District Administration - February 2008 - (Page 27)

The Advanced Program “Other” T BY RON SCHACHTER International Baccalaureate offers a cross-cultural alternative to Advanced Placement. Russell Reid teaches the IB’s ﬂagship course, Theory of Knowledge, at South Side H.S. in Rockville Centre, N.Y. www.DistrictAdministration.com HE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE MAY SOUND LIKE IT involves some sort of foreign exchange and a college graduation ceremony. But the IB is actually a comprehensive, demanding, and increasingly popular diploma program for high school juniors and seniors, with a strong academic focus on the world around them. While the IB was created 40 years ago by a Geneva-based educational organization to provide a standardized, high-level curriculum for the children of itinerant diplomats—and while it can be found in 125 countries today—U.S. schools have become the program’s biggest consumers by far. As of last November, they comprised 556 of the almost 1,300 schools worldwide oﬀering the two-year IB diploma, and their numbers are increasing by about 10 percent annually. At the heart of the curriculum is a course in the theory of knowledge, which examines diﬀerent ways of knowing, the role of knowledge in culture, and the connection of knowledge to responsible action. The diploma requires the study of two foreign languages, advanced courses in everything from history to social sciences to the arts, a 4,000 word essay, 150 hours of community service, and a battery of ﬁve-hour exams in each subject—graded by an international panel—at the end of the school year. (The program also fulﬁlls regular high school graduation requirements.) Along the way, the IB helps to open doors for college admittance and provides an alternative to traditional AP courses. “As more and more word gets out, it piques attention, and other schools say, ‘What can it do for us?’” observes Brad Richardson, the International Baccalaureate Organization’s regional director for North America (www.ibo.org/oﬃces/regions/ ibna). To hear satisﬁed IB customers tell it, the IB is doing plenty. “We looked at it as bringing together best practices, not just in the country, but in the world,” says John Murphy, the associate principal and IB coordinator at South Side High School in Rockville Centre, N.Y., which became one of the nation’s earliest IB schools in 1981. “The bellwether came in 1997, when all 30 students in the program earned diplomas and then came back telling the underclassmen how successful they had been in college.” This year, 125 seniors and 169 juniors are working toward the diploma at South Side High, which houses a total of 1,150 students evenly divided among four grades. “It’s not so much the curriculum per se. It’s what the curriculum forces students to ﬁgure out through in-depth and rigorous thinking,” adds Ellen Linky, the assistant superintendent for the Oﬃce of Accelerated Learning in Philadelphia, which— along with Chicago—is one of the largest districts to adopt the program. Five Philadelphia high schools have been oﬀering the IB diploma over the past two years. The increased rigor of the IB diploma appeals to Doug Nelson, the February 2008 27 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2008

District Administration - February 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Security Update
Virtual Schools Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
The “Other” Advanced Program
State of the Superintendency
Landing the Chief
Purchasing Security Products and Services
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Overheard on the Pulse
New Products
Problem Solution
Computer Literature
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - February 2008