Anonymous wrote:For my daughter, a 5th grader. Being in at the center in a full AAP class was the best thing.

There is much less drama in the AAP class, the girls are more studious. I know it is cohort dependent, but it seems like there is less drama in AAP for all grades.

AAP teacher here. There is definitely girl drama. It varies by year.

Having you as classmates, you aren't good enough for me, is basically what is being said when kids leave for center AAP.

Social life between center and kids at the base school, and the parents, it doesn't go well.

Adults are cordial-enough knowing all will cross paths again in MS and HS.

The Center doesn't have to be isolating. We still do extracurriculars with base and neighborhood friends but had a major social blossoming with friends at the center. Ironically, most of the friends they made at the Center live closer than their friends from the base school due to the weird boundaries.

For my daughter, a 5th grader. Being in at the center in a full AAP class was the best thing.

There is much less drama in the AAP class, the girls are more studious. I know it is cohort dependent, but it seems like there is less drama in AAP for all grades.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve taught at both local level and center. I think the rigor is teacher dependent.

This. There are not great teachers at all schools. Base schools and centers. Not all center teachers are certified either as they have five years to do so.

I’ve taught at both local level and center. I think the rigor is teacher dependent.

Anonymous wrote:I've had one kid go to the center and one stay local for AAP. The kid at the center got better teachers and higher quality lessons (and actual homework). The kid who chose to stay at the base school did so to stay with her friends and has a very active social circle for a 6th grader. They are always doing activities together - which my older kid did not have. That may or may not have anything at all to do with the center - but leaving all your friends to partially start over in 3rd grade might stunt that sort of thing.

TLDR: Academics were much better at the center for us.

I had one kid go to center and one stayed. I actually felt the teachers were stronger at the base school. Our LL4 has teachers who have been there a long time.

Academically much better at the center

Socially I wish we had stayed at the base.

Magnet school is isolating and hard for playdates, and it's weird when all the neighborhood kids are super excited to go to their school carnival or bingo night and your kid isn't a part of it.

Anonymous wrote:My personal experience is that upper elementary for girls is when a lot of the social drama shows up, no matter the school.

So cohort dependent. For my 8th grader the drama started around 2nd grade. For my 4th grader it was kindergarten (!). For my 6th grader there wasn't really much drama. All girls.

I've had one kid go to the center and one stay local for AAP. The kid at the center got better teachers and higher quality lessons (and actual homework). The kid who chose to stay at the base school did so to stay with her friends and has a very active social circle for a 6th grader. They are always doing activities together - which my older kid did not have. That may or may not have anything at all to do with the center - but leaving all your friends to partially start over in 3rd grade might stunt that sort of thing.

TLDR: Academics were much better at the center for us.

Finishing 4th grade. The center experience has been fantastic. Having multiple AAP classes to cycle between is a boon. In general the students also seem more accepting of one another's eccentricities. There's been very little drama.

My personal experience is that upper elementary for girls is when a lot of the social drama shows up, no matter the school.

My son moved to a center a from a large base school with four of five classes per grade level in K - 2. He moved to the center for a new peer group because he wasn't making friends at his base school. Oddly enough this year he made a ton of friends ands most of them were actually from his base school and they had just never been in class together. For us, the switch to the center school has been incredible.

I can speak to this a little. My son just finished 4th grade at a center. I am not sure the work is that different from the base, but I do think there is something to having multiple AAP classes and mixing the kids up each year. There were also a lot of new kids this year (from base), and I think that's nice socially.

I have an older daughter who was in the LLIV class at the base school. LOTS of drama like you describe, and I think a lot is due to the same girls being together for multiple years.

Is anyone willing/able to speak to their experience in a center or in local AAP at in retrospect having one (or more) school years under their belt? We kept my DD at her base school and I am somewhat questioning the choice. The work seemed a little more challenging but I still think she was a little bored. Honestly, the biggest change was the peer group and it wasn't all positive. It could be the age, but there was lots of tattletaling and social drama that she had not experienced previously. I am not sure the center would be that different and she is really not interested in changing schools but wanted to throw this question out there.