Reply to If AP is more popular/better/more flexible, why does FCPS put IB in all the lower-ranked schools?

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Reply to "If AP is more popular/better/more flexible, why does FCPS put IB in all the lower-ranked schools?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Very true. We live in the Marshall district and have heard most people say the IB program there is not as preferred as the AP program at McLean or Madison. I just think Marshall is lucky in that it straddles two very wealthy areas in McLean and Vienna plus draws kids who don't want to go to Falls Church for it's IB program. There are kids who want IB, just not as many as the ones who want AP. And Marshall has a fantastic academy program which is probably more of a draw than its IB program. Some of the children attending Marshall are happy to have some advanced classes while being able to take advantage of a great academy program not offered anywhere else close by. They also offer more Chinese than any of the other schools nearby I think.[/quote]

This.  Think of the math.  Assume Marshall is IB and has 60 kids who want AP.  20 pupil place to each of Madison and McLean and the other 20 suck it up because they don't want to transfer to Falls Church.  Outflow: 40 kids.

Assume Langley, McLean, Madison and Falls Church each has 30 kids who want IB, and that Marshall is the IB option for 1/2 the kids at Langley, Madison and Falls Church (the rest would go to either South Lakes or Stuart) and all the kids at McLean.  Assume another 20 kids at Falls Church transfer just so they can attend a newly renovated school with higher test scores, and that 5 more transfer because they don't want to take a bus from their base school for an Academy course.   Inflow: 100 kids.

The result:  Marshall gets a net influx of 60 students, even though AP is more popular than IB.  This is more or less how the math now works out at Marshall  and South Lakes, another IB school surrounded by AP schools.  Put IB in a bunch of lower-performing schools that are close to each other, however, and the math works in the opposite direction, which is why schools like Annandale, Lee and Mount Vernon usually see large net pupil placements out of the school.  [/quote]

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