Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB = International Baccalaureate

HL = Higher Level
SL = Standard Level

To get the full IB diploma, you have to take 6 IB courses, and 3 or 4 of them have to be "Higher Level" (plus theory of knowledge, plus the big essay, plus a service project).

This is a very important post for people considering IB and very hard to get. Please make sure your school offers the full compliment of HL science courses, if that is important to your kid. The challenge we saw with IB was that my kid would have to spend too much time in humanities to meet the HL requirement, and not really get a chance to do all the science he wanted. This is school specific, so ask.

My dd is a freshman at an IB school and her projected schedule includes plenty of science and math, and no more humanities than she would take at an AP
school.

It looks like this...
Math:
(8th geometry honors)
9th algebra 2/trig honors
10th IB math SL 1
11th IB math HL 1
12th IB math HL 2

Science:
9th bio honors
10th IB Chem 1 SL
11th IB physics HL 1 AND IB systems and societies or IB bio HL 1 or IB Chem HL 1
12th IB physics HL 2 AND the second year of any of the above mentioned classes

She will be taking one IB history, IB English, and IB language class her junior and senior year. This is exactly the same amount of humanities that a student would take at an AP school.

Anonymous wrote:New poster here - we're zoned for an IB HS. My 2nd grader really struggles with writing. I know. I know. It's 2nd grade she can improve, but I'm concerned. If a child is a mediocre writer, will they fall apart in IB? How strong a writer does one need to be to be in IB or does IB help train you to be a better writer?

NP here. You're worrying way, way too early and you know that already, as you note yourself. Don't get in a twist over this right now. My DD is now in an IB HS with many kids with whom she was in elementary school. Some were not great or fluent writers back then and are doing fine in IB. If your child has writing issues (not clear if you mean she has issues with structuring content and expressing ideas, or issues with the physical act of writing), then focus on how those are affecting her in school now, in second grade, without overthinking what happens years from now in HS. Have you talked with her teacher and asked if your DD needs evaluations, or if the school has a writing specialist who can work with her outside class? Is she having real trouble with writing to the point that teachers are telling you it's affecting other aspects of school such as word problems in math, writing she's doing in subjects like history or science, etc.? Or is the struggle more a struggle you see at home when she resists writing for homework? If that's the case, the issue might be homework resistance more than writing problems per se. Sit down, look hard at when she has problems and what form they take, and get the school on board to provide help now and to come up with a plan to keep her writing over the summer, preferably about things she likes and in which she's interested.

Focus on now and what's needed now, and what your elementary can do to help her, rather than worrying about high school just yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB = International Baccalaureate

HL = Higher Level
SL = Standard Level

To get the full IB diploma, you have to take 6 IB courses, and 3 or 4 of them have to be "Higher Level" (plus theory of knowledge, plus the big essay, plus a service project).

This is a very important post for people considering IB and very hard to get. Please make sure your school offers the full compliment of HL science courses, if that is important to your kid. The challenge we saw with IB was that my kid would have to spend too much time in humanities to meet the HL requirement, and not really get a chance to do all the science he wanted. This is school specific, so ask.

+1000

In order to make the IB Diploma work for your kid, it takes detailed planning and collaboration with the school(s) starting NO LATER than as a 7th grader (for 8th grade course selection).

FCPS does not clearly state this anywhere.

Anonymous wrote:IB = International Baccalaureate

HL = Higher Level
SL = Standard Level

To get the full IB diploma, you have to take 6 IB courses, and 3 or 4 of them have to be "Higher Level" (plus theory of knowledge, plus the big essay, plus a service project).

This is a very important post for people considering IB and very hard to get. Please make sure your school offers the full compliment of HL science courses, if that is important to your kid. The challenge we saw with IB was that my kid would have to spend too much time in humanities to meet the HL requirement, and not really get a chance to do all the science he wanted. This is school specific, so ask.

New parent here
Yes, there is a place for your non-TJ kid in the IB program.
Please look at the math track on the FCPS page (or your local school's page)

IB is designed for kids that are taking Algebra and a World Language as an 8th grader. If you have a 8th grader in Geometry, you are going to be ahead a year. The IB courses are two years and there are restrictions on taking HL exams as a Junior. (This is to support the "whole" student and not allow rushing through the program).

My maybe TJ Kid (we'll find out on Friday) is really excited about doing IB at Robinson and has said he would rather do IB than TJ (but I don't know if that is to soften the blow if he doesn't get into TJ). I would have to agree that I liked the IB presentations better than the TJ open houses, but I'm a liberal arts undergrad (computer grad). Both are a big work load, but if your kid is an "8" they can do it.

IB = International Baccalaureate

HL = Higher Level
SL = Standard Level

To get the full IB diploma, you have to take 6 IB courses, and 3 or 4 of them have to be "Higher Level" (plus theory of knowledge, plus the big essay, plus a service project).

I'm new here. What's IB and HL?

Going to the original poster's question -- ask at your particular IB school which higher level (HL) courses they offer. Some of the programs are more robust than others.

The only HL science that Stuart offers is Bio, which means that to take a HL science class, my son would have wound up with 3 years of bio and no physics. (We transferred to an AP school).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

+1. IB clearly works for some kids. Who crusades against fewer options for our HS students?

NP - There is one or two anti-IB posters who always show up bashing IB. Borderline obsessed, it seems. Makes any sensible discussions impossible.

+1

"There is one or two anti-IB posters..."?

Someone apparently needs some remedial English before she signs up for that TOK course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

+1. IB clearly works for some kids. Who crusades against fewer options for our HS students?

NP - There is one or two anti-IB posters who always show up bashing IB. Borderline obsessed, it seems. Makes any sensible discussions impossible.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

+1. IB clearly works for some kids. Who crusades against fewer options for our HS students?

-1.

There are kids zoned for IB schools who would benefit more from AP, yet realistically cannot arrange for transportation to an AP school. Having a couple of IB schools in FCPS would be fine but concentrating them in the poorest schools with the lowest test scores is bad policy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

+1. IB clearly works for some kids. Who crusades against fewer options for our HS students?

NP - There is one or two anti-IB posters who always show up bashing IB. Borderline obsessed, it seems. Makes any sensible discussions impossible.

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

+1. IB clearly works for some kids. Who crusades against fewer options for our HS students?

It is impossible to get accurate and relevant IB information on this board. You've awakened the anti-IB lunatic. She's not going to drop it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two of my kids did IB Diploma - one got a full ride and the second got a full tuition. It's a nice program if your kid can keep up.

A friend's child did it and then went to Stanford. In FCPS, it's a nice path for the kids coming out of the competitive AAP MS Centers. The problem is parents whose kids can't keep up or don't want to. When the counter argument boils down to, it's too stressful/too hard for American kids, that's just sad. Some kids want or need the challenge. And as has been shown in these threads at length, acceptance rates at highly selective colleges are higher for IB diploma candidates than for AP candidates. If your kid doesn't want that, fine. But lots of kids do. And lots of IB diploma kids are going Ivy, or highly selective with significant merit aid.

The vast majority of the kids coming out of the more highly regarded MS centers go on to TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Chantilly, Westfield, Madison, Woodson, Lake Braddock, West Springfield, Herndon and Centreville, not IB schools. Kids at those schools also do much better with college admissions than kids coming out of the IB schools, where students on average perform much worse on standardized tests.

The only statistics suggesting diploma candidates at IB schools had an advantage with admissions were statistics comparing students from IB schools with kids graduating from all schools, including those that have neither AP nor IB.

IB has been an abject failure in FCPS. It would have been jettisoned years ago if FCPS were capable of admitting mistakes, but it is not. On the other hand, none of the newer schools (Centreville, Westfield and South County) got saddled with IB, and there are no PTAs at any AP school asking for AP to be swapped for IB.