[Vision2020] IB Program Axed in CdA School District

[Kenneth Marcy]

On 8/7/2012 2:03 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
> Question, V-Peeps:  Are any of you fine folks familiar with the 
> International Baccalaureate program?

A few years ago I became aware that the University of Idaho accepts 
International Baccalaureate program credits for advanced placement and 
credit transfers for undergraduate degrees. This is hardly surprising or 
unusual because many accredited colleges accept these usually 
higher-quality credits for student academic advancement.

>  If so, would you be so kind as to provide us with your opinion after 
> reading this article?  It will be deeply appreciated.

This reads as a traditional Idaho post-boomer education mismanagement 
and deconstruction article. The political perspectives of frightened 
feral rural rodents digging deeper their noxious nests to avoid actual 
cultural contacts with wiser sapient societies boggles belief, but bears 
notice, nay, demands deterrence.

(Damn, that sentence was just too much fun. Time for some coffee.)

My impression of the International Baccalaureate program is that it 
requests some critical thinking skills be applied to the common 
knowledge and belief structures of one or more social cultures other 
than one's own in an educational context that requires foreign language 
competence with at least one additional language.

It's not hard to understand that traditional Idaho isolationists would 
find this just sufficiently scary to want to kill it before it spreads, 
especially to considering the local lore and lunacy, resulting in 
divisive disrespect.

The contemporary facts of the matter are that the Internet and modern, 
individually-controlled, communication devices are making interpersonal, 
intercultural contacts easy, efficient, and effective ways to engage in 
the most human of activities -- talking. That the locals along the lake 
up north are taking steps to keep their children less prepared for 
success with such inevitable contacts is generally undesirable, and 
those locals should know it.

Just for fun, here is a video of two people talking with one another in 
multiple languages they share. Needless to say, these people are not 
graduates of Idaho educational institutions.

Cristina -- Norwegian Polyglot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og8yBwSrKkw&feature=context-gfa

Time length: 12:49


Ken


> Courtesy of today's (August 7, 2012) Spokesmam-Review.
>
> -----------------------------------
>
>
>   CdA board ends IB program
>
>
> A controversial advanced learning program for high school students 
> will be pulled from the Coeur d'Alene School District.
>
> The school board voted 4-0 Monday night to end the district's 
> affiliation with International Baccalaureate, an optional course of 
> rigorous study intended to give students a deeper understanding of 
> world affairs and help them prepare for college.
>
> It was an expected outcome for a program that has come under 
> increasing scrutiny and criticism by some that its lessons are tinged 
> with leftist and un-American ideas.
>
> IB classes ranging from chemistry to Chinese language to art and music 
> will be eliminated at Lake City High School after juniors and seniors 
> currently enrolled complete their studies.
>
> The school board previously spared IB, but turnover on the board left 
> it vulnerable this year. Two new members were elected last year, and 
> two others were appointed in recent months to seats vacated by 
> resignations.
>
> Board members said the IB program falls short in its enrollment, test 
> scores, available college credit and costs. The Advanced Placement 
> program at Coeur d'Alene High School is a better value, several said.
>
> "In times of diminishing funding, it has to be recognized that we may 
> not be able to afford to be all things to all people," Board Chairman 
> Tom Hamilton said. He added, "I'm not a believer of choice at any cost."
>
> Several teachers and one former student urged the board to spare 
> International Baccalaureate and commit to improving it.
>
> "This program is an exceptional educational system. It is the best 
> that I've ever encountered," said Derek Kohles, a Lake City social 
> studies teacher. "I am concerned that we are moving backward if we 
> take away this program."
>
> Kohles told the board that students in IB go on to better schools and 
> have better success than those in the AP program. "Different programs 
> work better for different students," he noted.
>
> Dr. Alison Granier, a 1998 Lake City High graduate, said she was far 
> less prepared for college than fellow students who took advanced 
> education courses not available to her. The district should find ways 
> to boost the enrollment and performance of IB, she said.
>
> "It's very short-sighted and very crippling to our community to do 
> otherwise," Granier said.
>
> Some critics of IB have attacked its lessons for promoting what they 
> see as a liberal or socialist agenda influenced by the United Nations.
>
> Hayden lawyer Duncan Koler, a leading opponent, told the board Monday 
> that IB is full of "concepts that are politically charged, such as 
> social justice, sustainability. These are code terms."
>
> He also said IB is a waste of tax dollars. "Never has so much money 
> been thrown at so few students to produce so few results," Koler said.
>
> The district has spent nearly $1.35 million on IB in the past nine 
> years, including for curriculum costs, training, subscription fees and 
> staffing. Last year the program cost $50,630.
>
> "We've spent a lot of money on very highly motivated, very capable 
> students and put them in very small classes," Koler said. "We've 
> practically tutored and coddled the best and brightest of our kids."
>
> Whatever misgivings school board members may have about the IB 
> curriculum, they sidestepped that debate Monday and focused on 
> lackluster student performance and enrollment as reasons to toss the 
> program.
>
> Just 54 students in the district were enrolled in IB last year, half 
> as many as in AP. Courses with exam results above the worldwide 
> average were 31 percent in IB and 58 percent in AP this past year.
>
> An IB "primary years" program started a year and a half ago at Hayden 
> Meadows Elementary School may be in the crosshairs next. School board 
> member Terri Seymour asked the district to "take an objective look" at 
> the value of that program, in a process similar to one that led the 
> board Monday to kill IB at the high school level.


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