Robinson dumping AP classes and focusing on IB
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Anonymous
You are incorrect. Very few milktary kids attend high school in Europe. |
Anonymous
This question is a prime example of what people do not understand about the Robinson area. I've lived in KPW for 20 years, taught at Robinson and Lake Braddock until I retired and know both communities well. First, the people who are military typically fall into two camps. First, many people moved to this area and bought homes early in their careers, sent their children to elementary school for some time and then rented out their homes until they were closer to retirement/exit from the military. These families then returned to the area and took jobs as contractors (supplementing their retirement or reserve pay) with their new income. Usually these people arrived back when their kids were starting high school or in middle school (which makes sense for officers -- most of whom have post-graduate degrees and were older -- well for the military not DC-- when they had kids). Robinson AND Lake Braddock communities are full of these families. People usually are fine where they are once they find a house. These people don't care about IB, but like the area and are fine generally. Most who live walking distance send their kids to Robinson. The bulk (until over the past 5-10 years) of placements to lake Braddock were AAP kids. This dropped dramatically over the past 10 years --some due to the Lake Braddock issues (principal/admin drama) and some due to just the ebb and flow of preference of the families. The other point is that not all Robinson kids place in Lake Braddock for AP. Most do, but many place in Centreville, South County or Woodson. For these kids, they often just go to Robinson instead of spending middle school in one place, high school in a different one that isn't full of their center friends or neighborhood friends. The county cracked down on pupil placement for AP at Lake Braddock about 15 years ago and started holding the line that if you live closer to some school, you go there unless it's full (So, some Woodson and Centreville kids ended up at Fairfax for example for a bit but Woodson is open now judging from the graduation signs in my neighborhood). The second group is indeed international military families. Robinson is actually sought out by these folks and there are a lot of them (because these are officers working in the Pentagon). These families had kids overseas in IB schools and they actually want to continue this for consistency sake. Many military family forums actually recommend the Robinson schools for this reason (if you look at rentals during high season (late spring) you will see IB being mentioned because that is often a search term). I will say that Robinson and Lake Braddock (to a slightly lesser extent) fairly uniformly middle class/upper middle class. It's not rich, rich. But these kids are resourced. The families seem more content with their choices than other schools in the county. |
Anonymous
+1. Also keep in mind that Mount Vernon is the base high school for families living at Fort Belvoir and there are large pupil placements out of MVHS every year to avoid that school and its IB program. |
Anonymous
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Does anyone else want to tell the school board members pushing IB on fcps to quit trying to make fetch happen?
No one wants IB. It increases disparities between and within schools. Make one school in each half of the county an IB magnet and drop it everywhere else. |
Anonymous
Again, you don't know what you are talking about. There are many DOD schools at bases around the world that do use the IB program. It's not just Europe. It is weird how much people hate the IB program. Why? |
Anonymous
That base is NOT the same base where the bulk of Robinson military parents work. These people work at the Pentagon. |
Anonymous
For a school with a catchment area the size of Robinson, the enrollment seems quite low. Granted some of the areas have big lot sizes, but others do not. I'm sure there are some military families who want to continue in IB based on prior assignments, but the number of military families at Hayfield, Lake Braddock, and West Springfield seems larger. |
Anonymous
For families choosing Robinson, IB makes sense. For these other schools, obviously, having AP classes works. It's good for the military families to have these choices. I don't know why people keep crapping on Robinson. What's the point of this thread? |
Anonymous
Again, they are still offering calc bc next year. This year, there are 4 AP classes offered. AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Statistics, and APUSH. APUSH is the ONLY course being dropped. You can argue that IB is dumb if that's how you feel, but all this hullabaloo over literally 1 course changing seems ridiculous. |
Anonymous
Fairfax Station doesn't have as much housing inventory that A) turns over frequently, B) that military can afford, and C) that has public transportation to the Pentagon. |
Anonymous
Years and years and years ago, high schools got to choose if they went AP or IB. This is 15+ years ago. Each school did it differently, either principal choice, community surveys, etc. No idea how Robinson did it at the time. |
Anonymous
West Potomac and Mt Vernon are the pyramids most convenient to the pentagon. |
Anonymous
Families living on Belvior know that they can call any principal and get their kids enrolled. West Springfield and Hayfield are the most popular choices from the families that we know living on base |
Anonymous
A student can also take 1 IB class and get credit. I feel like most people complaining about the program know nothing about it. Yes, IB courses are 2 year sequences, but so are all AP courses when you think about it. Basically no one is taking AP chem without honors chem first (2 year sequence). No one takes AP English Lit without honors English the year before. IB just calls "Honors chem" "IB Chem 1". You COULD jump straight to year 2 technically, but it would be really, really, really hard. |
Anonymous
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