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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid is a graduate of City's IB program. I have mixed feelings about City and BCPS in general, but I will say BCC has a lot of very strong, dedicated teachers and they definitely helped sharpen my kid's writing skills, such that going to college and writing a 1200 word paper is no big deal.

Regarding IB, my kid will say they prefer AP to IB because the curricula is more straight forward and it seems like the AP credits are more widely accepted at colleges. (Though the second part might be a function of the college my child chose to attend.)

The positive of the IB program is that it's truly open to all -- that's one of City's mottos, "IB for All." On the other hand, I think there has been some watering down of the curriculum recently. For instance, where Theory of Knowledge (TOK) used to be a one-year class, it is now a two-year class, with most of the second year spent as a study hall cajoling the kids into finishing the paper they wrote in junior year. Likewise, the history curriculum for juniors and seniors seemed excessively focused on the IB history exam (i.e. we will cover Ghana both years, so that you can write about that in your exam.) Also, I think the City kids were not doing well on the IB Chemistry exam, so that is no longer one of the science paths the IB kids can choose from.

I think City can be a great education if your kid is self motivated. But if they're not motivated, it seems pretty easy to hide in large-ish classes and coast on grade inflation.

As you probably know, the school has been relocated to the UB campus for the next few years, which means sports are generally happening elsewhere. I don't think sports should determine the decision, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, that's my $.02. No school is perfect. My kid did fine. Good luck to you and your student!
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Thank you! Would you mind elaborating a bit more on why you have mixed feelings about City? I agree no school is perfect. DC is in Ingenuity middle school right now and doing well, but for various reasons is turned off by Poly. I may be overworrying and overthinking the differences between schools.[/quote]

As someone whose kids have been in BCPS from K-12, I have mixed feelings about city schools in general. I imagine my frustrations with City (large classes, an admin that often seems indifferent, a few bad teachers) would also apply to Poly. If your kid is self-motivated, they will likely stand out and do great at City. If your kid is not self-motivated, but still engaged enough to show up regularly, they will probably do well enough at City. If your kid is frustrated by classmates who often don't complete assignments, they will be frustrated by City. When my City grad went to college they were pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by other kids who cared about school -- which is an indirect statement about City.

FWIW, I think BCPS's new policy banning student cell phone use is 1. being implemented and 2. having a positive impact. Also, I'd like to think that student engagement is increasing somewhat as we get further away from the COVID shutdown of schools. Finally, I want to reiterate that the majority of the teachers my kid had at City were really good. I think the middle school Ingenuity programs have a tendency to push Poly on the kids, but don't sleep on City![/quote]

Thank you! I must admit your response did worry me slightly. I agree with the large classes and indifferent, even stubbornly difficult, administration that seems par for course for every city school, but your comment about peer motivation has me concerned. There's a part of me that thinks we should just sell up and move to Towson and not have to worry about school choices. But DC has good discipline and motivation and I've seen the City class of 2025 Instagram and there's a good number of kids going to great colleges, so I figure as long as DC keeps with the top 10%, it should be fine. It seems at Poly the real advantage is Ingenuity separates their top 10% from the rest of the school into a separate track, which can't be said for City.

In your kid's class at City, was it really a notable issue that there were plenty of unprepared kids not engaged with the class assignments and teachers? And everyone just had to roll with it?[/quote]

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