Floris Parent Wrote:
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> Westfield Dad,
>
> I completely agree with your statement, and that
> was the point that I am making. The SB made a very
> bad decision in my opinion,, and I feel that this
> decision to palce IB curriculum in the schools
> with the Highest number of economically
> disadvantaged childern has helped to perpetuate
> this. If the SB wanted to improve diversity and
> socio-economic balances, why would that put in
> place a curriculum that appeals to such a narrow
> group of students? I believe that the RD must be
> halted, until an unbiased 3rd party task force can
> analyze the data for the last 10 years regarding
> the effects of IB on all of the important
> catagories stated as a reason for this boundary
> study.
>
> I fully believe that parents and students are
> going to gravitate towrds those schools that offer
> a more main stream curriculum that is more widely
> accepted throughout the country. IB is a great
> choice to offer those students that seek a more
> "Global" education, but I do not believe that it
> is appropriate to offer such a program in 33% of
> our public schools, when the majority of non IB
> schools are showing much better overall results in
> educating our children.
>
> I believe that the fact that those schools
> offering the IB curricluum have shown no marked
> improvements in SAT scores, increased
> enrollments, more balanced socio economics etc,
> proves that we need to reexamine what is best for
> "all" of the students in Fairfax County.
>
> It is critical that a study be conducted "BEFORE"
> we start moving students to prop up low
> enrollments in our smaller schools.
>
> I believe that if South Lakes were perceived as a
> main stream school, with the same learning
> environment and curriculum as the sister schools
> in this study, they would attract more of the main
> stream students into the school.
>
> As evidenced by comments made by some parents who
> live outside of the current SL boundaries, there
> are families that "would" prefer a shorter
> commute, a smaller school with better
> opportunities to make the sports teams, a brand
> new building with real class rooms rather than
> trailors etc.
>
> Can the SL supporters not appeal to the SB, to
> pause any decision on RD, until it can be
> determined "WHY" all of the schools in the West
> are growing except South Lakes" Diversity is not
> the issue, despite what you are saying.
>
> Right or wrong, parents will go to the scores and
> stats 1st in deciding where to send their children
> to school. This is the reality. If the test scores
> in SL are perceived as lower, regardless of the
> reasons, parents are going to gravitate towards
> the schools that "look better" on paper.
>
>
Great post. Why do we have this very expensive IB program in our schools with the most vulnerable students? Those schools ARE diverse, with many immigrant students from all over the world. They need a mainstream program, not an elite program for the top 5% of students.
Have you seen the proposed budget presentation?
http://www.fcps.edu/news/Attachment1update.pdf
Be sure to check out page 4 where they mention Oakton high school, several times. Then check out the next page where they talk about kids getting college credit for AP exams. No mention of IB. Looks like staff might also know that IB is a small, niche, program, not the mainstream program that students want and colleges recognize. It also looks like staff recognizes what a good school Oakton is.
I think you are right about South Lakes and IB. Things would quite be different if they hadn't gotten stuck with this program but had AP and then could be seen as a 'normal' high school.