Robinson dumping AP classes and focusing on IB
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Anonymous
Robinson isn't an academically lagging school, despite the handwringing on this thread. That said, the IB diploma is still a niche diploma, the majority of students are not aiming for it. |
Anonymous
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Robinson was the only school in FCPS considered good when they added IB. I expect it only passed muster at the time with guarantees that Robinson was big enough to offer both IB and a significant number of AP classes. Otherwise Robinson would have pushed back against IB like Woodson did when they tried to replace AP with IB there.
Whether it’s to simplify scheduling or shore up the IB program, further curtailing AP at Robinson will just prompt more pupil placements to Lake Braddock. Many of the strongest kids in the pyramid already pupil place to Lake Braddock because that’s where the middle school AAP program is located. It almost surely doesn’t have anything to do with a secret plan to change the boundaries with Centreville since they now plan to expand Centreville to 3000 seats. At the end of the day all these changes will just reinforce the existing perception that Oakton, Chantilly, Lake Braddock, and West Springfield are the most desirable schools in western and southern Fairfax. |
Anonymous
If the scheduling is so hard, the degree is so niche, and the fact that we have so many military families here as is: why keep IB? Why not transition out to AP? Remember: Robinson wasn’t IB before. Now that it is, and now that TJ is easier to get in from Robinson: what will make Robinson a top school when it doesn’t offer the classes the top kids want to take? Now I understand AP stats is still being offered- but that’s not the same as AP calc BC, which gives more credit for one exam and I believe that that is no longer being offered. As for the boundary changes: sure. But lots of things happen when enrollment plummets that may make the school board re-evaluate why it’s happening. |
Anonymous
| Where in the world are you getting that it is easier to get into TJ from Robinson now? |
Anonymous
Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas. |
Anonymous
NP. Agree with this. There would’ve been rightful pushback if FCPS tried to make a new all IB high school in Region 5. This was the only way to do it and, I suspect, is an attempt to prop up IB enrollment in a county that is largely uninterested. |
Anonymous
Every MS is guaranteed seats at TJ now. The top 1.5% of the 8th grade class will be offered a seat at TJ if they meet the minimum requirements (3.5 GPA, Algebra Honors in 8th grade, Honors Science and Math in 7th and 8th grade, and at least one other honors class) and the student applies. This means that the top 9 or so students who apply will be accepted at TJ. I am not sure how many MS feed into Robinson but if it is 4, guessing here, you could be sending the 36 kids who are STEM focused to TJ and not Robinson, which would be a full class of potential AP Science and Math kids to TJ. I have no clue what the TJ feeding pattern for Robinson looked like before the admissions changes at TJ but I know that many of the MS in FCPS went from 0 or 1 kid to 6-9 kids. |
Anonymous
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Did they survey the Robinson pyramid parents to see if they want IB or AP?
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Anonymous
Robinson is a secondary school, so Robinson feeds into Robinson, apart from the Robinson kids in MS at Lake Braddock for AAP or the Robinson kids in HS pupil placing to AP schools or going to TJ. Given its recent enrollments Robinson would get about 8 guaranteed seats at TJ per year. More might end up admitted from the residual pool but there’s no way you’d have 36 kids per class now going to TJ from the Robinson pyramid. There might be 36 or slightly more in total at any one time across grades 9-12. |
Anonymous
Sorry but Oakton and Chantilly are actually at the top tier along with Langley and McLean. Lake Braddock and West Springfield are consolation prizes that perform around or below the FCPS average. Look at SAT scores out of those schools. |
Anonymous
What percentage of military kids do you think are attending international schools abroad? The percentage of deployed abroad hovers around 15%. The percentage deployed abroad whose families accompany them are far lower. It's much more common to be stationed at a base in the US and then have a unit deploy from that base with the family remaining |
Anonymous
Which is why this makes no sense. A student can take one AP class and get college credit for that class. IB on the other hand is a multi year slog that most students don't want. |
Anonymous
Robinson already punches below its weight (given the wealth in the Fairfax Station/Clifton area) due to not having a MS AAP center and the IB focus. It's hard to see how stripping the school of some of its remaining AP classes will help. It would be better to reconsider the need for IB at all. Replacing IB with AP would both reduce the number of pupil placements and help address any scheduling problems associated with having both AP and IB (note, though, that W-L in Arlington is smaller than Robinson and appears to pull it off). |
Anonymous
Most military families will move mountains or separate the family to avoid PCSing their kid just for senior year. At that point, switching from AP to IB or vice versa is just one more thing to deal with on a long list of much bigger worries and in practice they would just choose housing elsewhere if it really impacts them. |
Anonymous
That is not "a lot" It is a small handful of milktary kids. The vast majority of mulitary kids have never been in an IB school and strongly prefer AP. |