Moving to Fairfax (from Arlington) for AAP

[Anonymous]

We have two elementary students who have been identified as gifted, but Arlington does not provide any gifted services, nor supplemental enrichment, so both of our kids are pretty bored in school. They also don't have very many friends on their level and it is a little socially isolating for them (especially for our daughter). We are concerned about this continuing for the next several years and we are considering moving to Fairfax for them to attend an AAP class with more enriching classwork and with peers. I was wondering if anyone had considered the same, or if parents of current AAP students find that the work and classroom is challenging and enriching for their students.

[Anonymous]

They’ll benefit from level iv. Buts not a panacea. Depending on how gifted they are you may remain disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’ll benefit from level iv. Buts not a panacea. Depending on how gifted they are you may remain disappointed.

It also depends on where you move, AAP is not equal across the entire county. With a system the size of Fairfax, it is very difficult for programs to be the same across the board even if the policies are the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have two elementary students who have been identified as gifted, but Arlington does not provide any gifted services, nor supplemental enrichment, so both of our kids are pretty bored in school. They also don't have very many friends on their level and it is a little socially isolating for them (especially for our daughter). We are concerned about this continuing for the next several years and we are considering moving to Fairfax for them to attend an AAP class with more enriching classwork and with peers. I was wondering if anyone had considered the same, or if parents of current AAP students find that the work and classroom is challenging and enriching for their students.

For one of my DC, the classwork was very beneficial and for my other DC, the peers were very beneficial. The program has met/is meeting the needs of my gifted kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have two elementary students who have been identified as gifted, but Arlington does not provide any gifted services, nor supplemental enrichment, so both of our kids are pretty bored in school. They also don't have very many friends on their level and it is a little socially isolating for them (especially for our daughter). We are concerned about this continuing for the next several years and we are considering moving to Fairfax for them to attend an AAP class with more enriching classwork and with peers. I was wondering if anyone had considered the same, or if parents of current AAP students find that the work and classroom is challenging and enriching for their students.

Yes, we moved from Arlington to McLean for more challenging schools. The parents are more focused on education and the peer group is more academically motivated.

Look at the last round of National Merit Semifinalists - Yorktown had 3, whereas McLean (very similar income levels to Yorktown) had 22 and Langley had 15. Most of the NMSFs from McLean and Langley were probably in AAP when in elementary/middle school.

[Anonymous]

OP, just to set expectations, I have two kids in LLIV AAP (meaning not an AAP center school). I'd consider them bright, but not gifted.

They're very much engaged in school, and the peer group is great, but it's not really a gifted program. That said, we specifically wanted our kids to stay in their neighborhood school, so perhaps the centers are different.

[Anonymous]

A lot of AAP parents will say that one the reasons they push for a placement at a center is because you're getting a pseudo-private school within the public school environment. I don't know that the curriculum is that much more advanced, other than math which is a grade ahead for everyone. But the peers are more academically focused and behavior problems are few and far between. Also, the teachers can do things like declare everyone will read 40 books this year and the kids will actually commit to doing it.

I would recommend you live in a neighborhood that's part of the center school, as opposed to feeding into a center school from a different neighborhood.

The downsides are the divides between the general education kids and the AAP kids, which can be pretty bad at some schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have two elementary students who have been identified as gifted, but Arlington does not provide any gifted services, nor supplemental enrichment, so both of our kids are pretty bored in school. They also don't have very many friends on their level and it is a little socially isolating for them (especially for our daughter). We are concerned about this continuing for the next several years and we are considering moving to Fairfax for them to attend an AAP class with more enriching classwork and with peers. I was wondering if anyone had considered the same, or if parents of current AAP students find that the work and classroom is challenging and enriching for their students.

Who identified them? If it's the county, then they will automatically qualify for LLIV. If it's a doctor or psychologist, then they will have to apply which likely means a year in gen ed

[Anonymous]

Don’t bother. Not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s definitely not gifted and talented.

[Anonymous]

Don't do this, Op. Not for AAP.

[Anonymous]

You might want to consider moving to a school that doesn't have its own AAP for middle school. Then you can pull them out of AAP in 8th grade to give them a better chance to get into TJ.

[Anonymous]

My DD is in 3rd grade Level IV AAP. It’s a good fit for her. She finds the work challenging but doable. It’s a notable step up from general education.

Honestly, 99% of the problems associated with AAP are caused by parents — both parents with kids in the program and parents with kids who were not determined to be eligible.

[Anonymous]

We moved to the AAP center from another state, for pretty much the same reason, and the most significant benefit is their cohort. Its like they found their “people”. They are happier and that is good enough for me.

[Anonymous]

Arlington does provide gifted services and enrichment. I don’t care where you move, but there’s no need to lie to justify it.

[Anonymous]

We did that (moving from Arlington to Fairfax for AAP), and DC is in AAP from grade 3, but we have a mixed feeling.

Our experience of Fairfax so far is much larger classes, less attention from teacher (in Arlington, teacher actually taught how to write, while Fairfax, no), weaker PTA, and probably because of AAP, getting too much computer based research homework, which is in our opinion not helpful in learning. I understand that it depends on teacher though. So we are not sure if it was worth sacrificing Arlington's convenience to get Fairfax's AAP program.