Anonymous wrote:That sounds like good idea, but parents would work to put their kids in these honors classes when they have no business being in them. It can be very mentally demoralizing being in a class with students that need no to little instruction/teaching of many or all subjects. We are constantly getting emails about teen and student depression and stress here. There is more to life than academic honors classes at 9 years old and also at 17 yrs old. Having a successful life also means creating more memories as a child than academics. My child is in AAP- she has no tutor and never has had a tutor. A mother the other day could not wrap her head around how my kid has never had a tutor. She said our kids teacher never taught them math this past school year and after spending hours nightly, they went back to a tutor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Class sizes should be inversely proportional to the "level"--say, 40 to 50 kids in AAP, 25-30 in Gen Ed, and no more than fifteen or lower as necessary for kids requiring remedial help.

Umm, no way. TRUE AAP requires significant differentiation and an understanding that gifted children learn differently than typical children. They often have MORE needs than gen ed students, so their classes should absolutely not be larger than gen ed classes.

"True" AAP left the building years ago. The bulk of the kids in AAP these days are no more gifted than my dog is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Class sizes should be inversely proportional to the "level"--say, 40 to 50 kids in AAP, 25-30 in Gen Ed, and no more than fifteen or lower as necessary for kids requiring remedial help.

Umm, no way. TRUE AAP requires significant differentiation and an understanding that gifted children learn differently than typical children. They often have MORE needs than gen ed students, so their classes should absolutely not be larger than gen ed classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors is open to all - it is in middle school. No math testing is needed in middle school, and it should be the same in elementary school.

VA should be more like NY. Regents and non-regents. One is harder material for those going to college. The other is more business focused for house going into technical training or non-college related fields of work.

GE is basically a wash for any high-achieving child. Any parent who has a hard-working child with smarts is going to push for AAP.

I had one child in AAP. Our second child is very bright and hard-working, but wasn't in-pool. We didn't push for AAP for this child because the whole system seems completely blown out of proportion - too many pushy parents, kids who think they're superior just because they got into AAP, and a whole lot of busy work. It would be great if Gen Ed was a more challenging curriculum, but after having one child go through AAP, we realized the AAP curriculum isn't what we had in mind (project after project isn't our idea of an "advanced curriculum"). We just decided to do a lot of supplementing at home and it's been working out great. In fact, I'd say this child has gotten a better, more focused education than the one who was in AAP.

Anonymous wrote:
Class sizes should be inversely proportional to the "level"--say, 40 to 50 kids in AAP, 25-30 in Gen Ed, and no more than fifteen or lower as necessary for kids requiring remedial help.

Anonymous wrote:For the PP who lives in a center school, were you attracted to living in that school boundary because of the high Great Schools score or high test scores? If so, those scores are mostly because of the center. Centers are a double edged sword.

I'm not saying that's why you chose that school but I will see that in my DC'a center school, many base school parents brag about the great schoola score or how many kids pass advanced, yet they resent the center.

I get your point, though. I have aGE kid in a school with LLIV so I understand the issues.

Anonymous wrote:GE is still a college prep diploma. No reason not to go to college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors is open to all - it is in middle school. No math testing is needed in middle school, and it should be the same in elementary school.

VA should be more like NY. Regents and non-regents. One is harder material for those going to college. The other is more business focused for house going into technical training or non-college related fields of work.

GE is basically a wash for any high-achieving child. Any parent who has a hard-working child with smarts is going to push for AAP.

I had one child in AAP. Our second child is very bright and hard-working, but wasn't in-pool. We didn't push for AAP for this child because the whole system seems completely blown out of proportion - too many pushy parents, kids who think they're superior just because they got into AAP, and a whole lot of busy work. It would be great if Gen Ed was a more challenging curriculum, but after having one child go through AAP, we realized the AAP curriculum isn't what we had in mind (project after project isn't our idea of an "advanced curriculum"). We just decided to do a lot of supplementing at home and it's been working out great. In fact, I'd say this child has gotten a better, more focused education than the one who was in AAP.

My kid just finished with AAP, third through eighth grades. Maybe it was because he qualified for the program seven years back, but at that time there was no discussion among parents of who was or wasn't in the pool, no agonizing over GBRS or all these other alphabet soup tests, no attempts (that I ever heard from any parent) to re-test kids or appeal and appeal to get them into the pool, etc. I never heard of all that stuff until I looked on DCUM a few years ago; we were just told that our kid had qualified based on testing. Maybe it was because our base school was pretty remedial due to a lot of kids who needed help, but teachers basically encouraged kids who learned faster to get out and go to the AAP center if possible, period. Once our kid was at the elementary center, in four years I only encountered one set of parents I would really call "pushy" about their kid's academics, and yeah, they were a pain, but they weren't the norm. And I spent time in the school with some extracurriculars that were done mostly by the AAP students, and volunteering in classrooms, and I can recall maybe one kid over the years who had any attitude of superiority about being in AAP.

I wonder if, in the past six years or so, there has been a lot more focus on the qualifying testing, and parents have gotten more aggressive about getting kids into AAP come hell or high water or even moving house? ....We and other families we know well just didn't experience or hear about the whole hand-wringing DCUM stuff of "Where else can I get my kid tested" and "Is this score good enough" and "Should we move to get into this or that AAP center eventually" like I feel I see here all the time. It just wasn't our experience at all, so I wonder if it's a more recent thing among some parents to be pushy and encourage their kids to feel superior. My kid had six years of excellent teachers (I can only think of maybe one who was "checked out" and not trying; the rest were creative and took things beyond what I know general ed and even MS honors were doing) and peers who were overall nice kids. I guess it's down to the individual schools a child attends, and ours were ones where the teachers seemed engaged and our kid came home talking about some very creative things going on in the classrooms.

I don't disagree with PP that there surely are pushy parents and snotty kids in AAP, but it's not everyone, everywhere.

PP here. Our experiences may be different because our base school is a center. So it's all AAP, all the time. From K-2, the parents discuss it nonstop; who will get in (or not)? How are the teachers? Ad nauseum. The kids who remain in Gen Ed from 3-6 are treated like second class citizens. Parents will deny this happens, but it does - even though most of those Gen Ed kids are just as bright as those in AAP. The stark segregation in centers is really the worst of all worlds.

Anonymous wrote:You're not in the "wrong part" --- you're in the right part! Seriously, like you, AAP is not on the radar of 90%+ of the people in my kids' base school... and yet, somehow... they manage to live seemingly normal lives!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors is open to all - it is in middle school. No math testing is needed in middle school, and it should be the same in elementary school.

VA should be more like NY. Regents and non-regents. One is harder material for those going to college. The other is more business focused for house going into technical training or non-college related fields of work.

GE is basically a wash for any high-achieving child. Any parent who has a hard-working child with smarts is going to push for AAP.

I had one child in AAP. Our second child is very bright and hard-working, but wasn't in-pool. We didn't push for AAP for this child because the whole system seems completely blown out of proportion - too many pushy parents, kids who think they're superior just because they got into AAP, and a whole lot of busy work. It would be great if Gen Ed was a more challenging curriculum, but after having one child go through AAP, we realized the AAP curriculum isn't what we had in mind (project after project isn't our idea of an "advanced curriculum"). We just decided to do a lot of supplementing at home and it's been working out great. In fact, I'd say this child has gotten a better, more focused education than the one who was in AAP.

My kid just finished with AAP, third through eighth grades. Maybe it was because he qualified for the program seven years back, but at that time there was no discussion among parents of who was or wasn't in the pool, no agonizing over GBRS or all these other alphabet soup tests, no attempts (that I ever heard from any parent) to re-test kids or appeal and appeal to get them into the pool, etc. I never heard of all that stuff until I looked on DCUM a few years ago; we were just told that our kid had qualified based on testing. Maybe it was because our base school was pretty remedial due to a lot of kids who needed help, but teachers basically encouraged kids who learned faster to get out and go to the AAP center if possible, period. Once our kid was at the elementary center, in four years I only encountered one set of parents I would really call "pushy" about their kid's academics, and yeah, they were a pain, but they weren't the norm. And I spent time in the school with some extracurriculars that were done mostly by the AAP students, and volunteering in classrooms, and I can recall maybe one kid over the years who had any attitude of superiority about being in AAP.

I wonder if, in the past six years or so, there has been a lot more focus on the qualifying testing, and parents have gotten more aggressive about getting kids into AAP come hell or high water or even moving house? ....We and other families we know well just didn't experience or hear about the whole hand-wringing DCUM stuff of "Where else can I get my kid tested" and "Is this score good enough" and "Should we move to get into this or that AAP center eventually" like I feel I see here all the time. It just wasn't our experience at all, so I wonder if it's a more recent thing among some parents to be pushy and encourage their kids to feel superior. My kid had six years of excellent teachers (I can only think of maybe one who was "checked out" and not trying; the rest were creative and took things beyond what I know general ed and even MS honors were doing) and peers who were overall nice kids. I guess it's down to the individual schools a child attends, and ours were ones where the teachers seemed engaged and our kid came home talking about some very creative things going on in the classrooms.

I don't disagree with PP that there surely are pushy parents and snotty kids in AAP, but it's not everyone, everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors is open to all - it is in middle school. No math testing is needed in middle school, and it should be the same in elementary school.

VA should be more like NY. Regents and non-regents. One is harder material for those going to college. The other is more business focused for house going into technical training or non-college related fields of work.

GE is basically a wash for any high-achieving child. Any parent who has a hard-working child with smarts is going to push for AAP.

I had one child in AAP. Our second child is very bright and hard-working, but wasn't in-pool. We didn't push for AAP for this child because the whole system seems completely blown out of proportion - too many pushy parents, kids who think they're superior just because they got into AAP, and a whole lot of busy work. It would be great if Gen Ed was a more challenging curriculum, but after having one child go through AAP, we realized the AAP curriculum isn't what we had in mind (project after project isn't our idea of an "advanced curriculum"). We just decided to do a lot of supplementing at home and it's been working out great. In fact, I'd say this child has gotten a better, more focused education than the one who was in AAP.

My kid just finished with AAP, third through eighth grades. Maybe it was because he qualified for the program seven years back, but at that time there was no discussion among parents of who was or wasn't in the pool, no agonizing over GBRS or all these other alphabet soup tests, no attempts (that I ever heard from any parent) to re-test kids or appeal and appeal to get them into the pool, etc. I never heard of all that stuff until I looked on DCUM a few years ago; we were just told that our kid had qualified based on testing. Maybe it was because our base school was pretty remedial due to a lot of kids who needed help, but teachers basically encouraged kids who learned faster to get out and go to the AAP center if possible, period. Once our kid was at the elementary center, in four years I only encountered one set of parents I would really call "pushy" about their kid's academics, and yeah, they were a pain, but they weren't the norm. And I spent time in the school with some extracurriculars that were done mostly by the AAP students, and volunteering in classrooms, and I can recall maybe one kid over the years who had any attitude of superiority about being in AAP.

I wonder if, in the past six years or so, there has been a lot more focus on the qualifying testing, and parents have gotten more aggressive about getting kids into AAP come hell or high water or even moving house? ....We and other families we know well just didn't experience or hear about the whole hand-wringing DCUM stuff of "Where else can I get my kid tested" and "Is this score good enough" and "Should we move to get into this or that AAP center eventually" like I feel I see here all the time. It just wasn't our experience at all, so I wonder if it's a more recent thing among some parents to be pushy and encourage their kids to feel superior. My kid had six years of excellent teachers (I can only think of maybe one who was "checked out" and not trying; the rest were creative and took things beyond what I know general ed and even MS honors were doing) and peers who were overall nice kids. I guess it's down to the individual schools a child attends, and ours were ones where the teachers seemed engaged and our kid came home talking about some very creative things going on in the classrooms.

I don't disagree with PP that there surely are pushy parents and snotty kids in AAP, but it's not everyone, everywhere.