Reply to why do people prefer AP schools to IB?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "why do people prefer AP schools to IB?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

A [b]higher percentage of Woodson students [/b]graduate haven taken a substantial number of AP courses; none are slapped with a label like "non-IB diploma candidate" at an IB school. AP wins.

Loudoun residents collectively decide how much they want to spend on schools and how they want that money spent.  Clearly, they have decided, through their elected officials, that IB isn't something they want, whereas they are spending a substantial amount of money to expand AOS, which will continue to offer AP courses.      [/quote]

How many, and how do you know?[/quote]

I've worked as a counselor in an AP high school in the county that's highly regarded (retired). The PP is definitely wrong. Not all students are carrying a course load of AP courses across disciplines. I would guess far less than 20 percent of students are carrying a full AP load across the disciplines. Maybe 10 percent?

Most students decide to take AP courses in their specific strength, so a weak math student but strong writer is doing AP English/History, etc. while a weaker writer but stronger STEM student would take the AP math and sciences courses. Neither student got the most difficult check on their common app, but I would describe the rigor of their courses and strengths. [/quote]

Your experience is outdated.

The data on test scores, AP/IB participation rates, and NMSFs all makes clear that AP schools have a disproportionate percentage of NoVa's high performing kids.[/quote]

I retired less than three years ago. So, no. It's not outdated. It's highly relevant.

From what I know about Robinson (I have friends that work there in guidance), I think nearly 80 percent of students attempt at least one IB course. I have no idea how many are getting certificates or dabbling or going for the full diploma, though. [/quote]

I looked at several pairs of similar AP and IB schools (Woodson/Robinson, McLean/Marshall, and Falls Church/Stuart).  In each case, the AP schools have higher percentages of reported students taking and receiving passing scores on AP exams compared to IB exams.  Surprisingly, the difference was most pronounced at McLean compared to Marshall, regarded as one of the better IB schools.

Perhaps that means that the IB exams are tougher, but it seems equally, if not more, likely that students are more receptive to taking advanced courses at the AP schools.  Given that we pay more for IB, yet fewer students seem to derive benefits from it, I'm not surprised that another school system like Loudoun might look at the experience in Fairfax and say "no thanks" when it comes to IB, [/quote]

Where are you getting this data? I worked at one of these sets.

AP passage rates are higher as a general point (the College Board considers a 3 to be passing but many colleges don't...I think that's a reason why its pass rates are higher).

IB pass rates are lower. Some argue it's because the IB program is graded with more rigor than the AP program. They point to the fact that students often have to re-do AP coursework to get a sufficient foundation prior to taking more advanced college coursework. IB students often have the same issue, so I don't know if that's true, but it's something bandied about.

IB is viewed as more rigorous because it requires cross disciplinary advanced studies. As I mentioned, not many AP students accomplish this, but those that do are considered as having completed the most rigorous coursework (akin to the diploma).[/quote]

This does indicate that FCPS is getting FAR better value from AP than IB.  
If the county wants to continue with the IB program, they should pick one or two schools (at most) to have IB.

Personally, I would get rid of it.  It's just not practical.[/quote]

But your assumption is that pass rates equals effectiveness. It's been proven that the advanced coursework alone improves college retention and completion regardless of pass rates on these tests (I don't have the studies handy, but they exist). It's also true that colleges cap the amount of credit available to students to about 30-35 credits, but many of these students have to re-do courses because they don't have the knowledge to skip. Those students do well because they slow down and get a stronger foundation which was obviously built on being exposed to the content in high school.

I don't think college credit is the end all be all considering this.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics