Is Ozark High School Headed Towards Law Suits Over International Baccalaureate Implementation

An article that lists five things superintendents and school board members should know about the International Baccalaureate caught my eye today. Reason number five is a new issue that I haven't heard much about. Here's the five reasons.

1)  IB will not improve student performance,
Summary - http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04172006-173212/
Entire dissertation - http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04172006-173212/unrestricted/DissertationDeborahRJackson.pdf
http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/IB-Plan.pdf
http://www.ibo.org/research/programmevalidation/documents/TXSum.pdf

2)  Over 20 schools drop IB in about a year the most stated reasons for dropping IB are:        
Cost
Lack of student improvement with IB
Less flexible than AP
Lack of participation in IB classes
Lack of college credit for IB

Here is a link to the 20+ schools that dropped IB in about a year,
http://myinclinevillage.com/2011/05/10/how-to-stop-or-remove-ib-from-your-school.aspx

St. Helena CA is very interesting.  The school board voted unanimously to implement IB.  At least $1,000,000 was spent.  After having IB for only two years the high school students fought to remove it, stating four of the reasons above.  Three years after the board voted to implement IB they realized the students were right, so they voted unanimously to drop IB.
http://napavalleyregister.com/star/news/local/article_8b306270-4ae5-11e0-b742-001cc4c03286.html
http://napavalleyregister.com/star/news/local/article_93d3c612-5042-11e0-a7c4-001cc4c002e0.html

3)  After all the money spent to implement IB your high school graduates will get less college credit for IB than for AP.  The IB HL classes are two year classes.  Of the colleges that do give credit for IB, most only give credit for HL classes.
http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/ap-vs-ib.htm
http://www.princeton.k12.oh.us/HighSchool.cfm?subpage=416

The IBO website use to say IB was “college prep.”  It was recently changed to, “The (IB) Diploma Programme fosters the knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable students to excel in university.” http://www.ibo.org/recognition/
AP classes are college level classes,
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html

When schools attempt to combine IB and AP in one class, per the IBO, the IB curriculum must take priority.


What high schools (especially small schools) discover - after spending a lot of money to implement IB they inadvertently increase college costs for most of their graduates.



4)  The fact that IB is a UN sponsored programme is an issue for some parents,
http://myinclinevillage.com/2010/07/16/even-jay-matthews-admits-colleges-give-more-credit-for-ap.aspx



5)  If students are being forced into IB and parents have religious objections (and possibly political objections) to the  programme, your District could be at risk for a law suit.
http://www.aclj.org/Issues/Resources/Document.aspx?ID=15

Religious objections or political objections? I have been trying to warn the conservative community of Ozark which sits in the back yard of the Assemblies of God's National Headquarters for months now the IB doesn't represent the values of the residents of Ozark. Once this is fully discovered, will Dr. Gordon Pace find himself in a courtroom defending the IB's pantheist agenda? This could get interesting for the Evangel College graduate superintendent.

Ozark is not the kind of town where you indoctrinate kids with anti Christian and anti American ideals. Yet, that in a nutshell is what the IB represents.