Emily Cowing plans to attend the University of Minnesota next year to pursue a degree in chemical engineering, fully confident she’ll be able to handle the work.
Cowing, a Springdale High School senior, credits her school’s International Baccalaureate Programme for helping prepare her for education at the next level.
At A Glance
International Baccalaureate Core
There are three primary aspects of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at the high school level:
• The Extended Essay
Asks students to engage in independent research through an in-depth study of a question relating to one of the subjects they are studying. The world studies extended essay option allows students to focus on a topic of global significance which they examine through the lens of at least two subject areas.
• Theory Of Knowledge
Develops a coherent approach to learning that unifies the academic disciplines. In this course on critical thinking, students inquire into the nature of knowing and deepen their understanding of knowledge as a human construction.
• Creativity, Action, Service
Involves students in a range of activities alongside their academic studies throughout the diploma programme. Creativity encourages students to engage in the arts and creative thinking. Action seeks to develop a healthy lifestyle through physical activity. Service with the community offers a vehicle for a new learning with academic value. The three strands of CAS enhance students’ personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning and enable journeys of self-discovery.
Source: www.ibo.org
At the high school level, International Baccalaureate is a two-year program that offers challenges similar to what students will find in college. It emphasizes critical thinking and analytical skills as well as an awareness of world affairs and responsible citizenship.
“IB prepares you for college as much as you possibly can be prepared,” Cowing said.
Springdale High and Bentonville High schools are two of only five public high schools in Arkansas that offer the program. Springdale has had it since 2005; Bentonville has had it since 2007. Both schools’ programs are growing, their organizers said.
Springdale High expects its largest International Baccalaureate enrollment ever next school year, with a total of 82 juniors and seniors. That will be up from 47 enrolled this year.
Bentonville’s program has grown from 41 students last year to 54 students this year.
“Students are finally realizing colleges want students who are well prepared,” said Carol Turley, Springdale High’s International Baccalaureate coordinator. “And they have a better chance of staying in college if they are well prepared.”
International Baccalaureate also has programs for elementary and middle schools. Springdale has two of the four elementary International Baccalaureate programs in the state, at Turnbow and Westwood elementary schools.
Iram Salas, a Springdale High senior and starting goalkeeper for the varsity soccer team, manages to keep up with his International Baccalaureate course work while also spending several hours per day at soccer practice.
“It helps with time management skills,” Salas said. “It really helps you focus on priorities.”
Time management is mentioned frequently by International Baccalaureate students.
Melanie Fierro, another Springdale High senior, fits her IB class load in among several extracurricular activities and her part-time job at Lady Foot Locker.
She said there’s a misconception International Baccalaureate is only for the smartest students.
“I would definitely recommend it to students who want to challenge themselves,” Fierro said. “You don’t have to be real smart, you just have to put in the effort.”
The growth of Bentonville High’s International Baccalaureate program is attributed largely to a rule change the school made whereby only students who intended to take all of the prescribed International Baccalaureate courses were allowed to take them. Students may take just one International Baccalaureate class now, or as many as they want.
Sarah Pugh, who’s in her second year as Bentonville High’s International Baccalaureate coordinator, said some International Baccalaureate students are applying to Ivy League colleges, which like to see applicants take the most rigorous slate of classes they can.
“And IB really is that,” Pugh said. “It expects students to be more in-depth thinkers, to be evaluators. There are more essays. The benefit of the program is the depth and the reading and the analysis. It’s as close to a college course as you can get.”
Objections?
International Baccalaureate was founded in Geneva in 1968 as a nonprofit educational foundation as a single program for internationally mobile students preparing for higher education, according to the International Baccalaureate website.
Today the organization works with 3,527 schools in 144 countries, including 11 schools in Arkansas.
Though praised by many, the program has its critics.
One of them is Lisa McLoughlin, a resident of Long Island, N.Y., who runs the website TruthAboutIB.com. The parent and former newspaper reporter was upset when her local school district adopted International Baccalaureate several years ago.
She said the cost of the program, including materials and training for teachers, are never released to the public.
“It’s not accountable to any state or federal education department,” McLoughlin said. “It’s its own little cult.”
Robert Crossland, a Springdale resident who has three children in Springdale schools, has waged his own campaign against International Baccalaureate the last few years. He even has a billboard to demonstrate his disgust with it as well as a website, ParentsHaveRights.com.
“I don’t think they should be in our public schools,” Crossland said about International Baccalaureate. “I disagree with the curriculum. I think it’s brainwashing. It’s a politically correct curriculum.”
International Baccalaureate has prompted scattered debates in communities nationwide.
Last year, the school board in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, voted to end that school district’s affiliation with International Baccalaureate. The board cited student performance, enrollment and cost concerns as reasons to toss International Baccalaureate, and decided the Advanced Placement program was a better value, according to a story from The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.
Springdale schools Superintendent Jim Rollins said International Baccalaureate is expensive, mainly because of the cost of teacher training.
“But we have seen that as an excellent investment because of how we see that preparing our kids for higher education,” Rollins said. “We believe in the program. It’s been nothing but positive for the kids who have experienced it.”
Turley said Springdale High’s International Baccalaureate graduates from the last two years have received a combined $6 million in scholarships, at least in part because of their International Baccalaureate work.
Rollins said Springdale adopted the program as an attraction to those who move to Northwest Arkansas from other parts of the world, as well as to improve the school’s academics.
“That’s really played out exactly as we hoped,” Rollins said.
Every International Baccalaureate course has an exam attached to it, and those tests are $104 a piece, Pugh said. There’s also a registration fee. The total cost of the tests is $750.
The Legislature declined to pass a bill during the last legislative session in 2011 that would have provided $75,000 for International Baccalaureate testing fees.
With another legislative session under way, state Sen. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, has drafted an appropriations bill mandating the state Department of Education to find $75,000 in its budget for International Baccalaureate testing fees.
Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, is one of three sponsors of that bill.
“(Lindsey) walked up to me and said we ought to do this,” Woods said. “It’s a feather in our hat to have (International Baccalaureate) in our area.”
Pugh said she has obtained a $10,000 grant to cover some of the testing costs for her students on a need basis.