Reply to Mount Vernon?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Mount Vernon?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would be interested to know what the average White & Asian non-FARMS SAT scores are in Mt.Vernon & Lee vs west Springfield and West Potomac. Similar, or a significant gap? [/quote]

Significant.[/quote]

Interesting. What are Lee and Mt. Vernon doing wrong? I will say I love the IB option. In fact I have a kid who just decided to pupil place for IB next year. But to really take advantage of it, you need a certain type of student. Good writer.  Self directed. Able to handle high level course work across all subject areas. Willing to deal with the extras that go with the full diploma. DC2 will almost certainly not pupil place for IB in a couple years because she is a pure STEM kid and hates to write. I think FCPS probably meant well, but did schools like Mt. Vernon, Lee & Stuart a disservice by putting IB there. Ideally, IB should be an open enrollment opt in only magnet program at 2-3 high schools. For example, just SLHS, Marshall and Robinson, which seem to be making it work.  And transportation should be provided, like for TJ. Saying Lee kids have an AP option is BS if they can't work out the transportation. [/quote]

The obvious thing is that South Lakes, Marshall and Robinson are IB schools surrounded almost entirely by AP schools, whereas the other IB schools (Stuart, Annandale, Lee, Edison and Mount Vernon) are all bunched together.

There's a limited demand for IB relative to AP.  If you have an IB school surrounded by four AP schools, the numbers work out OK.  If you have IB schools abutting or in close proximity to one another, they cannibalize the demand and often end with net pupil placements to AP schools (Mount Vernon to West Potomac/Hayfield, Lee to West Springfield, Annandale to Woodson, etc).  It's not been a good model. [/quote]

That's pretty obvious. So why in the world does FCPS not pick one to make IB, convert the rest to AP and call it a day?  Karen Garza has seemed very willing to make other big changes, like later start times and half day Mondays. Why is this not a no brainer?  What is the argument in favor of all these IB schools in one area? Lee or Mt. Vernon might actually pull in high achieving kids if it was the only IB option in the area. [/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