Original poster here - just wanted to say you to all of the responses! I really appreciated hearing the different perspectives. Thank you for your time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to McLean from Alexandria and have 2 kids in AAP. You will not find a shortage of very smart and motivated children. The peer group is solid. Both my kids have friends who are smart and have smart well educated parents. Plus housing costs a lot in McLean so the parents are mostly professionally successful. Peer group is night and day from Alexandria to McLean.

Our AAP center has a strong chess club, science Olympiad team, math club, theater, etc. your kids will have plenty of opportunities to be challenged and be surrounded by similar students.

Hi - What center are you at? Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:Nope don't do it. FFX is awful

🙄

How do you know your kid would get into AAP in fairfax? Is that a given if they’re identified as gifted elsewhere?

For AAP? No, not really. AAP is what gen ed was years ago. Period. I can't speak for the quality of MS and HS in Arlington vs. FFX though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did that (moving from Arlington to Fairfax for AAP), and DC is in AAP from grade 3, but we have a mixed feeling.

Our experience of Fairfax so far is much larger classes, less attention from teacher (in Arlington, teacher actually taught how to write, while Fairfax, no), weaker PTA, and probably because of AAP, getting too much computer based research homework, which is in our opinion not helpful in learning. I understand that it depends on teacher though. So we are not sure if it was worth sacrificing Arlington's convenience to get Fairfax's AAP program.

That is because of the pandemic, not because of AAP. My older DC had none of that - then the pandemic and virtual learning changed school. Parents need to speak up and complain to the teachers, principal, school board members about this new change and how it is detrimental to our children's focus and education.

It depends on the school. Before the pandemic, my child at an AAP center was still forced to spend too much time on Dreambox or ST Math, and had entirely too many projects that were making slideshows.

Nope don't do it. FFX is awful

Anonymous wrote:We moved to McLean from Alexandria and have 2 kids in AAP. You will not find a shortage of very smart and motivated children. The peer group is solid. Both my kids have friends who are smart and have smart well educated parents. Plus housing costs a lot in McLean so the parents are mostly professionally successful. Peer group is night and day from Alexandria to McLean.

Our AAP center has a strong chess club, science Olympiad team, math club, theater, etc. your kids will have plenty of opportunities to be challenged and be surrounded by similar students.

We moved to McLean from Alexandria and have 2 kids in AAP. You will not find a shortage of very smart and motivated children. The peer group is solid. Both my kids have friends who are smart and have smart well educated parents. Plus housing costs a lot in McLean so the parents are mostly professionally successful. Peer group is night and day from Alexandria to McLean.

I am a poster at 18:59. Agree to two replies. After doing the move, I won't do this again. But at least, the house is better than Arlington for the same money...

Anonymous wrote:We did that (moving from Arlington to Fairfax for AAP), and DC is in AAP from grade 3, but we have a mixed feeling.

Our experience of Fairfax so far is much larger classes, less attention from teacher (in Arlington, teacher actually taught how to write, while Fairfax, no), weaker PTA, and probably because of AAP, getting too much computer based research homework, which is in our opinion not helpful in learning. I understand that it depends on teacher though. So we are not sure if it was worth sacrificing Arlington's convenience to get Fairfax's AAP program.

That is because of the pandemic, not because of AAP. My older DC had none of that - then the pandemic and virtual learning changed school. Parents need to speak up and complain to the teachers, principal, school board members about this new change and how it is detrimental to our children's focus and education.

Anonymous wrote:We did that (moving from Arlington to Fairfax for AAP), and DC is in AAP from grade 3, but we have a mixed feeling.

Our experience of Fairfax so far is much larger classes, less attention from teacher (in Arlington, teacher actually taught how to write, while Fairfax, no), weaker PTA, and probably because of AAP, getting too much computer based research homework, which is in our opinion not helpful in learning. I understand that it depends on teacher though. So we are not sure if it was worth sacrificing Arlington's convenience to get Fairfax's AAP program.

It depends on the school. My kids school has 15-18 kids in the Gen Ed classes. It always has. The bigger classes are in language immersion but those decrease over time. We have an excellent PTA. I have no idea how AAP would lead to too much computer based research but ok.

Researching the schools is necessary to find the right fit. AAP is one part of the puzzle for some folks. I would not move for AAP. I have read that Arlington MS and HSs are kind of a mess but there are some in FCPS that are a mess as well.

OP, I would stay were you are if you are overall happy with your neighborhood, house, and life in general. You can enroll your kids in enrichment programs with the money you save from moving. AAP is a fine program but I doubt it is that much better then where you are now.