Reply to Robinson dumping AP classes and focusing on IB

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is not the way.

Should be dumping IB across the county to simplify.[/quote]

OP here. I’ve been pretty impressed by the IB program so far! And I took AP in high school in Maryland.[/quote]

I’m an AP kid.  I was ok with IB but the recent changes effects parents and kids monetarily and in terms of effort and time. This really just seals the deal for me to transfer my kids to LB or TJ.

Robinson is more than welcome to dump AP. Enrollment is dropping anyway as their top math/science kids are going to TJ.  IB is very strong for writing (it’s very essay driven) which is great. However, the STEM driven parents that I have talked to are considering transferring to Lake Braddock if their kids don’t get into TJ. Because the course credits for STEM in an AP program vs an IB program aren’t the same. For some schools like UVA AP Calc BC gives extra credits vs IB math (for UMd, it’s equivalent to three classes.) This is significant because the only class parents are upset about is AP calc BC. This one class is equal to two years of IB math- because there are different tests.

Now I am not saying the school isn’t good. But I am saying it will definitely drop in rankings if it has an increase of transfers. [b]But what I suspect is that this is intentional. They want more kids to transfer to LBSS (because it is losing enrollment numbers) and to TJ so that they can expand Robinsons boundaries and take some of the centreville kids off of Fairfax Station road. [/b]Long term- my suspicion is that boundaries will be changing once that happens and Centreville parents won’t complain that their kids are going to Robinson and Robinson can blame it on parents transferring their kids to LB.

I do think that this also means more kids will end up getting into TJ from Robinson and that people who have smart kids will see the data points from that soon enough and keep real estate values high FWIW. I also think that this will help with scheduling for teachers and that the school will do better overall. But I do not like the change personally.

[/quote]

I teach at Robinson. I can assure you nothing of the sort is motivating this change. The master schedule is a nightmare of one off classes, causing teachers to have 3 preps, student schedules to be inflexible, and staffing ratios to be a challenge. IB already had so many sub sections of classes (year 1, year 2, HL, SL) that scheduling is really, really hard.

They are keeping AP calc and AP stats next year. The only class they are dropping is APUSH. There is an analogous IB course already offered.[/quote]

If the scheduling is so hard, the degree is so niche, and the fact that we have so many military families here as is: why keep IB?  Why not transition out to AP?

Remember: Robinson wasn’t IB before. Now that it is, and now that TJ is easier to get in from Robinson: what will make Robinson a top school when it doesn’t offer the classes the top kids want to take?  [b]Now I understand AP stats is still being offered- but that’s not the same as AP calc BC, which gives more credit for one exam and I believe that that is no longer being offered. [/b]

As for the boundary changes: sure. But lots of things happen when enrollment plummets that may make the school board re-evaluate why it’s happening. [/quote]

Again, they are still offering calc bc next year.

This year, there are 4 AP classes offered.  AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Statistics, and APUSH.  APUSH is the ONLY course being dropped.

You can argue that IB is dumb if that's how you feel, but all this hullabaloo over literally 1 course changing seems ridiculous.[/quote]

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