Apex at WJ?

[Anonymous]

As someone with an 8th grader, this is all somewhat frustrating. MCPS is promoting the ib programs to the kids and combined with the rumors among the kids about dilution of Apex, my kid is now asking to go to one of the IB programs. I don’t like the idea or losing the many benefits of a neighborhood school for the IB program.

[Anonymous]

It's especially frustrating that WJ doesn't seem in any hurry to publicize the changes so that 8th graders and their parents know what their options really are. If they are making changes for next year, they should be out already because kids are making decisions about high school choices right now. WJ will definitely lose students to various magnet programs - Blair, RM, etc. - if the program becomes less competitive and rigorous.

[Anonymous]

A few other threads on this forum indicate a problem with staff morale at WJ. Anyone have any insight on that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they made it something you could choose to do or not, it will be like the ACES program they have for science. I’m not sure you’ll get that many more kids. My kid for instance does a sport 20+ hours/week and is more interested in sciences. She wants to be able to pick her own APs that lean towards math/science not humanities. Although I encouraged her to apply, she knew it wasn’t for her. But I know a few of her friends applied and had they been admitted, I’m not sure they would have stuck it out. So, you might also have more attrition.

I'm not criticizing your dd's choice, but for other future WJ parents' information -- kids can do APEX plus time-consuming sports as well as heavy math/science. My senior has done both lots of math/science APs as well as a 20+ hours/week sport and will graduate with both APEX and ACES. In fact, my senior kid is so much of a math/science kid that I'm happy they did APEX to help balance out the math/science with some more in-depth humanities exposure. There's only 3 APEX classes freshman year, 2 sophomore year, 1 junior year, and senior year is only the capstone. Again, I'm not criticizing the quoted poster's daughter -- I think highly of WJ and think any kid can tailor a challenging curriculum whether or not s/he does APEX, ACES, or any other alphabet soup program -- just wanted to emphasize that it's not like say Eastern with the major focus on humanities or like TPMS with the major focus on STEM. The kid has the flexibility to make APEX what s/he wants.

And I really hope they keep the quality of the curriculum and teaching of the APEX classes just as high as they are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few other threads on this forum indicate a problem with staff morale at WJ. Anyone have any insight on that?

Just a guess - overcrowding. According to DD, it’s getting hard to navigate through the hallways.