Former IB Coordinator Wrote:
> ... The IB Diploma is a significant achievement. No
> backing away from weakness in a subject area.
> Required community service and mini-thesis. ...
> IB students must be able to write.
If you have followed this thread for any length of time you already know i agree with you on this. The FULL IB Diploma is a big achievement for the 5-7% of students for whom it is suitable. The problem is the way you, meaning the FCPS administrators, have implemented the IB programme in FCPS.
Consider Lamar Academy in McAllen Texas.
http://www.ibo.org/ibworld/jan07/access.cfm
"Lamar Academy graduated the fifth class of IB students in May 2006. Our school and district are proud that all of our 99 IB students have earned diplomas over the past four years. ... The school district decided to put the programme at Lamar Academy rather than at one of the three comprehensive high schools. The programme was set up so that the students who attempted the IB Diploma Programme were still considered students at their home campus, where they participated in electives, fine arts, and athletics, while they took all of their academic (IB) classes at Lamar Academy."
Why not use this model in FCPS? We have several other academies already. Students would still belong to their base schools, so local communities would not have to fear a "brain drain" and would get credit for their IB students' SOL scores. Base schools would keep their football teams and guitar lessons. Base schools would also ALL have full AP programs, including at a minimum AP English Comp, AP English Lit, AP Calculus AB and BC, AP sciences and foreign languages, and AP US History, Government, and World Civ.
The few students who have no "weakness in a subject area," can write well, can handle five years of a foreign language, AND can handle the "required community service and mini-thesis" will still be able to earn the full IB Diploma so they would lose nothing. At the same time, all other students, regardless of where they happen to live, would have access to a full AP program. Seems like a "win" for everyone.
What to you think?