Why are we having so many regional magnets when the Watkins Mills and Seneca Valley programs were failures?
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Anonymous
Do you have the perspective of individual students in the IB program about how they feel about it? You could post the same stats about Eastern, but few on DCUM consider it a failure. |
Anonymous
AP you can focus on the disciplines you are interested in. And if you fail one test at the end (a 2), you did not waste your time on all the other AP courses you took. IB you have to invest in the whole program and be willing/capable of rigorous work across multiple disciplines. Fail one test at the end and you don’t get the diploma. |
Anonymous
You can get a 2 out of 7 on two tests, and still get the diploma. But yea, getting the IBDP is tougher than AP. The IBDP is like a college level integrated liberal arts program. It's not really about getting college credit like AP exams but about developing critical thinking skills and deep analysis. AP exams are easier since many just self study for them and are able to do well. -signed parent of IBDP student who also took numerous AP exams by self studying. |
Anonymous
The diploma doesn't really matter though, unless you want to go to Oxford or the Sorbonne. You don't get results until July, at which point you've already accepted a college place. You can get college credit for every IB score above a certain threshold, even if you don't pass the entire exam. I would argue that doing the rigor is more important than the result. Sometimes striving for something matters more than an outcome. AP is all about teaching to the test. IB is about learning to write and interpret data and communicate the results of your research and effort. Which has more practical applications in the real world? I suppose it depends on how your h define success. |
Anonymous
How on earth is any school supposed to succeed with a FARMS rate of 81.8%?! Geez. I graduated from WM way back, and it's distressing to see what the school and surrounding area have become. |
Anonymous
I don't know where that 81.8 percent came from. I checked a couple of places, the first round and second round of effects tables and mdreportcard and all three sources has Watkins Mill's FARMs rate hovering around the 50 percent mark. When I looked a while back I don't think any school in MCPS has a FARMS rate above 80 percent. Some had more than 65ish. We actually know a couple of families who were happy with Watkins Mill and seems like their kids are doing pretty well. Personally I don't think it's the right fit for our family. But it goes to show that for the most part people are happy with their schools and maybe a slight case of not knowing what they're missing too. |
Anonymous
| OP, this is the question MCPS refuses to answer. If they couldn't successfully scale the RMIB program regionally, it is implausible they'd be able to accomplish what they're claiming to do with their regional program proposal, which strives to do what the Regional IB program tried to do on steroids. |
Anonymous
+1000 What might make more sense is for MCPS to create a trial region for a community that wants to opt-in (not be forced-in like in the proposed regions model), and see how that goes. Then the broader community can see whether or not the model can work, whether it’s a desirable change, what needs improvement. |
Anonymous
Taylor explained his take on this at one of the first regional program meetings. He thinks that keeping RMIB available as a countywide program prevented the regional programs from succeeding, because the highest flyers were still intent on going there and not interested in the regions. |
Anonymous
It won't help the regions that much. I posted upthread maybe the numbers of what HS the RMIB students come from. Majority are in cluster, then Wootton and Chuchill. All are in region 4. There is one region (can't remember which) where there is probably going to be no to little change of the students from RMIB. https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DJVQ56678E2B/$file/Attachment%20D%20SY2025%20Student%20Enrollment%20Countywide%20Programs%20250724.pdf |
Anonymous
But that's not true. Take Kennedy, for example. Most of the kids who attended the Kennedy IB program were zoned for Kennedy. Look at RMIB: Most of the kids in that program were from RM cluster and the W schools. The countywide was not pulling kids who otherwise would've attended the Kennedy Regional IB. So as usual, Taylor is lying. |
Anonymous
It looks like the Watkins Mill regional numbers support his theory, though. Many more students from Clarksburg, Damascus, Northwest, and Quince Orchard chose RMIB over WMIB. |
Anonymous
With regards to RMIB, the statistics you are quoting are not in the link you provided. Moreover, those statistics appear to include not only the set-aside for JWMS but also the kids in-bounds for RM who opted into the IB program in 11th grade. That's not a real metric of where the criteria-based admissions are coming from. |
Anonymous
Ok, but this program was scaled to Kennedy, Watkins Mill, Springbrook and Seneca Valley. That theory being true for one cluster (WM), does not explain why MCPS did not replicate RM's results at Springbrook and Kennedy. And Taylor should not make sweeping statements that make it seem as such. |
Anonymous
Seneca Valley is a local IB program, not regional (currently). |