OBERLIN — Imagine as a high school student writing a 4,000-word thesis, doing 150 hours of volunteer work, and taking a battery of written and oral tests that might be graded in the United Kingdom or Spain.

It’s called International Baccalaureate, and it’s coming to Oberlin schools.

Started in 1968 as a program for the children of diplomats, IB is now in its 40th year.

Its mission is to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

Not every graduate will have to complete the long essay and take certain tests — just those in the Diploma Programme.
But Oberlin schools Superintendent Geoffrey Andrews said components of IB will be incorporated into learning from kindergarten through 12th grade.
He hopes many high school students will be tempted to take some, if not all, of the courses. Already, signs of IB are taking hold in Oberlin classrooms.

Critics & supporters
IB sailed through the Oberlin school board by a 5-0 vote.

But IB has been a controversial program in other areas of the country with emotional supporters and detractors.

More than 1,000 vocal protesters turned out when the Upper St. Clair School District outside Pittsburgh withdrew from IB in 2006. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to get the program back into the schools, comparing it to a court fight over teaching evolution and intelligent design.

The schools settled the suit by bringing back IB, and IB’s opponents on the school board were defeated in the next election.
Critics say IB espouses socialist ideals, but supporters deny the claim. President George W. Bush is an IB supporter, and IB’s director general is Jeffrey Beard, a 1972 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.

One of the widely quoted critics of IB is Lisa McLoughlin, who narrowly lost a bid three years ago for the Locust Valley School District in Long Island, N.Y., while campaigning against IB.

McLoughlin said the program outsources U.S. education to a secretive, Swiss-based consortium. She said she has never been able to obtain vital facts, such as Beard’s salary, which would be a matter of public record if it had to be recorded on documents for tax-exempt organizations in the United States.
In her district, she said students were assigned to read a book by Howard Zinn, who opposes the Pledge of Allegiance.

“They say it fosters critical thinking, but God forbid you ask a question about IB,” said Loughlin, who described herself as a registered Republican.
IB high schools comprise 42 of the nation’s 100 best high schools as named by Newsweek magazine in 2007.

Ralph Cline, acting regional director in New York City, said IB encourages intercultural understanding, and “one really has to work to turn that into an unpatriotic frame of mind.”

Another IB representative, Beth Brock, said a study in the Academy School District in Colorado Springs, Colo., shows the benefits of starting IB in elementary and middle schools. IB students get higher scores on state tests than their counterparts, and the improvement increases over time, she said.

Andrews is not concerned about criticism of IB, saying it encourages reading an array of authors and examining cultures different from our own.

“IB students who read Karl Marx or any other author are taught to read in a discerning manner and will look at any text with a critical eye,” Andrews said. “We still get to pick the books.”

Locally, Sandra Redd, who ran unsuccessfully for the Oberlin School Board in November, said she thinks IB costs too much and stretches staff too thin.

“We have kids who can’t even read,” Redd said. “We need to focus on the basics.”

Oberlin school board member Paula Jones, who took office after the IB vote, said the schools got good news in recent days when an audit showed 100 percent compliance with standards for meeting the needs of special education students.

Jones, who has five children in the schools and once home-schooled her kids, said she likes the way IB takes a comprehensive look at a subject and makes it understandable.

But Jones agreed with one teacher who said it will place a bigger burden on instructors, especially at the high school.

“IB will stretch not only the students and teachers, but the parents, too,” she said.

Andrews said no new staff has been added for IB, and set-up costs are being covered largely through grants from foundations and the state and federal governments.

So far, the district has spent about half of the $150,000 in grants set aside to prepare for IB. Once it is implemented, IB should cost the district about $30,000 a year. Andrews contends it will pay for itself if the Oberlin district is able to attract a few students through open enrollment.

Jay Mathews, an education reporter for the Washington Post, said the yearly cost of IB “would compare to what they would spend on their baseball and softball programs.”

Mathews, who co-authored the book “Super Tests: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen Our Schools,” said IB is comparable to Advanced Placement.

“These are the gold standard programs in high school — it’s like comparing Mercedes versus Lexus,” Mathews said.
IB curriculum “teaches at a higher level with emphasis on thoughts and writing and analysis instead of focusing on memorization,” he said.

IB versus AP
While only about 15 schools in Ohio have IB, Andrews said it looked like a perfect fit for Oberlin.When they hired him two years ago, the school board told him they wanted a more rigorous and multicultural curriculum.

“That sounded very much like IB to me,” Andrews said.

Expanding traditional Advanced Placement classes — which also offer students the chance to gain college credit — wasn’t a very good option at tiny Oberlin High.

With only 80 to 90 seniors graduating each year, the Oberlin schools couldn’t offer a range of AP classes. Oberlin now has just one Advanced Placement class in calculus.

For just $25 a course, students at Oberlin High have been able to take actual college classes at Oberlin College instead, but Andrews wanted a way to expand offerings at the high school and draw more students. He thinks a larger number of Oberlin High graduates will meet enrollment standards at Oberlin College as a result of IB.

One of the biggest disadvantages of IB is the cost of taking tests for the Diploma Programme – an estimated $600 over two years, versus AP tests, which cost about $78 each.

Andrews said the district has spent about half of the $150,000 in grants from the state, the federal government and from foundations to prepare for IB.
Some analysts say fewer colleges grant less credit for IB than AP, but Andrews said he doesn’t think that will be the case for long.

“Less selective institutions are still figuring it out,” he said, but Oberlin College recognizes the IB students as being very well prepared.

Oberlin College grants up to 28 semester hours — a full academic year — for some IB students, Andrews said.

Judy Harrison, IB coordinator at Firestone High School in Akron, said her son graduated from the IB Diploma Programme and Ohio State offered him 26 credits — almost a full year.

“Many of our (IB) students complete college in three years,” Harrison said.

But Harrison said a relatively small number of students take part. Just 32 of the 1,300 students at Firestone High are full Diploma Programme candidates.

The Elyria Schools have 10 AP classes along with other programs that allow students to obtain college credit and has not considered going with IB, said Mark Sutter, academic services director for secondary education.

Sutter said he taught in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights District when it had IB, and he found both programs very similar.

An independent analysis by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, gave IB a slight edge in math and biology.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.  

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