Robinson dumping AP classes and focusing on IB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas.

You are incorrect.

Very few milktary kids attend high school in Europe.

+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.

That base is NOT the same base where the bulk of Robinson military parents work. These people work at the Pentagon.

West Potomac and Mt Vernon are the pyramids most convenient to the pentagon.

[Anonymous]

Again you don't know this area. Both Lake Braddock and Robinson have communities with express busses to the Pentagon (as well as the VRE).

Stop talking about things you don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas.

You are incorrect.

Very few milktary kids attend high school in Europe.

+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.

That base is NOT the same base where the bulk of Robinson military parents work. These people work at the Pentagon.

West Potomac and Mt Vernon are the pyramids most convenient to the pentagon.

Says who?
Blue line metro runs straight there. WSHS, Edison, and Lewis have easiest access to the end of the blue line.
Express buses run straight to the pentagon from Burke and WS. Lake Braddock, Robinson, and WSHS are easy access there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas.

You are incorrect.

Very few milktary kids attend high school in Europe.

+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.

That base is NOT the same base where the bulk of Robinson military parents work. These people work at the Pentagon.

West Potomac and Mt Vernon are the pyramids most convenient to the pentagon.

Says who?
Blue line metro runs straight there. WSHS, Edison, and Lewis have easiest access to the end of the blue line.
Express buses run straight to the pentagon from Burke and WS. Lake Braddock, Robinson, and WSHS are easy access there.

The Mt Vernon trail is an easy bike ride for commuters. Rt 1 and the GW are both straight shots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas.

You are incorrect.

Very few milktary kids attend high school in Europe.

+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.

That base is NOT the same base where the bulk of Robinson military parents work. These people work at the Pentagon.

West Potomac and Mt Vernon are the pyramids most convenient to the pentagon.

Says who?
Blue line metro runs straight there. WSHS, Edison, and Lewis have easiest access to the end of the blue line.
Express buses run straight to the pentagon from Burke and WS. Lake Braddock, Robinson, and WSHS are easy access there.

The Mt Vernon trail is an easy bike ride for commuters. Rt 1 and the GW are both straight shots

Lots of people choose Ft. Hunt but there are only so many houses to go around.

Not everyone who is assigned to the Pentagon is automatically given a parking permit.

Great Schools is still a popular website when you're looking for a place to live from across the country, and it's customary to ask around about where to live for good schools and an easy commute. If people are choosing Burke over the Route 1 area, it has nothing to do with whether a school has AP or IB.

[Anonymous]

Regardless of how Robinson ended up with IB in the first place, it would make sense to reassess current community preferences (and regardless of whether a particular IB teacher or parent at Robinson would like to maintain the status quo and/or eliminate AP courses there). We already know that we pay more for IB because the IBO requires dedicated resources at each school that offers the IB diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is a really terrible decision for a school that has so many military kids.

Doesn't fcps have a military liason? Someone needs to get them involved.

IB is useless for military kids.

Which school board member is in cahoots witn the company that owns the IB program?

Not true. A lot of military kids are already accustomed to IB if they’ve been to international schools overseas.

What percentage of military kids do you think are attending international schools abroad? The percentage of deployed abroad hovers around 15%. The percentage deployed abroad whose families accompany them are far lower. It's much more common to be stationed at a base in the US and then have a unit deploy from that base with the family remaining

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.

All of this rings true. We’re an international (though non-military) household, and when we were looking to move to Burke from the city, IB was a bonus. We would have been fine with LBSS, but preferred RSS for that reason. I’m baffled by the hate for IB in these threads.

[Anonymous]

All the prestigious private schools y’all want so desperately to go to are dumping AP left and right- many even got sued for it.

AP ain’t what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the prestigious private schools y’all want so desperately to go to are dumping AP left and right- many even got sued for it.

AP ain’t what it used to be.

It used to be that you had to get the ok to take AP-you had to show you could handle the course work. This is no longer the case. I think colleges will start not taking as many APs because students are coming in not prepared when they skip the intro courses.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Robinson parent and hate the IB program. I wish that Robinson would get with the program and just do AP like the other, higher ranked schools. IB serves zero purpose and is detriment to RSS kids trying to get into colleges.

We bought a house in this district because it was what we could afford at the time. I did not choose RSS for IB. It was forced on us. Can we move? No, that's an unrealistic option at this time. I also don't want to ship my kids out to LB just for APs and kill their school day.

IB is a sad option, and I wish they would poll parents on this topic because I don't know many that actually want this waste of time for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of how Robinson ended up with IB in the first place, it would make sense to reassess current community preferences (and regardless of whether a particular IB teacher or parent at Robinson would like to maintain the status quo and/or eliminate AP courses there). We already know that we pay more for IB because the IBO requires dedicated resources at each school that offers the IB diploma.

Why? Do we poll the community on school start time, class sizes, lunch offerings, elective options, or after school offerings? No. Can you imagine the mess if every few years they had to poll parents and then change course offerings based on what was popular with that particular crowd?

Look, I'm not an IB fan (i think it's way too much work for math teachers to grade 20 page papers on top of teaching advanced concepts) but the thought of changing programs because this year's families don't like it seems ridiculous. There are AP options within 5 minutes from Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of how Robinson ended up with IB in the first place, it would make sense to reassess current community preferences (and regardless of whether a particular IB teacher or parent at Robinson would like to maintain the status quo and/or eliminate AP courses there). We already know that we pay more for IB because the IBO requires dedicated resources at each school that offers the IB diploma.

Why? Do we poll the community on school start time, class sizes, lunch offerings, elective options, or after school offerings? No. Can you imagine the mess if every few years they had to poll parents and then change course offerings based on what was popular with that particular crowd?

Look, I'm not an IB fan (i think it's way too much work for math teachers to grade 20 page papers on top of teaching advanced concepts) but the thought of changing programs because this year's families don't like it seems ridiculous. There are AP options within 5 minutes from Robinson.

If they were intending to eliminate lunch offerings or electives, it would make perfect sense to solicit input from students and their families. Likewise, if they are now undertaking to curtail the number of AP courses, including in some core areas, it would be an opportune time to find out whether the community would prefer more AP and less IB.

Any good organization tries to figure out what is working well and what is not working well, and any good business tries to assess why it might be losing market share. FCPS strenuously resists any such outreach, except when it can ignore the results. They never want to admit what they once thought might be preferable no longer is preferable, much less that they may have made a mistake in the first place. But the fact that FCPS stopped dead in its tracks by the mid-00s in terms of converting AP schools to IB, after an initial spate of conversations in the late 90s and early 00s, suggests they already know the county over-invested in IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of how Robinson ended up with IB in the first place, it would make sense to reassess current community preferences (and regardless of whether a particular IB teacher or parent at Robinson would like to maintain the status quo and/or eliminate AP courses there). We already know that we pay more for IB because the IBO requires dedicated resources at each school that offers the IB diploma.

Why? Do we poll the community on school start time, class sizes, lunch offerings, elective options, or after school offerings? No. Can you imagine the mess if every few years they had to poll parents and then change course offerings based on what was popular with that particular crowd?

Look, I'm not an IB fan (i think it's way too much work for math teachers to grade 20 page papers on top of teaching advanced concepts) but the thought of changing programs because this year's families don't like it seems ridiculous. There are AP options within 5 minutes from Robinson.

If they were intending to eliminate lunch offerings or electives, it would make perfect sense to solicit input from students and their families. Likewise, if they are now undertaking to curtail the number of AP courses, including in some core areas, it would be an opportune time to find out whether the community would prefer more AP and less IB.

Any good organization tries to figure out what is working well and what is not working well, and any good business tries to assess why it might be losing market share. FCPS strenuously resists any such outreach, except when it can ignore the results. They never want to admit what they once thought might be preferable no longer is preferable, much less that they may have made a mistake in the first place. But the fact that FCPS stopped dead in its tracks by the mid-00s in terms of converting AP schools to IB, after an initial spate of conversations in the late 90s and early 00s, suggests they already know the county over-invested in IB.

They are dropping ONE out of FOUR AP classes. This isn't a full AP program getting sliced to 2 courses. They have never had many AP classes. ONE class is going away because it has an identical IB offering. No one is changing the whole landscape at Robinson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of how Robinson ended up with IB in the first place, it would make sense to reassess current community preferences (and regardless of whether a particular IB teacher or parent at Robinson would like to maintain the status quo and/or eliminate AP courses there). We already know that we pay more for IB because the IBO requires dedicated resources at each school that offers the IB diploma.

Why? Do we poll the community on school start time, class sizes, lunch offerings, elective options, or after school offerings? No. Can you imagine the mess if every few years they had to poll parents and then change course offerings based on what was popular with that particular crowd?

Look, I'm not an IB fan (i think it's way too much work for math teachers to grade 20 page papers on top of teaching advanced concepts) but the thought of changing programs because this year's families don't like it seems ridiculous. There are AP options within 5 minutes from Robinson.

If they were intending to eliminate lunch offerings or electives, it would make perfect sense to solicit input from students and their families. Likewise, if they are now undertaking to curtail the number of AP courses, including in some core areas, it would be an opportune time to find out whether the community would prefer more AP and less IB.

Any good organization tries to figure out what is working well and what is not working well, and any good business tries to assess why it might be losing market share. FCPS strenuously resists any such outreach, except when it can ignore the results. They never want to admit what they once thought might be preferable no longer is preferable, much less that they may have made a mistake in the first place. But the fact that FCPS stopped dead in its tracks by the mid-00s in terms of converting AP schools to IB, after an initial spate of conversations in the late 90s and early 00s, suggests they already know the county over-invested in IB.

They are dropping ONE out of FOUR AP classes. This isn't a full AP program getting sliced to 2 courses. They have never had many AP classes. ONE class is going away because it has an identical IB offering. No one is changing the whole landscape at Robinson.

For now. Perhaps they'll cut more in the future. Still seems like a good time to take the community's temperature, unless of course you're afraid of what you'll hear.

Given how IB's reputation in FCPS isn't very strong, it would be a big boost for the program if Robinson families came back and said they are happy and prefer IB to AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Robinson parent and hate the IB program. I wish that Robinson would get with the program and just do AP like the other, higher ranked schools. IB serves zero purpose and is detriment to RSS kids trying to get into colleges.

We bought a house in this district because it was what we could afford at the time. I did not choose RSS for IB. It was forced on us. Can we move? No, that's an unrealistic option at this time. I also don't want to ship my kids out to LB just for APs and kill their school day.

IB is a sad option, and I wish they would poll parents on this topic because I don't know many that actually want this waste of time for the kids.

Wait why do you hate IB? I thought writing and reading are supposed to be challenging and rigorous. Are the math/science classes not up to par? I'm confused what you mean about calling it a waste of time for the kids.. is it because there are too many requirements to obtain the diploma, like the TOK class?