Reply to Madison HS or the IB program at Marshall HS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why not have a single IB high school in the county where admissions are competitive and students have to stay on the IB diploma track or return to their base AP schools?  [/quote]
MoCo does this and it IMHO it creates additional, unnecessary hype around the IB program.[/quote]

I don't think it would be "hype," so much as the practical recognition that the number of students in FCPS who pursue (not to mention receive) a full IB diploma is just not that large.  Fewer than 500 FCPS seniors in 2012 were seeking the IB diploma, and roughly 350 actually received one.  For students who aren't pursuing the full IB diploma, why not have them attend AP schools, where they can take selected AP courses if they wish?  One of the arguments in favor of IB is that it offers a "holistic" perspective, but that benefit is largely missing if a student is just taking one or two IB courses.

If there were evidence that more students actually wanted to get IB diplomas (and, in a county like FCPS, restricting access to an educational option often creates the demand), FCPS could consider additional IB programs.  But right now, I think there's an over-supply of IB schools relative to the demand.  It may appear to shore up a few schools like Marshall, which is surrounded by AP schools (Langley, McLean, Madison and Falls Church) and gets more out-of-boundary students transferring in than in-boundary students transferring out, but overall it doesn't seem like a sensible use of the county's money.   [/quote]

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