Anonymous wrote:Since I'm seeing these questions start to pop up, I figured I'd share my 2 cents and let others chime in. Writing as the parent of a 5th grader who has been at the AAP center at Belvedere (as well as a newly admitted 2nd grader). Belvedere is also our base school, so this wasn't an issue for us.


Center and school-based level IV use the same curriculum.

Classes at center are only AAP eligible students. Classes in school based program are a mix of AAP eligible and other students -- ratio depends on how many AAP students elect to stay in the base school. A class that is all AAP is likely to move slightly faster and may be a better social mix for geeky kids.

Typically, centers have more AAP students, which allows for more extra curriculars, and more mixing kids up from year to year. But this is not necessarily true -- Belvedere has had only 1 or 2 classes per grade in the AAP center in recent years. When they have more kids than can fit in 1 class, but not enough for 2, they've sometimes gone to mixed grade classes. This worked out fine for my son -- especially since he had a really fabulous teacher when he was in a mixed grade class -- but I know some of the other parents were unhappy.

The board has considered cutting busing to AAP centers as a budgetary savings for several years, but has not done so.

If you have a younger child and there is room at the school with the AAP center, they will allow pupil placement of the younger at the center school in order to keep the kids in the same school. But, if your center kid graduates, the younger kid will have to go back to their base school (unless they are the right age and qualify for center services).

It is worth looking at the pyramids before making a decision -- in some cases, centers feed into different middle and high schools than the base school.

Great post -- with one minor correction to the boldface part.

In the past, the School Board has had budget recommendations presented by Dr. Jack Dale with a recommended cut in transportation to AAP Centers where Local Level IV exists at the base school, and this recommendation has been championed by Dean Tisdadt. It has not been championed by any member of the School Board and the School Board has reversed the recommended budget reduction each time. There is no such recommended budget reduction in the FY 2013 budget. (Maybe Dean Tisdadt has finally gotten the message?)

How are the AAP teachers and program at Forest Edge? We are new to the Reston area. Thanks.

In general, we've been happy with the center at Belvedere. Some of the teachers are truly wonderful, and we haven't had any that I thought were really bad. The biggest challenge has been that their cohort is really too big for one class, and too small for two, so they've had to do some compromises to make the numbers work.

I know some of the feeder schools have very large LLIV programs, which the parents seem happy with. My impression is that those schools send very few kids to the AAP center, which in turn makes it harder for those kids from that school who do go to the center, because they don't know as many other kids...

Your post is perfect timing for me. How do you like the AAP teachers and program at Belvedere? I would have to switch my DD out of her base school. What are the negatives of attending Belvedere as an AAP student?

Since I'm seeing these questions start to pop up, I figured I'd share my 2 cents and let others chime in. Writing as the parent of a 5th grader who has been at the AAP center at Belvedere (as well as a newly admitted 2nd grader). Belvedere is also our base school, so this wasn't an issue for us.


Center and school-based level IV use the same curriculum.

Classes at center are only AAP eligible students. Classes in school based program are a mix of AAP eligible and other students -- ratio depends on how many AAP students elect to stay in the base school. A class that is all AAP is likely to move slightly faster and may be a better social mix for geeky kids.

Typically, centers have more AAP students, which allows for more extra curriculars, and more mixing kids up from year to year. But this is not necessarily true -- Belvedere has had only 1 or 2 classes per grade in the AAP center in recent years. When they have more kids than can fit in 1 class, but not enough for 2, they've sometimes gone to mixed grade classes. This worked out fine for my son -- especially since he had a really fabulous teacher when he was in a mixed grade class -- but I know some of the other parents were unhappy.

The board has considered cutting busing to AAP centers as a budgetary savings for several years, but has not done so.

If you have a younger child and there is room at the school with the AAP center, they will allow pupil placement of the younger at the center school in order to keep the kids in the same school. But, if your center kid graduates, the younger kid will have to go back to their base school (unless they are the right age and qualify for center services).

It is worth looking at the pyramids before making a decision -- in some cases, centers feed into different middle and high schools than the base school.