If you could do it all over again…IB vs AP High School

[Anonymous]

I like the IB program. I don’t think the lower SEC schools have the best teachers. So the delivery of the program was inadequate. Students didn’t have math texts (or working links to access on line), some language teachers were incompetent, and they didn’t read enough books in English. The IB program can be excellent, but investigate the teachers at the HS where you will attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the IB program. I don’t think the lower SEC schools have the best teachers. So the delivery of the program was inadequate. Students didn’t have math texts (or working links to access on line), some language teachers were incompetent, and they didn’t read enough books in English. The IB program can be excellent, but investigate the teachers at the HS where you will attend.

How long ago was your kid in IB?

Are you referring to a high school in the DC-MD-VA region or are you posting from elsewhere? (For all I know the OP is posting from outside this area as well, I'm just thinking that if OP is local to the DC region, he or she might want to know which school you mean.)

What do you mean by "they didn't read enough books in English"? Was this a high school where the primary language was not English, or were you outside the US--?

Just clarifying. I agree with you that teachers make all the difference but also I'm not sure how one investigates individual teachers. You can ask around but people's biases really get in the way, and there's no way to know if their kid had a bad experience due to the teacher's poor teaching or due to some other factor. My DC had one teacher whom some parents and kids we knew said they hated, and DC really liked her and her teaching style. I guess one can ask about objective things like how much IB official training a teacher has had, how long they've taught that subject as an IB subject, etc., but beyond that things can get very subjective very quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP. It’s designed for students planning to attend college in the U.S. Maybe if our kid were planning to attend a university abroad we’d consider IB. But the better high schools in FCPS are also AP schools so that would have to be factored in as well.

OP, there is a misperception sometimes that IB is only for kids who might go abroad to college. Not accurate. US universities understand IB perfectly well and value it. Colleges in the US recognize students for taking whatever is the "most rigorous" academic path at their high schools, whether that is AP or IB. Posters here like to say that US colleges don't understand IB and do understand AP, but that wasn't at all the case for our kid's applications. I would bet that the other parents posting here about IB and college likely would say the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t you take AP classes and exams in the IB program?

High schools often, maybe even usually, are either IB high schools or AP high schools, at least here in the DCUM area. IB students can opt to take AP exams in subjects where they want to do that, but in my experience usually they have not also done the AP course for the school year, they just take the exam at the end of the year. (But not at their own school where there's no AP.) I think there are a few schools where there are both types of classes, maybe, but I don't know of one around here. In short, don't ever assume a student will have both available to him or her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB or sure, it emphasizes critical thinking along with writing.

Sounds like a canned response. IB jargon typically consists of references to “critical thinking” and “global citizenship,” but it’s largely hype - at least as executed in FCPS. As PP noted, the overwhelming majority of students at IB schools in FCPS don’t get IB diplomas.

And that poster also thought that was a wasted opportunity. The curriculum is valuable for students that want to put in the work.

Every single curriculum can be valuable if you put in the work; it's not unique to IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB or sure, it emphasizes critical thinking along with writing.

And AP doesn’t? How would you even know which program did more of that?

Lol AP requires memorization not writing. You obviously don’t know the IB at all you’re thinking this is a valid comparison

Actually I don’t know what AP is like, my DS is just starting some IB classes so I’m waiting to see what “critical thinking” means in IB.

[Anonymous]

To 00:30s questions:
OP said FCPS and I replied for Fairfax County Public Schools.
Im not naming the school because teachers change.
I went to a PTA meeting where they proudly presented facts on how many students passed IB exams. I knew my child’s language class was weak, but I found out in the history of IB at the school no one had passed that language. My kid was set up for failure.
I saw the list of books the PTA paid for every child to have in another FCPS. My kids were given copies of the books they read in English, but the reading list was short throughout HS. Compared to what? Not just local schools in richer areas but to my own experience in a non-local underfunded public city HS. How can you find this stuff out? Ask for the reading lists. I wish I knew to do this in advance. We wound up buying math and science textbooks so our kids had them. When we asked one of our kids how other students were managing, they said kids were taking pictures on their phones of the text pages day by day in class, when they Could borrow them from the teacher during class time only. My kids did feel like they were encouraged to bring critical analysis to their reading and discussion in English. I’ve wondered many times if we should have figured out a way to do private school, though my kids felt like having the diversity in the public school balanced the experience of inadequate resources. Again, this isn’t about the IB curriculum, it’s about the delivery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP, hands down.

Look at the six top neighborhood high schools in FCPS: Langley, McLean, Oakton, Madison, Woodson, and Chantilly. They are all AP.

If IB provided any advantage, parents at these top schools would be demanding IB at their schools. They aren’t. In fact, when FCPS tried to saddle Woodson with IB, the parents organized to get the decision overturned.,

Conversely, IB is concentrated in the county’s poorest high schools, where parents are less vocal, and less likely to object to a program that infatuated FCPS for a brief period in the late 90s and early 00s, but really hasn’t worked out very well. Schools like Annandale, Justice, Lewis, and Mount Vernon are demonstrably weaker than they were 20 years ago pre-IB.

As for IB’s heavy emphasis on writing, there is also a lot of writing requires in many AP courses, including the AP Capstone courses. However, AP courses generally focus more on the acquisition of substantive knowledge, and there’s less busy work.

I don’t disagree but those schools you listed are in the top bc they are the richest. Period. And well the lowest scoring IB ones are the poorest. It’s almost like, hear me out, college acceptances have more to do with SES and not AP vs IB. Imagine that!

[Anonymous]

My kids are slated for an IB school. I think it will work well for one but I’m hesitant with the other one who is more STEM Vs writing student.

[Anonymous]

There is definitely a lot of writing in some of the AP classes English, Seminar, Research and some of the history classes as well. I don’t know how parents can compare unless their kid has taken both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely a lot of writing in some of the AP classes English, Seminar, Research and some of the history classes as well. I don’t know how parents can compare unless their kid has taken both.

One did AP, the other one IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely a lot of writing in some of the AP classes English, Seminar, Research and some of the history classes as well. I don’t know how parents can compare unless their kid has taken both.

One did AP, the other one IB.

So are you team IB or team AP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AP, we are a science and math family and it fits us better.

I’m a teacher and science and math seem stronger in AP vs. IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP, we are a science and math family and it fits us better.

I’m a teacher and science and math seem stronger in AP vs. IB

IB science is strong. Issue is that our district required students choose a 2 year track...either bio or physics. They get a deeper, comprehensive look at one and ate lacking in the other IMO. Solution we came up with was to have the bio focused kids take a physics course in college, and the physics kid take some bio in college.

IMO both are important and a well educated person should have some basic knowledge of both disciplines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is definitely a lot of writing in some of the AP classes English, Seminar, Research and some of the history classes as well. I don’t know how parents can compare unless their kid has taken both.

One did AP, the other one IB.

So are you team IB or team AP?

We liked IB better.