GCM

[Anonymous]

Talk to me about this school. How intense is their Academy? What about their Honors Curriculum?

[Anonymous]

What is GCM? Never heard of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is GCM? Never heard of it.

It's Marshall HS (George C. Marshall HS). I am not sure what you mean by the Academy being intense - they are elective classes taught in many different subjects by different teachers. Some have certification tests at the end, some do not. Some are easier than others. They do have a wide variety of classes there which I think is great.

[Anonymous]

Marshall is a great school, smaller than many in FCPS, and the most successful IB program in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

However, if you would rather your child have the AP curriculum instead of the IB, you can transfer to the closest AP HS. Same for the students in the AP HS- they can transfer to the closest IB HS. We are in the McLean pyramid, but if our DC wants to take IB, he can transfer to Marshall.

[Anonymous]

New poster. What about their teachers? Any issues there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

However, if you would rather your child have the AP curriculum instead of the IB, you can transfer to the closest AP HS. Same for the students in the AP HS- they can transfer to the closest IB HS. We are in the McLean pyramid, but if our DC wants to take IB, he can transfer to Marshall.

Which program do colleges favor these days? Back when I was in HS, it was all about AP, AP. No one even heard about IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

However, if you would rather your child have the AP curriculum instead of the IB, you can transfer to the closest AP HS. Same for the students in the AP HS- they can transfer to the closest IB HS. We are in the McLean pyramid, but if our DC wants to take IB, he can transfer to Marshall.

Which program do colleges favor these days? Back when I was in HS, it was all about AP, AP. No one even heard about IB.

IB is new and is now seen as the same as AP classes.

Right now Marshall is driving really hard to continue to excel by offering some of the widest range of high quality classes and programs in the area. They are driven because about 10 years a go and earlier it was not considered a good school in comparison to McLean, Madison, Oakton, Woodson etc... With the continual revitalization of the area I think it will help the school in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

However, if you would rather your child have the AP curriculum instead of the IB, you can transfer to the closest AP HS. Same for the students in the AP HS- they can transfer to the closest IB HS. We are in the McLean pyramid, but if our DC wants to take IB, he can transfer to Marshall.

Which program do colleges favor these days? Back when I was in HS, it was all about AP, AP. No one even heard about IB.

IB is new and is now seen as the same as AP classes.

Right now Marshall is driving really hard to continue to excel by offering some of the widest range of high quality classes and programs in the area. They are driven because about 10 years a go and earlier it was not considered a good school in comparison to McLean, Madison, Oakton, Woodson etc... With the continual revitalization of the area I think it will help the school in the future.

I wouldn't send a child to an IB school unless I knew for sure that he or she would pursue the full IB diploma. I think that's one reason why the AP schools that historically have been considered the "top" schools in the county (Langley, McLean, Madison, Oakton and Woodson) continue to be considered somewhat more desirable than Marshall. Most families prefer the greater flexibility that AP offers. But colleges are certainly very acquainted by now with both programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New poster. What about their teachers? Any issues there?

As in any high school, there are some outstanding teachers. There are also average teachers. My daughter (class of 2012) encountered only one bad teacher and AFAIK he is not there anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster. What about their teachers? Any issues there?

As in any high school, there are some outstanding teachers. There are also average teachers. My daughter (class of 2012) encountered only one bad teacher and AFAIK he is not there anymore.

We had two kids at Marshall. We thought the teachers were mostly OK. In general, we thought the newer teachers were better. Some of the older teachers seemed to be just waiting for retirement and letting the kids teach themselves (hopefully they are gone now). The foreign language teachers weren't very demanding and were not impressive. The best teacher our kids had at GCM was a fabulous math teacher who has since transferred to Langley - don't know why she left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster. What about their teachers? Any issues there?

As in any high school, there are some outstanding teachers. There are also average teachers. My daughter (class of 2012) encountered only one bad teacher and AFAIK he is not there anymore.

We had two kids at Marshall. We thought the teachers were mostly OK. In general, we thought the newer teachers were better. Some of the older teachers seemed to be just waiting for retirement and letting the kids teach themselves (hopefully they are gone now). The foreign language teachers weren't very demanding and were not impressive. The best teacher our kids had at GCM was a fabulous math teacher who has since transferred to Langley - don't know why she left.

This is true of most FCPS high schools, and my dc's middle school as well. They range from great to worthless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marshall is IB. If you would rather have your child do an AP curriculum, then depending on your house location, you child may transfer to McLean or Madison or Falls Church- which ever is physically the closest and accepting transfers.

OP here. In our case, Marshall is actually closer to us. We live about 1.5 miles away from school.

However, if you would rather your child have the AP curriculum instead of the IB, you can transfer to the closest AP HS. Same for the students in the AP HS- they can transfer to the closest IB HS. We are in the McLean pyramid, but if our DC wants to take IB, he can transfer to Marshall.

Which program do colleges favor these days? Back when I was in HS, it was all about AP, AP. No one even heard about IB.

IB is new and is now seen as the same as AP classes.

Right now Marshall is driving really hard to continue to excel by offering some of the widest range of high quality classes and programs in the area. They are driven because about 10 years a go and earlier it was not considered a good school in comparison to McLean, Madison, Oakton, Woodson etc... With the continual revitalization of the area I think it will help the school in the future.

I wouldn't send a child to an IB school unless I knew for sure that he or she would pursue the full IB diploma. I think that's one reason why the AP schools that historically have been considered the "top" schools in the county (Langley, McLean, Madison, Oakton and Woodson) continue to be considered somewhat more desirable than Marshall. Most families prefer the greater flexibility that AP offers. But colleges are certainly very acquainted by now with both programs.

Colleges accept IB classes the same as AP on a one by one basis regardless if pursuing an IB diploma. Achieving an IB disploma does add another plus to the student's college application where as AP doesn't have an equivalent diploma award. There is no to very little difference in terms of IB and AP acceptance in college now a days.