New year, big new challenge

Two weeks into the highly publicized and much acclaimed International Baccalaureate diploma program at Coeur d’Alene and Lake City high schools, the difference in the courses from the regular ones are subtle. More homework. Tougher reading. More stringent requirements.

But give it a couple more weeks, teachers and program administrators say, and the difference will be as clear as night and day. Wait until the open-ended, non-multiple choice tests start, and a sample of graded papers is mailed overseas to the IB assessment headquarters in Wales to see that the organization’s standards are being upheld. Wait until diploma candidates begin their 4,000-word extended essay and really get going on their 150 hours of community service. Wait until final grades come out and students are measuring their success on a 5 point scale instead of the standard 4 point.

“I think what will be revealed is just kind of a different approach to assessment and learning,” said Jim Facciano, director of curriculum for the Coeur d’Alene School District.

“We’re just in an adjustment period,” said Deanne Clifford, IB program coordinator at Lake City High School and a math teacher. “It’s going to settle in.”

This school year, Lake City and Coeur d’Alene high schools officially became the first schools in Idaho to offer the International Baccalaureate diploma program. Touted as a rigorous college preparation program for high school juniors and seniors that provides an international perspective, the IB program was originally started for the children of diplomats looking to succeed at overseas universities.

Lake City and Coeur d’Alene are two of 522 high schools in the United States that offer the diploma program; there are fewer than 1,200 worldwide. Students from around the region are transferring into the high schools for the programs, eager to soak up the diploma program, which is respected enough by some universities that diploma candidates are admitted as sophomores.

School district officials are looking to bring the other International Baccalaureate programs for younger students to the schools. The district will spend nearly $380,000 on IB materials, teacher training and salaries through the end of this school year, a culmination of fees this year and fees paid during the application process, and Facciano expects the district to spend about $60,000 each year to keep the program running at both high schools.

“We’re estimating just the postage alone might be $3,000 or $4,000 a year,” he said, referring to the number of graded papers and tests the IB organization likes to review.

Most of the money came from the $1.9 million supplemental levy voters approved two years ago to fund advanced learning programs and activities in the district. An additional $50,000 or so from the levy has been spent on training elementary and middle school teachers in hopes of bringing the middle school and elementary IB programs to the district.

International perspective

As befits the name, the International Baccalaureate diploma program brings an international focus to the curriculum.

Juniors and seniors at Coeur d’Alene and Lake City can enroll in the full diploma program or take just one or two courses. About 20 percent of the approximately 1,500 Lake City students and 25 percent of the 1,500 Coeur d’Alene students are taking at least one IB course. Sixteen Lake City students are going for the full diploma, compared to 22 Coeur d’Alene students.

Lake City junior Janey Ortega said she decided to seek the full diploma after hearing how helpful it will be when applying for college.

The 16-year-old is enrolled in six IB courses, standard for all diploma candidates. Diploma candidates select either a math and science focus or an arts focus for the diploma, then choose one or two courses from the following areas of study: language, both a native tongue and second language; individuals and society; the arts; experimental sciences; and mathematics.

The IB courses currently offered at the high schools are limited – there’s just one IB English class for juniors and one for seniors at each high school – but that could change if more students show interest. Even completing just one IB course earns a student a certificate and possible college credit, depending on the school.

Ortega and classmate Shawnee Baughman, also 16, said they were nervous about the program until Clifford, whose son Bill is an IB diploma candidate, said it was a great way to prepare for college. They enrolled and now, a few weeks into it, they’re huge fans.

“It’s more like a college environment than most other classes in high school can offer,” said Baughman. “There’s a lot of cultural stuff that kids in Idaho are not going to get.”

Costs and criticisms

Critics of the IB programs point to the high cost and say a lack of teacher control comes with the curriculum because the organization has so much power over testing and grades. Teachers make open-ended tests at the direction of the organization, administer them and grade them, then ship a sample of them overseas for review by the IB organization.

Bill Proser, the founder of the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy and a teacher there, said the program goes against a main principle of his school: the belief that the teacher is the most important classroom asset and should have complete control.

He doesn’t like the cost of IB – along with start-up costs and training fees, schools pay an annual subscription fee of more than $8,000 for Web site access and course materials – and said it amounts to nothing more than a publicity stunt by the district.

Facciano said the IB program allows a lot of flexibility for teachers because it doesn’t dictate what is taught – it dictates how it’s taught.

In the required IB foreign language classes, students are graded on their ability to speak and write, not to answer multiple choice tests.

In IB English class, students might study and analyze a poem, but they wouldn’t be tested on that same poem later on. They’d be given another poem to study and analyze, one they hadn’t seen before but would require them to use the skills they learned.

Time will tell

Clifford predicts the number of diploma candidates at both schools will double next year, once more students know about the program and see how much the current diploma candidates like it.

Facciano said the district hopes the number of students transferring to the high schools for the IB diploma will offset the cost of implementing the program because it will bolster school enrollment, to which state funding is directly tied. Sixteen students transferred to the district this year because of the IB program.

He expects scores on tests like the Advanced Placement exams, the ACT, the SAT and the ISAT to increase thanks to the program.

Still, in the beginning weeks of the program, Clifford said, there are some bugs to be worked out. Some students feel overwhelmed by the amount of work.

Others seem a little too gung-ho and have to be told to slow down or risk getting burnt out in the first semester.

Ortega and Baughman said they’re looking to start study groups with classmates to help with homework, something Clifford said is needed.

“Students are going home with homework and parents are saying, ‘Wow. I can’t help you with that,’ ” Clifford said.

But the real showing of how worthwhile the project is will be a ways off, Ortega said.

“We’ll find out senior year when college applications are coming back,” she said.