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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]MCPS turned a few high schools into "regional IB" programs four years ago. I remember that magnet admissions season and there was a LOT of angst over kids who applied to RM being instead seats at these regionals instead. And I remember an awful lot of unpleasant assertions that these schools / students would not perform at the same level as RM. It was ugly. Sometime really ugly.

So I am wondering how it has gone for the first cohort? I've heard about several admissions to T20 universities at our regional IB. More than there had been before. How about at your regional? Do you think it all worked out or do you think it was all for show and that MCPS failed?[/quote]

Just stop.

MCPS did not "fail"

Learn the history of why there are Magnet schools to begin with then come back with your propaganda.

These schools are good. They serve a specific segment of the student population.  Just like any other HS experience it will be different for different kids.

You have zero idea what you are a talking about. Stop trying to bash MCPS. [/quote]

You're delusional. MCPS definitely intentionally put the Regional IB programs in schools that had abysmal academics to draw kids who have good academic numbers to come to the school and improve their numbers.

Acknowledging this fact is not "bashing" MCPS. And frankly, [b]I don't mind the tactic if they do a good job of giving those kids positive outcomes in those Regional IB programs. That has not been the case to date at Kennedy. [/b]Hence, why Principal Adamson was brought in to clean up that mess.[/quote]

Why would you have expected the regional IB programs to have better outcomes compared to before? If it were that easy to turn around a school with an IB program, we would just switch all schools to IB and solve all the problems in education. It was just a distraction.[/quote]

Don't ask me that question. Ask MCPS. They're the ones who set it up.

I had no idea that the teachers leading the IB courses were the same ones from before the school became a Regional IB school.[/quote]

It’s not like they will fire the staff and hire highly qualified IB teachers that are just waiting for the opportunity to work at Kennedy. Probably they do a two week training session with the existing staff, if even that.

To me the dishonest part was just how overhyped the IB program was, because it was presentas truly amazing and rigorous, when [b]in fact[/b] it’s somewhat below AP, and like everything in education depends a lot on the teachers and students.[/quote]

I think you're using that phrase incorrectly. What you meant was, "in my opinion".[/quote]

AP and IB are roughy comparable for individual courses.

However, IB has a some major downsides, primarily among them that in two year of the diploma program you take the equivalent of 3 AP classes, their HL versions. It’s ok for an average student but it’s inadequate for a top student which is why you don’t see the college admissions results that some naive parents were expecting based on the MCPS administration hyping alone.

Among other arguments discussed in length [b]you can conclude that IB is somewhat below AP.[/b]

Another issue with IB is the unbelievable amount of hype and oversell that surrounds it, with fanbois posting hilarious claims that IB dramatically improves the odds at Ivy League. Of course none of that is true, but it gets posted as fact. Source from the Kennedy IB program, please tell me how this is not downright deceptive marketing:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/a-j/kennedyhs/uploadedfiles/programs/ib/ib20dp20college20info202012.pdf

MCPS decides to rebrand its poorly performing schools with the new and improved IB program, that’s just a varnish to fool the unsuspecting parents.

Then you end up with regional programs that only have a single IB HL in science with an IB exam pass rate at 65%, but nonetheless claim the admission chances to various universities like UVA are 64%! UC Berkeley is 58%, University of Michigan 71%! Yay! Although in this thread we barely heard of one student maybe being accepted into Michigan across all regional programs.
[/quote]

No, that's what YOU conclude, in your weird obsession with hating on IB.[/quote]

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