Reply to Expanded High school electives at TJ

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Can someone unpack this objectively? Surprised by the negativity, particularly want to check the following:

1. The new offerings lower academic rigor by replacing TJ-specific courses with APs?  --True or false?
2. If so, and if causes grade inflation, would that paradoxically put TJ students on more equal footing with base-school students where GPAs are already inflated?  --True or false?
3. The new courses reduce or eliminate interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching at TJ.  --True or false?
4. The principal is pursuing an agenda to make TJ less rigorous and more "consistent with" other FCPS schools? --True or false?

Please no bias no spin, if you can.

[/quote]

[b]1. This probably varies, but as someone who has taught several different AP courses, the college board curriculum is very watered-down. AP does not necessarily mean more rigor. 
[/b]2. Maybe true on paper, but this also means that TJ students cannot distinguish themselves as much as non-TJ students. 
3. True. This has already happened, especially in Humanities. It would not surprise me at all if IBET eventually goes away. 
4. Mukai doesn't care about rigor either way. He is simply a numbers person and just wants to boost AP numbers as much as possible. [/quote]

But it doesn’t have to be watered down.  It’s common at TJ to teach to a higher level and/or cover more material.  The AP curriculum will be covered, but the teaching doesn’t need to be (and generally isn’t) limited to the AP curriculum.

I’m not opining on the changes—my kid is a junior and is less impacted by this than kids in 9 and 10.  I see advantages and disadvantages—I’ve wondered why he couldn’t take AP Lang in 11 like most other schools, but also appreciate that TJ has a unique curriculum (for example, the old Math sequence). [/quote]

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