HB Woodlawn HS questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The data is publicly available. HB students on average take more AP classes than the neighborhood school students and generally don’t perform as well on the exams. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the courses are less rigorous. There are fewer barriers to entry at HB when it comes to AP classes. That’s all.

People have extensively described, in great detail, the ways the classes are less rigorous. On this thread.

Not surprised HB students take more APs on average the general high schools are serving a much different population overall.

AP classes have a prescribed curriculum. They can't be "less rigorous."

Are you serious? Dumbest thing posted here so far.

DP but it sounds like you don't know too much about AP courses. Since you apparently don't know how to research either, here you go!
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/ap-a-glance

The covered material and terminal AP exam are prescribed.

The rigor of homework assigned, grading of non-terminal tests, and the APS reported grade is up to teacher’s discretion.

Even IF this is true, very weird to pretend less well taught classes at HB are some kind of benefit. But you are convinced an HB kid is getting stuff your kid isn’t. You’re clearly obsessed. You should be focusing on your kid. Not your vendetta against HB.

More non response and not actually reading posts. Don’t bother replying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to.

Me again. Sorry, as I realized that was unclear. One of them was at HB, the other was not. But neither one thought APUSH was all that hard compared to other APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to.

Me again. Sorry, as I realized that was unclear. One of them was at HB, the other was not. But neither one thought APUSH was all that hard compared to other APs.

I think it's just your kids are the smartest ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to.

Hmm none of those AP tests are that hard... have you seen the national score distribution for them? Plus you need something like a 70-80% to get a 5. If kids are taking any AP and are struggling to pass, or even get at least a 4, they really shouldn't be in the class. Seriously, they're intended to be college-level (even though most are obviously not). Do you think it's acceptable for college kids to struggle to get a 70% in an intro-level freshman class, which is then curved 25% to be an A? What intro course at which school would that be normal? And I'm not talking about MIT math or Harvard cs "intro" courses that are harder than 3rd and 4th year classes at other schools.

Our kids have or will have breezed through all their APs but that's only because the content is not that hard, not because the HB experience was so rigorous. They have, however, seen plenty of kids at HB doing poorly in AP/DE and have helped them out many times throughout the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB. The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare?

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB). Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs. Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading. It is a difficult class. Most of them fail the first test. My kid did. They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing. My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that. The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year. The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores.

APUSH is not one of the easier APs. At all.

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to.

Hmm none of those AP tests are that hard... have you seen the national score distribution for them? Plus you need something like a 70-80% to get a 5. If kids are taking any AP and are struggling to pass, or even get at least a 4, they really shouldn't be in the class. Seriously, they're intended to be college-level (even though most are obviously not). Do you think it's acceptable for college kids to struggle to get a 70% in an intro-level freshman class, which is then curved 25% to be an A? What intro course at which school would that be normal? And I'm not talking about MIT math or Harvard cs "intro" courses that are harder than 3rd and 4th year classes at other schools.

Our kids have or will have breezed through all their APs but that's only because the content is not that hard, not because the HB experience was so rigorous. They have, however, seen plenty of kids at HB doing poorly in AP/DE and have helped them out many times throughout the years.

My HB kid did mention helping others and also said a decent number of kids dropped multivariable. But this isn't unique to HB. My kid also helped other students at a different APS school.

[Anonymous]

I just love the juxtaposition. The posters who thinks HB is a sub-optimal school are the same posters who think it's "unfair" that the HB kids got the spots their kids wanted.

We see your true colors and they are variations of green.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just love the juxtaposition. The posters who thinks HB is a sub-optimal school are the same posters who think it's "unfair" that the HB kids got the spots their kids wanted.

We see your true colors and they are variations of green.

I don't get the people who are sooooo obsessed with a school their kids don't go to that they spend hours online ranting about it. It's just... weird.

For anyone considering HB, there are advantages and disadvantages to it. It's a lovely place but it's not like a private school either. I'd tend to say the social-emotional and community aspects are the best part. You do have to make some sacrifices with academics, extracurriculars, and electives. The small school social environment is good for some kids, but not for others. Like a lot of things, it's a trade off. Do your research. I did ask questions and talk to HB parents but even so, I didn't know about some of the downsides before my kid went there. That's why I try to post so people can make informed decisions. It's so weird when people whose kids don't even go there try to refute my info and claim the disadvantages are somehow advantages.

One of the worst parts of going to HB is the crazy conspiracy theorists who constantly just say off the wall things about a school they know nothing about. Thankfully, they don't tend to show themselves in real life. Maybe because even they know how crazy they sound.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just love the juxtaposition. The posters who thinks HB is a sub-optimal school are the same posters who think it's "unfair" that the HB kids got the spots their kids wanted.

We see your true colors and they are variations of green.

I don't get the people who are sooooo obsessed with a school their kids don't go to that they spend hours online ranting about it. It's just... weird.

For anyone considering HB, there are advantages and disadvantages to it. It's a lovely place but it's not like a private school either. I'd tend to say the social-emotional and community aspects are the best part. You do have to make some sacrifices with academics, extracurriculars, and electives. The small school social environment is good for some kids, but not for others. Like a lot of things, it's a trade off. Do your research. I did ask questions and talk to HB parents but even so, I didn't know about some of the downsides before my kid went there. That's why I try to post so people can make informed decisions. It's so weird when people whose kids don't even go there try to refute my info and claim the disadvantages are somehow advantages.

One of the worst parts of going to HB is the crazy conspiracy theorists who constantly just say off the wall things about a school they know nothing about. Thankfully, they don't tend to show themselves in real life. Maybe because even they know how crazy they sound.

I honestly don’t care much about HBW other than it should be bigger than it is. It slurped up $100M of the county treasury and it should be servicing more kids. Move the middle school HBW to ghost town WMS then take on about 500 more high school students at HBW — make it the same size as AT. The campus can support it; at one point the plan was a 1200 seat middle school. Relieve the over capacity neighborhood high schools which is the raison d'être for option schools anyways — to attract students to properties that don’t have all the bells and whistles of comprehensive schools.

Complaining about how I know 4 sibling pairs at HBW sure is fun too, since it’s obviously shady and they don’t publish the student numbers before the lottery.

[Anonymous]

And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know HB people. You gotta know you’re going to get picked on in your brand new building while the rest of our middle school kids are in literal falling down hovels. Small price to pay while we fight over some pathetic scraps to half ass some renovations for the rest of the middle schools to maybe do some small improvements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

I'm done trying to provide you with accurate info. Stay ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here’s one of the ranters right on cue!

Spouting uninformed nonsense as usual!

What in my post was incorrect? I had facts and numbers and you throw insults.

I'm done trying to provide you with accurate info. Stay ignorant.

Uh new poster and the persons statements are accurate. Say what is incorrrct.