<p>In contrast, our HS has in recent years added IB without dismantling AP.</p>
<p>Other schools are adding IB as well, but to schools that desperately needs bodies/ improved grad rate.
Its too early to tell if it will help achievement.
In the past when new programs are added without majority buy in from the community, scores increase, but only because the new student body is new, the kids are still falling between the cracks, only somewhere else.
IB may be more successful than Stem programs that require everyone to take a relatively high level of math however, especially ludicrous considering the district math instruction in grade & middle school.</p>
<p>Re post #63: </p>
<p>This is exactly what happens at magnet schools in my district. In most of the schools the magnet program is run in the same building as the community program. Of course the addition of the magnet program improves the overall numbers of the school but the kids who were failing before are still failing. The only thing that happens with the magnet programs is that they cover up how atrocious the performance of the general population is.</p>
<p>I am interested to know which high schools across the country have added IB programs in addition to their existing AP programs.</p>
<p>Please share their names. Thank you!</p>
<p>How many of you are attending high schools that pay for the AP exams?</p>
<p>Our public school doesn’t pay a cent for any of them, which can put quite a burden on parents, especially when you have multiple students in high school at the same time taking multiple AP classes each. One year we ended up having to pay for 12 AP exam fees between two of them. It would be nice to have had some of the cost subsidized by the school system.</p>
<p>The IB school my one son attended was the same way–we had to pay for ALL exams and I believe the IB Diploma exam as well. With the school only offering IB classes, this was also an expensive proposition.</p>
<p>This is a parents forum. None of us attend a high school. At least I hope not.</p>
<p>Yes, the AP tests get pricey, but still a bargain compared to college costs. However, AP students are not required to take the AP tests in most classes at our school. Many seniors opt out of at least some tests because by then they know what college they are going to and exactly which tests they expect to earn credit or placement with.</p>
<p>My kids’ HS (and in part the CB, I think) pays for most of the AP exam fees for kids on reduced/free lunch. I think those students pay about $15 per test.</p>
<p>Our HS just started weighting APs this year. The deal is you get an extra point for AP but only if you get a B- or higher. So a C is a 2.0 in UW and W gpa. </p>
<p>To take an AP course, kids need to have a B in the preceding honors course or an A in the preceding regular course.</p>
<p>One or two well-known difficult courses (a team taught Physics/Analysis combo is one) do not have an AP designation or corresponding exam and do not get weighted but are taken by advanced students anyway.</p>
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</p>
<p>IB probably ends up doing a similar thing as AP – providing an externally set target benchmark for high schools that are not motivated enough to design their own high rigor and advanced courses, or which face too much downward pressure on course and curriculum strength in the absence of such an externally set target benchmark.</p>
<p>From what I have read on these forums, IB courses seem to be a very large amount of work, even though colleges do not seem to think that they are (overall) much (or any) more advanced than AP courses (based on subject credit and placement they give for AP and IB test scores).</p>
<p>With common core, TEKs, and everything else, someone out there is going to micromanage every single thing being taught in the classes. I would rather have it be the college board than some state administrator.</p>
<p>The AP classes are exempt from the common core and TEKs and such. They follow the college board. The rest of the classes follow the other.</p>
<p>"From what I have read on these forums, IB courses seem to be a very large amount of work, even though colleges do not seem to think that they are (overall) much (or any) more advanced than AP courses (based on subject credit and placement they give for AP and IB test scores). "</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/core/[/url]”>500;
<p>There are internal assessment requirements, Theory of Knowledge, extended essay, and CAS that add a lot of work in getting a diploma but outside of internal assessments in the core subjects, the other three areas add a lot of work with very little contribution towards the actual diploma (a total of 3 points for about 2 subjects worth of work).</p>
<p>I agree with you, I got a B+ in my class and scored 800 and 5 on AP Bio, and the teacher didn’t bump it up to A-, and I have friends that got A+ and scored 3 !!</p>
<p>lmkh70 - The current President of the College Board helped create the Common Core State Standards.</p>
<p>[Parents</a> Protest National Common Core Standards - US - CBN News - Christian News 24-7 - CBN.com](<a href=“http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2013/October/Parents-Protest-National-Common-Core-Standards/]Parents”>http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2013/October/Parents-Protest-National-Common-Core-Standards/)</p>
<p>(Sorry for the odd reference - I just googled College Board and Common Core and got this article which is very accurate according to the research I’ve done on the Common Core creators and funders.)</p>
<p>"The chief author of the Common Core, education consultant David Coleman, is now president of the College Board. His new job entails rewriting the SAT.</p>
<p>Critics fear that will further cement the Common Core’s influence, forcing any college-bound student, whether public-schooled, private-schooled, or home-schooled, to align with the Core."</p>
<p>Here’s an OpEd linking the College Board to the common core (I assume this is a more reputable newspaper but it’s an OpEd so it’s just an opinion):</p>
<p>[Common</a> Core ? education by corporation](<a href=“http://santamariatimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/commentary/common-core-education-by-corporation/article_cd55e888-36e1-11e3-8859-001a4bcf887a.html]Common”>http://santamariatimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/commentary/common-core-education-by-corporation/article_cd55e888-36e1-11e3-8859-001a4bcf887a.html) </p>
<p>Here is the best article about the College Board and Common Core:</p>
<p>[AASA</a> :: College Board: Reconciling AP Exams with Common Core](<a href=“http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=27296]AASA”>http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=27296)</p>
<p>“In an AASA conference session, Advanced Placement in the Common Core Era: Changes and New Developments in the AP Program, on Saturday morning, Trevor Packer, senior vice president of the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program, told superintendents that his organization would integrate Common Core standards in AP course standards and AP exams administered each May.”</p>
<p>It is not like Common Core is a big secret conspiracy, given that it has been described in the mainstream press.</p>
<p>[The</a> New Common Core Standards in Education - TIME](<a href=“http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2152412,00.html]The”>The New Common Core Standards in Education - TIME)</p>
<p>I felt like IB was quite rigorous, challenging, and good preparation for college, but I have been frustrated by how little colleges acknowledge it. My high school offered standard level IB chemistry, which would have resulted in no college credit. I chose to take the AP test after the course, did very little studying for it, and got a 5. I did the same thing for calculus.
When people talk about taking 20 AP classes in high school, I feel like AP is no longer achieving the goal of offering challenging, college-level courses to high school students. It seems there’s a lot of trying to cram schedules with AP exams for college credit or to look good on college apps, rather than for the sake of taking challenging coursework to learn.</p>
<p>As for paying for tests, we had to pay for all of our tests. (Not sure what FAFSA parent was referring to about the “IB Diploma exam” though.) If students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, though, their exams were paid for.</p>
<p>"How much money will the IB Diploma Programme cost me?</p>
<p>There are student registration and examination fees that, when added up,
come to about US $600 per full IB Diploma. How these fees are paid
depends upon the policy of the local school or school district. Some schools
pay all fees, while others share the cost with the students who are enrolled
in the Diploma Programme. In almost every case, funds are available within
schools to subsidize IB fees for low-income students, thus ensuring that
financial need never prevents a student from pursuing an IB education."</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.ibo.org/ibna/educators/diploma_faq.cfm]diploma_faq[/url”>http://www.ibo.org/ibna/educators/diploma_faq.cfm]diploma_faq[/url</a>]</p>
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<p>We are living this experiment at our community’s high school. APs used to be offered because kids wanted them - no weight, no ranking, though many kids probably chose them to “show rigor”. This year the school’s added both weighted GPA and ranking and a lot more kids are taking APs. It’s too early to say how this will affect the classes…</p>
<p>There is a large gap between being poor enough to have test fees covered, and being able to make room in your budget without sacrifice.
My kids only applied to a few colleges because of application fees & AP tests are even more.
While some area PTAs partially subsidize fees, most do not for anyone who is not considered FRL.
Since the numbers of students taking AP tests is now noted nationally in the media however, some schools may begin to cover the expense in order to boost their rankng.</p>