Are AAP centers going away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the non-AAP kids are put down. The kids make hurtful comments. It’s a terrible system. It’s mainly just an acceleration of math by one year. We see the other topics are the same. And, the acceleration of math is just a plodding forward at a faster rate; it is not a gifted, deeper understanding of math. So, much drama over a one year push-ahead in one subject. It keeps the tutoring companies in business in the area. Lots of Mathnasium, RSM, etc. type places all over the area.

Are you bitter because your child was not admitted into AAP? Your vitriol makes no sense and your information about the program is inaccurate. I have two kids. One was in AAP and the other one wasn’t. Both kids got the education they needed. My AAP kid had friends in both the AAP and non-AAP classes. My non-AAP kid’s best friend through eighth grade was an AAP student she met in fourth grade at school. My AAP kid never felt she was better than her sister. My non-AAP kid never said she felt less than at school. Yeah, there are some jerk kids and jerk parents, but your blanket characterization of AAP is wrong.

Very well-said. Agree on all points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the non-AAP kids are put down. The kids make hurtful comments. It’s a terrible system. It’s mainly just an acceleration of math by one year. We see the other topics are the same. And, the acceleration of math is just a plodding forward at a faster rate; it is not a gifted, deeper understanding of math. So, much drama over a one year push-ahead in one subject. It keeps the tutoring companies in business in the area. Lots of Mathnasium, RSM, etc. type places all over the area.

Those exist and are heavily used in places without AAP as well.

[Anonymous]

I have mixed thoughts about centers. My eldest went to the center and received a great education, but due to the vagaries of the boundaries, they were in another pyramid through grade 8 and then had to switch back to their home pyramid for high school. It’s rough on the kids to lose their peer group and friends. It would be better if they were housed in their pyramid. As to the social side, DC was a little ostracized in scouts which was based out their sending school. Some kids called them a traitor. They felt very “other.” It lessened as they got older. As a parent at the PTA at the center school, I felt like an outsider. The middle school wasn’t helpful with student who were out of pyramid, they were overlooked at the transitions in and out.

My younger child did not test into AAP and was principal placed in LLIV. He’s done really well but the local program wasn’t as robust since the principal wasn’t supportive of AAP. The pandemic played a role here too, it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge that.

If centers were to go away, there needs to be county wide standards for the local programs. The schools decide the curriculum, it isn’t county driven. For example Caesar's English was not used in LLIV at my younger child’s school. The PBLs were better at the center.

[Anonymous]

We kept our kids in LLIV, and while the majority of their friends are the ones they spend most of the day with in class, they definitely still have close friends who are gen ed. They don’t care.

That said, the kids definitely talk about it. We never said a word to them about AAP, but they found out about it from friends.

[Anonymous]

Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

I’m really confused by this post. There is definitely still a divide in immersion programs. How would that be any better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

In our experience local level 4 programs are just as bad, if not worse. The center school at least combines/splits the AAP classes into color groups to combine with other kids within general ed, and has enough kids for multiple classes so there's differences between the years. Our local Level 4 school would have kept the single classroom makeup the same for 4 years, and had no mingling between AAP and gen-ed except for recess...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

In our experience local level 4 programs are just as bad, if not worse. The center school at least combines/splits the AAP classes into color groups to combine with other kids within general ed, and has enough kids for multiple classes so there's differences between the years. Our local Level 4 school would have kept the single classroom makeup the same for 4 years, and had no mingling between AAP and gen-ed except for recess...

sorry - to clarify after re-reading, color groups are for specials

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, but probably not next year

There are a perplexingly large number of people, including parents, people at Gatehouse, and some of the school board who are anti-center and unaware that center schools are extremely popular and a big draw for the county. So strange.

Nope. I have two, non-prepped, Level IV students and I purposely kept them at the base school program because I wanted them to be challenged but also have a solid EQ (for example, not acting superior to their classmates). I know plenty of parents who made the same choice.

EQ comes from the home, not from the school. It's not like centers are full of snobs and have-nots and local schools are egalitarian utopias. Kids who are snobs get it from their parents.

Whether or not the parents are snobs, kids pick up on the caste system created by AAP. We tried not telling our oldest child, other kids told him. He came home one day and said “you know I’m in the smart class right?”

The kids think they are more elite and act accordingly. They lack patience, humility, and compassion. They act like they are superior to others.

That’s not been our experience at all.

That's because your child IS AAP. Ask the parent of a General Ed child and they will tell you how their kid's AAP friends dropped them in third grade and never looked back, and how the AAP kids will say snide remarks like "we're smarter than you, we're a year ahead in math" or "our projects are so much more advanced than yours". It happens everywhere - at centers and at LLIV schools. We've had general ed kids in both.

Honestly, this sounds like projecting. My child is AAP and I am a Scout leaders. In five years of having Scouts mixed from AAP and gen ed classes, I've never heard a peep of this. I've heard them talk about EVERYTHING at school (teachers, classmates, work, assemblies, etc.) yet have never heard anything like what you describe.

I think it's more parents thinking that this is what the AAP kids and parents must think of their gen ed kids.

Not really, it seems to be the norm at our school. Lots of condescension... It's like some kind of caste system even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

In our experience local level 4 programs are just as bad, if not worse. The center school at least combines/splits the AAP classes into color groups to combine with other kids within general ed, and has enough kids for multiple classes so there's differences between the years. Our local Level 4 school would have kept the single classroom makeup the same for 4 years, and had no mingling between AAP and gen-ed except for recess...

Our kids are mixed for specials at our Local Level 4.

[Anonymous]

We are at a language immersion school.

There is a divide between LI and Gen Ed but it is not because kids are selected by the school or County to participate but because parents choose to put their kids into the LI program. Kids move out of the LI program and into the Gen Ed program every year because the LI program is not a good fit for them.

Our school mixes the groups together for Specials and for 6th grade. Math is in the target language but the other three classes are a mix of LI and Gen Ed kids. The school also puts on cultural events that the entire school can participate in that are associated with the language that is taught.

I have not heard my kids LI friends talk negatively about the Gen Ed kids. I have heard them, and told them to stop, heard them discuss who doesn’t belong in Advanced Math or LIII. Our school uses the cluster method for LLIV so it is not who is in LIV because the kids don’t know that.

i won’t say that the divide is great because the kids don’t get to spend as much time with each other as I would like but I don’t think there are negative stereotypes or feelings towards kids in the different programs. I do think some of the parents would prefer there not be LI so that there were more opportunities to mix the classes up a bit but i know parents in the LI program who would like that as well. It is one of the downsides to the LI program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, but probably not next year

There are a perplexingly large number of people, including parents, people at Gatehouse, and some of the school board who are anti-center and unaware that center schools are extremely popular and a big draw for the county. So strange.

Nope. I have two, non-prepped, Level IV students and I purposely kept them at the base school program because I wanted them to be challenged but also have a solid EQ (for example, not acting superior to their classmates). I know plenty of parents who made the same choice.

EQ comes from the home, not from the school. It's not like centers are full of snobs and have-nots and local schools are egalitarian utopias. Kids who are snobs get it from their parents.

Whether or not the parents are snobs, kids pick up on the caste system created by AAP. We tried not telling our oldest child, other kids told him. He came home one day and said “you know I’m in the smart class right?”

The kids think they are more elite and act accordingly. They lack patience, humility, and compassion. They act like they are superior to others.

That’s not been our experience at all.

That's because your child IS AAP. Ask the parent of a General Ed child and they will tell you how their kid's AAP friends dropped them in third grade and never looked back, and how the AAP kids will say snide remarks like "we're smarter than you, we're a year ahead in math" or "our projects are so much more advanced than yours". It happens everywhere - at centers and at LLIV schools. We've had general ed kids in both.

Honestly, this sounds like projecting. My child is AAP and I am a Scout leaders. In five years of having Scouts mixed from AAP and gen ed classes, I've never heard a peep of this. I've heard them talk about EVERYTHING at school (teachers, classmates, work, assemblies, etc.) yet have never heard anything like what you describe.

I think it's more parents thinking that this is what the AAP kids and parents must think of their gen ed kids.

Not really, it seems to be the norm at our school. Lots of condescension... It's like some kind of caste system even.

Maybe it varies a lot by school? I have to think that's true because it seems parents' experiences (and their perceptions of their kids' experiences) vary widely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Socially AAP sucks. It just does. We are in bounds for a center school. My oldest got in (unprepped) and I saw the dividing line so clearly. It is sad. I hated it, dropped out of the PTA. I felt for my kid and experienced the divide myself as a parent. I worked hard to make sure my kid knew all the other kids are smart too and to try to remain friends. By 6th it was clear it wasn’t working and the divide was internalized.

When it came time for younger sib to go to school, I entered every lottery possible for immersion and magnet arts to get my second kid out of a center school because I was tired of the divide. It worked and the younger sib doesn’t go to the local elementary.

I WISH we had had the option of a local level 4, but oh well. Maybe the centers shouldn’t be based at a local elementary, but a completely separate place. IDK, the solution, but I can say I didn’t enjoy the experience of being at a center school for our home school.

In our experience local level 4 programs are just as bad, if not worse. The center school at least combines/splits the AAP classes into color groups to combine with other kids within general ed, and has enough kids for multiple classes so there's differences between the years. Our local Level 4 school would have kept the single classroom makeup the same for 4 years, and had no mingling between AAP and gen-ed except for recess...

Ours splits LIV kids between two of the four classes in a year. Unless the gen ed kids are in there for academic classes, the mixing is superficial and the kids know it

[Anonymous]

Not going away.