On the January "Start a New Post" Annette Werner wrote:
According to Cate Reed, IB slots for both 6th and 9th grades are at capacity with 150 students each. As of December 19, there was a waitlist of at least 10 for each of these grades. Some general applications were also submitted after December 19.
The district will not be able to tell us the number of students who wrote in 9th grade IB as their first choice since that would require going back to the database and determining this information by hand. Similarly, no information will be available as to the number of students who wrote in 9th grade IB as their second or third choices.
Overall, looking at all grades and all programs, about 71% of applicants received their first choice, but the system does not calculate for example the percentage of applicants who put 9th grade sci tech as their first choice and received that choice through the lottery.
January 8, 2009 4:31 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Splendid news. That puts to rest the rumor of 49 and 113 it seems.
This week it was announced at the Frick PTO/PSSA meeting that Dr. Walters, the principal at Frick for the past 3 years (at least) -- Ph.D., -- is going to be the principal at the IB Jr./High next year.
So, that begs the question, what about grades 7th and 8th for fall of 2009?
Are there slots that could or should be filled? Is it better to just have those slots for folks who might move into the district or for later for the 9th graders in fall 2010?
Will there be an open enrollment for those grades?
So maybe no need to worry about marketing- if that would just leave more people disappointed- as long as all of these names do in fact join the program.
No.
There is always a need to worry about marketing.
Pgh Public Schools is shrinking, and shrinking fast.
But, I'm not saying we need to worry about marketing over performance and results. The best marketing is word-of-mouth and that comes with satisfied students and families because of the results of the educational process / experience / relationships.
There are plenty of unanswered questions and un-done tasks.
Furthermore, who is to say that because the goals of the student enrollment are hit for two grades (as rumored above) that those are meeting the demand and needs of Pittsburgh.
Supply, demand and choice. Perhaps there needs to be TWO I.B. High Schools.
Perhaps the numbers at Schenley were already very good -- but the school still felt it needed to be closed. So, enrollment numbers could be hit every year and the school could still be closed in the future -- as had already been the case in many instances, at Schenley and beyond.
Last summer the word was that 9th grade University Prep was full and now it's listed as 130, so marketing seems like a good idea especially for the off years (7th, 8th and 10th grade). And there could be efforts to make it easier for people to join in at these points.
And it would be a good idea to pursue Mark's idea about the Promise.
I am not sure that Pittsburgh has gotten the ok from the International Baccalaureate Organization yet to go ahead and have an IB 6th - 9th grade. They need approval from the organization.
It's true that as yet the "IBMYP" (middle years program) is not certified/approved. I haven't heard anything about it since last winter, so I have no idea what that means. However, they've already made an application (and had their visit, I believe) -- if it isn't approved, I would guess that you get a list of reasons why not and are free to correct them and apply again.
However, the truth of it is that the true meat of the IB is in the diploma program (11th and 12th grades). They are already using the MYP type assignments and analysis in the lower grades, though how successfully, I have no idea.
Post a Comment