Robinson dumping AP classes and focusing on IB

[Anonymous]

I’m totally in favor of this and seeing a lot of whining on parent FB groups. I don’t get what the big deal is. Yes, it’s hard, but it is a holistic approach rather than ad hoc AP classes. The argument that not all universities take IB seems totally bogus. In my mind, they are just different, but equally valuable, approaches to college-level studies.

[Anonymous]

AP has a wider variety of classes which appeals to more students and AP credits are more widely accepted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP has a wider variety of classes which appeals to more students and AP credits are more widely accepted

But Robo can offer more IB options if they kill the AP classes.

[Anonymous]

This is not the way.

Should be dumping IB across the county to simplify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not the way.

Should be dumping IB across the county to simplify.

OP here. I’ve been pretty impressed by the IB program so far! And I took AP in high school in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Robinson is an IB school. It makes no sense for them to offer random AP classes. And they don’t have the enrollment to justify them anymore. Pupil place to an AP school if you want AP.

[Anonymous]

That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not the way.

Should be dumping IB across the county to simplify.

OP here. I’ve been pretty impressed by the IB program so far! And I took AP in high school in Maryland.

I’m an AP kid. I was ok with IB but the recent changes effects parents and kids monetarily and in terms of effort and time. This really just seals the deal for me to transfer my kids to LB or TJ.

Robinson is more than welcome to dump AP. Enrollment is dropping anyway as their top math/science kids are going to TJ. IB is very strong for writing (it’s very essay driven) which is great. However, the STEM driven parents that I have talked to are considering transferring to Lake Braddock if their kids don’t get into TJ. Because the course credits for STEM in an AP program vs an IB program aren’t the same. For some schools like UVA AP Calc BC gives extra credits vs IB math (for UMd, it’s equivalent to three classes.) This is significant because the only class parents are upset about is AP calc BC. This one class is equal to two years of IB math- because there are different tests.

Now I am not saying the school isn’t good. But I am saying it will definitely drop in rankings if it has an increase of transfers. But what I suspect is that this is intentional. They want more kids to transfer to LBSS (because it is losing enrollment numbers) and to TJ so that they can expand Robinsons boundaries and take some of the centreville kids off of Fairfax Station road. Long term- my suspicion is that boundaries will be changing once that happens and Centreville parents won’t complain that their kids are going to Robinson and Robinson can blame it on parents transferring their kids to LB.

I do think that this also means more kids will end up getting into TJ from Robinson and that people who have smart kids will see the data points from that soon enough and keep real estate values high FWIW. I also think that this will help with scheduling for teachers and that the school will do better overall. But I do not like the change personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Well it depends on the military kid. If the kid wants to study in Germany, it’s great!

But most likely, nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Well it depends on the military kid. If the kid wants to study in Germany, it’s great!

But most likely, nope.

It’s not great if the odds of the kid moving while in high school are high

[Anonymous]

AP allows kids to test out of taking classes in college. I was able to graduate college in 3.5 years, that saved me and my family a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

My kid is an RMIB alum. IB should only be offered to very bright kids with a lot of support.

IB in a academically lagging school is absolutely terrible idea and a sure way to torpedo the future of struggling students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

This argument is largely unfounded. Any juniors enrolled in full IB courseload right now at Robinson who happen to unfortunately receive PCS orders for their senior year would be able to enroll into a full AP load for senior year at the new school. Junior level IB prepares kids for senior AP classes because junior level IB is at a minimum equal to the Honors version of the subject (e.g., IB English SL/HL 1 equates to English 11 Honors which is a pre-req for AP Literature as a senior).

Any incoming military kids who are coming in as juniors will have the opportunity to enroll in two-year IB courses. Incoming seniors is where complications arise. In that limited scenario, they are indeed better off with a different program if they are seeking a full advanced course load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

This argument is largely unfounded. Any juniors enrolled in full IB courseload right now at Robinson who happen to unfortunately receive PCS orders for their senior year would be able to enroll into a full AP load for senior year at the new school. Junior level IB prepares kids for senior AP classes because junior level IB is at a minimum equal to the Honors version of the subject (e.g., IB English SL/HL 1 equates to English 11 Honors which is a pre-req for AP Literature as a senior).

Any incoming military kids who are coming in as juniors will have the opportunity to enroll in two-year IB courses. Incoming seniors is where complications arise. In that limited scenario, they are indeed better off with a different program if they are seeking a full advanced course load.

Incoming seniors won’t be able to participate and outgoing seniors don’t get an IB diploma or the benefit of a years worth of AP credits (typically a year when good students take a lot of AP classes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not the way.

Should be dumping IB across the county to simplify.

OP here. I’ve been pretty impressed by the IB program so far! And I took AP in high school in Maryland.

I’m an AP kid. I was ok with IB but the recent changes effects parents and kids monetarily and in terms of effort and time. This really just seals the deal for me to transfer my kids to LB or TJ.

Robinson is more than welcome to dump AP. Enrollment is dropping anyway as their top math/science kids are going to TJ. IB is very strong for writing (it’s very essay driven) which is great. However, the STEM driven parents that I have talked to are considering transferring to Lake Braddock if their kids don’t get into TJ. Because the course credits for STEM in an AP program vs an IB program aren’t the same. For some schools like UVA AP Calc BC gives extra credits vs IB math (for UMd, it’s equivalent to three classes.) This is significant because the only class parents are upset about is AP calc BC. This one class is equal to two years of IB math- because there are different tests.

Now I am not saying the school isn’t good. But I am saying it will definitely drop in rankings if it has an increase of transfers. But what I suspect is that this is intentional. They want more kids to transfer to LBSS (because it is losing enrollment numbers) and to TJ so that they can expand Robinsons boundaries and take some of the centreville kids off of Fairfax Station road. Long term- my suspicion is that boundaries will be changing once that happens and Centreville parents won’t complain that their kids are going to Robinson and Robinson can blame it on parents transferring their kids to LB.

I do think that this also means more kids will end up getting into TJ from Robinson and that people who have smart kids will see the data points from that soon enough and keep real estate values high FWIW. I also think that this will help with scheduling for teachers and that the school will do better overall. But I do not like the change personally.

I teach at Robinson. I can assure you nothing of the sort is motivating this change. The master schedule is a nightmare of one off classes, causing teachers to have 3 preps, student schedules to be inflexible, and staffing ratios to be a challenge. IB already had so many sub sections of classes (year 1, year 2, HL, SL) that scheduling is really, really hard.

They are keeping AP calc and AP stats next year. The only class they are dropping is APUSH. There is an analogous IB course already offered.