Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fcps.edu/academics/graduation-requirements-and-course-planning/college-credit-high-school/international

Why is it that fcps offers IB program in Mount Vernon/Lewis/Justice/..., but not in McClean/Langley/Oakton/...?

You chose not to include Marshall and Robinson. Those are not low SES schools.

They're all the same. It's a standard program. I know that's not what your real estate agent told you but it's true.

Our prior real estate agent kept encouraging us to move out of our Title 1 pyramid because she said the schools were bad. She wanted us to move to the Langley pyramid. We got a new real estate agent. Not that we have anything against Langley but we disagreed strongly that our schools were bad and were very happy with how are kids were doing and we love our neighborhood. Our kids are in college and high school now and we have no regrets.

I call shenanigans. The people who can afford Langley but instead choose Title 1 number around zero.

Not true, but I can imagine some might think this. Looking at a school's bulk average isn't a real measure of the quality or opportunity that is present. We weren't at a Title 1 but not exactly a high-income area either and our kids went through all the elite programs from AAP LIV through TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fcps.edu/academics/graduation-requirements-and-course-planning/college-credit-high-school/international

Why is it that fcps offers IB program in Mount Vernon/Lewis/Justice/..., but not in McClean/Langley/Oakton/...?

You chose not to include Marshall and Robinson. Those are not low SES schools.

They're all the same. It's a standard program. I know that's not what your real estate agent told you but it's true.

Our prior real estate agent kept encouraging us to move out of our Title 1 pyramid because she said the schools were bad. She wanted us to move to the Langley pyramid. We got a new real estate agent. Not that we have anything against Langley but we disagreed strongly that our schools were bad and were very happy with how are kids were doing and we love our neighborhood. Our kids are in college and high school now and we have no regrets.

I call shenanigans. The people who can afford Langley but instead choose Title 1 number around zero.

Not true, but I can imagine some might think this. Looking at a school's bulk average isn't a real measure of the quality or opportunity that is present. We weren't at a Title 1 but not exactly a high-income area either and our kids went through all the elite programs from AAP LIV through TJ.

Exactly. Not Langley.

We're at a median pyramid and it's fine. But we wouldn't pick Title I over where we are and no one with a Langley budget would pick a house in a Title I area and send their DC to the local school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools is much more.. Every course that is taught on Math, Science, CS side is more in depth and the testing way tougher than in a regular High school. Grading is tougher. So how do colleges not keep this in mind while evaluating student applications. It is definitely easy to get A's in a HS where rigor is lesser ! Looking for advice

When it comes to coursework, both regular high schools and TJ have minimum graduation requirements. While TJ's requirements are notably higher than those of a base HS, merely meeting the minimum won't obviously suffice at either schools. However, at TJ, the minimum math requirement is Calc AB, but most students go beyond that to take Calc BC and often pursue one or more advanced math courses. Given the potential for inflated GPAs and variations across schools, externally validated indicators like AP scores carry significant weight. Whether it's TJ or base HS, maintaining an overall GPA of 4 or higher is typically expected from competitive applicants. Whether it's a 4.0 or a 4.3, it doesn't make a significant difference.

Colleges take into account whether students have challenged themselves with the most rigorous courses available at their respective schools. For TJ, this often means completing courses like AP Calc BC, AP Physics/Chem/Bio, AP Statistics, AP Lang, AP Lit, and four additional AP courses in humanities (e.g., history, macro/micro econ, gov), alongside electives. If a student from a regular high school manages to complete a similar number of AP courses and achieves similar scores, they can stand on equal footing with an above average TJ student, regardless of the rigor of coursework and grading at TJ. Strong AP scores can naturally drive higher SAT scores, which are also expected to be near perfect for competitive student. 1560 or 1600 is treated the same.

Your question narrowly focuses on coursework, which constitutes only half of the college application. The next quarter of the application involves demonstrating in-depth study and passion through activities such as research publication, participation in national-level competitions, and relevant internships. Here, a TJ student, depending on their utilization of available opportunities and peer support, can differentiate themselves from a base high school student applicant. Nevertheless, if a base high school student manages to get their research paper published in a reputable journal, participates in or wins national/world-level competitions, and secures an internship at a prestigious institution like Google Research, they will surpass a TJ applicant lacking these credentials.

The final quarter of the application makeup includes school team sports, volunteer work, extracurricular activities like clubs, team projects, recommendation letters, and personal essays, among others. TJ's advantage lies in its offering of over 80 clubs, with dedicated blocks for participation during school hours, giving its students an edge over base high school students who may need to figure out how to fit these activities into their after-school schedules. Leadership roles, club size, concrete work products, and publicly recognized accomplishments matter more than mere enrollment. The same applies to school sports and volunteer work. These achievements should be mentioned by by teacher, coach, and counselor recommendation letters and should be passionately addressed in the personal essay.

When it comes to college admissions, all evidence shows that applicants primarily compete within their own racial classification, unfortunately.

Those APs are not the most rigorous courses at TJ. My kid got 5s in all his APs without even trying. The post AP courses are the hard ones. TJ doesn't (or didn't) offer AP lit. Not many top students are going to bother with the econ APs or AP stats because they are taking more interesting post APs.

I think people overestimate how much part time temp college application readers beyond this region understand about the rigor of TJ (or for that matter Sidwell or GDS).

Can you list all TJ courses your child found challenging?

No, because I'm not digging out his transcript. The coursework and TJ assessments were much harder than the AP exams, which is why so many kids get 5s while struggling to get an A during the year. Kids sit AP exams without ever doing the AP course eg AP world history, and still score 5s because even honors courses are taught to a high level. The TJ multivariable calculus tests were much harder than the final, which was a George Mason University test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fcps.edu/academics/graduation-requirements-and-course-planning/college-credit-high-school/international

Why is it that fcps offers IB program in Mount Vernon/Lewis/Justice/..., but not in McClean/Langley/Oakton/...?

You chose not to include Marshall and Robinson. Those are not low SES schools.

They're all the same. It's a standard program. I know that's not what your real estate agent told you but it's true.

Our prior real estate agent kept encouraging us to move out of our Title 1 pyramid because she said the schools were bad. She wanted us to move to the Langley pyramid. We got a new real estate agent. Not that we have anything against Langley but we disagreed strongly that our schools were bad and were very happy with how are kids were doing and we love our neighborhood. Our kids are in college and high school now and we have no regrets.

I call shenanigans. The people who can afford Langley but instead choose Title 1 number around zero.

Not true, but I can imagine some might think this. Looking at a school's bulk average isn't a real measure of the quality or opportunity that is present. We weren't at a Title 1 but not exactly a high-income area either and our kids went through all the elite programs from AAP LIV through TJ.

Exactly. Not Langley.

We're at a median pyramid and it's fine. But we wouldn't pick Title I over where we are and no one with a Langley budget would pick a house in a Title I area and send their DC to the local school.

I don’t even know how to respond to this but to say you are wrong. We have a Langley budget and 100% chose our school over Langley/Yorktown/Meridian or any other supposed “better” school. And there are plenty of people in my neighborhood who have done the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools is much more.. Every course that is taught on Math, Science, CS side is more in depth and the testing way tougher than in a regular High school. Grading is tougher. So how do colleges not keep this in mind while evaluating student applications. It is definielty easy to get A's in a HS where rigor is lesser ! Looking for advice

Top colleges have a quota on TJ and also have a soft quota on Asians.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

You are just typing whatever you want.
However, all factual data supports:
Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

Yes, there's a high-achieving cohort at Mount Vernon, and you can take the exact same class. The main difference the school demographics are different which results in different test score averages, but that has little impact on what is taught in a standardized IB class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

DP. That's what I thought too. But I know a couple kids who recently graduated from Lewis and they were not prepared for college, as in, returning home during their freshman year or choosing community college or taking a gap year that turned into another and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fcps.edu/academics/graduation-requirements-and-course-planning/college-credit-high-school/international

Why is it that fcps offers IB program in Mount Vernon/Lewis/Justice/..., but not in McClean/Langley/Oakton/...?

You chose not to include Marshall and Robinson. Those are not low SES schools.

They're all the same. It's a standard program. I know that's not what your real estate agent told you but it's true.

Our prior real estate agent kept encouraging us to move out of our Title 1 pyramid because she said the schools were bad. She wanted us to move to the Langley pyramid. We got a new real estate agent. Not that we have anything against Langley but we disagreed strongly that our schools were bad and were very happy with how are kids were doing and we love our neighborhood. Our kids are in college and high school now and we have no regrets.

I call shenanigans. The people who can afford Langley but instead choose Title 1 number around zero.

Not simple shenanigans, but of troll order.

My neighbor's wife's dad's son-in-law's neighbor is a real estate agent, once had to fire a crazy client who so much wanted a house in Langley neighborhood but was scared schools were crazy competitive, and wasted everyone's time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

Yes, there's a high-achieving cohort at Mount Vernon, and you can take the exact same class. The main difference the school demographics are different which results in different test score averages, but that has little impact on what is taught in a standardized IB class.

There are kids Mount Vernon who can write AP textbooks with one hand while dropping norhing but the net shots with the other. Can Langley kids ever come remotely close to that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools is much more.. Every course that is taught on Math, Science, CS side is more in depth and the testing way tougher than in a regular High school. Grading is tougher. So how do colleges not keep this in mind while evaluating student applications. It is definielty easy to get A's in a HS where rigor is lesser ! Looking for advice

Top colleges have a quota on TJ and also have a soft quota on Asians.

Source ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

DP. That's what I thought too. But I know a couple kids who recently graduated from Lewis and they were not prepared for college, as in, returning home during their freshman year or choosing community college or taking a gap year that turned into another and so on.

Crazy I had the exact opposite experience. I knew a couple of kids at Mount Vernon's IB and they were incredibly well prepared for college. In fact, both are at T20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

DP. That's what I thought too. But I know a couple kids who recently graduated from Lewis and they were not prepared for college, as in, returning home during their freshman year or choosing community college or taking a gap year that turned into another and so on.

I find it difficult to believe that your anecdote is the norm for graduates from those schools. For first-gen or non-native English graduates, sure, understandable that they struggle.

But I do not buy that the IB grading scale is somehow flawed at Lewis, MV, Justice, etc. IB grades and scores are externally normalized across participants just like AP is. So it's not logical that kids who pass IB are somehow doing so much worse in college than everyone else just because they came from certain high schools and not from Robinson, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn't even even in different high schools in FCPS. My sophomore at Langley has a friend who switched from another FCPS school and was getting all 100's and now is horrified to be struggling at Langley with B and C's. And yet I'm sure the high school the kid is at previously would do better in college admissions.

Sounds like your kid and their friend are in general ed classes. Obviously general ed at Langley is at a higher level than general ed at Mt. Vernon. But then again those other general ed kids aren't applying to UVA so I wouldn't worry about them.

However, teachers who teach AP/IB use prior year AP/IB format questions on their classroom tests. So the rigor across AP/IB schools is essentially standardized to that difficulty.

If you think IB rigor at Mount Vernon is similar to AP rigor at Langley, you’re delusional.

Yes, it's well known that IB is far more challenging than any AP course.

Nice try, but very wrong. Gen Ed at Langley is more challenging than IB at Mount Vernon.

Do you have a student at Langley in Gen Ed classes and a student at Mount Vernon in IB classes? My guess is the answer is NO.

I am a parent of student who graduated from Mount Vernon this past spring. I also have a child who graduated two years ago from one of the private schools in the DMV. The private high school has as high or even higher SES population as the students at Langley High School. The private school sends 99% of its graduates to four year colleges, so their Gen Ed classes are all college prep. My private school kid's Gen Ed classes were very similar to the Honors courses at Mount Vernon. My private school DC also took a couple of AP courses. Mount Vernon offers AP Govt and AP Stats. Both of my children were taking AP Govt at the exact same time. They were using the exact same textbook. They had very comparable homework assignments. You know what was different? My Mount Vernon student had fewer students in his class than my private high school kid did. At the end of the year, they took the exact same AP exam.

The big difference inside an Honors class or an IB at Mount Vernon is the size (teacher/student ratio) - especially as you get into the IB classes in 11th and 12th grade. Mount Vernon has 11 students per teacher. Langley has 16 students per teacher. My DC had 6 (six) students in his IB math class last year. How many students are in AP Calculus at Langley? There are extremely bright, motivated, high achieving students at Mount Vernon HS. They are being challenged in the classroom. There just aren't huge numbers of them. That's the difference.

DP. That's what I thought too. But I know a couple kids who recently graduated from Lewis and they were not prepared for college, as in, returning home during their freshman year or choosing community college or taking a gap year that turned into another and so on.

Crazy I had the exact opposite experience. I knew a couple of kids at Mount Vernon's IB and they were incredibly well prepared for college. In fact, both are at T20s.

You are almost accurate. Mount Vernon's IB kids mostly go to T10, not T20. One can argue T10 is part of T20, but I'll stay out of that quibble.