Anonymous wrote:Just to clarify....it all matters. Everything your child is exposed to will shape the adult they will become. Saying it "doesn't matter" that they see kids throwing chairs at teachers etc isn't the case. Of course I will also be the parent that thinks "it matters" if my teenager is exposed to kids doing drugs and having sex. Call me old fashioned but I still believe kids should be well behaved, good citizens and expecting anything less is letting them down as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center school....when I volunteer there (I have a child in AAP and one in gen ed), it is obvious which classes are AAP. They are consistently the classes with the children that are more engaged and better behaved. I've tried multiple times to get my "gen ed" kid into aap so he too would be surrounded by different kids. Unfortunately even through private testing and appeal he hasn't been accepted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

You must live in a parallel universe. It's at middle school that GE kids often surpass AAP kids in advance courses they can get into like Algebra and Geometry. A better model would be no AAP and only honors in middle school. It's what all kids (AAP and non) get in high school anyway. How long do you really need your kid to have that label? Why are parents so fearful their supposedly brilliant kids will suffer in a class with students of different abilities? My husband and I were always among the smartest kids in our class and somehow we survived and didn't lose intelligence. I'm sure we can't be alone.

Anonymous wrote:Our base school is a center school....when I volunteer there (I have a child in AAP and one in gen ed), it is obvious which classes are AAP. They are consistently the classes with the children that are more engaged and better behaved. I've tried multiple times to get my "gen ed" kid into aap so he too would be surrounded by different kids. Unfortunately even through private testing and appeal he hasn't been accepted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

+100000

What works well in one part of the county is not necessarily the best solution in another part of the county. Fairfax County is just so huge.

Couldn't agree more with the schools being 100% AAP particularly at the middle school level. It would solve the problem of an "us vs them" mentality that goes on currently in center schools. And if parents don't like the long bus times to get to the center, drive your kids!

Our center elementary school does a great job with 2E kids, so the generalization that AAP is filled with ill behaved kids that are a teachers nightmare is false. Also, if you look at some of the highest achieving men and women in our society, a lot of them have brains that are wired differently-I am glad there is a place for such kids to have a great peer group and be accepted in AAP. No situation is perfect, even if you shell out a fortune for private, but it works mos of the time (at least for us).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the genius special ed kid stayed at the base school for better services. It's a crying shame that kids like that can't be accommodated at an AAP center. We tried an AAP center for my son in 3rd grade, but returned him to the base school when we learned that special ed services at the Center just couldn't compare to the base school. Centers need to do a better job serving the "twice exceptional" student. If a child is accepted into the program on the basis of intelligence, an appropriate education should not be denied because the child also has a disability, whether autism or ADHD, etc. FCPS should really be careful about potential legal action by parents of gifted kids with disabilities.

Nobody is denying the "special 2E" kids anything. I just don't understand how their parents make such a fuss and talk about legal action just because THEY don't think the services are the same at the Center. Centers are generally bigger and more crowded. There are only so many resources to go around. How many special services does one special child need? This is PUBLIC school. If you want multiple special services for your special child, then pay and go private.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that the genius special ed kid stayed at the base school for better services. It's a crying shame that kids like that can't be accommodated at an AAP center. We tried an AAP center for my son in 3rd grade, but returned him to the base school when we learned that special ed services at the Center just couldn't compare to the base school. Centers need to do a better job serving the "twice exceptional" student. If a child is accepted into the program on the basis of intelligence, an appropriate education should not be denied because the child also has a disability, whether autism or ADHD, etc. FCPS should really be careful about potential legal action by parents of gifted kids with disabilities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple of super brights at our local school but they chose not to attend AAP. There's always that. Some parents still value a neighborhood school over the benefits of busing for a special curriculum in grade school.

I can see why! Our kids leave the local neighborhood school at 8:10 (if the bus is on time, which it hasn't been yet), and they are supposed to get back at 4:25, but so far they have come back at 5:10, 4:45 and 4:45. We are losing faith in the bus schedule and the system that thinks it's o.k. for an 8 yr. old to get back to his/her base school more than an hour after school gets out. Add another 10 min. on to that to walk home. Basically, our kids riding the AAP bus have a day that starts at 8:00 and ends at 5:00 (if they aren't REALLY late). That's too long and gives us pause in reconsidering our decision to forego the neighborhood school. The AAP school is literally 15 min. away from the neighborhood school... yet these kids are losing 2 hrs. every day just getting to and from the AAP school.

Center schools should be a thing of the past by now and kids should return to their neighborhood schools. It would solve a lot of problems.

It would solve a lot of problems for some people and cause a lot more problems for some people. The school district needs to meet the needs of all students.[/quote]

Think is would solve more problems than it would cause. School district could easily meet the needs of students with LLIV at base schools.

LLIV at all schools would be far worse.

Could you imagine the drama, the jockeying, the hurt feelings every single day at every single school?

At least now, there is a rip the band aide off approach at the base schools for the parents who are really upset about their kid not being at a center, and the long, daily reminders are limited to a few center schools.

The parents at the base school who still harbor resentment months or years afterwards are going to have that resentment whether or not there is a center or all the schools have LLIV. LLIV will cause many previously content parents to get upset where they weren't before.

The best idea is to have a designated magnet in each pyramid that can support one that are 100% AAP. For the pyramids that can't, the district should keep the center model.

Wow, you clearly don't have a child who has to attend a center school as his/her base school. Centers are the worst scenario of all, if that child isn't in AAP. They then find themselves in a school where AAP is perversely considered the "norm," and are reminded every single day that they are in the "lesser" class -- that band-aid is never pulled off at all. In any normal, community school, Gen Ed would be considered the norm and very few kids would be in AAP or a gifted program. This is how school in FCPS used to be and there were no hard feelings. The way the center system is set up now, there are just as many and often more AAP kids than Gen Ed. IF FCPS is going to insist on continuing down this path, then I agree they need to have designated AAP-only schools and let all other schools be returned to their communities and neighborhoods.