I agree that it depends on your child's needs. If your child is someone who is advanced in some areas but not all, or who isn't off the charts in any one subject. I think it would be fine. If your child is off and running beyond everyone else in a particular subject he/she would be better off in the center where they are able to further differentiate among the AAP only kids.

I think it depends on your child. Is she truly "gifted" or just "smart" Our school mixes up the kids, too for homeroom and language arts. They are segregated for math, social studies, and science.

Pros: they are not stuck with the same kids all day for 4 years as in other LL4.

Cons: language arts or other non-AAP classes will not be as challenging. Our school still differentiates for language arts as they did in 1st and 2nd grade (different reading groups, for example). But, that's different than a whole advanced class discussing a piece of literature.

For us, it is not a problem, because language arts is my daughter's weakest subject, so she is fine being mixed in with non-advanced kids. She's also very social, so she enjoys being in class with her non-AAP friends.

But if my kid were very advanced in reading/English and off the charts on all subjects, I'd probably not put her in LL4 even if they didn't mix them up with non-AAP kids.

DD got her acceptance letter for AAP, deciding if we should send her to McNair which is her AAP Center, and let her be in Floris Level IV...Historically, Floris parents loved the local level IV so much that more than 90% stayed back instead of going to McNair which is not rated as well. Last year the principal decided to mix up AAP and Non AAP students and students only switched classes for AAP subjects. I am not sure if this happens at all schools with Local level IV.
Any opinions/input/experience?