Everyone here has differing experiences because as previous posters have states, this is entirely school dependent. If you want feedback and don't want to reveal the specific schools in a public forum, then I'd speak to other parents in your neighborhood.

Our center school is known for having a pretty ruthless parent community, so we stayed at the base school.

Our base is a center school. Probably not too common of a problem on this board, but my kid has had a lot more trouble making connections in the AAP classroom than in the earlier grades when it was mixed ability. It appears most of the kids go together to test prep places/native language schools on the weekend, while my kid is more into sports and the like. I've actually been thinking about pulling him out of AAP since there's not much difference in curriculum these days and math is his weakest subject; he doesn't need algebra in 6th. Plus, all of his social invites this year have come from gen ed kids he only somewhat knows from whatever special once a week. I was thinking he could probably make stronger friendships if he saw those kids on a more routine basis.

Our child was in immersion. They were not challenged enough, questioning why are they even in school if they knew everything already. When they left for the center they had to try. Still all 4’s on their report cards but now they feel like they are in the class with people smarter than they are. They now have to try and they love it. We don’t know what schools you are comparing so we can not really help you properly.

The quality of the teacher matters (slightly) less at the center. The AAP teachers plan together and the entire class is AAP. The parents also tend to be annoying, so I do feel the teachers generally have to be on the ball. We kept our child at the base school. It worked well for 3rd grade. In 4th, the teacher fully used my kid and a couple others as TAs to help other kids rather than challenging them. I want my kid to help others in their community but that’s not they should not be called to do that every day at the expense of their own learning.

We switched after that year. The center was nice, kid made friends and was challenged, but it was hard to feel a part of the community as parents. Kid is very happy they switched now that middle school is coming along. They will know so many kids.

No blanket right answer. Talk to folks in your neighborhood or name the specific schools here and people can provide more direct input.

Anonymous wrote:This is entirely school dependant. If your base school has a large component of high net worth families, your experience will be good either way. In this case, make your decision based on non-education factors such as sibling placement, logistics, friend preference, etc... Your child will have appropriately motivated peers and education standards.

If there is a high representation of low wealth families, then the education elements come to play. The center will offer more advantages in terms of higher quantity of peers, more LIV teachers and classes (they can benchmark each other), experience, after school activities, potentially a more involved PTA, etc...

I agree that specific schools matter. Our base school has very high SES but academics are not a strong focus. In general, families seem to value social dynamics and extracurriculars like sports more than academics. Older child is at the center school which has a very strong AAP program with very experienced faculty who provide additional enrichment in the classroom beyond the standard AAP curriculum. The peer group is markedly different between our center and base schools in terms of academic motivation. It is worth the minor logistical inconvenience of our kids being at different schools for now. Younger one is still at the base school. We might have considered staying at the base school if it offered additional programs like language immersion or if the pyramid was different between base and center. Neither are relevant to our situation. The center school has been an excellent experience. So much so that we would enroll our younger child in the center if they were selected for full-time AAP. Also, if the base school uses a cluster model, then it cannot practically be a true full-time experience despite what FCPS says. The teacher would be juggling too many levels of differentiation and the focus would likely be on the students who are below grade level. Even high SES schools have kids who are below grade level.

I have had kids do both and have a kid at a center now. While my kid at the center is very happy (so no regrets), I am not really sure they are getting an academic experience that is all that different from what they would’ve gotten at the base school. Of course, will be dependent on whether base school has strong cohort and how many kids choose center.

Anonymous wrote:We went center and are very happy. Our base school is immersion and more than half of kids identified (just based on who was at the info sessions) stayed at the immersion for local and are also incredibly happy. I heard that last year it was a mess, but that this year parents are extremely happy with how it's going.

Because our kid didn't like immersion, the center is a better fit since most identified kids were also in the immersion program.

It sounds like its pretty school dependent, but here is my n=2 input

We were at school with immersion. Most of the immersion kids did not move to the Center. There were a few who moved, but their parents had said in first grade that they would be moving if they got in AAP. One kid moved in 4th grade because they were struggling socially. Most of the kids in the regular class who were selected moved. Teachers were pretty forward with parents who had kids that were a head that they should parent refer in 4th and 5th grade with a recommendation for the kid to move to the center. The LI program decreases the ability to mix classes and have a better balance of personalities and abilities in classes.

I also know people who moved because they were unhappy with IEP support at the base and were helping for better support at the Center.

We went center and are very happy. Our base school is immersion and more than half of kids identified (just based on who was at the info sessions) stayed at the immersion for local and are also incredibly happy. I heard that last year it was a mess, but that this year parents are extremely happy with how it's going.

Because our kid didn't like immersion, the center is a better fit since most identified kids were also in the immersion program.

It sounds like its pretty school dependent, but here is my n=2 input

This is entirely school dependant. If your base school has a large component of high net worth families, your experience will be good either way. In this case, make your decision based on non-education factors such as sibling placement, logistics, friend preference, etc... Your child will have appropriately motivated peers and education standards.

If there is a high representation of low wealth families, then the education elements come to play. The center will offer more advantages in terms of higher quantity of peers, more LIV teachers and classes (they can benchmark each other), experience, after school activities, potentially a more involved PTA, etc...

Go to the center school if you want a true AAP experience and strong education

Anonymous wrote:If your child stays local while most of the level 4 kids still go to the center, then they will be in classes mixed with all the kids and the school will pretend like they get "differentiation" but really the kids who need help take all the teachers' time. Not until the split for advanced math (5th grade in some schools, 3rd in others) will your child at least be with mostly level 3 kids. In my experience, even then the math teacher is telling the advanced math 6th grade class that they aren't learning everything they need to skip pre-algebra and not to take algebra 1 in 7th. This is the opposite of our experience with our other child who opted for the center and the majority of the class was expecting to get into Algebra 1, not discouraged by their own teacher.

In my experience with a kid that attended a local level 4 that probably had 1/3 of a class of level 4 students, it was definitely pretend differentiation. It's pretty hard to differentiate between a bunch of groups of students, and they are almost certainly going to focus on the ones that need help than the ones that are likely to pass the SOLs just fine anyway.

We deferred AAP in favor of language immersion and our school did not have LLIV. Advanced Math is Advanced Math. The majority of the 30 kids I know who were in Advanced Math had the option of taking Algebra 1 H in 7th grade, this group still needed the IAAT to take A1H.

If your school did not have similar numbers then you had a poor teacher.

Each school handles LLIV differently. The OP should look at their school and see how they handle it. Is it a separate class? Is it the cluster model? You can look at the schools out placement numbers and get a feel for how many kids leave for the Center. At some schools that number is high at other schools it is relatively small.

My kid moved into AAP classes in MS and is getting straight A’s without having AAP in ES. It is not that much different. The only area that I would 100% be focused on AAP, or LI, is if I was at a Title 1 school because I do think that the teachers in those classes hace to be focused on kids with little support at home and a kid who is advanced is lost.

If your child stays local while most of the level 4 kids still go to the center, then they will be in classes mixed with all the kids and the school will pretend like they get "differentiation" but really the kids who need help take all the teachers' time. Not until the split for advanced math (5th grade in some schools, 3rd in others) will your child at least be with mostly level 3 kids. In my experience, even then the math teacher is telling the advanced math 6th grade class that they aren't learning everything they need to skip pre-algebra and not to take algebra 1 in 7th. This is the opposite of our experience with our other child who opted for the center and the majority of the class was expecting to get into Algebra 1, not discouraged by their own teacher.

Has anyone have experience with both and can speak to the differences? My understanding is that at the local level for you'll have more kids that are principal placed rather than from the county. Not sure if there's any differences. Please let me know your experiences if you had them