Reply to Is there any place for math/science kid (not TJ level) in IB HS?

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Reply to "Is there any place for math/science kid (not TJ level) in IB HS?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

FCPS had 237 National Merit Semifinalists this school year. 163 go to TJ, which has AP and more advanced courses, and no IB. Of the remaining 74, 68 attend AP schools and only six go to IB schools, even though one-third of the high schools in the county excluding TJ are IB.

The record of IB schools in FCPS is underwhelming at best. The six high schools in FCPS with the highest SATs are all AP. Of the seven with the lowest scores, five are IB. FCPS tried to replace AP with IB at Woodson, and the parents forced them to restore AP.  And, there has never been a plan to redistrict students from an AP school to an IB school that was not met with protests.

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wtf? AP is better because it is offered by TJ? Seriously?  You get that a TJ diploma has a lot of extra requirements?  And that an IB diploma also has a lot of extra requirements, that are different than the TJ diploma. Doing either without summer school is a challenge-- and may be impossible if you play an instrument. It would be impossible to get both a TJ diploma and an IB diploma unless you spent 5 years in HS. Also, these programs have very different philosophies. IB is humanities heavy, interdisciplinary and needs 5 years of a foreign language, etc. TJ is (duh) STEM centric. Come back when you figure out wtf you are talking about. [/quote]

Uh, I think OP described her kid as a math/science kid. Not that IB is anything close to the humanities equivalent of TJ.[/quote]

Nope. But there are 4 types of diplomas in FCPS (non-special Ed): standard, advanced, IB and TJ. PP is saying TJ is the best school in FCPS and doesn't offer IB, which means AP must be better. I'm saying a TJ diploma and an IB diploma are completely incompatible. You can't do both. FWIW OP: my STEM smart kid (also not too shabby in the humanities and a good writer) pupil placed for IB in case he is not admitted to TJ next year. But he plans to do the full diploma. We looked hard at the requirement with him and mapped out a schedule that ended with the IB diploma before we signed off on the pupil placement. It's incredibly rigorous. He will be challenged and get a great education. It's a very good plan B. [/quote]

Again, the evidence is overwhelming that most STEM-smart students in FCPS go to TJ and other schools with a full menu of AP courses.

And, just so you know, FCPS does not issue IB diplomas. They are issued by the IBO after the vast majority of American students know where they are attending college or university.

Relatively few FCPS students end up with any benefits from IB they could not have obtained from AP. But the IBO markets it in a pretty package for FCPS to resell, kind of like an all-inclusive educational cruise.  Most of the more discerning, better educated families see through the hype and prefer AP schools, as the prior data shows.  To ascribe the superior performance of the AP schools to the higher SES levels of parents who live in the AP districts actually proves too much.[/quote]

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