Reply to FCPS Skyview Boundary Revised Scenario 1 / 2

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "FCPS Skyview Boundary Revised Scenario 1 / 2 "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All of Oak Hill should be at Skyview.

But the complaints from pretty much everyone about who is moving and the like pretty much makes the case for a magnate (sp) school.

The school was purchased to reduce overcrowding but the ES at the schools with the overcrowding don’t want to move, they want other people to move. They are fine with it being crowded if it means they don’t move.[/quote]

A magnet will serve no purpose other than to have achieving students leave schools they do not like.

It will not resolve any of the overcrowding.

Skyview will:
help overcrowding at Chantilly
keep Westfield kids in a much closer school
appears that it will allow the Fox Mill families an escape from IB --which they never wanted

Gee.  Doesn't it seem like if the School Board is making boundary decisions based on screaming parents, that they would listen to those who do not want IB?  This is not exclusive to South Lakes.

This has gone on for far too long:
1. Overwhelmingly, the community prefers AP to IB
2. IB is more expensive.  It used to be clear, but they are now hiding the specifics.  As I recall, the total was close to twice as much with all the etra requirements.

It is time to address this.  Where is the SB member who will step forward with this?[/quote]

IB is a tougher issue for the School Board.

With boundary changes, they can claim they are addressing a problem created largely by factors beyond their control (residential growth or lack thereof, etc.) and listening to parents about how to address the problem.

With IB, it's a problem of their own making.  They don't have the equivalent of a "Boundary Explorer Tool" to assess the degree of opposition to IB, or preference for AP, and they certainly don't want to put out surveys that would give them feedback they don't want.

IB also aligns philosophically with the politics of most of the School Board members.  I've heard several of them say money is the main reason why they aren't replacing AP with IB at other schools. They think the IB curriculum aligns more closely with the FCPS "Portrait of a Graduate" than AP.  They cheer on administrators who encourage kids at AP schools to take fewer AP classes, but love it when kids get IB diplomas.

So it would take a huge lift, and one championed by parents, to replace IB at any of the current IB schools.  And that's unlikely because parents can (1) avoid IB schools entirely or (2) use IB as a grounds to pupil place their kids to an AP school, which more likely than not will be higher rated and wealthier than their IB school.   That's not a bad deal if you can arrange for your kid's transportation.

With Skyview, they can clearly see that there's more enthusiasm among Fox Mill parents to leave South Lakes (IB) for Skyview (AP) than there is among Crossfield parents to leave Oakton (AP) for Skyview, but they have no incentive to explore why that might the case.  Unless some School Board member surprises people and decides to make a big deal about the savings that could realized if Crossfield kids had a shorter commute to Skyview vs. Oakton, they'll just go with the flow and pat themselves on the back for "listening" to (noisy) parents.  South Lakes will be left with both IB and fewer IB diploma candidates.[/quote]

Plenty of people have been clear that AP is a reason for wanting to move to Skyview, the school board doesn’t want to read that or hear that. They have years of data showing kids pupil placing out from IB schools. They have years of data about lackluster IB diploma numbers. They have all the data that they need.

There are people who like IB, some for the actual program and some because they like the school within a school aspect. The bigger issue is that the people who feel strongly about AP leave the IB schools. The parents who don’t really care say nothing. The small percentage of the parents who like IB tell everyone how it is better than AP and the school board ohhs and ahhs over the language behind IB.

You would think that the issues around lewis and Mt. Vernon during the comprehensive review and now the people wanting to leave SLHS for AP would be sending up a huge red flag on IB but I don’t think it has. [/quote]

The thrust of your comment seems to be that FCPS has enough information to revert to AP at IB schools, and I am telling you that there is a zero percent chance that will happen absent a far more organized and vocal campaign by parents at an IB school than we've seen since Woodson rebelled years ago and got them to abandon IB there.

They may have years of data showing kids pupil placing out of IB schools, but they can say that's just parents looking to transfer their kids to wealthier schools.  And they can point to the pupil placements out of Herndon to South Lakes as an example of families preferring an IB school over an AP school.

They may also have years of data about lackluster IB diploma numbers, but they will just say that's a reflection of the rigors of IB and that the best way to increase the numbers is to add PYP and MYP programs within the IB pyramids.

Meanwhile, as you note, most people who prefer AP can vote with their feet, and they love to hear from the folks who tell them them IB is better than AP because it validates their past decisions and current biases.

On the other hand, if there is ever a truly organized group - think of the equivalent of FairFACTS Matters protecting Langley's boundaries or RIO protecting Oakton's boundaries, but demanding a program change at an IB school - they will listen because it will be clear the group has both money and votes.  It hasn't materialized yet.  If I had to pick a school where it most likely, it would be Robinson or Marshall, but even there you're going to find the same phenomenon of people who prefer AP avoiding those schools and IB supporters saying they moved into the areas specifically for IB (on the other hand, there are a lot of pupil placements out of Robinson into Lake Braddock and we've just seen how a Marshall neighborhood jumped at the chance to get redistricted to Madison).  By no means is it a coincidence that South Lakes parents are more receptive than Oakton parents about the prospect of moving to Skyview. [/quote]

+1. Honestly the time to go after IB is now if parents have the motivation and time to do it. The School Board and Reid are vulnerable and have proven that they'll capitulate to the loudest, wealthiest voices.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics