Anonymous wrote:The academy has been referred to as both a "public policy" and a "social justice" academy. Note that the money (at this point over $500K, it appears) being spent to explore this idea could have been spent on additional English and math teachers at Lewis. It's a vanity project for Karen Keys Gamarra.

If it's a public policy academy, curious to know what courses it would offer that aren't offered at nearby schools. All schools used to teach "civics" and, while that term now sounds dated, schools still offer a range of social science electives. Parents at schools near Lewis should make sure FCPS isn't planning to strip your schools of electives such as "African American History" and "Debate" and force them to travel to Lewis instead.

If it's a social justice academy, and plans to offer new courses on topics like "Queer Justice," "Environmental Equity," or "Effective Social Media Campaign Strategies," there will be challenges developing a customized curriculum. Also, if the VDOE would have to agree that the courses counts towards graduation credits, there may be another battle between county and state officials.

clown world

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry, Lewis trying something new next year!

I hope you are not referring to the public policy academy. Everyone can see that failure a mile away. Everyone but the School Board - though even some of them see it but are too afraid to stop the idea in its tracks.

The academy has been referred to as both a "public policy" and a "social justice" academy. Note that the money (at this point over $500K, it appears) being spent to explore this idea could have been spent on additional English and math teachers at Lewis. It's a vanity project for Karen Keys Gamarra.

If it's a public policy academy, curious to know what courses it would offer that aren't offered at nearby schools. All schools used to teach "civics" and, while that term now sounds dated, schools still offer a range of social science electives. Parents at schools near Lewis should make sure FCPS isn't planning to strip your schools of electives such as "African American History" and "Debate" and force them to travel to Lewis instead.

If it's a social justice academy, and plans to offer new courses on topics like "Queer Justice," "Environmental Equity," or "Effective Social Media Campaign Strategies," there will be challenges developing a customized curriculum. Also, if the VDOE would have to agree that the courses counts towards graduation credits, there may be another battle between county and state officials.

If they got buy in from fairfax county police department, they could build an actually academy into the curriculum that graduated students ready to enter the police force.

Since KKG's main initiative other than the Lewis academy and school name changes seems to be eliminating SROs, that one may not happen.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry, Lewis trying something new next year!

I hope you are not referring to the public policy academy. Everyone can see that failure a mile away. Everyone but the School Board - though even some of them see it but are too afraid to stop the idea in its tracks.

The academy has been referred to as both a "public policy" and a "social justice" academy. Note that the money (at this point over $500K, it appears) being spent to explore this idea could have been spent on additional English and math teachers at Lewis. It's a vanity project for Karen Keys Gamarra.

If it's a public policy academy, curious to know what courses it would offer that aren't offered at nearby schools. All schools used to teach "civics" and, while that term now sounds dated, schools still offer a range of social science electives. Parents at schools near Lewis should make sure FCPS isn't planning to strip your schools of electives such as "African American History" and "Debate" and force them to travel to Lewis instead.

If it's a social justice academy, and plans to offer new courses on topics like "Queer Justice," "Environmental Equity," or "Effective Social Media Campaign Strategies," there will be challenges developing a customized curriculum. Also, if the VDOE would have to agree that the courses counts towards graduation credits, there may be another battle between county and state officials.

If they got buy in from fairfax county police department, they could build an actually academy into the curriculum that graduated students ready to enter the police force.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry, Lewis trying something new next year!

I hope you are not referring to the public policy academy. Everyone can see that failure a mile away. Everyone but the School Board - though even some of them see it but are too afraid to stop the idea in its tracks.

The academy has been referred to as both a "public policy" and a "social justice" academy. Note that the money (at this point over $500K, it appears) being spent to explore this idea could have been spent on additional English and math teachers at Lewis. It's a vanity project for Karen Keys Gamarra.

If it's a public policy academy, curious to know what courses it would offer that aren't offered at nearby schools. All schools used to teach "civics" and, while that term now sounds dated, schools still offer a range of social science electives. Parents at schools near Lewis should make sure FCPS isn't planning to strip your schools of electives such as "African American History" and "Debate" and force them to travel to Lewis instead.

If it's a social justice academy, and plans to offer new courses on topics like "Queer Justice," "Environmental Equity," or "Effective Social Media Campaign Strategies," there will be challenges developing a customized curriculum. Also, if the VDOE would have to agree that the courses counts towards graduation credits, there may be another battle between county and state officials.

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry, Lewis trying something new next year!

I hope you are not referring to the public policy academy. Everyone can see that failure a mile away. Everyone but the School Board - though even some of them see it but are too afraid to stop the idea in its tracks.

Don't worry, Lewis trying something new next year!

Anonymous wrote:Open classrooms were a trend for schools built in the 1970s. Turned out they weren’t great learning environments and school systems had to spend money to modify buildings so their classrooms.

IB was a trend in the late 90s and early 00s. We now have several decades of experience that it’s been a net detriment to the schools where it was introduced. We just haven’t bit the bullet and gotten rid of it yet. In the meanwhile most IB programs will continue to flounder.

+1 IB was put in at a lot of the schools that have it in order to create a “school within a school” atmosphere for the top kids at that school, to hopefully segregate them from the general education kids. They wanted to do something to try to stop transfers out at those schools and/or to make them more desirable. It didn’t work, now it’s time to cut IB at most of the schools that have it and go back to AP. There’s really no reason that Lewis/Edison/Mt. Vernon all in the same general area of the county should all have IB, when very few kids there are choosing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the school’s name, an FCPS high school with an IB program that produces only four IB diploma recipients in a graduating class needs to pull the plug on IB. It’s nuts they think they are honoring John Lewis by associating his name with such poor achievement.

Achievement is not measured by IB diplomas alone.

And the faux “concern” for Lewis is pretty transparent.

C’mon. You know a high school IB program at a school with 400 or so seniors and only 4 IB diploma graduates sucks big time.

How many IB classes are being taken? How many juniors and seniors take 1, 2, 3, 4 or more IB classes during high school? Looking at IB diplomas awarded is only one metric and is not the best metric to use. Should FCPS high schools no longer offer AP classes if only have single-digit graduates with the Capstone?

One percent of graduates earning the IB diploma shows terrible results at the top end, which likely are reflected in the other lower level metrics that you mentioned. And AP is better for a la carte courses if that is the way they are going to be taken. AP is also less expensive. FCPS is not obligated to maintain two different sets of advanced courses. Simplify everything in the county by making all schools AP.

I would support a School Board candidate that pledged to take a serious look at IB. Unfortunately there are a few members who just won't give IB up.

The only people who will try to explain this poor showing away as anything less than grim are (1) die-hard IB supporters; (2) West Springfield parents who want to suggest Lewis is doing great to squelch any redistricting talk; and (3) Lewis-zoned parents who want to suggest IB is succeeding at Lewis so they can keep pupil-placing their kids to AP schools.

Otherwise it’s a clear distress sign.

What a crock.

The Lewis zoned parents on this thread keep defending the abysmal desults of only 4 students graduating with an IB diploma. Who knows why. Perhaps it is because they want to keep that IB loophole so they can transfer out of Lewis.

No WSHS parent cares whether or not Lewis is IB. It does not affect their school one iota. What they have commented on is that IB does not make any sense at neigbboring Lewis because the program sucks and because it has zero appeal or usefulness to military families.

Keep your IB if you are so attached to it.

If my kid was zoned for an IB school with such poor results as Lewis IB program, I would fight like hell to either get rid of the program, or transfer my kkd to an actual AP school, including a Catholic high school if all else fails.

The existence and fate of Lewis is very much intertwined with WSHS. At one point, though it was an early Gatehouse blueprint, there were talks of Lee getting shut down as a 'normal' high school after the ESOL young adult program was placed there. If any plans to dissolve Lewis ever come to light again, WSHS could be the first on the hook for receiving students from some of the poorest ES in the county like Lynbrook and Crestwood which would surely affect WSHS's outcomes.

Yeah... that is not happening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the school’s name, an FCPS high school with an IB program that produces only four IB diploma recipients in a graduating class needs to pull the plug on IB. It’s nuts they think they are honoring John Lewis by associating his name with such poor achievement.

Achievement is not measured by IB diplomas alone.

And the faux “concern” for Lewis is pretty transparent.

C’mon. You know a high school IB program at a school with 400 or so seniors and only 4 IB diploma graduates sucks big time.

How many IB classes are being taken? How many juniors and seniors take 1, 2, 3, 4 or more IB classes during high school? Looking at IB diplomas awarded is only one metric and is not the best metric to use. Should FCPS high schools no longer offer AP classes if only have single-digit graduates with the Capstone?

One percent of graduates earning the IB diploma shows terrible results at the top end, which likely are reflected in the other lower level metrics that you mentioned. And AP is better for a la carte courses if that is the way they are going to be taken. AP is also less expensive. FCPS is not obligated to maintain two different sets of advanced courses. Simplify everything in the county by making all schools AP.

I would support a School Board candidate that pledged to take a serious look at IB. Unfortunately there are a few members who just won't give IB up.

The only people who will try to explain this poor showing away as anything less than grim are (1) die-hard IB supporters; (2) West Springfield parents who want to suggest Lewis is doing great to squelch any redistricting talk; and (3) Lewis-zoned parents who want to suggest IB is succeeding at Lewis so they can keep pupil-placing their kids to AP schools.

Otherwise it’s a clear distress sign.

What a crock.

The Lewis zoned parents on this thread keep defending the abysmal desults of only 4 students graduating with an IB diploma. Who knows why. Perhaps it is because they want to keep that IB loophole so they can transfer out of Lewis.

No WSHS parent cares whether or not Lewis is IB. It does not affect their school one iota. What they have commented on is that IB does not make any sense at neigbboring Lewis because the program sucks and because it has zero appeal or usefulness to military families.

Keep your IB if you are so attached to it.

If my kid was zoned for an IB school with such poor results as Lewis IB program, I would fight like hell to either get rid of the program, or transfer my kkd to an actual AP school, including a Catholic high school if all else fails.

The existence and fate of Lewis is very much intertwined with WSHS. At one point, though it was an early Gatehouse blueprint, there were talks of Lee getting shut down as a 'normal' high school after the ESOL young adult program was placed there. If any plans to dissolve Lewis ever come to light again, WSHS could be the first on the hook for receiving students from some of the poorest ES in the county like Lynbrook and Crestwood which would surely affect WSHS's outcomes.

Seems like that would have big ripple effects that a School Board composed of cowards who are big on talk and light on action would never set in motion. Dream away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regardless of the school’s name, an FCPS high school with an IB program that produces only four IB diploma recipients in a graduating class needs to pull the plug on IB. It’s nuts they think they are honoring John Lewis by associating his name with such poor achievement.

Achievement is not measured by IB diplomas alone.

And the faux “concern” for Lewis is pretty transparent.

C’mon. You know a high school IB program at a school with 400 or so seniors and only 4 IB diploma graduates sucks big time.

How many IB classes are being taken? How many juniors and seniors take 1, 2, 3, 4 or more IB classes during high school? Looking at IB diplomas awarded is only one metric and is not the best metric to use. Should FCPS high schools no longer offer AP classes if only have single-digit graduates with the Capstone?

One percent of graduates earning the IB diploma shows terrible results at the top end, which likely are reflected in the other lower level metrics that you mentioned. And AP is better for a la carte courses if that is the way they are going to be taken. AP is also less expensive. FCPS is not obligated to maintain two different sets of advanced courses. Simplify everything in the county by making all schools AP.

I would support a School Board candidate that pledged to take a serious look at IB. Unfortunately there are a few members who just won't give IB up.

The only people who will try to explain this poor showing away as anything less than grim are (1) die-hard IB supporters; (2) West Springfield parents who want to suggest Lewis is doing great to squelch any redistricting talk; and (3) Lewis-zoned parents who want to suggest IB is succeeding at Lewis so they can keep pupil-placing their kids to AP schools.

Otherwise it’s a clear distress sign.

What a crock.

The Lewis zoned parents on this thread keep defending the abysmal desults of only 4 students graduating with an IB diploma. Who knows why. Perhaps it is because they want to keep that IB loophole so they can transfer out of Lewis.

No WSHS parent cares whether or not Lewis is IB. It does not affect their school one iota. What they have commented on is that IB does not make any sense at neigbboring Lewis because the program sucks and because it has zero appeal or usefulness to military families.

Keep your IB if you are so attached to it.

If my kid was zoned for an IB school with such poor results as Lewis IB program, I would fight like hell to either get rid of the program, or transfer my kkd to an actual AP school, including a Catholic high school if all else fails.

The existence and fate of Lewis is very much intertwined with WSHS. At one point, though it was an early Gatehouse blueprint, there were talks of Lee getting shut down as a 'normal' high school after the ESOL young adult program was placed there. If any plans to dissolve Lewis ever come to light again, WSHS could be the first on the hook for receiving students from some of the poorest ES in the county like Lynbrook and Crestwood which would surely affect WSHS's outcomes.