Some of  my links didn't work on the last one so I am sending it again.

E D U C A T I O N    A L E R T

Negative Score Results of the Global International Baccalaureate (IB)  Educational Program Being Implemented in Arkansas

(Note: The documentation is in footnotes)

SB1054 of 2005 allows school districts in Arkansas to substitute the United Nations International Baccalaureate Organization courses (called IB or IBO),  for Advanced Placement Classes.  This is of great concern to many educators and citizens in Arkansas.  We request that the legislators study this program and rescind this action.  1  (Note:  Some schools and laws have changed the name and are just using International Studies in order to deceive the people and make them think this is not an IB program. )  To see how one school has done this, see this link:    http://www.wpaag.org/IB%20-%20Jonesobro%203%20versions%20of%20IB%20description%20at%20SAC.htm

The International Baccalaureate program has been implemented district wide at Hot Springs, Arkansas (one of three IBO Programs in Arkansas).  Hot Springs had their first IB Diploma graduates last year after having the IB  program in high school for four years and in the elementary schools for six years.  2.

The 2005 Performance Record for Hot Springs (the latest on the ADE website in a form that can easily be accessed) record the negative consequences of this education program on achievement even though Hot Springs spends $8,688 per pupil while the state spends an average of $7,348 per pupil.. 3  

·         Hot Springs has a graduation rate of  56.4%.  State average is 81.3%  In 2000, before Hot Springs began the IB program, the graduation rate was 83.5%     4

• College remediation rate of 67.  The state remediation rate is 51.6.  In 2002-2003, the year Hot Springs officially started the IB program,  their remediation rate was 53.0 5 

• ACT score  in English 17.8 and Mathematics 18.1 (State average is 20.9 and 20.5).  In 2002-2003, the year Hot Springs officially implemented High School IB,  Hot Spring ACT score in math was 18.5  and English 20.3   6  

• End of Course Literacy (11th Grade EOC) score was  37  Proficient; state average  score is 47 Proficient.  Despite the IB program and above average per pupil spending, not even 1% of their students scored Advanced on this test  7. 

• Their 9th grade Reading score is 41st percentile on the nationally normed test, and the state average is 52.  All Nationally normed test scores from 6th grade up are much lower than the state average. 8.

• Hot Springs is not making NCLB  Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and is in Year Two of School Improvement.  See link at footnote 8.

Hot Springs does have one school (Park Magnet School)  with very good scores; HOWEVER,  there are only 12% of the Hot Springs elementary students  in that school, and the  ratio of  whites and minorities is totally out of balance: 75% white and 18% black, or 25% minority and 75% white when you add in the other minorities.    Langston Magnet School, the magnet school with the lowest scores has 71% minority and 29% white.  The other two schools fall in between these ratios.   The following scores in 4th grade benchmark scores are pretty typical of the four  magnet schools.  Park Magnet School is the designated IB School, also called PYP.  9

Link for documentation at Footnote 10

(Note: there are almost twice as many students in the school with score of 23 points below state average than in the school with highest score, Park Magnet School,  and almost three times the number of students in the school 12 points below state average than in Park.  These scores (representing abilities) and the ratio of minorities to whites would certainly reflect a social caste system.   And  where is the  equitable and adequate education for all!

According to a school official only 10 to 20% of high school candidates are candidates for their IB Diploma program, so their high school probably falls along similar patterns as the elementary schools.   This school official said some of their IB classes were very small, 5 students I think for at least one class which is one of the factors that makes the IB program so expensive.  Haven't the legislators said they wanted consolidation in order to cut costs by increasing class size?

IB Described by Principal on the Jonesboro School District Website:

  "INTERNATIONAL STUDIES at SAC - Arthur Jackson, Principal :  Our curriculum will encourage students to be global minded as they explore how their world affects the bigger world in which we live.  Students will participate in innovative and challenging hands-on experiences…. The curriculum will not be “textbook driven” but will focus on developing thinking and inquiring minds with opportunities for students to work in small groups and create projects.   Students will frame all learning within a world perspective as they participate in in-depth studies of six units of inquiry.  11

IB described by the (worldwide) Director of the IBO, George Walker, at Stockholm.

International Baccalaureate Director George Walker (United Nations provided funding to create the International Baccalaureate Organization, a non-government organization, in Geneva, Switzerland) says there are three parts to the IB curriculum, the compulsory part, the extra curriculum part; and in his own words, the "hidden curriculum, the informal but influential rules, beliefs and attitudes that determine the transmission of norms and values. 

IBO Director Walker  explains what global education is and what it is not.  First, global education is not what the average US citizen would think it is.  It is not international awareness of other nationalities and their views, culture, and values; and it is not just an academic education that prepares the student for international employment.

Instead Walker explains that a global student education is one that changes the belief system of the student so that the student no longer believes in patriotism and nationalism or the religion passed down by his culture. And it  produces a citizen, in Walker's  own words again, with the "skill of persuading [other] people to compromise or change their minds" as well, a citizen with  "both the ability and the attitude that wants to shift another person’s position as well as their own."

IBO Director Walker says, "How do we reconcile a spirit of inquiry with a patriarchal culture that values received wisdom and rote learning? How can a secular curriculum be adopted in a country where religious faith, rather than empirical observation, defines the limits of truth? Is it possible to be a free-thinking individual, perhaps perceived as amoral, in a culture where the rules and rituals are unconditionally accepted and rigorously adhered to?"  [Note the reason for doing away with rote learning and textbooks – it is received wisdom]  12

The eleventh and twelfth grade students have to take the IB tests prepared by the United Nations sponsored IB to get their diploma.  These tests are not even graded in the United States. (Some people believe this is a made up story, but  according to a school official at Hot Springs, these tests are sent to various countries in the world to be graded.  Some go to Beijing, China, some to Uganda, some to some to Venezuela, some to New Zealand and Wales and various other countries.  The school official said their  postage in high school last year for sending these tests to other countries for grading was eight thousand dollars ($8,000.)

Now, a suburban Pittsburgh school district is abolishing IBO over questions of politics and cost. School board members in a Minnesota district call it anti-American and anti-Christian. In New Jersey, members of one school board argue it's a waste of money. One teacher objects to the program because of IBO's endorsement of the Earth Charter which calls for sustainability of the Earth through,, among other things, responsible reproduction and wealth distribution.  13

Several schools in Arkansas are now  considering this program without knowing the philosophy behind it.  We ask you legislators to study this program and rescind the law that allows IB courses to take the place of Advanced Placement courses.

This article can be found online at this link:  http://www.wpaag.org/IB%20-%20Educational%20Alert-Hot%20Spring%20Scores.htm

Footnotes and links:

1.  The law , Senate Bill 1054 authorizing International Baccalaureate Program in Arkansas:

ftp://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/bills/2005/public/SB1054.pdf

2. " Instituted in 2004, the Diploma Program at Hot Springs High School is one of three IBO authorized Diploma Programs in the state of Arkansas. Students engage in a curriculum and activities shared by schools across the globe that prepare students for college and professional opportunities. Within the Hot Springs School District, the Diploma Program in grades 11 & 12 represents the culmination of the full IB curriculum, completing the education begun in the Primary Years Program (PYP) in elementary and continued in the Middle Years Program (MYP) in grades 6-10."  From Hot Springs website at this link: http://ib.hssd.net/theibprogram.html

3  ADE 2005 Performance Record Link:  http://normessasweb.uark.edu/reportcards/select.php

4  Graduation rate at Hot Springs: http://www.as-is.org/reportcard/rc2000/index.html

5  ACT scores for Hot Springs: http://www.as-is.org/reportcard/

6   Remediation Rate: http://www.as-is.org/reportcard/

7.  Literacy scores: http://www.as-is.org/reportcard/rc2000/index.html

8.  ITBS nationally normed tests  http://normessasweb.uark.edu:80/reportcards/select.php

9   Enrollment by Race & Gender of School Districts:.  http://adedata.k12.ar.us/FY05_06/Schools/Enrollments%20by%20School_report.ADE

10  State Report Card:  http://normessasweb.uark.edu/reportcards/select.php

11 Jonesboro Website on Magnet Schools: - http://www.jps.k12.ar.us/view/387

12. Link to International Baccalaureate Organization Director George Walker's speech, "Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools, Stockholm: 9 September 05, What I Have Learned About International Education":  http://universities.ibo.org/ibo/index.cfm?contentid=54DF3F23-DA44-6BB7-59B5C0EC6D1C2566&method=display&language=EN

13   "International Curriculum in Pa. Spotlight," CBS News, March 6, 2006  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/06/ap/national/mainD8G64M8O0.shtml and  http://www.unwatch.com/hl012604.