Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as thhose are greatly affected by the students in the class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as those are greatly affected by the students in the class.

The students in the Honors classes at the base middle school are grouped together in classes and given Local Level IV instruction. It's the same kids who would be eligible to attend the AAP Center middle school.

Yes, but often (not always) the kids who choose to go to the Center are the smarter kids within AAP. I have had a kid go through a Center MS and a kid currently a year and a half into a Local Level IV MS. In our experience, with these two schools, the education was much better at the Center. And not just because of the kids in the class (though many of the smartest kids from my second child's ES Center did go to the MS Center). My older one had one to three hours of homework most nights, lots of thoughtful long term projects, lots of tests, final exams in HS level classes, etc. My second basically never has homework, gets straight As without ever studying, no projects, tests are rare, I could go on. This may be particular to our choice of middle schools, but the Center was much better in our experience. I worry my second is not at all prepared for high school.

I would be this varies center to center. FCPS schools as a whole are almost entirely determined in quality by the expectations of the administrative team. Have a good set of principals? Your kid is set. Have a bad group? Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as those are greatly affected by the students in the class.

The students in the Honors classes at the base middle school are grouped together in classes and given Local Level IV instruction. It's the same kids who would be eligible to attend the AAP Center middle school.

Yes, but often (not always) the kids who choose to go to the Center are the smarter kids within AAP. I have had a kid go through a Center MS and a kid currently a year and a half into a Local Level IV MS. In our experience, with these two schools, the education was much better at the Center. And not just because of the kids in the class (though many of the smartest kids from my second child's ES Center did go to the MS Center). My older one had one to three hours of homework most nights, lots of thoughtful long term projects, lots of tests, final exams in HS level classes, etc. My second basically never has homework, gets straight As without ever studying, no projects, tests are rare, I could go on. This may be particular to our choice of middle schools, but the Center was much better in our experience. I worry my second is not at all prepared for high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as those are greatly affected by the students in the class.

The students in the Honors classes at the base middle school are grouped together in classes and given Local Level IV instruction. It's the same kids who would be eligible to attend the AAP Center middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid can attend the AAP Center middle school or the base middle school that offers local level IV instruction and groups AAP kids together in Honors classes. I confirmed with both the AAP center middle school and the base middle school and my kid's elementary school that that Honors curriculum is identical to the AAP curriculum. Again, there is no difference in the program of instruction beyond that the middle school report card from the Center school will show "AAP" and the base middle school will show "Honors." This has been confirmed by the administration at all three schools. So what is the point of having an AAP Center? I assume it's because some middle schools don't have the local level IV instruction?

The point for you and your kid is that the AAP center will likely offer a stronger peer group. And if a teacher has a stronger peer group in a particular classroom, it is possible that they may decide to challenge the students a bit more which would obviously translate to them learning more.

Specific example: I believe Longfellow has (or had?) a class called GPS (geometry problem solving) that is much more challenging than a normal honors geometry class. This class tends to attract many of the top math students, i.e the ones who are very good at math contests and go on to TJ and excel there. There were rumors that in GPS the kids would occasionally be given challenge problems similar to ones found in olympiads (think USAJMO). Not sure if they were actually graded on these problems, but in any case if they had a chance to work on such things, there's no doubt that they benefited greatly. Note: this is admittedly an extreme example, but it highlights the 'school within a school' principle where the class may look to be the same on the surface, but it can go much deeper, depending on the peer group.

Thanks for this. At our base middle school, kids coming from full-time AAP in elementary are grouped together in Honors classes that are given the local Level IV instruction. So the peer group is the same as the one that would be found at the AAP Center. Perhaps this isn't done at other base middle schools and is an anomaly at ours.

The AAP MS center also gets AAP students from other schools, right? How might that affect peer group? It's the same question regarding Local L4 v. Center L4 AAP: Is the local peer group as high-achieving as the center peer group? That varies from school to school, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid can attend the AAP Center middle school or the base middle school that offers local level IV instruction and groups AAP kids together in Honors classes. I confirmed with both the AAP center middle school and the base middle school and my kid's elementary school that that Honors curriculum is identical to the AAP curriculum. Again, there is no difference in the program of instruction beyond that the middle school report card from the Center school will show "AAP" and the base middle school will show "Honors." This has been confirmed by the administration at all three schools. So what is the point of having an AAP Center? I assume it's because some middle schools don't have the local level IV instruction?

The point for you and your kid is that the AAP center will likely offer a stronger peer group. And if a teacher has a stronger peer group in a particular classroom, it is possible that they may decide to challenge the students a bit more which would obviously translate to them learning more.

Specific example: I believe Longfellow has (or had?) a class called GPS (geometry problem solving) that is much more challenging than a normal honors geometry class. This class tends to attract many of the top math students, i.e the ones who are very good at math contests and go on to TJ and excel there. There were rumors that in GPS the kids would occasionally be given challenge problems similar to ones found in olympiads (think USAJMO). Not sure if they were actually graded on these problems, but in any case if they had a chance to work on such things, there's no doubt that they benefited greatly. Note: this is admittedly an extreme example, but it highlights the 'school within a school' principle where the class may look to be the same on the surface, but it can go much deeper, depending on the peer group.

Thanks for this. At our base middle school, kids coming from full-time AAP in elementary are grouped together in Honors classes that are given the local Level IV instruction. So the peer group is the same as the one that would be found at the AAP Center. Perhaps this isn't done at other base middle schools and is an anomaly at ours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as thhose are greatly affected by the students in the class.

The students in the Honors classes at the base middle school are grouped together in classes and given Local Level IV instruction. It's the same kids who would be eligible to attend the AAP Center middle school.

Anonymous wrote:At our AAP center middle school we were told the AAP classes would be slightly more advanced (but they didn't specify HOW they would be more advanced) than the honors classes.

Anonymous wrote:The same curriculum doesn’t mean it’s the same experience, depth or discussion as thhose are greatly affected by the students in the class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid can attend the AAP Center middle school or the base middle school that offers local level IV instruction and groups AAP kids together in Honors classes. I confirmed with both the AAP center middle school and the base middle school and my kid's elementary school that that Honors curriculum is identical to the AAP curriculum. Again, there is no difference in the program of instruction beyond that the middle school report card from the Center school will show "AAP" and the base middle school will show "Honors." This has been confirmed by the administration at all three schools. So what is the point of having an AAP Center? I assume it's because some middle schools don't have the local level IV instruction?

The point for you and your kid is that the AAP center will likely offer a stronger peer group. And if a teacher has a stronger peer group in a particular classroom, it is possible that they may decide to challenge the students a bit more which would obviously translate to them learning more.

Specific example: I believe Longfellow has (or had?) a class called GPS (geometry problem solving) that is much more challenging than a normal honors geometry class. This class tends to attract many of the top math students, i.e the ones who are very good at math contests and go on to TJ and excel there. There were rumors that in GPS the kids would occasionally be given challenge problems similar to ones found in olympiads (think USAJMO). Not sure if they were actually graded on these problems, but in any case if they had a chance to work on such things, there's no doubt that they benefited greatly. Note: this is admittedly an extreme example, but it highlights the 'school within a school' principle where the class may look to be the same on the surface, but it can go much deeper, depending on the peer group.

Anonymous wrote:My kid can attend the AAP Center middle school or the base middle school that offers local level IV instruction and groups AAP kids together in Honors classes. I confirmed with both the AAP center middle school and the base middle school and my kid's elementary school that that Honors curriculum is identical to the AAP curriculum. Again, there is no difference in the program of instruction beyond that the middle school report card from the Center school will show "AAP" and the base middle school will show "Honors." This has been confirmed by the administration at all three schools. So what is the point of having an AAP Center? I assume it's because some middle schools don't have the local level IV instruction?