New schools always have limited courses but that's understandable . Once there are enough students I'm sure they'll add more courses.
That's correct, they use a scale for AP and IB. AP's scale is 1-5 and 3 is passing. IB's scale is 1-7 and 4 is passing. But, colleges will likely take those that are higher on the scale.
That's interesting about the driving courses. We don't have that in any high schools in CO.
We use Chrome books too. They've been using Chrome books since elementary school but only in school. They cannot bring them home...althoug h some schools do allow that nowadays. My husband and I get a grade report emailed to us daily for our 8th grader. We know exactly where she stands. I also get text messages from a couple of her teachers on homework and projects stuff. Grades come home in a sealed envelope given to the student but e-mailed notification to us that we should be expecting grades. Same process with standardized test scores. It doesn't matter if someday they go electronic completely. I will still print a copy.
I would prefer less students, smaller faculty group, and smaller school over the school my daughter will be going to. Their school is seriously gargantuan. They just added a fourth or fifth wing last year in preparation for the incoming school this coming fall. The thing is that they also buss lower income neighborhoods into our area. It is mostly caucasian in this area because it's an upper middle class neighborhood and I guess they want the lower class to have opportunities too. It doesn't matter to me either way. I just hope that it does help them because when I grew up and was poor, I didn't fit at all with the middle and upper class of my school, and it made it hard to do well.
There are only 2 high schools that are close to each other out here and they are about 15 minutes or more apart driving (there's no way you can walk there from our house...it'd take about an hour or two). That other high school is pretty big too.
That's great your daughter is in the Dutch club. Both my daughters are half Dutch. We don't have a Dutch club unfortunately but we do have a Muslim club, a Black club, and Gay/Straight club. And so many others: French club, Spanish club, dance club, chess club, strategy club, speech/debate club, fashion club, acting/drama club, etc. I can't name them all but there's gotta be like 30 of them.
What year is your daughter in hs?
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My daughter came home today from school and told husband and I that she wants to get into the IB program. I was shocked. She did score high enough on her middle school standardized test to get into the program so that's good. They will be retesting in a couple of months and I believe they will use the new scores to place them in high school. Students who don't take the test will be placed at the regular level and work their way up.
We don't force our kids to do anything they don't want to do. But, we do guide them toward math and science, which they both happen to be very good in.
On a side note, I can't say for what the future holds. I just hope my kids do the best they can. I also hope that they enjoy life and live to their fullest and happiest. We try to give them a good life so that they don't have to worry about the necessities and just focus on their careers and happiness. It is not about being better than anyone else because I have no idea what anyone else's goals are. I just know that my goal as a mother is to protect them and teach them to be good citizens and to work for what they want (I actually said, "work hard, play hard."). Other than that, they need to do what they need to do to get to where they want to be.