AP vs IB

[Anonymous]

So why push an expensive ineffective program in a struggling school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. PP, because OHS is a great HS; however, if IB were selective, it could have the option of presenting a better alternative for my DC who is an amazing writer. I didn't mean to offend anyone or any school. I was just asking about AP vs. IB for the reason above. We bought where we did, many years ago, based on schools. As our DC has grown and expressed interest in writing, we have begun looking into IB. A dear friend's daughter (from a southern state) completed the IB program in HS. In their county it was a super-selective process and very competitive - much like TJ for STEM. In fact, you could conclude that I was hoping IB was a TJ-like option for humanities. It doesn't seem to be the case in FCPS. Knowing that, I have decided that we will stay with OHS.

OP, you've made a reasonable decision. Oakton is a great school and has many opportunities for students to explore their creative side and pursue their interests in writing. And you really can't discount how convenient it will be to live near the school your child is attending.

Unfortunately, there are some posters here like 13:36 who are heavily invested in certain IB schools. If you decide to pass on IB, they will rake you over the coals, try and make you feel bad about your choice, and call you names. You've been very polite and forthcoming, but at some point you just have to, in the words of the immortal Taylor Swift, "shake it off" and walk away.

You couldn't be more wrong. I'm the PP who said being in an IB school zone was a deal-breaker for looking at houses. I'm just against people who are so shallow that they only care about the prestige of being "selected" for a program rather than the substance of the program they want to be selected to attend! I'm against idiocy, not IB!

[Anonymous]

PP this is OP. Please reread my posts. I thought, wrongly so, that IB offered something like a TJ experience for humanities kids. I suppose you are also against TJ as the kids are selected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The issue is pretty obvious. If the program was amazing you would see all of the schools with tons of education oriented parents pushing for it because they would crap bricks if they felt their kids were missing out. So, yeah. I completely agree. It's sad that on top of all of the other crap the bottom performing schools deal with in Fairfax county, they have a second rate "honors" program like IB. And let's not forget the cost of these programs. It's terrible, a waste, and like I said, if it was so great, you would see Langley parents clamoring for it and you wouldn't have seen Woodson parents fighting against it.

x a million. It's more of a marketing program to sell poor performing schools to parents who might send their kids there if promised a "private school experience." Horrible, and a terrible waste of our tax dollars.

No one is naive enough to think that an IB program at a poor performing school is like a private school experience. However, at a school like Marshall or Robinson, it is a high quality program with a strong cohort of students.

ik

There's a big gap between the performance of students at a top private, or at an IB magnet like the selective IB program at Richard Montgomery, which has a lower admissions rate than TJ, and the IB students at Marshall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP this is OP. Please reread my posts. I thought, wrongly so, that IB offered something like a TJ experience for humanities kids. I suppose you are also against TJ as the kids are selected.

You are wearing my patience. Not against TJ. (actually couldn't care less about it). It's the substance of the program that matters, not the process for starting into the program. You would have us believe that you knew enough about the IB program that it was a great fit for your humanities loving child -- so much that you would seriously consider transferring her away from a solid HS to attend an IB program (which is perfectly fine for those who value IB as you indicated)... but upon learning something that is completely unrelated to the IB education (i.e. self-selection process), you have now decided on that basis alone that IB isn't for you/your child! So, either you were willing to transfer your child to a program you knew almost nothing about (substantively), or you really don't care about the substance/curriculum and you only care about your child being marked as "superior" by being "selected" for it. Either way... not good, not logical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP this is OP. Please reread my posts. I thought, wrongly so, that IB offered something like a TJ experience for humanities kids. I suppose you are also against TJ as the kids are selected.

You are wearing my patience. Not against TJ. (actually couldn't care less about it). It's the substance of the program that matters, not the process for starting into the program. You would have us believe that you knew enough about the IB program that it was a great fit for your humanities loving child -- so much that you would seriously consider transferring her away from a solid HS to attend an IB program (which is perfectly fine for those who value IB as you indicated)... but upon learning something that is completely unrelated to the IB education (i.e. self-selection process), you have now decided on that basis alone that IB isn't for you/your child! So, either you were willing to transfer your child to a program you knew almost nothing about (substantively), or you really don't care about the substance/curriculum and you only care about your child being marked as "superior" by being "selected" for it. Either way... not good, not logical.

Not the OP, but your post is ridiculous. You are trying way too hard to paint the OP into corners that exist only in your imagination.

[Anonymous]

Some folks lack basic reading comprehension. OP began post asking for info about AP and IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why push an expensive ineffective program in a struggling school?

Because the poor performing schools were the guinea pigs for the IB program. After it was shown not to be effective in bringing up the schools' scores, FCPS has kept it in those schools because it provides a school within a school for the small percentage of white students at the poor performing schools. FCPS basically has decided that it's more important to keep white kids at those schools than to find a solution that works for all the kids. I live in the Stuart pyramid and most of the parents I know are only willing to send their kids to Stuart because the IB program is a "school within a school," and their kids won't have to mix with the "other" kids. Most are way more concerned about segregating their kids than about the actual substance of the IB program.

[Anonymous]

That is so, so sad. These schools have enough to deal with, it's a shame the county saddled them with an ineffective (no one gets the damn IB diploma), inefficient program.

[Anonymous]

IB all the way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems the OP was looking to find out if IB was a distinctive enough program in FCPS to warrant placing her child out of one of the county's top high schools, which is also within walking distance of her house. She concluded that it isn't, so she won't. End of story.

IB is very "distinctive" if people bother to find out how it works. AP is great too. But yes, both are "self-selecting" in FCPS. Still, if the classes are rigorous, they will indeed "select out" students who cannot hack it.

Sadly, some parents want a program that's only by application, I guess so they can say their kid was so special he or she was picked to be among the elite. But the point of these kinds of programs -- and the point of allowing all kids to dare to try them rather than just limiting them to those who can withstand an application process -- should be to learn in a new and different way. But around here, parents tend to be more interested in programs they can point to and say, "My kid got in because he's already so special" rather than "My kid is taking on a challenge that's going to be tough but will equip him with skills he can use in college and beyond."

Some people would send their kids to TJ, but not pupil place out of an IB school to the nearest AP school. Others might send their kids to the IB magnet at Richard Montgomery in MoCo, but not pupil place out of an AP school to the nearest open-enrollment IB school in FCPS. People have their own reasons, and they aren't necessarily the one you offered. Sadly, any time a poster decides to take a pass on certain IB schools, other posters decide to hound them relentlessly.

\\

"Hound them relentlessly?" Thanks for bringing the drama.

The PP was saying that some people on this thread are rejecting even the idea of finding out more information about IB because the parents realized there isn't some special placement test to get in. That seems to be the sole thing on which some parents here would base their assessment of whole programs.

Yet AP is the same; students self-select. Both are good programs and fit different students in different ways. But neither one has a TJ-style competition to get admitted.

Pitiful that some parents are more interested in whether a program has competitive admissions than whether the program has a curriculum that might benefit their child. They won't know because they won't look any further when they find out there's no competitive admission.

Saying this as a parent of an AP student who has friends doing IB and everyone's in the right programs that work best for them. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems the OP was looking to find out if IB was a distinctive enough program in FCPS to warrant placing her child out of one of the county's top high schools, which is also within walking distance of her house. She concluded that it isn't, so she won't. End of story.

IB is very "distinctive" if people bother to find out how it works. AP is great too. But yes, both are "self-selecting" in FCPS. Still, if the classes are rigorous, they will indeed "select out" students who cannot hack it.

Sadly, some parents want a program that's only by application, I guess so they can say their kid was so special he or she was picked to be among the elite. But the point of these kinds of programs -- and the point of allowing all kids to dare to try them rather than just limiting them to those who can withstand an application process -- should be to learn in a new and different way. But around here, parents tend to be more interested in programs they can point to and say, "My kid got in because he's already so special" rather than "My kid is taking on a challenge that's going to be tough but will equip him with skills he can use in college and beyond."

Some people would send their kids to TJ, but not pupil place out of an IB school to the nearest AP school. Others might send their kids to the IB magnet at Richard Montgomery in MoCo, but not pupil place out of an AP school to the nearest open-enrollment IB school in FCPS. People have their own reasons, and they aren't necessarily the one you offered. Sadly, any time a poster decides to take a pass on certain IB schools, other posters decide to hound them relentlessly.

\\

"Hound them relentlessly?" Thanks for bringing the drama.

The PP was saying that some people on this thread are rejecting even the idea of finding out more information about IB because the parents realized there isn't some special placement test to get in. That seems to be the sole thing on which some parents here would base their assessment of whole programs.

Yet AP is the same; students self-select. Both are good programs and fit different students in different ways. But neither one has a TJ-style competition to get admitted.

Pitiful that some parents are more interested in whether a program has competitive admissions than whether the program has a curriculum that might benefit their child. They won't know because they won't look any further when they find out there's no competitive admission.

Saying this as a parent of an AP student who has friends doing IB and everyone's in the right programs that work best for them. .

If you are so satisfied that "everyone is in the right program that works best for them," perhaps you should just give the thread a rest, since the OP made it clear that she'd concluded AP at OHS was the right program for her child under the circumstances. Prolonging the thread by accusing her of being insufficiently curious about IB serves no purpose. You don't really know her, and she certainly knows her child far better than you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is so, so sad. These schools have enough to deal with, it's a shame the county saddled them with an ineffective (no one gets the damn IB diploma), inefficient program.

I'm assuming that's hyperbole, but is there a place to look up percentages?

[Anonymous]

Is it worth the additional money spent? NO!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is so, so sad. These schools have enough to deal with, it's a shame the county saddled them with an ineffective (no one gets the damn IB diploma), inefficient program.

I'm assuming that's hyperbole, but is there a place to look up percentages?

The last information released by FCPS was in late 2013 and noted these percentages of seniors at IB schools graduating in 2013 without IB diplomas:

Mount Vernon 96.9%
Annandale 95.4%
Lee 93.7%
Edison 92.2%
Stuart 92.0%
South Lakes 83.5%
Robinson 83.5%
Marshall 80.3%