<p>^^^^ agree with lmnop</p>
<p>I wrote something earlier- but I lost my connection and I’m lazy so I haven’t read through the thread.</p>
<p>My younger D, attended an inner city high school which was a big change from her alternative K-12.</p>
<p>We had also looked at a school with IB, and while it was a smaller school and had a nice feel, we also had impression that IB was for students who were ready for advancement in all areas- whereas honors or AP allowed you to select by subject ( our schools don’t usually have both).</p>
<p>One of the things that attracted us to her school * was* the AVID program,( as well as the strong science program) because as a kid of parents who hadn’t attended college, it was open to her, while other programs usually required the student to be minority/FRL.</p>
<p>However, the teacher who was in charge of letting new students into the program at that time, was racist (IMO), and jumped to the conclusion that because we were white, and I was involved enough to volunteer in the school, she didn’t really need the support. ( from things she said- but from hearing comments from D’s friends who had her as a teacher- I think she was just an angry bitter person)
:rolleyes:</p>
<p>However, eventually the school paired up with [College</a> Access Now!](<a href=“http://www.collegeaccessnow.org/]College”>http://www.collegeaccessnow.org/), which she participated jr and sr year, and they helped her with a lot of things that I couldn’t ( or that she wouldn’t let me). The PTA paid for the Americorp volunteers.</p>
<p>She also eventually took 4 AP classes, which was quite an accomplishment IMO, for someone who had an IEP through 8th grade and was two years behind in math, when she started high school.
She might have even taken more- but the science program was very strong even without including the AP courses. ( When the grandson of Jacques Cousteau visited recently, he was very impressed- but sadly, the district hasn’t encouraged the programs to be replicated elsewhere)</p>
<p>If there are not already resources in place for students who need a little extra support to take more challenging classes- I would spend the money for teachers to tutor kids after school so more would be encouraged to try the classes.
( and maybe you can get a matching grant)</p>
<p>Olymom – If I were in charge of budgeting, I’d allocate somewhat more – on the order of $12K – to transition training and materials to support AP. For many courses, the textbooks would not be different, though depending on the array of IB math courses offered you might need more calculus books since several of the IB math courses are quite different than AP’s Calc AB or BC sequences. AP requires that a syllabus be certified for each course labeled as an AP course. Getting advice and help from those who have successfully taught AP courses is helpful, going to available training sessions is helpful, and finding someone who has graded AP exams may be most helpful of all.
At the same time, there has to be some transition for kids who are already juniors, and who should be able to finish up their IB diplomas senior year. That also costs some money first year. Some courses can “double up” – we do it most commonly with foreign language courses and some of the science courses. Theory of Knowledge stands on its own. (Though it is quite possibly the one IB course I wish that all schools, IB or otherwise, had the ability to offer.)</p>
<p>On an ongoing basis, both AP and IB courses require substantive labwork in science, so the cost there should not be appreciably different. Both IB and AP require a good deal of writing, and if I were running the school, a good deal of feedback on that writing and subsequent revisions. (Alas, I did not run it, and English teachers at our school had exactly the same load as PE teachers. Feh.) </p>
<p>Support for the “middle ground” student’s success in AP courses would largely include: Much more support for reading and writing intensive English classes in 9th & 10th grade to help students gain a strong level of competence at reading for deeper meaning, writing with an emphasis on developing and supporting arguments, and appropriate use of quotations and attributed material. Having well qualified teachers available during lunch and after school (or before school, depending on start time) would be very helpful. Math skills also tend to be relatively weak, so having support for students working on math is helpful. We have a tutoring lab that helps with math, chemistry, and physics.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. But it is easy to diverge quickly with mind sets! Arabrab suggests “support for students working on math is helpful” – true! However, if the district has money set aside (or federally or state mandated) for “advanced programming” , then, to me, that would NOT include remedial math. It might include a statistics class or a discrete math class . . . for the kids who were ready for those topics. </p>
<p>We used to have an honors or pre-IB class for freshmen and sophomores that was reading and writing intensive. Alas, this was viewed as elitist and we now have a one-size-fits-all freshman/sophomore offering. </p>
<p>I have this ongoing feeling that I am watching an avalanche in slow motion. Eventually everything crashes down and where there used to be a scholastic “mountain” will be replaced by some rolling foothills and some memories.</p>
<p>I’ve been in Avid for three years and you have got to try it. Not only is it college prep but it is fun. Gotta be in it!!</p>
<p>I know nothing about the Avid program.
But having had kids doing both IB and AP courses… I would dump the IB program in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>This discussion is actually several months old. It would be interesting to hear what OP’s high school decided to do.</p>