Subject: AAP Level IV Services
Staff Contact: Sloan J. Presidio, Chief Academic Officer
Other Staff Present: Noel Klimenko, director, PreK-12 Curriculum & Instruction
Kirsten Maloney, coordinator, K-12 Advanced Academic Programs
Meeting Category: December 3, 2020
School Board Action Required: Action
Related To: Goal 1: Student Success
Summary/Background (Key Points):
Each year, FCPS identifies 2nd grade students through a universal screening pathway to be part of a pool of students to be screened for eligibility for Level IV Advanced Academic Program (AAP) services starting in grade 3. These students, as well as students referred by parent or teacher, participate in a holistic review process that identifies students to receive full-time AAP services at a Level IV Center or at their base-school Local Level IV program.
As a continuation of the School Board efforts to ensure equitable access to AAP, a motion to modify the universal screening process (also referred to as the 2nd grade screening pool) was put forward as new business on November 16, 2020. The proposal is to pilot the use of local building norms in schools with AAP Local Level IV or AAP Level IV Center while continuing to use a national norm in schools that do not yet have a Level IV program.
Local norms are an emerging practice to increase equity in advanced academic programs, comparing peers using a local, relevant data sample rather than from national data that may or may not be relative to the local setting. This practice is supported by the researchers who completed the external review in Spring 2020, recognizing the use of local norms would increase equity while not denying a pathway for any family who wanted to have their child screened via the referral process.
Recommendation:
School Board support for the motion to pilot the use of local norms at schools that currently have either a Center or Local Level IV program to identify second grade students for eligibility screening.
School Board Member Motion:
I move that in School Year 2020-21, for schools with an AAP Local Level IV or AAP Level IV Center, the pool of second grade students to be screened for AAP Level IV services will be identified by piloting the use local building norms, while ensuring that any student who meets the national norm is also identified for screening. In schools that do not yet have a Level IV program, national norms will continue to be used to identify students for eligibility screening.
Attachments:
Additional Information Related to the Use of Local Norm in Creating Level IV Screening Pool