You will find proponents for both center and local on. DCUM.

Very dependent on what is best for your child - go to both orientations.

Think about:

How Local Level 4 Is structured at your base school (designated class or cluster)
AAP teachers at both schools
Kids in the base school likely to stay or go (can have behavior issues at either)
Transportation
Siblings/neighborhood friends

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

Generalization. Not all schools are created equally. Not all centers are better than the local level IV programs.

This is false. It depends on how LL4 is structured and depends on the center. Our school has a LL4 with one class per grade. All of the teachers have been in the AAP roles for 6 years or more. My friend’s kid goes to the center and has a brand new teacher right out of school.

OP, go to both orientations. Talk to parents from both schools. Find out about teacher’s experience. That will help you decide what is best for your child.

My statement about the PP's statement being a generalization is not false. It makes ZERO sense that you would say it is false when the remainder of your response supports exactly what I wrote.

Sorry, meant to respond to the PP but accidentally responded to you. I agree with you 😀

You need to think about the socialization element of your choice. Our base school is a language immersion school so we had seen the socialization issues that came from leaving your base school. DS had classmates from outside the boundaries and it was hard to get together with them for playdates, in K-2 and to hang out as they got older. The kids at the base school could arrange to see each other far more easily, with minimal parent involvement. It takes me 5 minute to drive to DS to a friends house from his base school, his friend from outside the boundary take 20-30 minutes.

The issue that most the people from our base school at the center is that there are very few chances to hang out with classmates. The people who have been happiest at the Center have not felt connected at the base. A good number of kids return to the base because they are not happy at the Center.

We stayed at the base mainly because we liked the language program but we were also happy with our kids friend group.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

Generalization. Not all schools are created equally. Not all centers are better than the local level IV programs.

This is false. It depends on how LL4 is structured and depends on the center. Our school has a LL4 with one class per grade. All of the teachers have been in the AAP roles for 6 years or more. My friend’s kid goes to the center and has a brand new teacher right out of school.

OP, go to both orientations. Talk to parents from both schools. Find out about teacher’s experience. That will help you decide what is best for your child.

My statement about the PP's statement being a generalization is not false. It makes ZERO sense that you would say it is false when the remainder of your response supports exactly what I wrote.

Thank you all!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

Generalization. Not all schools are created equally. Not all centers are better than the local level IV programs.

This is false. It depends on how LL4 is structured and depends on the center. Our school has a LL4 with one class per grade. All of the teachers have been in the AAP roles for 6 years or more. My friend’s kid goes to the center and has a brand new teacher right out of school.

OP, go to both orientations. Talk to parents from both schools. Find out about teacher’s experience. That will help you decide what is best for your child.

Anonymous wrote:AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

This is a false statement. The academics are not necessarily better at the center. It depends on how Local Level 4 is done at the base school. Our school is a LL4 with a designated class. My friend’s kids goes to the center and we have not seen any major differences in quality of education. They did say they liked the community better at base school. OP, go to the orientations at both and talk to parents at both. Get an idea about teachers. Another thing people think is that all center teachers are certified AAP. This is also false. You can have a teacher trainee or a brand new teacher. Teachers have three years to take classes and get certified and some may teach AAP for two years then switch positions. I am fortunate that both my kids went through AAP at Local Level 4 and the teachers have stayed. They have been fabulous and are all certified.

I think it depends whether they have friends and siblings at the base school and how much you value your close in local community and living near the kids' friends etc.

The Center will typically pull in roughly half the kids from lower-performing schools, and since these days competition for AAP programs occurs against your immediate school peers, you could be leaving a much stronger peer group behind if you opt for the center.

Anonymous wrote:The pros and cons differ based on which your kid is qualified to be in - if you have a level VI kid, center is better because they’ll be with kids that are similarly gifted and the level of rigor will be appropriate for them.

You realize that also can happen in a Local Level IV program, I hope?

Anonymous wrote:AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

Generalization. Not all schools are created equally. Not all centers are better than the local level IV programs.

Anonymous wrote:The pros and cons differ based on which your kid is qualified to be in - if you have a level VI kid, center is better because they’ll be with kids that are similarly gifted and the level of rigor will be appropriate for them.

similarly studious and level of rigor is slightly above average

The pros and cons differ based on which your kid is qualified to be in - if you have a level VI kid, center is better because they’ll be with kids that are similarly gifted and the level of rigor will be appropriate for them.

AAP center

Pros: better academics and better cohort

Cons: may have to ride farther on the bus

Which is preferred and what are pros/cons?