What are my child's chances of getting into the IB program?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
What's the problem, exactly? Students are taking IB classes? Students are taking IB tests? Please explain. |
Anonymous
Four of the IB schools consistently have kids scoring below 4, which is considered the minimum acceptable score for the exams. That means those schools, which are the four I named, are not as strong or effective at educating students to the IB curriculum and standard as B-CC, RM and Einstein. So, as with most things in MCPS, you have quite a bit of unevenness and inconsistency in outcome with IB for your kid, depending on which school they go to. Which goes back to the original point that not all IB is created equal within MCPS. Some schools are clearly consistently better at it than others. And RM and B-CC for sure are at the top. Einstein and Rockville are in the middle and the bottom rung is Springbrook, Watkins Mill, Kennedy and Seneca Valley. |
Anonymous
Eh? No, it doesn't mean that at all. That's just one of multiple possible explanations, and you don't know which one is the right one. All you know from the report is how the students are scoring. You don't know why they're getting those scores. |
Anonymous
|
Anonymous
no dog in this fight but this "head in the sand" approach is what killed MCPS |
Anonymous
+1 Precisely! Like the data is clear that some of these schools are performing below expectations with IB outcomes and the PP wants to act like we need to launch a Scooby-Doo-style investigation to figure out why. Newsflash: It's either because: 1. The individual classroom instruction is poor and not well-aligned to the IB test and curriculum 2. They're not picking kids who are truly qualified or invested in performing at the IB level 3. Failure of leadership and structure to produce quality, consistent outcomes with the IB coordinator and team That's it. Those are the potential root causes. The data is screaming for someone within MCPS to dig in with these schools and figure out which of these (or maybe all of these) is preventing them from performing at the level that B-CC and RM are. I'm willing to say RM should continue to be an outlier since its a countywide magnet, but Kennedy, Seneca and WM are below even the middle of the pack schools such as Rockville and Einstein, with Kennedy being the worst. The IB team at Kennedy probably should be fired. |
Anonymous
Not at all. Possible explanations include: 1. The teachers are bad. 2. The teachers are not teaching the IB curriculum. 3. The administration is not providing the support and/or oversight for successful participation in IB. 4. Most of the school's high-level classes are IB, not AP. 5. There are kids who are taking one or more IB classes and IB tests who benefit from the classes but don't score high on the tests. 6. There are kids who are taking one or more IB classes and IB tests who don't benefit from the classes and also don't score high on the tests. Which explanation or combination of explanations is true? You don't know, and i don't know. But if you're saying the IB programs at high-poverty schools are failing because the students at these high-poverty schools are scoring lower on tests than students at a high-affluence school and/or students in a test-in magnet - nope. |
Anonymous
|
I don't have a dog in this fight, but just a note on the data.
Those scores are from 2021-22, which means it is before any of the "regional magnets" had students taking the tests. I wouldn't count out Kennedy or Springbrook until we see the scores from more recent years, since those will be the first years with kids who were selected for the program rather than opting in from the general student body. |
Anonymous
This poster makes an important point about how restrictive the IB program can be. DC chose Blair over RMIB despite not being a STEM-leaning kid because Blair gives a lot of flexibility in 11th/12th for electives whereas at RMIB your classes are almost all fixed from the day you enter the program. DC actually decided not taking STEM classes for the electives, but more foreign language. We heard from many parents that many kids change their academic interests by the time they are upperclassman and that it can feel very rigid to be stuck with all those IB requirements and required testing. |
Anonymous
I can't believe the discussion has devolved into this. Most of the RMIB classmates of DC have parents who make their child's education their family's number one priority. They are mostly MC/UMC and have spent tons of money on enrichment classes since their kids were able to walk. Many of them go to Russian School of Math and other programs. They remind their kids to study and many have the education to help kids with their homework in multiple subjects. When they can't they aggressively hire tutors. DC has a tutor for a subject and you would not believe how many other students are using the same tutor. The student population at Kennedy does not have the same advantages. Please don't blame teachers or the administration. |
Anonymous
Pre-regional magnet, Kennedy maybe had 7ish kids actually get the IB diploma per year. MCPS put the IB regional magnet there to attract students (and it has), but I agree that it is going to take some years to see more success. Current seniors would be the first cohort going through the regional IB programs—I think—so some of this data should include regional magnet kids. |
Anonymous
Exactly. And this is the data that I do not believe is published publicly by MCPS. If anyone knows where to find it, please point me in the right direction. I know historically RM and BCC have had the most diploma candidates (I define this as kids who have completed the sequence of classes needed to be considered for the diploma). Einstein would have been next largest pre-regional i.b., but, I think the number has been significantly smaller than BCC, based on anecdata and feelings from my neighbors. |
Anonymous
Nobody was picking kids at these other schools. Outside of the magnet program kids can choose to enroll in an IB class just the same as they choose to enroll in an AP class. They were local programs without a defined 9th/10th magnet cohort. What part of that is unclear? They’ve only been regional application programs for a short time. |
Anonymous
You presume I don't have direct experience or knowledge of one of the schools in question. You would be wrong. And that was cute where you took the explanations I had and tried to break them up to make your list longer and slightly remix them to make them seem different. |
Anonymous
I'm aware that anyone can take IB classes, but I'm also aware that kids with certain grades or GPAs are also invited to sign up for those IB classes. That's what I meant by "selecting" kids. I have direct experience with this. Also, at my school in question, school leadership decided to convert an honors English class into an IB one. So again, schools have more say than you're suggesting and it's not always left up to the kid. |