IB vs. AP

[Anonymous]

New to area and wanted to hear it straight from the parents - what is the preferred program? Why? When should one start the planning/procedures? ie: when to worry? I feel like there is such an emphasis in this area, yet very little information. I wanted to know if it is worth my while to be thinking about it at all. DD is in 1st grade here.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but I do think it's quite silly for the parent of a first grader to be obsessing about the relative strengths of IB and AP programs. Come back when DD is in middle school and ask then.

[Anonymous]

my 2nd grader is in an IB elementary school program, and I think it's great. Teaches critical thinking.

[Anonymous]

Just wondering. When do you start IB here? When do you start AP.

Since when is it silly to ask a question?

I notice people are not so forthcoming with information. Is this typical?

[Anonymous]

IB offers a K-12 curriculum, but most schools only offer the IB Diploma program, which occurs in grades 11 and 12. There is Primary Years Program (PYP) from K-5 and a Middle Years Program (MYP) from grades 6-10. More schools are beginning to offer the earlier years, but still there are very few that do. IB is a cohesive, interdisciplinary program that has an international focus and emphasizes strong analytical and critical thinking skills.

AP is offered only in high school, and AP classes are college level courses that students take in high school. It is not a curriculum, but rather individual classes. In both IB and AP, students can take an exam at the end of the year and receive college credit for that course, testing out of the first year college course in that subject.

www.ibo.org

[Anonymous]

I notice people are not so forthcoming with information. Is this typical?

I think it's more a function of the fact that people on this forum tend to have younger kids vs older kids and these are high school programs. There are a few schools that offer IB "program" in earlier years, but my understanding is that the "official" IB program is the high school program.

This has been discussed before, and I think it's more where your child's interests lie. Just speaking in generalities, I think AP tends to be better for kids who are single subject or science focused. IB is a more holistic program, but kids have to commit to the whole thing to get the IB diploma. If you are interested in only, say, advanced math and physics, then AP is probably the better way to go. JMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I notice people are not so forthcoming with information. Is this typical?

I think it's more a function of the fact that people on this forum tend to have younger kids vs older kids and these are high school programs. There are a few schools that offer IB "program" in earlier years, but my understanding is that the "official" IB program is the high school program.

This has been discussed before, and I think it's more where your child's interests lie. Just speaking in generalities, I think AP tends to be better for kids who are single subject or science focused. IB is a more holistic program, but kids have to commit to the whole thing to get the IB diploma. If you are interested in only, say, advanced math and physics, then AP is probably the better way to go. JMO.

This completely depends on the school. Some high schools will allow only IB Diploma candidates to take IB classes. Many others will allow any student (with certain prerequisites) to take an IB class even if he/she is not a diploma candidate. That way, if a student is not going for the diploma, but they are very strong in say, math, history, etc. They can take the IB level course in that subject. In the school where I taught, students were allowed to do this. All schools implement the program differently though. I've even seen schools where AP and IB were taught in the same class!

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, the schools in NoVa allow non-IB diploma candidates to take individual IB courses. Most schools are either IB or AP schools, although a few schools offer both types of courses. The schools that have IB courses below the high school level, like Glasgow in Fairfax County, tend to be schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students that feed into IB high schools.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, 7:40 here. I didn't mean to imply that kids couldn't take individual IB courses. However, IB is meant to be a more comprehensive program whereas AP is a subject specific program.

http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/IB/IBDiploma.htm

[Anonymous]

Do any North Arlington elementary/middle schools offer the IB program? I always thought of it as a high school program until this post.