Reply to Serious effort to remove IB from FCPS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I hope not. It’s an excellent program and we have been extremely pleased with the rigor. [/quote]

The only rigor on display at most IB schools in FCPS is rigor mortis. That’s a main reason why they are so keen to redistrict. Easier than dealing with the root causes. [/quote]
It’s fine to like AP better but you don’t need to insult IB just because you are not a fan.  Just like people who like IB don’t need to diss AP.  Is it really that hard not to be a jerk?[/quote]

But here's the deal.  This topic only comes up becomes the SB is exploring county-wide boundary changes that could see people moved from one high school to another.

Here are some facts relevant to that discussion:

1.  FCPS currently has over twice as many AP high/secondary schools (17) as IB high/secondary schools (8).

2.  Parents in FCPS generally prefer AP over IB, as revealed by historic pupil placement activity and other events, such as the successful efforts by Woodson parents to overturn an FCPS plan to convert Woodson from AP to IB and FCPS's cessation by the mid-2000s of conversions of AP high schools to IB.

3.  IB costs more per student than AP due to IBO fees and requirements, including the requirement to have a dedicated IB coordinator at each school offering the IB diploma.

4.  IB diploma rates at the 8 IB high/secondary schools are consistently low; for 2023-24, according to the VDOE, the IB diploma rates ranged from as little of 2.6% of graduating seniors to at most 17.5%:

* Robinson 17.5%
* Marshall 13.3%
* Annandale 10.0% 
* Edison 9.1%
* South Lakes 7.9%
* Justice 5.8% 
* Mount Vernon 2.8%
* Lewis 2.6%

5.  In the past, when students were redistricted from AP schools to an IB school (South Lakes), FCPS officials made statements that they would expand the AP offerings at the IB school, but subsequently failed to honor that commitment.

6.  The high/secondary schools that are currently the most under-enrolled are IB schools (Lewis and Mount Vernon), whereas the opposite is true with respect to the schools deemed over capacity.

In the context of potential boundary adjustments, one big impediment is the fact that some high/secondary schools offer AP, while the others offer IB.  In light of the facts described above, it would be logistically easier to convert the smaller number of IB schools to AP than to convert the larger number of AP schools to IB, and such a change generally would be better received by families.  When people pipe up, again in the context of this broader discussion, with comments about how much they like IB, they are perceived as taking the position that they'd like to see FCPS maintain the IB schools and even reassign kids from AP schools to IB schools against their will.

If you just said you'd like to maintain the status quo with no boundary changes, you might get a different reaction because everyone otherwise has heard the arguments in favor of AP or IB 10,000 times by now.  [/quote]

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