Union County's AIG program(4th + 5th grade) (Charlotte, Stallings: fit in, middle school)

[Burgi]

I have heard MANY mixed opinions about Union County's AIG program (4th +5th grade). Does anyone have first-hand knowledge about this program?

[rgutman]

I have a 4th grader in AIG Reading and Math and we are pleasantly surprised with her experience. We were hesitant at first since our 9 year old can become stressed over some "at level" school work in 3rd grade. We now feel that the smaller ratio and individualized teaching style have really helped her and challenged her at the same time. Good luck!

[joanchris2000]

My daughter is in the 4th grade reading and math...She had become a bit stressed at the quantity of work at the beginning of the year. Unlike the PP, her AIG classes are LARGE at Hemby Bridge, but they should be cut in half next year when Stallings Elem. opens and takes approx half of Hemby Bridge's students...should be about half the AIG students as well, so the class will be larger and hopefully, there will be a bit more individual attention. Overall, despite the class size, it has been a good experience. I KNOW she'd be bored in her reg class, and this is challenging her.

[stmaarten]

Five words:
Lots and lots of homework
Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can get extremely stressful, especially if your child is involved in sports or any other after school activities.

[West&East]

Can you all provide some more details about the AIG program? Does the AIG math and reading meet at the same time as the regular reading and math or are the students pulled out of other subjects? What other experiences have you had?

We should be at Sandy Ridge either this spring or no later than the start of next year. My DD is currently in the 4th grade. She attends a private school that is "accelerated" meaning the entire curriculum is 1 year advances. She also is in an advanced reading group on top of that. Switching to public school will be a big change for us. (Her current third grade has two classes of 12 students each.) We are trying to keep an open mind and hope that public school will be a great experience for her. I hope the AIG program will be beneficial.

[Burgi]

I guess my biggest fear is that she won't be challenged. We are considering private school as well as the gifted charter in mecklenburg. I was not considering AIG but I think I may investigate a bit more. Thank you so much for your opinions.

[joanchris2000]

Originally Posted by West&East

Can you all provide some more details about the AIG program? Does the AIG math and reading meet at the same time as the regular reading and math or are the students pulled out of other subjects? What other experiences have you had?

We should be at Sandy Ridge either this spring or no later than the start of next year. My DD is currently in the 4th grade. She attends a private school that is "accelerated" meaning the entire curriculum is 1 year advances. She also is in an advanced reading group on top of that. Switching to public school will be a big change for us. (Her current third grade has two classes of 12 students each.) We are trying to keep an open mind and hope that public school will be a great experience for her. I hope the AIG program will be beneficial.

The AIG math and reading is the same time as the classroom math and reading--mostly. One or two days a week there is spanish class (kind of a joke really) that goes into the classroom math time that DD misses to go to AIG math. Good that she goes and gets more math time, since the Spanish is pretty useless (think it's 20 min 3x a week), but bad since the one day a week she's there during Spanish she "feels stupid" ( her words).
Yes, Lots of homework, but better than hardly any homework. She has a friend who's in her class, who would come over 20 min after they got off the bus, wanting to play, saying her homework was done, or she didn't have any. Meanwhile, my DD has at least an hour of homework to do most days. Where we used to live there was a program beginning in 4th grade (so DD was never in it) where the entire curriculum was accelerated.....it seemed pretty tough, as a nieghbor's child was in it. I don't know that the AIG program will meet those standards. The explanation I was given at the start of this year was that it met the same curriculum standards as the regular curriculum, but was more in-depth.
If your child is more advanced, I do think they would consider skipping a grade etc, even then being in the AIG program in the advanced grade (my DD would be a 3rd grader had she started school here in NC due to her birthday in November, but she does fit in with the older kids in her class just fine.) But that's something that would have to be considered at initial placement, maybe with recommendations from your current program? Or, as the PP stated there is a gifted charter school, but it has some pretty tough entrance requirements
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (http://www.cms.k12.nc.us/programs/horizons/horizons.asp - broken link)
Good luck, I hope things work out for your child.

[EvanK]

The earlier post by joanchris2000 contained a link to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Horizons program rather than the "gifted charter" referenced. Horizons is a CMS magnet, a school within a school at Barringer Academy with some continuing aspects at Randolph Middle School. The highly gifted charter school, open to residents of any NC county, is Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy - Home . That is a K-8, self-contained free public charter school with similar admissions requirements but an entirely different program. About 220 students attend the school, in a facility shared with the British American School of Charlotte.

I think you'll find these two programs very different in their orientation.

[joanchris2000]

Originally Posted by EvanK

The earlier post by joanchris2000 contained a link to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Horizons program rather than the "gifted charter" referenced. Horizons is a CMS magnet, a school within a school at Barringer Academy with some continuing aspects at Randolph Middle School. The highly gifted charter school, open to residents of any NC county, is Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy Metrolina Regional Scholars' Academy - Home . That is a K-8, self-contained free public charter school with similar admissions requirements but an entirely different program. About 220 students attend the school, in a facility shared with the British American School of Charlotte.

I think you'll find these two programs very different in their orientation.

Thanks for the correction, it didn't seem like the one I had looked up previously The CMS one does state that it accepts non-CMS students also, so is worth looking into as well.