Reply to S/o (VA public schools). IB and college preparedness

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I'm not following your logic.  Taking SOME AP courses is equivalent to taking SOME IB courses.  They are both advanced coursework.  Students in an IB school do NOT have to get the full IB diploma - they can take IB courses a la carte.

If you feel that the advantage to taking a single AP class is college credit:

1. AP credit is not always accepted in college
2. IB credit credit can be given at college in the same way AP credit can
3. IB students can still take AP exams if they feel that the AP credit is more likely to be accepted at a school[/quote]

Different poster here, but I think some of the skepticism arises from the fact that IB proponents sometimes suggest that the IB program is a well-designed sequence of inter-connected courses that, taken together, help students learn "how to think" and prepare them for college-level classes.  But, when someone points out that few students at IB high schools in FCPS actually pursue or receive IB diplomas, the immediate response is that individual IB classes are just as valuable as AP classes taken "a la carte."

To which the response is two-fold:  (1) if the full diploma program were as beneficial as claimed, you'd expect to see greater enthusiasm and demand for IB, both within existing IB schools and at AP schools that don't offer IB; and (2) if IB is really just the same thing as AP, why bother incurring the additional expense associated with IB, such as dedicated IB coordinators at individual schools.  If feels like a game of "whack-a-mole" that avoids the ultimate question as to why not just go with AP.  Yes, IB students can sign up for AP exams without having taken AP classes, but they have to prepare for those exams on their own - and we're told that the IB diploma is so rigorous that you'd wonder when students would ever find time to study for an AP exam. [/quote]

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