Gifted Programs: IUSD's APAAS (Part 5)

This fifth and final installment of our series on the Irvine Unified School District's (IUSD's) Alternative Program for Academically Accelerated Students (APAAS) will take a look at who is most—and least—likely to be satisfied with the APAAS program.

Given the shortcomings we've discussed, you may be wondering whether any parent would be happy with this contentious program. The answer is yes—in fact, many parents continue to believe that APAAS, even with its deficiencies, is a worthwhile and enriching educational experience for their children.

So what sort of parent will be satisfied with APAAS? One who:

• Sees value in large quantities of homework, regardless of its content;
• Appreciates the usefulness of rote memorization and fact-based worksheets;
• Has the time and energy to shepherd the student through the program and assist with homework planning and execution;
• Won't mind that the child will have little, if any, time for playdates or socializing with friends outside of school, nor for any other time-intensive activities such as music lessons or sports;
• Believes that competition in upper elementary school is important and that the child will be helped by having his or her work posted on a board so that all students in the class can compare themselves with each other;
• Approves of—or at least doesn't object to—punitive discipline, such as, after receiving three "pink slips" for forgetting homework, having to do a "sit" (sitting inside during lunch, writing an apology letter to the APAAS teacher and one's parents, and then staring at the wall until lunch is over);
• Likes that this discipline extends to nonacademic matters—for example, when students are told that the APAAS teacher only gets new desks and chairs approximately every 20 years and that the teacher will inspect each student's desk and chair at the end of the year; if the teacher sees any water-bottle marks, pencil marks, or marks of any other kind, the student will have to pay for a new desk or chair.

Which parents will be least satisfied with the APAAS program? Those who:

• Want their children to love learning and be excited by school;
• Believe that the quality of homework is more important than the quantity;
• Prefer more of a "whole child" approach to upper elementary education, one that helps foster well-balanced personal development and allows time for friendships, sports, and other nonacademic activities;
• Feel that the continued growth of independence in dealing with school and homework is an important goal in the upper elementary grades;
• Do not want to hear their children say that what they like most about APAAS is recess or that maybe they won't have to be in it next year;
• Object to overly strict and inappropriate discipline of children who are already mature and well-behaved;
• Think independently and will not worry about their children "falling behind" in a regular program or be concerned with the judgments of APAAS teachers or other APAAS parents.

Ultimately, parents must choose for themselves, and because there are major differences between the APAAS sites, a child who might be miserable at one could well be content in another. Thinking carefully about your goals for your child's education and personal development is key, as is understanding what sorts of environments your student will flourish in and what kinds will be oppressive, intimidating, or even traumatic. For many students, the effects of their time spent in APAAS are far-reaching—sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. One final note: When I decided to pull my son out of APAAS after fourth grade and told a parent whose child had completed the three-year program but with much unhappiness, she congratulated me on the decision and said, "It is almost like you saved a child's childhood freedom."

Gifted Programs: IUSD's APAAS (Part 4)

This week in our in-depth look at the Irvine Unified School District's (IUSD's) Alternative Program for Academically Accelerated Students (APAAS) we'll address the effectiveness of this controversial program.

Parents seeking to enroll their children in APAAS generally do so for one (or more) of three reasons. First, they believe that their students will receive the most rigorous and challenging education offered by the IUSD—one of the top-ranked school districts in California. Second, they feel that this training, apart from its specific pedagogic content, will teach their children to be serious students—hard working, organized, and, perhaps most important, high achieving. Finally, they think that by segregating their children from students in the regular program—APAAS students are grouped together for three years, separate from the other classes other than in subjects like physical education and music—they will engineer an appropriately diligent and studious peer group for them. This peer group, at least in theory, will further foster academic achievement and protect APAAS students from the typical social distractions of upper elementary, middle, and, ultimately, high school years.

Unfortunately, none of these reasons for enrolling a child in APAAS has empirical support. Let's address each one in turn. If APAAS students are, in fact, receiving the most rigorous and challenging education available in the district, we would expect to see significantly higher achievement later on. When I researched this myself two years ago, I discovered several important facts.

First, regardless of what happens during the APAAS grades of 4 through 6, APAAS students proceed to middle school, where they join the regular and Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) students in the middle school curriculum. So even if they have completed an accelerated program in elementary school, it isn't followed by anything comparable later on.

Second, there are no data indicating that APAAS students perform any better than non-APAAS students in middle school, high school, or college. The APAAS program has no empirically valid outcome data. When I inquired about this, I was told that administrators were beginning to explore the issue and had arrived at an outcome measure. What was this variable? Matriculation at any four-year college or university. Since most IUSD seniors go on to college following graduation, this measure of APAAS effectiveness does not seem useful.

Turning to the second reason parents enroll their children in APAAS—that the program will train them to be serious students—we again find no evidence supporting this belief. Yes, APAAS students have to work hard—they are overloaded with homework. And yes, they have to be organized—or, more accurately, to have organized and available parents. But these things do not teach children to be serious students—nor, as we've seen, do they turn these students into high achievers. Serious students are those who are independently motivated and actively engaged with—and excited by—the things they are learning. If anything, APAAS students, through no fault of their own, may well end up being less serious students, because any joy in learning and school has been driven out of them.

Finally, parental hopes that the APAAS peer group will ultimately influence academic achievement for the better are ill-founded. As already mentioned, APAAS students do not proceed into comparable programs in the IUSD middle and high schools; rather, they're intermixed with regular and GATE students from a wide variety of elementary, and then middle, school programs. The "boot camp" APAAS atmosphere is gone, and many former APAAS students find themselves coasting through middle school and feeling happier than they have in years. Many, too, are glad to be back in classes with old non-APAAS friends—and to be broadening their social worlds with completely new friendships after having spent three years in a classroom with the same kids.

Next week we'll take a look at parental satisfaction and who is most—and least—likely to be happy with the APAAS program.

Gifted Programs: IUSD's APAAS (Part 3)

Today in our special multipart series on the Irvine Unified School District's (IUSD's) Alternative Program for Academically Accelerated Students (APAAS) we'll take a closer look at two of the APAAS homework assignments themselves.

One recurring assignment, the Reader's Workshop, asks students to analyze and write about a book they've read. Although this may sound good in theory, in practice the questions students must address are far beyond the capabilities of even very bright fourth graders. For example, few nine-year-olds can understand what is meant by "Explain how the growth and development of this character contributes to the rising action of the plot" or "What techniques does the author use to create a mood in the setting that makes the plot more convincing?" Such questions are more suited to students in junior high or even high school; fourth graders simply do not have the level of abstract thought necessary to answer these sorts of questions.

Another recurring assignment, Earth Watch, instructs students to read a newspaper article about a debatable issue, summarize the article's content, present an argument mentioned or inherent in the article, report how their parent feels about the issue, and present their own opinion, providing reasons for and against one position or the other. Again, this APAAS assignment is difficult, if not impossible, for nine-year-olds to do without considerable parental help. Simply figuring out what a newspaper article is saying, much less sifting through arguments and presenting logically reasoned positions, is often over their heads.

APAAS assignments repeatedly fail to take into consideration the developmental levels and needs of upper elementary students. Even worse, at a time when children should be becoming more independent, the nature of the assignments forces students to become more dependent on parents for help. At the annual APAAS information night, where parents listen to a general presentation of the APAAS program and then disperse to different classrooms to ask questions of APAAS teachers from the various sites, parents are advised that deciding to apply to and enroll their child in APAAS is a "family affair." Being an APAAS student doesn't just up the demands for students—it increases them dramatically for parents as well, sabotaging any efforts to increase their children's independence.

Although it's true that, over time, students adjust (for better or worse) to the unreasonable homework demands and gradually become more capable of completing these tasks on their own or with less parental help, the program in its most rigorous form is detrimental to children's sense of self-efficacy and, ultimately, self-esteem. Every year some students become clinically depressed in the program; on occasion, some even become suicidal.

Next week we'll examine the APAAS program's effectiveness, after which we'll explore why parents enroll their children in APAAS and who is likely to be most (and least) satisfied with the program.

Gifted Programs: IUSD's APAAS (Part 2)

Continuing our special multipart series on the Irvine Unified School District's (IUSD's) Alternative Program for Academically Accelerated Students (APAAS), today we focus on what is perhaps the most obvious problem of this well-intentioned but misguided program: the homework load.

Although the amount of homework can vary considerably from site to site (a problem in itself, as we discussed in Part 1), developmentally inappropriate amounts of homework are the rule rather than the exception. Few parents want to see their nine-year-old fourth grader routinely spending four or more hours a day (plus most of every weekend) on homework, yet this is exactly what can and does happen.

APAAS homework, at least at Turtle Rock Elementary, consists of recurring assignments (Reader's Workshop letters, Oral Book Interviews, Writer's Workshop papers, Earth Watch debate papers, Word Masters, and Wordly Wise word memorization) and special projects (for example, the 13-part "Indian Project" in the fall). These are in addition to the "regular" homework, such as lengthy math worksheets (think 73 long-division problems in one night), music practice, reading, and science and social studies worksheets. APAAS students receive individual, year-long schedules for the recurring assignments so they and their families can plan accordingly. One particular week my son had a Reader's Workshop letter, Oral Book Interview, Writer's Workshop paper, Word Masters list, Wordly Wise test, and the Indian Project due (again, in addition to math, music, and other regular assignments).

Although APAAS is supposed provide challenge and depth to students who want or need more than the regular classes offer, it confuses quantity with quality. Unfortunately, overburdening even high-achieving, hard-working upper elementary students with unreasonable amounts of homework fosters neither a love of learning nor of school. On the contrary, it turns previously motivated, enthusiastic learners into stressed-out, exhausted, and even depressed children who have little time for anything other than homework. Far too many of them say they "hate" APAAS—and the tragedy is, most continue in it for three very long, often miserable years.

In Part 3 of this series, we'll take a closer look at the content and intellectual demands of certain recurring APAAS assignments.

Gifted Programs: IUSD's APAAS (Part 1)

Today Edupinion begins a special multipart series on a program in Southern California for high-achieving elementary school students in grades 4 through 6. The Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) created its Alternative Program for Academically Accelerated Students (APAAS) to "benefit those students whose capacity for intellectual achievement and need for acceleration go beyond what could be provided in a GATE- [Gifted and Talented Education] clustered class."

Sounds good—at least in theory. Clearly some students are more advanced than others and can be bored in regular classrooms. Having a program that identifies such children and places them in a more challenging program with their intellectual peers over the course of several formative years is intuitively appealing.

Like programs for students with learning disabilities and other problems, APAAS can and should be viewed as an "intervention." Although it is at the opposite end of the spectrum, APAAS attempts to meet the needs of students who are not receiving an "appropriate" education in regular classrooms.

The IUSD offers six APAAS sites. For some students, the school they've attended through third grade has an APAAS program, so if they apply and get in, they do not need to switch schools. For others, the closest APAAS site—or the one they get into, since some accepted students do not get into their first- or even second-choice school—may be miles away from their old school.

Admission into the APAAS program is highly competitive, particularly for certain schools. The year my son applied, there were approximately four applicants for every spot at his school. Admission is based on previous academic performance, standardized test scores, and teacher recommendations.

Most parents prefer that their children remain at the school they've been in, assuming it's an APAAS site. Kids are familiar with the school and the other students there and won't have to adjust to an entirely new environment in fourth grade. Moreover, at least when we applied, the APAAS program was billed as being essentially the same from site to site, as any good intervention should be.

Unfortunately, such was not the case. The goals of APAAS were implemented differently, sometimes dramatically so, at each site. Turtle Rock Elementary, for example, had the most rigorous, boot camp–like APAAS; Eastshore Elementary, by contrast, implemented its APAAS program in a more age-appropriate, "fun" way.

So the first problem with this ambitious yet flawed program is its inconsistent implementation between sites. This would not necessarily even be a problem if the lack of uniformity were intentional, designed to offer parents and students an array of pedagogical choices. Unfortunately, the variability between sites is symptomatic of serious systemic shortcomings in the APAAS program. We'll take a closer look at some of these deficiencies beginning next week.