Reply to AAP vs. Private

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "AAP vs. Private "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We do! Current 7th grader (was in AAP through ES), 5th grader (in AAP for 3rd and 4th) and 3rd grader (was admitted to both).

We are at a religious independent school known among fellow believers for rigor, but not one of the Big 3 or Big 5 or Big 10 or anything like that you'll see on the private school forum.

7th grade DC is especially academic and comes off as "smart" to peers. 5th and 3rd grade DCs worry less about peer group than 7th. I would say the oldest's peer group at the private is smaller, but still exists (oldest was fussing that a friend got all questions+bonus right on the most recent Honors Algebra 1 test while oldest got a mere A-). Oldest has complained about being - not meanly - teased as a "smarty pants" for placing above Pre-Algebra for math in 7th, but is not alone. Despite the gentle teasing, oldest actually seems to enjoy friends more at the private.

As far as academics, the mere existence of a defined curriculum at the private is huge. Also the math in ES goes at a slower pace for sure - 5th grader is about half a year ahead - but there is some extension and depth to the curriculum (Singapore) that they have never seen before. When they were confused on some questions I was able to pull up the [i]textbook[/i] and we worked through the questions together. There are acceleration opportunities at our private but the math does top out well before FCPS does and I already have in the back of my mind that we may be looking at dual enrollment eventually. Other subjects, including science and computing, offer as much rigor as my kids will need.

I agree with PPs that the writing instruction is better. My kids are getting spelling and grammar for the first time and only one of them had vocabulary before (teacher driven) - now all of them are working on it. In addition, as many on the private school forum will tell you, the privates break down the writing process and explicitly teach it much better.

My 3rd grader is naturally a coaster - they'll basically rise to the standards set but no more. I find the standards for showing your work in math, writing full sentences during reading comprehension work, and lots more to be higher and that's been great for them.

TL;DR - it's been good enough for my kids (and we aren't even at a top school!), but I think kids can thrive in both and what works for us has been as much about my kids as anything.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics