My daughter has benefited a lot from being challenged by an entire class of kids who learn just as quickly as she does. She needed a little ego deflation in this area - better for it to happen in elementary school rather than middle school or high school, in my opinion.

I'm glad she has to actually pay attention and study instead of just coasting through as she had been doing before third grade at the center.

We activated our child's center placement in August before school started. The form says it must be submitted two weeks prior to any semester starting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from Local Level IV to the Center in January. For my DS, the Center is so much better.

In what ways was the center better for your child? How many classes were there in your LLIV?
Our school has only one class and there seem to be social issues from the same group of kids moving
together from year to year.

Our base school has one class of Local Level IV per grade. We had six students identified as Center eligible and four of the students went to the Center. DS was still facing a Smartest Kid In The Class situation (which was [b] not [/] good) and he was stuck with the same kids year after year.

He has only been at the Center for 2 months, but I can already see the improvement. The Center has more classes per grade, and the teachers group across the class. He now realizes he is not the Smartest Kid In The Class (and there are many others that are!) and he has to do work for the first time. It is very different than the Local Level IV class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We switched from Local Level IV to the Center in January. For my DS, the Center is so much better.

In what ways was the center better for your child? How many classes were there in your LLIV?
Our school has only one class and there seem to be social issues from the same group of kids moving
together from year to year.

Yes, this was a problem for us. Also those kids were not very motivated, and the teacher was fine with that. At the center there was a very nice mix and motivated students and teachers. (Our base school was not that great).

Anonymous wrote:We switched from Local Level IV to the Center in January. For my DS, the Center is so much better.

In what ways was the center better for your child? How many classes were there in your LLIV?
Our school has only one class and there seem to be social issues from the same group of kids moving
together from year to year.

Anonymous wrote:We went to the center. The school was much better. But when ES ended, so many went to toehr schools. Sad. It was an adjustment.

what?

Anonymous wrote:My child did not activate to center until middle school. She is doing fine. I thought she might be behind her AAP peers, but for her, it was definitely the right choice.

what level of math was she put into?

We switched from Local Level IV to the Center in January. For my DS, the Center is so much better.

Proof that smart kids can do just as well in base school. Why are we paying for transportation to centers when there is not any proof the kids do better?

I think in some schools you're correct and in others not as much. If a base school gets over 40 students qualifying for AAP, I think it's enough children not to also pay for transportation to a center and they can just attend LLIV at their school. A school with only 5 children qualifying would need transportation to a center.

We went to the center. The school was much better. But when ES ended, so many went to toehr schools. Sad. It was an adjustment.

" My child did not activate to center until middle school. She is doing fine. I thought she might be behind her AAP peers, but for her, it was definitely the right choice."

Proof that smart kids can do just as well in base school. Why are we paying for transportation to centers when there is not any proof the kids do better?

My child did not activate to center until middle school. She is doing fine. I thought she might be behind her AAP peers, but for her, it was definitely the right choice.

OP here - decision to move is multifactorial - not just concern of not being equally prepared for middle school AAP classes.

I don't think June is that late.
If it was a phone call, be sure you keep a record of the name of the person you spoke with. You might send an email confirming your conversation.

Has anyone done this in the past? If so was your child happy he/she did so? (Our LLIV only has one class and many of the kids are not level IV. Not sure if they will equal center kids when entering middle school - esp in math.)

I contacted the AAP office and they said to let them know in June - feel like that is a little late. I don't want to wait until then and have them find some excuse to not let DC move. When we opted for LLIV for 3rd grade, my understanding was that DC could move to the center at the end of any future year.

Thanks in advance.