Reply to what is the difference between Madison HS, Oakton, and Reston high schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]The program is expensive and 80% of the kids are not using it for its intended purpose.[/quote]

lmao the IB diploma program is not expensive. It consists of 8 school-based teacher positions (out of ~25,000 full-time staff) and cost $3.3 million in FY25 (out of a $4bn total FCPS budget so 0.08% of the budget).[/quote]

DP.  It's more expensive than AP, and provides limited benefits while adding unnecessary complexity to FCPS, inviting pupil placements, and complicating things like boundary adjustments.  If FCPS really wants to be revising boundaries every five years, they should get rid of IB. [/quote]

People just... say stuff.  :roll:

IB is not more expensive than AP. In fact AP is more expensive than IB. There is no reason to think IB adds more complexity than AP or has more impact on boundaries than AP.[/quote]

Then they have done a crappy job explaining the program to people. More kids pupil place out of IB schools then complete the diploma. Every other county in our area has made the IB an opt in program that you transfer for and not forced schools to be IB only. APS has kids apply to be in IB at W-L, Loudoun has IB as an application program. The rest of the student population as access to AP. FCPS is probably not going to do that because they know that it will be a small number of kids who want the IB program. [/quote]

dp. I was an IB student. Many kids want the extra challenge of the IB diploma, but ultimately the diploma doesn't matter. Kids can get the benefit of an IB education without the diploma. The benefits come from the more rigorous class content. That's why the school board doesn't care to eliminate established IB programs; low diploma numbers are meaningless. [/quote]

The most rigerous path through any IB high school should be the IB diploma, meaning the diploma is not meaningless. IB is meant to end in the diploma, it is suppose to be the same path and classes that kids in Europe and other regions of the world are taking. Meaning, the kids in an IB program are supposed to end with the same type of diploma as the kids in earing IB diplomas coming out of their HS abroad. That is part of the appeal of the program. If kids are taking IB classes ala carte, then they are 1) not taking the most rigorous path at their HS 2) the money that goes into paying for the IB curriculum, training to teach the curriculum, and the coordinator position is not being well used.

The school board keeps IB at the schools that it does, mainly schools with high FARMs rates, thinking that it will entice MC and UMC kids to attend those schools to get this specialty diploma. The only school that sees a large influx of kids for IB is SLHS from Herndon HS and that is because parents see SLHS as a better alternative then Herndon HS, not because they love IB. Maybe kids transfer into Robinson and Madison for IB but I would guess that is a small number of kids. The school board thinks that it looks great to have this special program at these schools, even when the majority of the kids at the schools do not take IB classes and very few actually complete the diploma.

AP classes are rigorous on their own. They might be different then IB but they are plenty rigorous. If IB was a stronger program then you can bet that McLean and Langley and TJ would be demanding it be implemented at their schools. The truth is, it isn't. There are strengths and weaknesses to both IB and AP but AP does a great job preparing kids for college, is readily accepted for college credit, is more flexible, and costs less then IB. But the School Board refuses to treat IB the way every other county in our area does, as a niche program that should be open to people who are interested and not foisted on entire schools with little to no interest in the program.

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