Local Level IV at Floris or Level IV at McNair?

[Anonymous]

Our son is found eligible for the AAP with the options of either staying at Floris or attend McNair. Any parents out there whose children previously attended Floris, but attending McNair AAP now or the other way around? Why did you make the decision you did? What's better or not so good at Floris / McNair? Need to make a decision very soon. Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!

[Anonymous]

Ditto for us - we'd also be interested in opinions!

[Anonymous]

Can someone shed some light here please????

[Anonymous]

There is the generic answer as to center vs. llIV...LLIV will have a smaller cohort of AAP students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is the generic answer as to center vs. llIV...LLIV will have a smaller cohort of AAP students.

Floris has 2 classes of AAP students and McNair has 1 class every year - in spite of the fact that McNair is the center. So that rule doesn't necessarily apply to all pyramids - it depends if the center programs were moved to schools to provide distributional efficiencies/advantages apart from the strongest local level IV schools - e.g. oak hill used to have 3-4 aap classes per grade, then the feeder schools were re-configured and now only has 2 classes and floris got that fraction from oak hill aap, and then kept those instead of sending them to mcnair. Similarly spring hill has comparable configuration between local level iv and the center it feeds into.

[Anonymous]

One thing I've heard is that the centers often have more "established" programs -- GT teachers there often have more years of experience, etc. -- than the relatively new animal of Local Level IV classrooms in the base school. That said, we chose the base school because it's less traumatic for the child (her doc said kids typically need 7-8 months to adjust to a new school) and she can stay with her friends. We LIKE that her class will be a mix of center-eligible and non-center-eligible kids. We don't need or want a classroom full of Davidson Scholars, but would prefer a mix. Just us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I've heard is that the centers often have more "established" programs -- GT teachers there often have more years of experience, etc. -- than the relatively new animal of Local Level IV classrooms in the base school. That said, we chose the base school because it's less traumatic for the child (her doc said kids typically need 7-8 months to adjust to a new school) and she can stay with her friends. We LIKE that her class will be a mix of center-eligible and non-center-eligible kids. We don't need or want a classroom full of Davidson Scholars, but would prefer a mix. Just us.

I am not sure if the above statement is true for Mcnair. I haven't heard any gr8 things about Mcnair. They are better than 2/3 years back. I would not want my child to go to a school which is trying to improve or trying to attain a better level us. I would rather go to a school which has better peer/senior group. Statistically whoever chose local level 4 at Floris in the past years who had the choice to move to center based GT (which is Mcnair), never went to MCnair. They stuck to Floris. That means something. Also AAP is mostly about the peer group (atleast thats what I heard from other kids who are in 5th and 6th grades right now). Peer group in Mcnair, not that fancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I've heard is that the centers often have more "established" programs -- GT teachers there often have more years of experience, etc. -- than the relatively new animal of Local Level IV classrooms in the base school. That said, we chose the base school because it's less traumatic for the child (her doc said kids typically need 7-8 months to adjust to a new school) and she can stay with her friends. We LIKE that her class will be a mix of center-eligible and non-center-eligible kids. We don't need or want a classroom full of Davidson Scholars, but would prefer a mix. Just us.

I am not sure if the above statement is true for Mcnair. I haven't heard any gr8 things about Mcnair. They are better than 2/3 years back. I would not want my child to go to a school which is trying to improve or trying to attain a better level us. I would rather go to a school which has better peer/senior group. Statistically whoever chose local level 4 at Floris in the past years who had the choice to move to center based GT (which is Mcnair), never went to MCnair. They stuck to Floris. That means something. Also AAP is mostly about the peer group (atleast thats what I heard from other kids who are in 5th and 6th grades right now). Peer group in Mcnair, not that fancy.

The poster above is misinformed and does not know McNair. He/she is comparing McNair of several years past before the redistricting of roughly half of previous McNair student body into the newly-formed Coates Elementary.

Take a look at the latest 2010-11 SOL reports which have just been released. McNair appears, as a whole, to have closed the gap with Floris with some of the lower grades even surpassing Floris. This bears out the fact that the McNair demographics have been changing dramatically in the last 3 years especially with the rising lower elementary grades.

The AAP program at McNair has several kids who benchmark probably in the top percentile in the country academically i.e. 4th graders who take 6th grade SOLs and pass with close to perfect scores.
There were more than a few of transfers from Floris to McNair AAP in the 2010-2011 year albeit not probably to take advantage of McNair's reputation (or lack thereof).

McNair's robotics team placed first in a statewide competition in 2010-11 and there's a growing number of activities such as Math Olympiad etc.

Ask any parent whose kids go to McNair especially AAP - the peer group is second to none.

In a nutshell, the demographics of McNair mirror closely Floris and as such, performance is comparable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing I've heard is that the centers often have more "established" programs -- GT teachers there often have more years of experience, etc. -- than the relatively new animal of Local Level IV classrooms in the base school. That said, we chose the base school because it's less traumatic for the child (her doc said kids typically need 7-8 months to adjust to a new school) and she can stay with her friends. We LIKE that her class will be a mix of center-eligible and non-center-eligible kids. We don't need or want a classroom full of Davidson Scholars, but would prefer a mix. Just us.

I am not sure if the above statement is true for Mcnair. I haven't heard any gr8 things about Mcnair. They are better than 2/3 years back. I would not want my child to go to a school which is trying to improve or trying to attain a better level us. I would rather go to a school which has better peer/senior group. Statistically whoever chose local level 4 at Floris in the past years who had the choice to move to center based GT (which is Mcnair), never went to MCnair. They stuck to Floris. That means something. Also AAP is mostly about the peer group (atleast thats what I heard from other kids who are in 5th and 6th grades right now). Peer group in Mcnair, not that fancy.

The poster above is misinformed and does not know McNair. He/she is comparing McNair of several years past before the redistricting of roughly half of previous McNair student body into the newly-formed Coates Elementary.

Take a look at the latest 2010-11 SOL reports which have just been released. McNair appears, as a whole, to have closed the gap with Floris with some of the lower grades even surpassing Floris. This bears out the fact that the McNair demographics have been changing dramatically in the last 3 years especially with the rising lower elementary grades.

The AAP program at McNair has several kids who benchmark probably in the top percentile in the country academically i.e. 4th graders who take 6th grade SOLs and pass with close to perfect scores.
There were more than a few of transfers from Floris to McNair AAP in the 2010-2011 year albeit not probably to take advantage of McNair's reputation (or lack thereof).

McNair's robotics team placed first in a statewide competition in 2010-11 and there's a growing number of activities such as Math Olympiad etc.

Ask any parent whose kids go to McNair especially AAP - the peer group is second to none.

In a nutshell, the demographics of McNair mirror closely Floris and as such, performance is comparable

I concur with this. McNair ES is way better than navy ES now.

[Anonymous]

I agree as well. A mcnair parent of 2 yrs and have a kg starting this year. Its been great at mcnair and even though we need a bigger house we are going to stay here so our kids can go to mcnair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree as well. A mcnair parent of 2 yrs and have a kg starting this year. Its been great at mcnair and even though we need a bigger house we are going to stay here so our kids can go to mcnair.

McNair ES has become 5 star elementary school in the newest ranking of www.schooldigger.com for year 2011.
This year's SOL score is very high.

[Anonymous]

I think someone must have a house for sale in the McNair district!

[Anonymous]

Stepping aside from the discussion on McNair's rising academic profile and dedicated teachers, the one thing that surprised us (at least in our kids' experience) is the relative lack of any bullying or discipline issues. My kids have experienced no such issues in the several years that they've been there. This, instead of simply focusing on academics, has been, and remains, important for us.

One more thing, I believe McNair has a smaller student enrollment than Foxmill/Floris while being housed in a larger building. As a result, class size has averaged in the low 20s (and sometimes even in the high teens). Anecdotal reports of Floris parents choosing not to send their kids to AAP at McNair has been a blessing in disguise e.g. in one year, my kid's AAP cohort had 2 classes of only 16 kids each.

On the other hand, there's a new principal in place this year so remains to be seen what changes if any her new administration will bring. She was promoted from within which in my view is a good thing from a continuity standpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think someone must have a house for sale in the McNair district!

Please don't measure other people's mind with your ugly snobbish view!