Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 13:05     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If not enough kids choose that course when in the course selection stage, they don’t run it. At my school, a class will not run if there are not 15 students enrolled. So most likely, not enough kids at your school expressed interest or chose this class in course builder.


For Physics??

Physics is a basic requirement for college bound students.

How does it happen that a northern virginia high school fails to offer physics.

OP mentioned IB, which means it is one of the low performing schools like Lewis or Mount Vernon. FCPS really needs to ditch IB. They claim they care about "equity" but then force a low quality IB education on our lowest performing schools.

Ditch IB, but in the meantime, run the physics class even if it is just 5 kids hetting essentially a small, private school/homeschool/tiny rural school class experience.

At the minimum, FCPS owes it to the poor kids getting shortchanged by IB


Every HS offers Physics. The complaint is that some high schools aren't offering a more challenging ("Senior level") Physics course such as AP Physics or IB HL Physics.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 12:42     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:If not enough kids choose that course when in the course selection stage, they don’t run it. At my school, a class will not run if there are not 15 students enrolled. So most likely, not enough kids at your school expressed interest or chose this class in course builder.


For Physics??

Physics is a basic requirement for college bound students.

How does it happen that a northern virginia high school fails to offer physics.

OP mentioned IB, which means it is one of the low performing schools like Lewis or Mount Vernon. FCPS really needs to ditch IB. They claim they care about "equity" but then force a low quality IB education on our lowest performing schools.

Ditch IB, but in the meantime, run the physics class even if it is just 5 kids hetting essentially a small, private school/homeschool/tiny rural school class experience.

At the minimum, FCPS owes it to the poor kids getting shortchanged by IB


You are going to have to be more specific there.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 12:11     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:If not enough kids choose that course when in the course selection stage, they don’t run it. At my school, a class will not run if there are not 15 students enrolled. So most likely, not enough kids at your school expressed interest or chose this class in course builder.


For Physics??

Physics is a basic requirement for college bound students.

How does it happen that a northern virginia high school fails to offer physics.

OP mentioned IB, which means it is one of the low performing schools like Lewis or Mount Vernon. FCPS really needs to ditch IB. They claim they care about "equity" but then force a low quality IB education on our lowest performing schools.

Ditch IB, but in the meantime, run the physics class even if it is just 5 kids hetting essentially a small, private school/homeschool/tiny rural school class experience.

At the minimum, FCPS owes it to the poor kids getting shortchanged by IB
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 12:08     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:What about AP Physics?


Going by the course catalogs:

1. It looks like Lewis offers AP Physics but not IB HL Physics next year.

2. Most IB schools (Annandale, Edison, Marshall, Mount Vernon, and Robinson) will offer both IB SL and HL Physics.

3. Justice and South Lakes will only offer IB SL Physics but not HL Physics (or AP Physics).
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 09:42     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

What about AP Physics?
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 08:41     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:The board is completely anonymous. I don't understand why people almost never name and shame schools. Afraid of fact checking?
I believe you, but this post does nothing but whine and waste everyone's time if you don't name the school.


What would this board do with the school name? If I thought it would help I'd have contacted Reid, my school board rep, and our principal, but it won't help so I vented here. Sorry for wasting your valuable time.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 07:52     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:Yet another example of FCPS not being able to deliver a quality IB program. They don’t understand what the demand level is and consequently don’t offer IB at only 1 or 2 schools. Either run the program well or drop it.


It’s hard to say when OP didn’t name the school, but this so common in schools that run IB *and* AP *and* DE courses. The upper level courses just cannibalize eachother, whereas if you only offered 1/2 pathways max, all the classes could run.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 07:18     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Yet another example of FCPS not being able to deliver a quality IB program. They don’t understand what the demand level is and consequently don’t offer IB at only 1 or 2 schools. Either run the program well or drop it.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 06:53     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

If not enough kids choose that course when in the course selection stage, they don’t run it. At my school, a class will not run if there are not 15 students enrolled. So most likely, not enough kids at your school expressed interest or chose this class in course builder.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 00:54     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

The board is completely anonymous. I don't understand why people almost never name and shame schools. Afraid of fact checking?
I believe you, but this post does nothing but whine and waste everyone's time if you don't name the school.
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 00:20     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

How on earth does a FCPS high school not offer physics?
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 00:01     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our high school isn't offering IB Physics next year. Great job Reid and the school board are doing.


They are “closing the racial achievement-gap from the top down.”

I’m quite serious. The FCPS School Board, Reid, and Gatehouse are happy to eliminate advanced course offerings.

If you take away advanced classes, student achievement goes down and the achievement-gap appears more narrow. In their minds: equity achieved!



Didn’t NYC eliminate their entire gifted and talented program in order to achieve the same equity goal ?
Anonymous
Post 04/14/2025 00:00     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Anonymous wrote:Our high school isn't offering IB Physics next year. Great job Reid and the school board are doing.


They are “closing the racial achievement-gap from the top down.”

I’m quite serious. The FCPS School Board, Reid, and Gatehouse are happy to eliminate advanced course offerings.

If you take away advanced classes, student achievement goes down and the achievement-gap appears more narrow. In their minds: equity achieved!
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2025 23:29     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Sounds like a school/principal issue not a school board/superintendent issue. Our school offers multiple advanced level physics classes.
Anonymous
Post 04/13/2025 22:04     Subject: No Senior level Physics class at our IB School

Our high school isn't offering IB Physics next year. Great job Reid and the school board are doing.