AAP or remain in private?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a LI program and choose to keep DS in LI instead of sending him to the Center.

Pros:

He loves his classmates
He really enjoys the language and is doing well in it, at least his Teacher tells he is doing well in it we don't speak it so we have no real clue.
He is in Advanced Math (Not sure what your Private School does for math)
He likes Level III pullouts when they do them (Not an option at Private School I am guessing)
Writing has never been a strength and this year they have spent a lot of time on writing. You can see the improvement in his writing, it is more complex and kind of impressive.

Cons:

Math is moving too slow. He is in fourth and doing work that is found in fifth grade, we have seen the packets, but it is boring for him.
Other classes are fine but not challenging. He isn't bored, according to him, but the are just right. Just right is ok but I would prefer a bit of a challenge.

Solutions:

Math supplementing: He goes to RSM for math competition and regular math. He is starting to work in a grade level up at RSM. RSM says that the honors class is a year advanced, like Advanced Math, but DS found it easy. We talked to them and he is moving into the next grade level and giving it a go.
Other classes, we encourage him to read at home and we go to museums, watch TV shows about science and history, and participate in STEM type extras.

The reality is that while the AAP classes are more in-depth, I am not sure the extra research and writing in the other classes is worth giving up the language. If he stays in the language program, he can knock out 2 years of high school language in MS and either complete his college language requirements in high school or have extra room for electives that he is interested in. Also, the language presents a different type of challenge. He is not going to be fluent at the end of ES, that is not the way the program works. He is mainly learning math and science in the language and we understand that. But he knows the alphabets (his program is not a romance language) and is learning to read and write in a totally different system with different sounds. I think there is value to being introduced to a different language and I think this exposure helps develop different intellectual skills that are pretty important. So while I would love him to be doing more research in Social Studies and Science, I think the cognitive development from the language is more beneficial.

He asked about moving to the Center this year. We spoke with his Teachers and tried to understand his reasons for wanting to move. It was mainly because math is boring. His school starts to separate the Advanced Math kids in fifth grade so we are hoping that will help with math but are mainly counting on the RSM supplementation to handle his math needs.

I am very appreciative of your thoughtful answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS attended Mosaic and hated it. He was bored out of his mind. Classes were generally quite large and often crammed into trailers. The teachers largely focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP, so math involved constant review and remediation, and language arts meant that his reading group almost never saw the teacher. They didn't do any of the fun extensions that are normally given at other AAP centers. The entire month before the SOL was spent on SOL review bootcamp, which is torture for the AAP kids. They didn't have any of the fun academic extracurriculars that are common at almost every other AAP center. Most of the teachers weren't very good. The homework they had was entirely absurd busywork. Like to prepare for Wordmasters, they had to write out their vocab words like 5-10 times, but in rainbow letters or spooky letters or things like that. Maybe things have changed, but in math, they made them do way too much Dreambox.

Anyway, STAY AT PRIVATE!

I am trying to better underatand why Mosaic is such a highly ranked ES if it's AAP center is, by some reports. Subpar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS attended Mosaic and hated it. He was bored out of his mind. Classes were generally quite large and often crammed into trailers. The teachers largely focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP, so math involved constant review and remediation, and language arts meant that his reading group almost never saw the teacher. They didn't do any of the fun extensions that are normally given at other AAP centers. The entire month before the SOL was spent on SOL review bootcamp, which is torture for the AAP kids. They didn't have any of the fun academic extracurriculars that are common at almost every other AAP center. Most of the teachers weren't very good. The homework they had was entirely absurd busywork. Like to prepare for Wordmasters, they had to write out their vocab words like 5-10 times, but in rainbow letters or spooky letters or things like that. Maybe things have changed, but in math, they made them do way too much Dreambox.

Anyway, STAY AT PRIVATE!

I am trying to better underatand why Mosaic is such a highly ranked ES if it's AAP center is, by some reports. Subpar.

It's highly ranked because it has high SOL pass rates. It has high SOL pass rates because all of the kids, including the AAP ones, spend a full month just drilling for the SOL.

[Anonymous]

We have the same decision to make, OP, except our center school is Keene Mill.

We are going to try public. The private DC attends currently is small and nurturing but he’s bored and can be bored for free in public. If public is a hot mess, we can go back to private—the school isn’t full for next year and likely won’t be.

I just keep going back to the $20k tuition. That’s $20k of college, vacations, enrichment—things that add more value to life than a smaller class for 3rd grade imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have the same decision to make, OP, except our center school is Keene Mill.

We are going to try public. The private DC attends currently is small and nurturing but he’s bored and can be bored for free in public. If public is a hot mess, we can go back to private—the school isn’t full for next year and likely won’t be.

I just keep going back to the $20k tuition. That’s $20k of college, vacations, enrichment—things that add more value to life than a smaller class for 3rd grade imo.

Keene Mill is a long-established center school with experienced teachers who implement the AAP curriculum with fidelity. It's not as competitive academically as some of the TJ feeder schools.

It has been a good school for my 2e kid, fwiw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a LI program and choose to keep DS in LI instead of sending him to the Center.

Pros:

He loves his classmates
He really enjoys the language and is doing well in it, at least his Teacher tells he is doing well in it we don't speak it so we have no real clue.
He is in Advanced Math (Not sure what your Private School does for math)
He likes Level III pullouts when they do them (Not an option at Private School I am guessing)
Writing has never been a strength and this year they have spent a lot of time on writing. You can see the improvement in his writing, it is more complex and kind of impressive.

Cons:

Math is moving too slow. He is in fourth and doing work that is found in fifth grade, we have seen the packets, but it is boring for him.
Other classes are fine but not challenging. He isn't bored, according to him, but the are just right. Just right is ok but I would prefer a bit of a challenge.

Solutions:

Math supplementing: He goes to RSM for math competition and regular math. He is starting to work in a grade level up at RSM. RSM says that the honors class is a year advanced, like Advanced Math, but DS found it easy. We talked to them and he is moving into the next grade level and giving it a go.
Other classes, we encourage him to read at home and we go to museums, watch TV shows about science and history, and participate in STEM type extras.

The reality is that while the AAP classes are more in-depth, I am not sure the extra research and writing in the other classes is worth giving up the language. If he stays in the language program, he can knock out 2 years of high school language in MS and either complete his college language requirements in high school or have extra room for electives that he is interested in. Also, the language presents a different type of challenge. He is not going to be fluent at the end of ES, that is not the way the program works. He is mainly learning math and science in the language and we understand that. But he knows the alphabets (his program is not a romance language) and is learning to read and write in a totally different system with different sounds. I think there is value to being introduced to a different language and I think this exposure helps develop different intellectual skills that are pretty important. So while I would love him to be doing more research in Social Studies and Science, I think the cognitive development from the language is more beneficial.

He asked about moving to the Center this year. We spoke with his Teachers and tried to understand his reasons for wanting to move. It was mainly because math is boring. His school starts to separate the Advanced Math kids in fifth grade so we are hoping that will help with math but are mainly counting on the RSM supplementation to handle his math needs.

I am very appreciative of your thoughtful answer.

Welcome. We are at a public school LI, so it is different, and our Center is not Mosaic but I figured the thought process was similar. I wish our school had LLIV for him but it doesn't. Both are good choices, I know our Center school has a good rep and we have known kids who went there and loved it but the choice is all around challenge in English or the language. The kids from our LI program have done well when they joined AAP in MS so I am not worried about that. And we like that he can walk to school with his neighborhood friends. We are happyish with our decision but a bit jealous of the kids at LI programs that have LLIV and can have the best of both worlds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS attended Mosaic and hated it. He was bored out of his mind. Classes were generally quite large and often crammed into trailers. The teachers largely focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP, so math involved constant review and remediation, and language arts meant that his reading group almost never saw the teacher. They didn't do any of the fun extensions that are normally given at other AAP centers. The entire month before the SOL was spent on SOL review bootcamp, which is torture for the AAP kids. They didn't have any of the fun academic extracurriculars that are common at almost every other AAP center. Most of the teachers weren't very good. The homework they had was entirely absurd busywork. Like to prepare for Wordmasters, they had to write out their vocab words like 5-10 times, but in rainbow letters or spooky letters or things like that. Maybe things have changed, but in math, they made them do way too much Dreambox.

Anyway, STAY AT PRIVATE!

I'm sorry, but this is just completely 100% inaccurate. OP is talking about a rising third-grader, and third grade is never in trailers at Mosaic, to start with. My child is in the 3rd grade AAP program at Mosaic this year and none of this reflects our reality. RE: Wordmasters, the rainbow/spooky letter thing was something kids all do in 1st and 2nd grade did for vocab, but not now. My daughter had to learn each word and write contextual sentences for them. SOL review was them asking each child to do a short homework packet each week for 4 weeks, my daughter never said a word about it interfering with the regular classroom experience during that month. And, FWIW, my child regularly is one of the top scorers on math exams, and she's never complained about it being "boring" or how a teacher is "focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP."

They DID do a "math field day" the week before SOLs, where they did traditional "field day" exercises outside, but with math incorporated, which sounded pretty darn fun. Her teacher is fantastic. The other AAP teacher seems fantastic, too. She actually doesn't normally HAVE homework, which I would say is in keeping with the most recent academic research on the (non)benefits of homework at this age -- so it's definitely not "absurd busywork" coming home. And she has done ZERO dreambox this year. I very much question if the PP here even had a kid in Mosaic's AAP program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS attended Mosaic and hated it. He was bored out of his mind. Classes were generally quite large and often crammed into trailers. The teachers largely focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP, so math involved constant review and remediation, and language arts meant that his reading group almost never saw the teacher. They didn't do any of the fun extensions that are normally given at other AAP centers. The entire month before the SOL was spent on SOL review bootcamp, which is torture for the AAP kids. They didn't have any of the fun academic extracurriculars that are common at almost every other AAP center. Most of the teachers weren't very good. The homework they had was entirely absurd busywork. Like to prepare for Wordmasters, they had to write out their vocab words like 5-10 times, but in rainbow letters or spooky letters or things like that. Maybe things have changed, but in math, they made them do way too much Dreambox.

Anyway, STAY AT PRIVATE!

I'm sorry, but this is just completely 100% inaccurate. OP is talking about a rising third-grader, and third grade is never in trailers at Mosaic, to start with. My child is in the 3rd grade AAP program at Mosaic this year and none of this reflects our reality. RE: Wordmasters, the rainbow/spooky letter thing was something kids all do in 1st and 2nd grade did for vocab, but not now. My daughter had to learn each word and write contextual sentences for them. SOL review was them asking each child to do a short homework packet each week for 4 weeks, my daughter never said a word about it interfering with the regular classroom experience during that month. And, FWIW, my child regularly is one of the top scorers on math exams, and she's never complained about it being "boring" or how a teacher is "focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP."

They DID do a "math field day" the week before SOLs, where they did traditional "field day" exercises outside, but with math incorporated, which sounded pretty darn fun. Her teacher is fantastic. The other AAP teacher seems fantastic, too. She actually doesn't normally HAVE homework, which I would say is in keeping with the most recent academic research on the (non)benefits of homework at this age -- so it's definitely not "absurd busywork" coming home. And she has done ZERO dreambox this year. I very much question if the PP here even had a kid in Mosaic's AAP program.

Or maybe they want the parent to stay private so their kid could get pupil placed.

Either way- stay at private.

Not because you will be happier there. But because you’re not wanted at Mosaic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS attended Mosaic and hated it. He was bored out of his mind. Classes were generally quite large and often crammed into trailers. The teachers largely focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP, so math involved constant review and remediation, and language arts meant that his reading group almost never saw the teacher. They didn't do any of the fun extensions that are normally given at other AAP centers. The entire month before the SOL was spent on SOL review bootcamp, which is torture for the AAP kids. They didn't have any of the fun academic extracurriculars that are common at almost every other AAP center. Most of the teachers weren't very good. The homework they had was entirely absurd busywork. Like to prepare for Wordmasters, they had to write out their vocab words like 5-10 times, but in rainbow letters or spooky letters or things like that. Maybe things have changed, but in math, they made them do way too much Dreambox.

Anyway, STAY AT PRIVATE!

I'm sorry, but this is just completely 100% inaccurate. OP is talking about a rising third-grader, and third grade is never in trailers at Mosaic, to start with. My child is in the 3rd grade AAP program at Mosaic this year and none of this reflects our reality. RE: Wordmasters, the rainbow/spooky letter thing was something kids all do in 1st and 2nd grade did for vocab, but not now. My daughter had to learn each word and write contextual sentences for them. SOL review was them asking each child to do a short homework packet each week for 4 weeks, my daughter never said a word about it interfering with the regular classroom experience during that month. And, FWIW, my child regularly is one of the top scorers on math exams, and she's never complained about it being "boring" or how a teacher is "focused on the kids who didn't belong in AAP."

They DID do a "math field day" the week before SOLs, where they did traditional "field day" exercises outside, but with math incorporated, which sounded pretty darn fun. Her teacher is fantastic. The other AAP teacher seems fantastic, too. She actually doesn't normally HAVE homework, which I would say is in keeping with the most recent academic research on the (non)benefits of homework at this age -- so it's definitely not "absurd busywork" coming home. And she has done ZERO dreambox this year. I very much question if the PP here even had a kid in Mosaic's AAP program.

PP here. I don't have a kid in the Mosaic AAP program. I had one in the program pre-pandemic before we left the school. Perhaps things have improved in the last 3 years, or perhaps your child has a better teacher than any of the ones mine had.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what your private school is like. My kids were at a catholic school last year. I was glad to be back at the AAP center this year for the math alone.