Anonymous wrote:I interviewed one of Eastern's several best students for my Ivy over the winter as alumna volunteer. She told me that she was one half a dozen in the first group trying to earn the IB Diploma this year, taking the Theory of Knowledge Class, doing the Community Action Service volunteer work, writing her Extended Essay and preparing to take their remaining IB exams (juniors can take up to 2 of the 6;the exams are given in June and graded in Geneva, with results out in August). The girl struck me as a surprisingly strong student despite the many challenges she faces as a low-income kid who failed to test into Banneker or Walls.

This is interesting- my interviewee mentioned that she'd never had a white or Asian classmate, all the way from PreK3 in a Ward 8 ES, to Eliot-Hine, to Eastern. She wasn't admitted to my Ivy, but did get into a couple of other elite colleges on a lot of financial aid. Good for her.

My impression of Eastern's IB Program is that it's going to limp along for years to come without a solid Ward 6 MS bridge feeding in many strong students, particularly those with impressive foreign language backgrounds. The odd kid will do well, but I'd be surprised if Eastern's IB pass rate will be over one-third for a decade or more (Bannker supports a pass rate of around two-thirds, with three dozen IB students, while there are numerous suburban progams in this Metro area with pass rates of 80% plus).

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Anonymous wrote:Are you freaking serious it was never a goal to get 400 incoming freshmen into the IB program per year. If that was the case...then an application component would've been priority. If you are truly knowledgeable about IB, then you would know the high-school component does not kick into gear until 11th grade. So for someone to think that incoming freshmen are a lost cause due to IB offerings are just clueless. You are aware that Eastern is a comprehensive high school and there's only two high school (Banneker Academic High School) that offer IB and both are predominantly AA populated.

The only way you'd have more than a token number of IB diploma candidates at a school like Eastern would be to have strong PYP and MYP programs at the ES and MS level, and then make sure students were taking the right pre-IB courses in 9th and 10th grade.

In essence, this program is fairly insigniciant at a school like Eastern. It just becomes away to suggest the school is better because it's an "IB world school," but only a handful of students will get IB diplomas. For the uninitiated, you don't graduate with two diplomas. All anyone will know when they graduate is that they are a "diploma candidate," and if they don't score high enough on the IB tests they'll find out the following October that they aren't ever getting an IB diploma.

NP and you are completely wrong PP. The fact that a student who's attended non-IB schools and most likely challenged schools up to the point that they get to Eastern and that they now have a chance to build on the successes they've already achieved (likely against great odds) and have a shot at an IB diploma is IN AND OF ITSELF significant.

You apparently don't understand the idea of planting seeds of positive educational models and figuring out as you get more and more students into the program what it takes to support the students you're attracting to be successful. No, not every student who tries for an IB diploma will get one. But guess what? If there is no IB track or option, every year 0% will get an IB diploma.

Some people here have their heads so firmly stuck in privilege and concepts about who is deserving of these opportunities that they can't see the benefit of starting where you are and building from there. Of course ideally you have PYP and MYP leading up to high school. And that should definitely be a goal within DCPS. But we'll find out this year if it's possible to succeed in DCPS and get an IB diploma without that, and hopefully DCPS will keep investing in Eastern and the feeder schools (ALL OF THEM) to build this as a viable option for more and more students.

Nonsense. Eastern needs to serve the students it has, not waste money paying money to the IBO for a program that benefits just a few students and doesn't even result in a particularly meaningful credential. The IB model is a joke. There are better ways to challenge more students at a lower cost than essentially paying branding rights to the IBO.

You have the attention of several of us: please detail what specific ways students will be better challenged at a lower cost. And also please say what Eastern payed to the IBO, since you apparently know this and are making a judgement about better use of funds. Be specific about what lower cost other "ways" would be better, or we'll know you're just blowing smoke out of your... body.

Looks like we're finally laying to rest several fallacies spouted in this thread. Let's add to what we're dismissing the PP above who said "There are better ways to challenge more students at a lower cost than essentially paying branding rights to the IBO". That poster never ponied up with specifics, and I'm sure no one was holding their breath.

The specific response was "AP classes" which are much less expensive and just as rigorous.

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Anonymous wrote:While providing the few with the opportunity to earn an IB diploma is great, DCPS cannot get a majority of their students at grade level in Reading in high school.

Perhaps the funding will be better spent on literacy in English rather than pushing their resources to the very few who can get an IB diploma. Will love to know how many out of the 6 kids who tried for an IB diploma actually got one and also how much money Eastern spent to get the IB World school designation.

Is it your position that DCPS should not offer IB to their students? Are you also one of the many posters that argue that DCPS need to offer more specialty programs to compete against charters?

IB is a waste of money. If students want to be challenged, they can take AP courses. If they do well on them, they save money on college credits.

The suburban school districts put IB into their lowest-performing schools b/c the high-achieving parents only want AP.

Everything you're saying here is a lie. Good IB schools make their kids take AP exams for practice as sophomores.

I didn't know that! So how many IB students at Eastern took AP exams as sophomores?

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Anonymous wrote:Are you freaking serious it was never a goal to get 400 incoming freshmen into the IB program per year. If that was the case...then an application component would've been priority. If you are truly knowledgeable about IB, then you would know the high-school component does not kick into gear until 11th grade. So for someone to think that incoming freshmen are a lost cause due to IB offerings are just clueless. You are aware that Eastern is a comprehensive high school and there's only two high school (Banneker Academic High School) that offer IB and both are predominantly AA populated.

The only way you'd have more than a token number of IB diploma candidates at a school like Eastern would be to have strong PYP and MYP programs at the ES and MS level, and then make sure students were taking the right pre-IB courses in 9th and 10th grade.

In essence, this program is fairly insigniciant at a school like Eastern. It just becomes away to suggest the school is better because it's an "IB world school," but only a handful of students will get IB diplomas. For the uninitiated, you don't graduate with two diplomas. All anyone will know when they graduate is that they are a "diploma candidate," and if they don't score high enough on the IB tests they'll find out the following October that they aren't ever getting an IB diploma.

NP and you are completely wrong PP. The fact that a student who's attended non-IB schools and most likely challenged schools up to the point that they get to Eastern and that they now have a chance to build on the successes they've already achieved (likely against great odds) and have a shot at an IB diploma is IN AND OF ITSELF significant.

You apparently don't understand the idea of planting seeds of positive educational models and figuring out as you get more and more students into the program what it takes to support the students you're attracting to be successful. No, not every student who tries for an IB diploma will get one. But guess what? If there is no IB track or option, every year 0% will get an IB diploma.

Some people here have their heads so firmly stuck in privilege and concepts about who is deserving of these opportunities that they can't see the benefit of starting where you are and building from there. Of course ideally you have PYP and MYP leading up to high school. And that should definitely be a goal within DCPS. But we'll find out this year if it's possible to succeed in DCPS and get an IB diploma without that, and hopefully DCPS will keep investing in Eastern and the feeder schools (ALL OF THEM) to build this as a viable option for more and more students.

Nonsense. Eastern needs to serve the students it has, not waste money paying money to the IBO for a program that benefits just a few students and doesn't even result in a particularly meaningful credential. The IB model is a joke. There are better ways to challenge more students at a lower cost than essentially paying branding rights to the IBO.

You have the attention of several of us: please detail what specific ways students will be better challenged at a lower cost. And also please say what Eastern payed to the IBO, since you apparently know this and are making a judgement about better use of funds. Be specific about what lower cost other "ways" would be better, or we'll know you're just blowing smoke out of your... body.

Looks like we're finally laying to rest several fallacies spouted in this thread. Let's add to what we're dismissing the PP above who said "There are better ways to challenge more students at a lower cost than essentially paying branding rights to the IBO". That poster never ponied up with specifics, and I'm sure no one was holding their breath.

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If DCPS wants to offer IB, they should have some mechanism to deliver the program to students who can actually benefit from it not to a group of kids where the majority need remediation in English.

If DCPS thinks having an IB high school like Eastern will attract students who want IB from charters like DCI, they are dreaming.

The IB at Eastern sounds like a big budget suck and a waste of money.