Reply to FCPS' plans to address concerns at under-enrolled and over-enrolled schools.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know how many times this needs to be said, but eliminating IB at Lewis won't solve the transfer-out problem. Why? Because students aren't transferring out because of a lack of AP courses.

Large numbers of Lewis students are transferring into Edison, which is an IB program. They are transferring because of the STEM program.

If you create an AP program at Lewis, students will still transfer into Edison because it is an IB school and parents will say they want an IB education.

Parents are transferring students out of Lewis because they don't believe their child will get a good education there. Lewis doesn't have the variety of programming a school like WSHS has because Lewis doesn't have the population numbers. It needs more kids to have the same level of programs.

It's also heavily Hispanic, heavily non-native English speakers. That's why soccer is huge at Lewis, but sports like baseball and football are not as supported, because soccer is the sport the student population plays the most.

Switching from IB to AP isn't the type of program that gets families to buy into the school. A school population, with numbers large enough to support more specialized academics like astrology and advanced physics and advanced music theory classes -- that helps bring in more students, which in turn helps the school continue to grow and thrive. [/quote]

So do nothing??? Close it? Can't win, don't try?

Not as concerned about the baseball team as about having adequate course offerings. What should be done:

1. Switch to AP. In fact, make all county high schools AP again. IB is not worth all of the issues it creates.
2. Even out language programs across county high schools. The differences across pyramids are almost criminal at this point.
3. Put AAP in Key at the middle school level - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid.
4. Move Saratoga AAP kids to Springfield Estates - keeps kids in the Lewis pyramid (otherwise they go from Lorton Station to LB and never return)
5. After all of these things have been done and a few years go by, revisit the boundaries again if numbers are still less than 1700 or so. They may have taken too many neighborhoods out of Lee/Lewis in 2005 and 2015. It has been well under capacity (Design Capacity is over 2100) for some time.

[/quote]

The terrible thing about all of this is that FCPS has created much of this mess.

IB and AP - two distinct programs and not equal.

AAP in some middle school pyramids, not in other pyramids.

Language programs grossly different across high schools.

Academies for some and not for others (and some clearly more popular than others - e.g., Edison STEM).

How can they possibly change boundaries when they have made high school pyramids so different?

Everything they have done encourages people to flee schools like Lewis.

The least they could do are the things mentioned above - at least those that only impact Lewis internally - don't want to drop IB across the county in favor of AP, at least do it at Lewis. Put in AAP at Key. Move Saratoga to Springfield Estates for AAP. Improve the language offerings even if it means small classes.

If they don't do this, then people on the east and south side of West Springfield boundaries and those on the west side of Edison (plus Bren Mar) should be prepared for boundary changes. Allowing Lewis to fester like this is a real problem for the county.[/quote]

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