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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would say there is a great deal of desperation about what to do with Jefferson Houston.  They tried an "Arts Magnet" approach at  the same time they did the "Traditional Academy" at Lyles-Crouch.  For a host of reasons, Lyles-Crouch has been wildly successful (so successful that they don't do the lottery anymore -- they are oversubscribed with in-boundary kids), and the focus at Jefferson-Houston was abandoned and the school is half empty.  There is a small parent group at J-H that were trying to improve things and it seems that the Administration has basically said they would do anything that didn't involve spending money on new facilities or redrawing boundaries.  The parent group came up with the I-B idea.  I get the impression that the K-8 initiative was not tied to the I-B program, and the decision was made based upon other factors we can only speculate about, but are probably based upon trying to find a use for a half-empty building at a time when many  Alexandria schools are overcrowded.  The cynics do suggest that the proposal is intended to keep the disadvantaged kids at J-H out of the larger middle school population.  The Administration has also admitted recently that it may have to address the boundary issues, even if it is limiting in-boundary enrollment at over-crowded schools.  [/quote]

The middle school IB program is a stand-alone, meaning you don't have to feed into a high school IB program.  It is a very nice program; one of the best things about it is that the school is certified as an IB school by teachers from throughout the world who don't care about NCLB or any other American testing regime.  This helps keep the school from drifting too far from good practices (since it is a good program) or dumbing down classes.[/quote]

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