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Anonymous wrote:Man, I'm so glad to be in LCPS. How do you put up with all of this AAP BS? It sounds stressful and dysfunctional.

People chill out as their kids get older. LCPS has always seemed kind of basic and cookie-cutter, so I'm happy to have the additional differentiation and options offered in FCPS.

It is stressful and dysfunctional. And makes no difference in the long run. There is no meaningful differentiation or options.

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Anonymous wrote:Man, I'm so glad to be in LCPS. How do you put up with all of this AAP BS? It sounds stressful and dysfunctional.

People chill out as their kids get older. LCPS has always seemed kind of basic and cookie-cutter, so I'm happy to have the additional differentiation and options offered in FCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Man, I'm so glad to be in LCPS. How do you put up with all of this AAP BS? It sounds stressful and dysfunctional.

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Anonymous wrote:I am an AAP teacher who also taught gen ed in the same grade level. Honestly my experiences as a teacher have been night and day. I feel I can do so much more in AAP and got my creativity back as a teacher. They content is the same but the way it is taught is different. There is a lot more critical thinking and a lot more flexibility in the schedule to teach grammar, word study and do fun projects. All of the kids are reading on or above grade level so it is easy to do book clubs. I honestly love it!

This was my experience too as an AAP teacher! I was absolutely able to use best practices and do really creative lessons/group work. My kids were motivated, polite, and on the whole well behaved. Parents were very involved. It was fun!

Don't you think this is incredibly unfair to bright kids in a gen ed classroom? My child is motivated, polite, very well behaved, but doesn't test well and is a little bit behind grade level in reading (but not in comprehension), so she's not going to get into LLIV even though I know she would thrive in this type of classroom and because she's quiet and shy, she gets ignored in GenEd and it's going to set her behind everyone. AAP is really unfair to children like her who also deserve the best but don't get it because of some stupid test and biased teachers such as yourselves.

There are bright kids in general ED too. From your own description it doesn't sound like your child is gifted or even advanced. It sounds like she is right where she needs to be.

So she doesn't deserve to be taught creative thinking, grammar, word study, or do fun projects? She doesn't deserve to be in a class where they do book clubs? AAP parents and their entitlement disgust me.

What's stopping you from lobbying your principal and school board member to get those things included?

NP. I don't know where everyone else lives, but parents at our base school have lobbied relentlessly to get a LLIV program in place for the better part of a decade. I know at least a dozen people who have brought it up at PTA meetings, visited SB their SB member's offices, talked to the regional superintendent, etc. If the principal is not on board, it's a non-starter, especially if your school board member isn't in your neighborhood. If anyone on here has done this successfully, please share your tips.

You don't want local level IV, it has all the of the problems of AAP but none of the benefits.

You want more robust teaching and/or pull outs. Creative thinking, word study, grammar, book club, these aren't AAP subjects, these are just good teaching. Ask for what you want, ask for the right things. Not the wrong things.

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Anonymous wrote:I am an AAP teacher who also taught gen ed in the same grade level. Honestly my experiences as a teacher have been night and day. I feel I can do so much more in AAP and got my creativity back as a teacher. They content is the same but the way it is taught is different. There is a lot more critical thinking and a lot more flexibility in the schedule to teach grammar, word study and do fun projects. All of the kids are reading on or above grade level so it is easy to do book clubs. I honestly love it!

This was my experience too as an AAP teacher! I was absolutely able to use best practices and do really creative lessons/group work. My kids were motivated, polite, and on the whole well behaved. Parents were very involved. It was fun!

Don't you think this is incredibly unfair to bright kids in a gen ed classroom? My child is motivated, polite, very well behaved, but doesn't test well and is a little bit behind grade level in reading (but not in comprehension), so she's not going to get into LLIV even though I know she would thrive in this type of classroom and because she's quiet and shy, she gets ignored in GenEd and it's going to set her behind everyone. AAP is really unfair to children like her who also deserve the best but don't get it because of some stupid test and biased teachers such as yourselves.

There are bright kids in general ED too. From your own description it doesn't sound like your child is gifted or even advanced. It sounds like she is right where she needs to be.

So she doesn't deserve to be taught creative thinking, grammar, word study, or do fun projects? She doesn't deserve to be in a class where they do book clubs? AAP parents and their entitlement disgust me.

What's stopping you from lobbying your principal and school board member to get those things included?

NP. I don't know where everyone else lives, but parents at our base school have lobbied relentlessly to get a LLIV program in place for the better part of a decade. I know at least a dozen people who have brought it up at PTA meetings, visited SB their SB member's offices, talked to the regional superintendent, etc. If the principal is not on board, it's a non-starter, especially if your school board member isn't in your neighborhood. If anyone on here has done this successfully, please share your tips.

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Anonymous wrote:I am an AAP teacher who also taught gen ed in the same grade level. Honestly my experiences as a teacher have been night and day. I feel I can do so much more in AAP and got my creativity back as a teacher. They content is the same but the way it is taught is different. There is a lot more critical thinking and a lot more flexibility in the schedule to teach grammar, word study and do fun projects. All of the kids are reading on or above grade level so it is easy to do book clubs. I honestly love it!

This was my experience too as an AAP teacher! I was absolutely able to use best practices and do really creative lessons/group work. My kids were motivated, polite, and on the whole well behaved. Parents were very involved. It was fun!

Don't you think this is incredibly unfair to bright kids in a gen ed classroom? My child is motivated, polite, very well behaved, but doesn't test well and is a little bit behind grade level in reading (but not in comprehension), so she's not going to get into LLIV even though I know she would thrive in this type of classroom and because she's quiet and shy, she gets ignored in GenEd and it's going to set her behind everyone. AAP is really unfair to children like her who also deserve the best but don't get it because of some stupid test and biased teachers such as yourselves.

There are bright kids in general ED too. From your own description it doesn't sound like your child is gifted or even advanced. It sounds like she is right where she needs to be.

So she doesn't deserve to be taught creative thinking, grammar, word study, or do fun projects? She doesn't deserve to be in a class where they do book clubs? AAP parents and their entitlement disgust me.

What's stopping you from lobbying your principal and school board member to get those things included?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an AAP teacher who also taught gen ed in the same grade level. Honestly my experiences as a teacher have been night and day. I feel I can do so much more in AAP and got my creativity back as a teacher. They content is the same but the way it is taught is different. There is a lot more critical thinking and a lot more flexibility in the schedule to teach grammar, word study and do fun projects. All of the kids are reading on or above grade level so it is easy to do book clubs. I honestly love it!

This was my experience too as an AAP teacher! I was absolutely able to use best practices and do really creative lessons/group work. My kids were motivated, polite, and on the whole well behaved. Parents were very involved. It was fun!

Don't you think this is incredibly unfair to bright kids in a gen ed classroom? My child is motivated, polite, very well behaved, but doesn't test well and is a little bit behind grade level in reading (but not in comprehension), so she's not going to get into LLIV even though I know she would thrive in this type of classroom and because she's quiet and shy, she gets ignored in GenEd and it's going to set her behind everyone. AAP is really unfair to children like her who also deserve the best but don't get it because of some stupid test and biased teachers such as yourselves.

There are bright kids in general ED too. From your own description it doesn't sound like your child is gifted or even advanced. It sounds like she is right where she needs to be.

So she doesn't deserve to be taught creative thinking, grammar, word study, or do fun projects? She doesn't deserve to be in a class where they do book clubs? AAP parents and their entitlement disgust me.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem is that in the non-AAP classes there are kids that are just barely existing. There are kids that the teachers can barely control. AAP is just a way to have what used to be called an actual classroom 40 years ago. I have no idea how we have progressed to students running wild in class, making noise, distractions, disobeying the teacher, etc. In my older son's 2nd grade class right before he split into level IV, there was a girl who would just sit and curse all day and scream at the teacher... IN SECOND GRADE! In my first grader's class this year there was a kid who literally did not participate in the class. He spent the entire running back and forth in the back of the room, throwing paper airplanes, hitting kids, and spitting on the teacher. Jesus christ.

just remember that if you choose a school district to avoid that, you're racist

AAP is what keeps me from having to do that, I hope. I'm just waiting for my younger one with a 146 NNAT to get rejected now because "equity."

So you are admitting that you are a racist. You want your kids to be in AAP because that's where the white and asian kids are and not the non-English speaking kids who act out in class.

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Anonymous wrote:One small example from my kid at a LLIV: the AAP classroom taught the kids to write in cursive in 3rd-4th grades, even though it isn't technically required. The GenEd classrooms of the same grade were still focused on basic hand lettering and typing. The AAP teachers just seem to have extra time after getting through the basic curriculum to spend a little time on "extras" like this.

The AAP classroom also held kids to a much higher standard for neatness of written/typed work.

Everyone should be held to these standards not just one "special" subset. It's really horrific how FCPS basically has instilled a caste system into elementary and middle schools.

That too...SO early on.

It is not a caste system. People might mumble and complain about the kids who need pull outs for learning disabilities or delays but we all get it. we want to help kids get to the best place that they can be. We specialists to work with kids who are struggling for a reason. The main gripe I hear from parents in ES about this help is that it is expensive but people seem to intuitively understand that we should be helping all kids succeed.

Very bright kids, to include gifted kids, need specialized instruction as well in order to help them achieve their potential. The education curriculum has specialized classes that discuss kids with special needs and gifted kids in the same class because both groups need to receive material at a level that is appropriate to their needs. AAP is an attempt to meet those kids needs.

The issue with AAP is that FCPS can't decide what it is supposed to be. Should be a program for the demonstrably gifted, with high WISC scores or should be a program for bright kids who are high achieving in the general education classroom. Realistically speaking, both groups of kids need more than they are getting in the gen ed classroom, but their needs are still different.

I was a kid in resource support with learning disabilities, and later identified ADHD. I struggled with grade level math and my grammar still sucks. Foreign languages were a massive struggle for me. My DS is the exact opposite. He picks up concepts quickly, loves math puzzles and games, is a bookworm (ok so that was me as a kid), watches science shows on YouTube for fun, and loves building with anything he can get his hands on. He needs far more than what he can get in the regular classroom. We deferred moving to a center and Level IV placement because he loves his foreign language immersion program and he will be receiving Advanced Math. We will see how this year goes but we might move him in fourth grade.

We both needed different types of services to address our learning needs.

I wish FCPS would figure out AAP so that it works. I think every school should have Level IV in it. If the Local Level IV is not meeting the kids need, then use the centers for the kids who need more advanced work then in the local level IV. The issue that some people will have is that most schools will have one class for Level IV kids per grade, so no real room for changes in peers like at a center. The Pro would be that there would be a system in place to meet the needs of all kids and we could cut down on bussing costs.

It is not a caste system. It is a system that meets the needs of kids where they are and with what they require.

You clearly don't have an average child in GenEd in an AAP center school. It is truly awful how poorly those kids get treated and how subpar their education is. Even the ones whose parents can afford tutors. My average child doesn't need to be in AAP, but she DOES need to be challenged and she does need teachers who care about her instead of just ignoring her because she's doing "just fine". She's not doing just fine, teachers, we have to supplement her education because you're not doing jack shit for her.

I stand by my original statement, and as a Hindu, I know a thing or two about caste systems.

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Anonymous wrote:AAP isn't stressful for all. My kid has loved the experience. The work is definitely advanced but if you can learn at that level it isn't stressful at all. My kid balances AAP with a competitive travel sports team

AAP is especially unstressful now that so many schools don't give homework. It's not exactly hard to balance any ES programs with time intensive ECs, especially when the schools give so little homework. My child actually found AAP very stressful, but only because it was not very advanced and he was bored.

PP here. Our school gave homework daily in AAP and moved at a swift pace.

Still not an issue.

The "my kid was bored in AAP" parents always make me chuckle so thanks for that.

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Honestly, this is clearly a school issue then. I have two kids. One AAP and the other gen ed. They BOTH did vocab, book clubs and fun projects. They both also had critical and creative thinking lessons. You clearly need to address these concerns with your principal.

Of course it's a school issue. Schools with low FARMS and low ESOL populations can actually teach in gen ed. Schools with higher ones can't. Unfortunately, thanks to No Child Left Behind, schools are rated based on whether the bottom kids can meet a fairly low benchmark. So they focus all of their efforts on helping the bottom kids pass the SOL rather than doing much of anything for the kids who were already going to pass the SOL.