Quote:
Originally posted by KillarneyRose
ktsnake, I agree that Charter schools are intriguing ideas.
My county schools have designated two of the "not as good" high schools as "IB" schools, meaning that they offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. It is an intense two-year curriculum, aimed at students in grades 11-12 and it leads to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities. ie: it's considered a higher designation than our high school diploma.
A difference from your girlfriend's situation, though, is that these schools aren't not "inner city", but they are both feeder schools for the county's many housing projects and the school population is low because most parents have put their children in private school because of problems with weapons, a shooting at a football game, etc.
I guess the county is looking at how they can revive these schools and I give them a lot of credit for not caving into pressure from the parents at the "elite" public high schools and putting the IB programs there.
|
First of all, I think the IB Curriculum is excellent and I'm glad it is being recognized by more and more universities in the US.
However....
In our area, the most highly ranked high schools in our school system refused to have the IB curriculum installed and consequently the "poorer schools" with greater Free and Reduced Lunch rates and ESOL rates are the ones with the IB programs. This has NOT helped attract students to these schools. What it has done is exacerbate the situation between the "have" and "have-not" schools. People are trying to get their neighborhoods redistricted from IB school boundaries into AP school boundaries.
You want to see a good fight? Click on the following. Lee is the IB School. WSHS is the AP school.
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/fair...first_of_.html