I had a similar experience in California. It was the best educational opportunity (almost like a private school experience) and I found the AP exams to be extremely easy because it was mostly content knowledge and not as much critical thinking (we also had to take both). I think the issue in FCPS is an economic one. People don't like IB because it's in poor schools. We are actually fairly happy with our experience in South Lakes, though. |
We had kids at both AP and IB schools in FCPS and much preferred the environment and experience at the AP school. Not because it was higher SES, although it was, but because all the students were treated well, unlike at the IB school where the handful of IB diploma candidates were put on a pedestal and everyone else (the vast majority of the students) was second-class. |
That's patronizing. We prefer AP because of its approach to core academic subjects, and we prefer the local AP high school over the IB pupil placement option because it has a larger cohort of high-achieving kids. We don't care how much their parents make or what cars they drive. |
I don't think it is deliberate, but the nature of the IB program encourages an insular group of kids. With the flexibility of AP, there is not the isolation that you find with IB. Especially in the large schools, there is such a vast choice of AP courses from which to choose. Since most of the IB schools are smaller, the IB choices are more limiting and, especially for those pursuing the diploma program, isolating from the rest of the school. |
I have a junior at an FCPS IB school. She is doing the full IB diploma, and not only is she not "on a pedestal" but no one even seems to know who is and who isn't doing the diploma. The kids can only tell by who is in their TOK class, or if they ask them personally. All of her friends are taking mostly IB classes, but only a handful are doing the diploma. |
That wasn't our experience. The AP school felt more inclusive and, despite the purported emphasis on writing at IB schools, we actually found that the teachers at the AP school were more demanding and provided more feedback on written essays. |
| Robinson had 164 IB diploma candidates in the class of 2017 - that is hardly a handful, nor is it a "poor" school. You can't generalize about the FCPS IB program because every school is different, just like the schools that only offer AP classes. Some are better than others. |
+1 My experience has also been that AP schools put more emphasis on meaningful, quality writing. |
I wonder whether, given a choice today, parents of rising 9th graders zoned for Robinson would vote to retain IB or move back to AP. It seems like that might curtail the large number of pupil placements to Lake Braddock. |
IB teachers give an ENORMOUS amount of feedback on essays. |
No, the stronger students tend to be in the high SES schools, which happen to be in AP schools. Plenty of strong students in the IB schools. |
Again, not our experience. The IB teachers gave a lot of praise for "writing by the kilo," and the AP teachers provided more constructive, focused feedback. |
But, you see, this has NOTHING to do with AP. There is no AP integrated curriculum. AP is just a collection of individual class curriculi, that's it. Don't be fooled by this new ridiculous capstone thing that they created to give the impression that it is something more akin to IB. AP schools can certainly produce strong writers, but that's a consequence of the English/Social Studies departments and the number of students willing to take the stronger classes. |
You sound more than a little desperate. I'm sorry that IB hasn't quite taken root in FCPS after 20 years of trying, but the AP schools in the area continue to have the edge and attract the stronger students. Don't worry. I'm sure some can still be fooled into thinking that IB is an "integrated curriculum" that will enables students to think holistically on their way to becoming enlightened "global citizens," but sometimes the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Too much busywork and not enough flexibility make IB the second choice among higher SES families in this region. |
It would be interesting to see, if given a chance to vote or otherwise express a preference, how many of the IB pyramids would choose to stay IB and how many would choose to go back to AP. |