They were fresh-faced and eager, half-shy and half-confident in that way only high school seniors can be. They stood in the lobby of Columbus High School last spring and donned blue gowns, graduation caps slipping down over their eyes and falling off their heads as they sheepishly laughed. The first graduating class of the school’s International Baccalaureate program was ready to conquer the world, and eight months later, they’re deeply ensconced in pursuing their dreams.
One dream that did not come true for the majority of the students was receiving the coveted IB diploma, which an informational guide by Columbus High describes as “accepted by universities worldwide as an indicator of academic excellence.”
Only two of the 21 students received the diploma, IB Coordinator Lori Cargile said. The diploma would have been given in addition to their regular diplomas, which all the students received.
The low number of recipients is a concern, admitted Dr. Martha Liddell, interim superintendent of the Columbus Municipal School District, but she said the district remains committed to the rigorous academic curriculum, which proponents say goes beyond Advance Placement classes, creating lifelong learners and preparing students not only for college but for competing in the increasingly global economy.
“I’m committed to expanding it and not pulling out,” Liddell said.
Benefits vs. bucks
Participation in the program isn’t cheap.
According to the IB website and IB helpline representatives, the current fee schedule for U.S. high schools applying in February and March for diploma candidacy costs a minimum of $43,000 over the three-year application process — and that’s before the first class is ever taught.
Additional fees may be incurred for teacher training, evaluations, textbooks and other required items.
Liddell said the implementation of the IB program within the district was partially funded by a five-year U.S. Department of Education Smaller Learning Communities grant, which has paid for $40,000 in professional development training for teachers as well as travel expenses associated with training.
The district has budgeted $22,000 this year for the IB program, according to Kenneth Hughes, the CMSD’s chief financial officer.
But Liddell said the benefit to the students makes it worth paying the fee.
In addition to the money the district has invested in the program, there is the time factor. It’s taken two to three years to train teachers to implement it, and the district hopes to eventually offer the full range of IB courses for K-12.
The primary years program (ages 3-12) has been offered at Sale Elementary International Studies Magnet School since January 2011. Columbus Middle School is in its third year of the application process to offer the middle years program (ages 11-16). Columbus High began offering the diploma program in 2007 and is one of only four schools in Mississippi to offer it. It is also offered at East Side High School in Cleveland, Jim Hill High School in Jackson and Ocean Springs High School in Ocean Springs.
Once Columbus Middle completes the application process and is accepted, Columbus will be the only city in the state to offer the full range of the IB curriculum for K-12.
‘AP on steroids’
Instead of having one or two advanced classes interspersed with the core curriculum, IB juniors and seniors have an entirely separate curriculum in which every class is intensely advanced. Last May, graduating senior Ricky Truitt described the program as “AP on steroids.”
According to the Columbus High guide for students and parents, the objectives of the diploma program are “to provide students with a well-balanced education, to facilitate geographic and cultural mobility and to promote international understanding through a shared academic experience.”
Students must take English, History of the Americas and visual arts. They also choose between Spanish or French, biology or chemistry, and mathematics or mathematical studies.
Students are also required to take Theory of Knowledge, which is meant to encourage critical thinking and critical awareness through conceptual analysis and examining the basis of value judgments.
In addition to the course load, students are required to participate in extracurricular activities involving creativity, such as dance or learning to play an instrument; action, such as organized sports; and service, such as peer tutoring or working at a children’s home or hospital.
Students are also required to research and write a 4,000-word essay on the in-depth subject of their choice.
‘A little bit of disappointment’
But fulfilling the course requirements doesn’t guarantee a student will receive an IB diploma. They will earn certificates of completion for the courses taken, along with their regular high school diploma. But to receive the IB diplomas, students must go further, submitting four components to IB examiners: work samples from each course, a multiple-choice exam and two essay exams.
These components are graded by one of the 5,000 IB assessors from around the world.
According to IB’s May 2011 statistical bulletin, approximately 77.99 percent of students worldwide received the diploma for that testing period.
But Cargile believes it’s a mistake to focus too intently upon the diploma when students gain so many other benefits from the IB experience.
“I think sometimes we get so hung up on a number,” Cargile said. “When I look at what the program did for those individual students, it’s amazing what a transformation occurs over that two-year process. … We would love to say 21 out of 21 (received the diploma) but to say that I’m disappointed, no, I’m not, because I know how hard those students worked and how hard those teachers worked.”
Columbus High Assistant Principal Jill Savely’s son, Zach Thomas, did not receive the IB diploma, but that didn’t deter her from allowing his younger brother, Jake Thomas, to enroll in the program this year.
Zach gained time management skills and a strong academic work ethic that have served him well in his first semester of college, she said, and his IB certificates enabled him to enroll as a chemistry major at The University of Alabama at Birmingham with 10 credit hours, saving between $4,000 and $4,500 in tuition.
“He handled (not getting the diploma) very well,” Savely said. “I think there’s always a little bit of disappointment when you’ve worked for something and you don’t quite reach your goal. … I absolutely feel like it was the right thing for him to do.”
IB isn’t for every student, she cautioned. For students who want to specialize in a particular subject, Advanced Placement classes may be the right path. But for students who want to be challenged all around, IB is a great program, she said.
“It teaches students to do difficult things, to accomplish very difficult tasks while they’re still in high school,” Savely said. “Even though Zach didn’t get the diploma, I think it taught him the things he needed to know to be successful at the next level.”
‘A different kind of rigor’
“I don’t want the community to think we’re disappointed,” Cargile said of the diploma results. “Everyone would like to say 21 out of 21, but those are just numbers.”
Still, there’s always room for improvement, she said, and there’s no such thing as a perfect program.
At the moment, there’s not much she plans to change other than possibly having students submit their test materials sooner to make the process less stressful.
“There’s such a difference in attitudes in the junior year versus senior year,” Cargile said. “I think it really, really stresses them in the beginning because it’s such a stretch from what they’re used to. It’s a different kind of rigor. When they enter an IB classroom, it’s just like, ‘Wow.'”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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