International Baccalaureate Enjoys Increasing Popularity

Some school officials are boosting kids’ performance locally by thinking globally.

A growing number of Orange County schools are offering the International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous two-year liberal arts curriculum that focuses on honors courses and global studies.

Eight public high schools here have the program, known as IB, and Capistrano Unified and Anaheim Union school districts are trying to establish it. On campuses where IB is established, the benefits are clear, officials say.

“Before we had the IB program, only about 5% of our students would get accepted to Ivy League schools,” said Jeff Nelson, IB director at Fullerton’s high-achieving Sunny Hills High School, which started the program in 1985. “Now 20% to 25% of our students get into Ivy Leagues or selective schools.”

Nelson attributes much of that increase to IB: “It literally achieves the goal of raising the curriculum at all levels, across the school.”

At San Clemente High School in Capistrano Unified, officials have applied for IB status in hopes of improving overall student performance.

“We anticipate that the IB program will draw more interest to San Clemente High,” said Patrick Levens, the school district’s executive director of secondary education. “This is a way of toning up and firming up our instructional programs.”

Founded in 1965 in Geneva, Switzerland, the IB program was created to set standards for student achievement among youngsters who move frequently from country to country.

It began catching on in the United States during the 1980s and has grown phenomenally in this decade. More than 700 high schools worldwide now have the program, a dramatic increase from just 400 schools five years ago.

In the United States, 221 schools now offer IB, and about 20 more have applications pending. Because of growing demand, IB officials recently created a middle school program and are developing one for the elementary level.

Educators attribute the widespread interest to schools’ desire to stay competitive in an increasingly global economy and to the prestige associated with having IB status.

“Public schools are faced with many kinds of challenges, such as voucher initiatives and charter schools,” said Brad Richardson, director of the IB North America office in New York. “This is a way for them to draw students and offer academic excellence.”

California has 37 IB schools, more than any other state, and that figure may rise quickly if Gov. Pete Wilson signs legislation that would provide school districts seed money to start the program and give financial help to schools already offering it. The Assembly and Senate both passed the bill, AB 248, earlier this month.

Setting up an IB program typically takes about two years and costs $20,000 to $100,000 for textbooks, teacher training and campus equipment.

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To win IB accreditation, a school must send teachers to intensive training workshops with other educators from around the world and show that its campus has top-notch facilities such as its library and laboratories.

A school also must show evidence that it can sustain an adequate level of student enrollment in the program. The number of students at an IB campus enrolled in the program can vary widely; at some schools as many as 60% participate, while at others only about 25% take part.

To ensure quality, IB schools are reevaluated every five years.

“It’s a valuable program,” said Carla Ferri, director of admissions for the University of California system, which grants college credit to students who have passed IB courses. “We tend to take notice of student applicants who intend to finish the IB program.”

The IB program offers a college-level curriculum in the sciences, mathematics, English and foreign languages during the students’ junior and senior years. Participants also must take a critical-thinking class titled Theory of Knowledge and complete at least 150 hours of community service.

In the senior year, students must submit a 4,000-word research paper and pass a battery of upper-division subject tests that are graded by university professors worldwide. A diploma is awarded to those who complete all the requirements and earn passing scores on all six IB exams.

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Gene Carson, a former associate provost at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was so impressed with IB students’ college performance that he conducted a study comparing them with their peers. Of the 400 students he sampled, about 40% of those who had taken some Advanced Placement courses in high school earned Bs or better. But 88% of the IB students averaged Bs or better.

Carson now is an IB examiner who scores students’ computer science tests.

“IB kids have to manage a very demanding program, their time, and be able to set priorities and work independently throughout high school,” Carson said. “By gosh, by the time they reach college, it’s no big adjustment.”

The IB workload is hefty, Sunny Hills senior Jon Malkin said. The La Mirada teen is taking seven college-level courses this year and plans to take AP and IB exams for at least four of those subjects.

He said he sets high goals for himself and would not mind being recognized for his accomplishments. “I want to get the IB diploma so I can say I survived the program.”

IB has appeal not only for schools like Sunny Hills, whose student body has the image of being ambitious and affluent. It also has benefits for campuses where officials want to combat economic decline and sinking test scores.

Eastside High School in Gainesville, Fla., for example, started its IB program in 1983 in the hope of reversing the trend in a neighborhood where blight and poverty were driving families away.

The results have been remarkable. Before the IB program, the school produced few National Merit Scholars; this year it had 18.

“When you institute an international standard and raise the bar for students, they will rise to the occasion,” said Sam Welker, Eastside’s IB coordinator.