Friday, November 16, 2012

FCPS Plans Community Meetings to Discuss Expansion of Advanced Academic Program Centers
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) will hold three community meetings in November to gather public input about the timing of expanding advanced academic services to all pyramids within FCPS, ensuring that all students have access to advanced academic programs (AAP).

The meetings will run from 7 to 9 p.m. on the following dates at these locations:
· Tuesday, November 27, in the Westfield High School cafeteria for Clusters 6, 7, and 8.
· Wednesday, November 28, in the Lee High School cafeteria for Clusters 4 and 5.
· Thursday, November 29, in the Kilmer Middle School cafeteria for Clusters 1, 2, and 3.

The Advanced Academic Placement Task Force, which began its work in the spring, is recommending that the number of AAP Level IV centers increase so that each FCPS pyramid has a center. Currently, six pyramids are without an AAP center, requiring students to travel out of their pyramid—and sometimes to a different cluster—to receive these services. The Task Force recommends establishing new AAP centers in the Annandale, Edison, Falls Church, Marshall, South County, and Robinson pyramids. It is also recommending that the 15 FCPS middle schools without an AAP Level IV center should establish one.
Parents, principals, staff members, and citizens are being asked to provide input about whether their schools might be ready for these changes during the 2013-14 school year or if the changes should be deferred to the 2014-15 school year. Considerations include space availability, facility readiness, teacher training, quality of the new program, timing, and community readiness.

FCPS staff members have recommended some parameters to help in the transition:
· Implementation of changes at the elementary level will begin with incoming third grade students. Elementary students currently attending an AAP Level IV center will not be moved unless parents opt to do so.
· New AAP Level IV centers at middle schools will begin with incoming seventh grade students (except for middle schools with grades 6-8 which will begin with incoming sixth grade students). Middle school students currently attending an AAP Level IV center will not be moved unless parents opt to do so.
· Pupil transfers and sibling placements will continue to follow the process outlined in Regulation 2230.

lol crickets - shows no one here has smart kids. No big surprise really...

It's pretty common knowlege that the reason for GT in elementary school is so the normal kids can be in a classroom together without the distraction of the ADDs and retards.

Then the smart ones go into gen ed at middle school so they can get straight A's and go to TJ.

You don't have to be Korean to understand this.

LOL, that's exactly where my 7th grade oldest is right now in middle school taking 8th grade and advanced classes. #2 is in elementary GT and #3 has been approved for GT next year. They aren't prodigies. They get good grades, are hard working and well behaved compared to the monsters and freaks that I almost always see in public places. I never thought of GT being for what used to be normal kids to separate them from the untrainables but as I think about what I've seen, you're right. The rest of the school resembles daycare. Can't have "remedial" classes for today's "normals", it's not PC, so they have "GT" and "AAP" for what was normal and above-normal before the '90's.

This is a definite way to separate the behavior problem kids from nice kids. Do not be oblivious, though. A few undesirables actually perform well and stay w/your kids in the advanced classes.

Another point, these semmingly nice kids who make up the majority of the classes are just as likely to be undesirable. If the parents party, then the apples are usually close to the tree.

Alg 2 is a make-or-break class in terms math and science development, so prepare your kids LONG before they get to this class.

This program is better than nothing, so move your kids if you can.

Also, keep in mind that a few hundred bureaucrats getting paid well over 100K are looking to implement worthy programs to justify their jobs as the new school board and soon-to-be-named super take over.

Good luck! :)

@crickets - you'd actually be surprised ;)

and seriously, what's there to say? Each pyramid should have a center. I doubt there are any of us who would say differently as we'd all love smaller class sizes for our kids.

The argument for each pyramid is much more valid than each Middle school. There are currently 11 AAP middle schools with level IV services out of 26 total middle schools. Opening 15 new middle school AAP centers with Level IV services is not ideal. Poe for example would have only have 4 Level IV AAP students in the whole middle school next year and would top out at 11 Level IV students total.

For the most part the kids in Level IV got there because they aced the nationally standardized testing (95% or above) and they just have nothing to do in main stream instruction. Teachers cannot teach essentially 3 grade levels to one class. At the same time the Level IV kids should have a normal learning environment with a couple classes per grade so they can mix socially. Spreading them so thin that a whole class consists of a teacher and 2 students for 2 years of middle school is not a good idea.

I say give all the pyramids a Level IV center and add a few new Middle School Level IV centers not 15 new ones...

How about no academic centers?

@Gordon Blvd

Staff flunked geometry.

Current Pyramids for the kids in my neighborhood -

Floris = Westfield Pyramid
Carson = Oakton Pyramid
South Lakes = South Lakes Pyramid

And, when we moved here -

Floris = Oakton Pyramid
Franklin Middle = Chantilly Pyramid
Oakton = Oakton Pyramid

And, in intervening years -

Floris = Westfield Pyramid
Carson = Oakton Pyramid
Westfield = Westfield Pyramid.

Or, looked at a different way -

Floris = Westfield Pyramid, Feeds South Lakes and Westfield
Carson = Oakton Pyramid, Feeds South Lakes, Oakton, Westfield, and Chantilly

In other words, until they address the split feeders that exist all over the county, and address the source of split feeders - redistricting the levels independently, there simply is no such thing as a Pyramid that has any meaning whatsoever to the community.

FCPS parent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LOL, that's exactly where my 7th grade oldest is
> right now in middle school taking 8th grade and
> advanced classes. #2 is in elementary GT and #3
> has been approved for GT next year. They aren't
> prodigies. They get good grades, are hard working
> and well behaved compared to the monsters and
> freaks that I almost always see in public places.
> I never thought of GT being for what used to be
> normal kids to separate them from the untrainables
> but as I think about what I've seen, you're right.
> The rest of the school resembles daycare. Can't
> have "remedial" classes for today's "normals",
> it's not PC, so they have "GT" and "AAP" for what
> was normal and above-normal before the '90's.


Typical of course your kid is better then all other children . Nice I am sure your kid can not be as big a jack ass as your self

Never said anything about them being better, just what they were NOT. I suppose every other GT and AAP parent and all of the FCPS faculty who make up those programs are jackasses, too. I'm just taking advantage of a system that's letting mine in. Not my fault it's this way. I grew up in FCPS and they never needed it in the '70's except for a few AP courses, so why now? Jealous much?

@Westfield - how many split feeders are there? I never even heard of that before (kinda defeats the purpose of a feeder school lol)

any other ppl know about this?

Gordon Blvd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Westfield - how many split feeders are there? I
> never even heard of that before (kinda defeats the
> purpose of a feeder school lol)
>

I don't know the numbers, but split feeders are all over the county. And, of course, they change every time there's a boundary change - which happens every year. So, there's a reason FCPS's Boundary website prominently features an address to schools application where you enter an address and out comes the current ES/MS/HS for that address for that millisecond. Given the split feeders, it's the only valid way to find out.

http://boundary.fcps.edu/boundary/

Note, under the redistricting rules, FCPS can redistrict each house every 3 years, and, each level is treated independently under the 3-year rule. So, in the extreme case, each house can get redistricted/move from one pyramid to another every single year...

So, for example, the South Lakes redistricting split Floris in half to Floris/Carson/Westfield and Floris/Carson/South Lakes. The very next year, the Coates redistricting split two pieces off Floris, one to Coates/Carson/Westfield, another subdivision to Oak Hill/Carson/Westfield - with the result that that subdivision is the only part of Oak Hill going to Carson then Westfield, the rest goes to Franklin/Chantilly. In that case, both pieces happened to come from the Floris/Carson/Westfield half, but Floris/Carson/South Lakes was in play as well. Note that the subdivision sent to Oak Hill/Carson/Westfield is the only part of Oak Hill going to Carson then Westfield, the rest goes to Franklin/Chantilly. A friend of one of my kids is in the only subdivision that is Crossfield/Hughes/South Lakes, the rest is Crossfield/Carson/Oakton.

Here's an example web page from Carson, but, of course, there are parts of the ESes (e.g. the Crossfield example) that don't feed Carson...

http://www.fcps.edu/RachelCarsonMS/hs-elem.htm

High Schools & Feeder Elementary Schools

High Schools -
Chantilly High School
Fairfax High School
Oakton High School
South Lakes High School
Thomas Jefferson High School
Westfield High School

Elementary Schools -
Coates Elementary School
Crossfield Elementary School
Floris Elementary School
Fox Mill Elementary School
Hunters Woods Elementary School
McNair Elementary School

@Gordon -

I stumbled across a discussion on split feeders and the "proposed" AAP changes on DC Urban Mom...

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/275726.page

As you can see, there are a lot of them...

Have you guys ever met some of these kids? Some of them are stressed out to the complete MAX, I mean, some of them are freaking out and there are even cases where if they get a 99%, they'll jump up and try to correct the TEACHER. I mean do kids even really need that stress? Not to mention the already apparent stress of middle school and popularity and such.

The AAP Program (and God forbid FCPS calls it what the rest of the world calls it, GT) is a joke. Originally function was for real gifted kids who actually NEED a special program because the top .005% who are really gifted also have pathologies that are usually social and behavioral, they need to be with other kids like themselves to avoid stuff like bullying from moron mainstream, and also need really good teachers with special training who are not stupider than they are. What you have now- mostly to give parents something to boast about at cocktail parties with other stupid federal govt workers- is whole schools with no special programs or teachers where just plain smart kids (and in some cases not even smart because if they were to just take kids who test well it would be 100% Asian). The only benefit is that the kids are basically brighter, and you get away from moron riff raff, which I guess is what parents want...

Kathleen, Yes I have and the parents are worse. The nut does not fall far from the tree.

yyey, all of the kids in the FCPS AAP program that I have met are all exceptionally bright ( including the non-Asian ones) and need these AAP classes because otherwise they would be extremely bored and unchallenged in class

And I'm a student and I know I probably shouldn't even be on here but I really just want this AAP program to end so that I can leave next year

I hate to disagree but the AAP program is a joke. My daughter is a 6th grader at Willow Springs, I can't wait for her to be done with "her peers". The AAP program lets anyone in, as long as the parent insists that their child "needs" this program.

There are no standard. So what has happened is 3rd grade we had mostly(4-6 exceptions) kids on the same level. Every year since then has seen more kids who shouldn't been in the level iv services. So now the teacher are slowing down the lessons, homework is not assigned and projects have to be completed in school so the parent don't do them.

And we wonder why TJ has to have remedial math and ESOL? AAP was not designed for every child and it shouldn't be corrupted by parents who won't understand that their kid would be better off in their regular classroom.

yyey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The AAP Program (and God forbid FCPS calls it what
> the rest of the world calls it, GT) is a joke.
> Originally function was for real gifted kids who
> actually NEED a special program because the top
> .005% who are really gifted also have pathologies
> that are usually social and behavioral, they need
> to be with other kids like themselves to avoid
> stuff like bullying from moron mainstream,

If they are so 'gifted', you'd think they'd figure out how to not get bullied. I'm so sick of the word 'bully' - it's the new 'racist'. It's a cheap accusation designed to take the moral high ground, leaving the accused sputtering in denial and having to prove their innocence. People are making careers now of writing books and providing training on anti-bullying. Now anyone that is demanding and direct is a bully - at school, in sports, at work. We used to call them leaders. And it cheapens the accusation for when it really counts, when there is true physical or psychological bullying.

Disagree Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hate to disagree but the AAP program is a joke.
> My daughter is a 6th grader at Willow Springs, I
> can't wait for her to be done with "her peers".
> The AAP program lets anyone in, as long as the
> parent insists that their child "needs" this
> program.
>
> There are no standard. So what has happened is
> 3rd grade we had mostly(4-6 exceptions) kids on
> the same level. Every year since then has seen
> more kids who shouldn't been in the level iv
> services. So now the teacher are slowing down the
> lessons, homework is not assigned and projects
> have to be completed in school so the parent don't
> do them.
>
> And we wonder why TJ has to have remedial math and
> ESOL? AAP was not designed for every child and it
> shouldn't be corrupted by parents who won't
> understand that their kid would be better off in
> their regular classroom.

I was in AAP when it was called GT. There are always a few exceptions; parents have the ability to push their children in. It helps if you've parents with the school system.