If adding Advanced Placement courses has been seen by many schools and school systems as a silver bullet, the International Baccalaureate — the “IB” — is a flaming arrow of gold. Above all, the International Baccalaureate is a complete package, an interconnected array of curricula, professional development programs, examinations, and school support mechanisms extending far beyond the trademark-protecting standardization efforts of the AP. Charles Fremuth, longtime IB coordinator at Detroit Country Day School (Michigan), describes the IB as “an attitude about education.” With programming that spans the years from pre-primary up through secondary, the International Baccalaureate offers an education based on a comprehensive, academically challenging curriculum that claims to honor depth over breadth. Rick Grier-Reynolds, IB coordinator at Wilmington Friends School (Delaware), goes so far as to describe the program as “being all about best practices in teaching, learning, and training. Anyone who wants to get into 21st-century learning should take a serious look.”
A Serious Look
The IB was born in 1968 at the International School of Geneva, Switzerland, having been conceived as a curriculum for similar schools that would enable their students, the children of diplomats and globally mobile business executives, to move from school to school without losing academic credit. Originally just a curriculum and a set of examinations, the IB has evolved into an entire approach to education that combines high-stakes testing with a holistic approach to education and a comprehensive philosophy of pedagogy and child development. The program has maintained its original purpose as a portable and highly respected international credential, but it has also become a one-stop-shopping destination for schools looking to add instant credibility to their academic profile.In the past decade, the most extraordinary growth of the IB has been in United States public schools. According to Sandra Coyle, marketing and communications manager for IB Americas, while the idea was originally expected to have its greatest appeal to independent schools in the Northeast, the aftermath of the A Nation at Risk report (1983) and subsequent decades of concern over educational quality brought the IB to the attention of public school educators “looking to increase academic rigor.” While, globally, only about half of the schools that offer IB curricula are government-funded, 92 percent of American “IB schools” are public, many of them charter and magnet schools. To states anxious to ramp up the visible quality of public education, the IB offers a fully developed — if complex and sometimes expensive — high-end curriculum that is valued by colleges and carries tremendous cachet. From a convenience for jet-setters, the IB has become a standard as recognized in small-town America as it is in the global diplomatic community. Today, more than 900 public schools in the United States offer IB programs, a number that comprises nearly a third of the worldwide IB community. Says Drew Deutsch, director of IB Americas, “This fits quite nicely into our mission, which is to bring an IB education to students regardless of their personal circumstance.”
Early American adopters of the IB include the United Nations International School (New York), The Dwight School (New York), and Washington International School (Washington, DC). Although growth was slow at first, with only nine independent schools signing on prior to 1990, nearly 60 percent of the over 50 current independent IB schools in the U.S. have instituted their programs since 2005. Relative to the public sector, these numbers are small, but independent schools continue to explore and incorporate IB programs at a steady rate.
The Program
The IB offers three levels of programming: the Primary Years Program (for children ages 3 to 12), the Middle Years Program (ages 11 to 16), and the Diploma (ages 16 to 19). All three programs cohere around principles, practices, and requirements that are developmentally appropriate and reflect the overarching mission of the International Baccalaureate Organization and its core Learner Profile. (Much more detailed and specific information on all aspects of the International Baccalaureate can be found on its global website, www.ibo.org.)The Learner Profile is the IB’s “mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century,” and as such it provides an overview — in the form of essential questions — of ideal IB classroom practices, assessment and reporting practices, and “daily life, leadership, and management” strategies for schools, as well as a statement of desired student affective and cognitive outcomes.
The Primary Years Program, offered at only a relative handful of U.S. independent schools, is built around a set of “transdisciplinary” themes within six subject areas. As with the entire IB program, the Primary Years curriculum is considered from three perspectives: what is taught, how it is experienced by the student, and how it is assessed. It is this intentionality around the student learning experience that distinguishes the IB, according to many in schools that have adopted it. “When we were considering the IB,” says Mary Kay Deese, IB coordinator at Spartanburg Day School (South Carolina), which has offered the Primary Years Program since 2007, “we liked that it looked at the whole child, not just the brain but the mind.”
The Middle Years Program adds a second language and technology to the list of disciplines. It also offers sufficient flexibility to fit in subjects mandated by other authorities. Potentially a five-year program, it can be condensed to fit specific school needs. At the end of the program, students undergo a final, teacher-created assessment based on IB-designated criteria. Although this is completed and graded at the school, schools may request external validation of grades by submitting student work to IB examiners.
The Diploma is the oldest and most common International Baccalaureate program. Indeed, to many people, the term “IB” is synonymous with this challenging and thematically elaborate two-year curriculum. Educators may be most familiar with the “core” Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course that all IB diploma students must complete, a class in the study of knowledge and learning that asks students to reflect deeply and critically on “how we know what we know.” Other major Diploma elements include the Extended Essay, a 4,000-word research paper, and the Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) requirement that broadly encompasses the arts, travel, service, community activism, and even many aspects of school extracurriculars, including athletics. There is also a lengthy menu of academic requirements, including a second language. Three “higher level” subjects must be studied for a minimum of 240 classroom hours — requiring two years at most schools — while three others must be studied for 150 hours.
And then there are the examinations. Offered twice a year and with somewhat more date flexibility than those of the College Board’s Advanced Placement program, IB examinations are sent off by the school to be graded on a seven-point scale by trained examiners around the world. With six required examinations (plus three points that may be awarded for exemplary Theory of Knowledge and Extended Essay work), Diploma candidates may amass as many as 45 points; just 24 points (plus satisfactory participation in the CAS) are required as a minimum across-the-board standard for the Diploma, which about 80 percent of students who enter the program annually achieve. Students at many schools opt for the less stringent “Certificate” program.
However, an important distinction between the IB and other examination-based programs is that the examinations are not an all-or-nothing measure. TOK essays, Extended Essays, and world literature assignments are also graded externally, while school assessments — including arts performances — are incorporated into the overall assessment process. Essentially, IB assessment amounts to a comprehensive, externally reviewed portfolio of student performance.
Becoming an IB School
If this program appears overwhelming, the challenges to obtaining authorization to offer the IB are well understood by the organization, which paradoxically seeks to mitigate the challenges by making the process exceptionally thorough and intentionally slow. It takes roughly three years from the initial application for a school to become authorized to offer any of the three programs. In addition to being long and arduous, the process is expensive, involving an application fee (currently $9,500 for each program) as well as the not inconsiderable costs of professional development for teachers — plus the design of courses that will meet IB specifications and whatever program and structural modifications must be made in Diploma-seeking schools to accommodate the Theory of Knowledge and two-year Higher Level courses as well as the Creativity, Action, Service requirement. For schools that receive authorization, there are annual participation fees, recurring program evaluation fees in the Primary and Middle Years programs, and student evaluation and examination fees in the Middle Years and Diploma programs.For many United States independent schools, the process of adopting the IB has been made at least somewhat easier by the congruence between IB goals and school missions. At Wilmington Friends, Rick Grier-Reynolds saw the IB as being “about student-centered, inquiry-based learning. It affirms what we’re already doing and gives it validity. It’s teacher-friendly, kid-friendly, vigorous, and authentic.” He adds, “Most solid independent schools could do this program with relative ease.” Colin Pierce, IB coordinator at Desert Academy (New Mexico), says, “It’s a curriculum that provides us with tools to achieve what we were going for in the first place.”
The greatest hurdle and often the greatest benefit in adopting the IB involves the significant professional development required for teachers. Independent school teachers sometimes balk at becoming part of a “program,” and some schools have reported modest attrition among teachers accustomed to complete autonomy. But for those who embrace the program, says Jenny Graupensperger, IB coordinator at Annie Wright School (Washington), “there’s a lot more teacher collaboration, and a lot more talk, informally and formally, about content, alignment, and training.” Says Desert Academy’s Pierce, “Teachers were initially skeptical of the prescribed curriculum, but it’s not prescribed content. It’s about technique and approach — and all the teachers love it.” At a special faculty meeting, Harrisburg Academy (Pennsylvania) Head of School Jim Newman brought in a former teacher who had become an administrator at an IB school. “He told us, ‘You will find it’s the kind of evolution in teaching you’ve been looking for; you’re going to love it.’ It has given teachers the intention to do well professionally.” Charles Fremuth of Detroit Country Day observes that the “dynamic nature of the IB means that teachers don’t stay in a textbook rut.” Susan Bauska, upper school director at Annie Wright, likes the “real sense of accountability. It’s a really healthy thing, but it is scary at first.” Wilmington Friends’ Rick Grier-Reynolds cites the advantages of becoming “part of a 70,000-member online professional community.”
An issue for some schools is maintaining their own cultures under the IB aegis. Colin Pierce of Desert Academy comments that “we didn’t want the IB ‘brand’ to replace our own ‘Desert-ness,’” while Detroit Country Day, according to Charles Fremuth, “promotes the IB Learner Profile as the profile for all students.” At Annie Wright, schedule modifications mean that students spend more time with advisors, and in the classroom, “the Annie Wright standard obtains. There is a clean separation of our grades from IB assessments.” Echoes IB coordinator Thomas Banks of Harrisburg Academy, “It wasn’t a huge transition, because we already had the standards.”
While the Primary and Middle Years programs are intended to be schoolwide, implementation of the Diploma does not have to be all-or-nothing for students. At many independent schools, IB Diploma students are mixed with non-IB students, IB Certificate seekers, and even AP students, although, notes Jane Politte, IB coordinator at Charlotte Country Day (North Carolina), “as we train more and more teachers, the teachers start to teach [the IB] way in other classes, too. They come to see it as a better way to teach.” IB participation levels range from a section or two to an entire grade. The work, though universally described as rigorous by students and teachers, is qualitatively different from traditional learning, says Politte: “Instead of memorization and facts, the classes are about discussion, critical thinking, problem-solving, why things happened. In terms of 21st-century learning, these are the tools that will let them keep learning after they leave us.” Harrisburg Academy, like other schools, did some tweaking of the course sequence to accommodate the IB, but, says Newman, “We want to make sure that the non-IB program is of equal value; we don’t want there to be two tracks.”
Outcomes
If the IB undergirds the mission of many independent schools, it has also had palpable benefits for students and for schools. Literature and anecdotal information on the high regard that colleges hold for IB students is extensive, and the IB Diploma has indeed become the international standard that its founders intended it to be. A check of the admissions website of almost any university reveals a special section describing the admission, financial, and placement benefits for which high-performing IB students are eligible. While a few colleges lag in their understanding of the program, many actively court IB students; one state university is even reputed to offer special parking privileges. The Common Application, used by nearly 400 of the most selective American colleges, now requires school counselors to specify if the student is an IB Diploma candidate.For schools, the ability to offer a program with global stature can pay off in terms of both reputation and enrollment. Many schools invoke “validation” and “differentiation from other schools” as real benefits of IB participation, and there seem to be clear admissions advantages. Mary Kay Deese of Spartanburg Day believes that the IB “is getting our name out there, and we feel like we’re meeting an international standard that is a step above that of the state or region.” Schools in areas with transient international professional communities find that families consider the IB to be a necessity for their children, while intellectually curious and ambitious students are becoming more aware of the intrinsic and instrumental value of IB courses. “We know that people are coming to Wilmington Friends especially for the IB,” says Grier-Reynolds. “We’re pretty sure that the program pays for itself in new enrollment.”
There are challenges. Desert Academy, a relatively new and small school in a state without any other IB secondary schools, “had a lot of public relations to do to educate the community about what the program is,” says Colin Pierce, and the IB-specific terminology used by the program “was in some cases an obstacle. But we’re at a point that the idea is growing.” Annie Wright admissions representatives discovered that in Korea, where the AP has been touted by private recruiting agents as the top U.S. offering, the IB has been a tough sell. Charlotte Country Day’s Politte observes that “there’s also the challenge of parents of the 20th century who were taught differently and who have to listen to what educators today are saying about problem-solving and critical thinking,” although, at Spartanburg Day, Deese is excited about “educating parents about education. How can we explain these changes to parents in ways that are relevant, tangible, and reassuring?”
And then there’s “rigor.” Some educators and, apparently, many members of the public love this word in an educational context, and the IB does not shy away from its use. But in an era when the prevalence of “the pressured child” — particularly the academically talented child — is a cause for alarm in some quarters, is what Rick Grier-Reynolds calls the “sweat equity” factor in IB Diploma studies what the brightest and most ambitious students really need? The IB’s Sandra Coyle says that the program “pushes kids, stretches them,” which is a good thing, and Grier-Reynolds sees the IB as encompassing “all the Daniel Pink stuff” regarding creativity and innovative thinking. But the question remains of how hard it might be for students in an intense IB environment to achieve balance in their lives, to follow their interests, hearts, and even caprices even beyond the admittedly broad boundaries of the “creativity, action, service” rubric.
Ultimately, the structural, resource, and philosophical mandates of the IB mean that the program is not for every school. American independent school education is, as Emily Jones, head of The Putney School (Vermont), suggests elsewhere in this issue (see article here), notoriously skeptical of “programs” imposed from without, and many teachers would bridle at the need to meet the IB’s curricular and pedagogical requirements. Regardless of the breadth of student work being evaluated, the high-stakes examinations are central to the Diploma, raising the specter of the necessity of “teaching to the test,” an idea anathema to most independent school educators.
But schools continue to explore and ultimately participate, despite the challenges. Jane Politte is clear in her advice to schools that “you have to be fully committed to the financial piece, and you have to get your teachers on board.” For Annie Wright’s Bauska, it’s a matter of “taking your time, and thinking about who you are.” Harking back to the original conception of the IB, Rick Grier-Reynolds sums it up: “If you want to mix the philosophy of being a global school at a ‘global time’ with a program, then the International Baccalaureate is a great way to go.”