centers that have every school with a Local Level 4. For example, every school that sends to Westbriar has a Local Level 4. Why should we be bussing kids when they can get a Level 4 class at their own school?

True to the above but I've found Local level to be watered down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^I am speaking from personal experience. It wasn’t an advanced class but a class only offered at the school virtually. It was a simple “Sorry, it’s filled.” They gave my kid two other completely unrelated options that would fit in his schedule. It’s about what fits in, not what you want at that point. We certainly weren’t demanding a class spot and bus transportation. Lesson learned, we are already researching other virtual options outside of FCPS for next year.

I firmly think they need to stop the transportation for AAP centers and one of mine went through AAP but stayed at the base school. There are so many other things to spend the money on.

No way they’re going to do this. It’s an equity issue. You’d basically be excluding all the kids whose parents don’t have the resources to drive them every day.

They are starting LIV at every ES so there will be no need for Centers. Kids will be able to participate at their schools. Larger ES will have LLIV classes, smaller schools that cannot fill an entire class will end up with the cluster model.

Centers are not the answer for equity issues. The MC and UMC families at Title 1 schools use the Centers to leave their Title 1 school. It doesn’t actually do much for the Low SES kids at the title 1 schools.