Anonymous wrote:The first step in moving forward is to admit that FCPS currently does a poor job at implementing AAP and IB. Fix that before making system wide boundary changes. Fix critical issues on space first.

The leadership of FCPS has proven they simply can’t handle large scale anything.

Fixing critical issues with space means prioritizing additions at successful schools that are overcrowded, not just slapping on additions at schools regardless of need because they are in an antiquated renovation queue developed over 17 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Jay Matthews, Washington Post, wrote a book about IB and what happened when it was implemented in an FCPS HS. https://www.amazon.com/Supertest-International-Baccalaureate-Strengthen-Schools/dp/081269600X

Quote : rigorous IB program works especially well in "problem" public schools, many of which have witnessed truly remarkable results following their adoption of the IB.

Supertest interweaves the story of one American school that adopted the IB — Mount Vernon High School — with the story of the IB itself, how it was conceived, created, and developed.

FCPS IB now https://annandalehs.fcps.edu/node/4663

Good grief. Check Mt. Vernon IB results to see the truth. IB should be gone.

I agree and posted the Supertest link. FCPS has over 20 years of data /information on IB's efficacy. The sheer size of FCPS means it's relevant information along with FCPS longitudinal studies on the impact for cohort groups on full day K and preschool. FCPS POS-program of studies indicates that instructional leadership [school based plus Gatehouse] should be enough that there is no need for outsourcing. Interesting that the program budget allocates zero for non school based to I B.

IB is fine as an option school like ARL or can save $ for a single HS school district since they don't need staff to develope a POS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Jay Matthews, Washington Post, wrote a book about IB and what happened when it was implemented in an FCPS HS. https://www.amazon.com/Supertest-International-Baccalaureate-Strengthen-Schools/dp/081269600X

Quote : rigorous IB program works especially well in "problem" public schools, many of which have witnessed truly remarkable results following their adoption of the IB.

Supertest interweaves the story of one American school that adopted the IB — Mount Vernon High School — with the story of the IB itself, how it was conceived, created, and developed.

FCPS IB now https://annandalehs.fcps.edu/node/4663

Good grief. Check Mt. Vernon IB results to see the truth. IB should be gone.

Gosh, check Marshall's IB results. They are not at all impressive.

The only successful IB school in FCPS is Robinson. The other programs range from meh (Marshall) to embarrassing failures (Lewis) with only a handful of IB diplomas awarded.

IB would be much less offensive if it wasn’t primarily used as a way to flee poor performing schools with ensuing brain drains and membership drops.

Pretty telling that Herndon high zoned families “want” IB and Lewis zoned families “want” AP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Jay Matthews, Washington Post, wrote a book about IB and what happened when it was implemented in an FCPS HS. https://www.amazon.com/Supertest-International-Baccalaureate-Strengthen-Schools/dp/081269600X

Quote : rigorous IB program works especially well in "problem" public schools, many of which have witnessed truly remarkable results following their adoption of the IB.

Supertest interweaves the story of one American school that adopted the IB — Mount Vernon High School — with the story of the IB itself, how it was conceived, created, and developed.

FCPS IB now https://annandalehs.fcps.edu/node/4663

By "remarkable results" did he mean hundreds of students using IB as a transfer loophole to escape the "problem schools" resulting in those schools going from mediocre to very low achieving?

If so, then everyone can agree that IB achieves "remarkable results" by causing high performing families to flee for the greener pastures of AP schools.

The first step in moving forward is to admit that FCPS currently does a poor job at implementing AAP and IB. Fix that before making system wide boundary changes. Fix critical issues on space first.

The leadership of FCPS has proven they simply can’t handle large scale anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Jay Matthews, Washington Post, wrote a book about IB and what happened when it was implemented in an FCPS HS. https://www.amazon.com/Supertest-International-Baccalaureate-Strengthen-Schools/dp/081269600X

Quote : rigorous IB program works especially well in "problem" public schools, many of which have witnessed truly remarkable results following their adoption of the IB.

Supertest interweaves the story of one American school that adopted the IB — Mount Vernon High School — with the story of the IB itself, how it was conceived, created, and developed.

FCPS IB now https://annandalehs.fcps.edu/node/4663

Good grief. Check Mt. Vernon IB results to see the truth. IB should be gone.

It’s funny that Matthews’ book was called “Supertest” when most IB schools continued to have very low test scores. Regardless of his misplaced enthusiasm at the time this book was written, FCPS knows by now that very few parents at AP schools want to be redistricted into an IB school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Jay Matthews, Washington Post, wrote a book about IB and what happened when it was implemented in an FCPS HS. https://www.amazon.com/Supertest-International-Baccalaureate-Strengthen-Schools/dp/081269600X

Quote : rigorous IB program works especially well in "problem" public schools, many of which have witnessed truly remarkable results following their adoption of the IB.

Supertest interweaves the story of one American school that adopted the IB — Mount Vernon High School — with the story of the IB itself, how it was conceived, created, and developed.

FCPS IB now https://annandalehs.fcps.edu/node/4663

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Don’t be silly. What mostly helped Marshall was residential development in Falls Church and Vienna spurred by Tysons jobs growth. If IB turned a school around, schools like Annandale, Mount Vernon, and Lewis would have improved, too.

Marshall may have benefited slightly from being an IB school surrounded by AP schools. For a number of years when it had more pupil placement Marshall had the 7th highest SAT scores in FCPS behind TJ, Langley, McLean, Oakton, Woodson, and Madison. When it stopped accepting as many pupil placements, it got overtaken by Chantilly and, at times, other schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee had grown to around 2100 in 2005 before a boatload of students were removed when South County opened.

Looks like Lewis is back to its historical size.

As of 1995. Schools have had different enrollments at different times in the past. Enrollments were low in the mid-90s. But the 1995 numbers show they were willing to keep Marshall open with under 1100 kids.

Exactly. The mid 90s graduates were all part of the Baby Bust from about 1975 through the 1980 birth years. After that, the school populations exploded, and FCPS and MCPS soon regretted closing high schools in the mid-80s. It’s amazing the FCPS board decided to keep Marshall open.

Although under a different set of circumstances, APS was one vote away from closing Yorktown HS in the mid to late 80s all due to the Baby Bust. Public school funding across the U.S. was lower back then and the school age population was decreasing. Maintaining aging school buildings (falling apart due to deferred maintenance) was also a drain on the tax base.

Anonymous wrote:To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

How did it work at Lewis? And Edison?

To add to the above, someone could probably write a book about how IB turned the school’s fortunes around in about 10 years. A complete 180.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee had grown to around 2100 in 2005 before a boatload of students were removed when South County opened.

Looks like Lewis is back to its historical size.

As of 1995. Schools have had different enrollments at different times in the past. Enrollments were low in the mid-90s. But the 1995 numbers show they were willing to keep Marshall open with under 1100 kids.

The average school had a much lower enrollment. And I can bet that Marshall did not have a 55% FR lunch rate or a 35% ESL rate. These things make a tremendous difference.

Marshall was not a well regarded HS in the 1990’s.

For more context, Lee, West Potomac, Annandale (which was also a Lacrosse and Football powerhouse) etc., all had a good reputation and were all much more highly regarded over Marshall back then. Across Rt 7 from Marshall, Pimmitt Hills was also still very much a blue collar neighborhood. There was also the stigma of gang violence near Marshall at the time. Won’t go into details, but anyone can search the Washington Post archives.

Plopping the IB Programme at Marshall was a huge success story. Pimmitt Hills is also now one of the more desirable close-in neighborhoods.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lee had grown to around 2100 in 2005 before a boatload of students were removed when South County opened.

Looks like Lewis is back to its historical size.

As of 1995. Schools have had different enrollments at different times in the past. Enrollments were low in the mid-90s. But the 1995 numbers show they were willing to keep Marshall open with under 1100 kids.

The average school had a much lower enrollment. And I can bet that Marshall did not have a 55% FR lunch rate or a 35% ESL rate. These things make a tremendous difference.

Marshall was not a well regarded HS in the 1990’s.