International Baccalaureate Update

RHS 11th-grader Gabriel Chared Sandstrom giving a lecture on
AI, Art, and Monstrosity  to his IB “Language and Literature” classmates

 

At the November 4 Board of Education meeting, the Board heard a presentation about the High School’s new International Baccalaureate program. Teachers, administrators, and students spoke about how the program and classes are structured and the ways they differ from traditional AP offerings and the program at The Academy. 

RHS Assistant Principal Cody Blume kicked off the presentation with an overview of the three optional programs at RHS: AP courses/AP Capstone, the IB Diploma Programme, and The Academy, highlighting some of the differences - and similarities between them.

Dr. Blume noted that AP classes are content-specific, last for one year only, and culminate in an AP exam, the score on which determines whether a student receives college credit. IB Coordinator and RHS English teacher Anthony Frabizzio noted that while AP classes are very exam-content-driven, RHS teachers have found creative ways to infuse project-based learning into their AP classes (he teaches both AP and IB courses). Last year, RHS added the AP Capstone Diploma program; students must take AP Seminar, AP Research, and 4 other AP courses to receive the diploma.

The Academy is an interdisciplinary program for 11th- and 12th-graders with classes that are inquiry-based and feature community involvement. Students are exposed to the iterative process -- as Dr. Blume noted, they learn what it means to struggle with content and come up with an idea. Many Academy graduates report they use their project or symposium experiences in The Academy as a topic in job interviews!

Finally, he discussed the new IB program. At RHS, students may take individual IB classes, or they may participate in the full IB Diploma Programme. The IB Diploma Programme requires students to take and score well on six subjects along with three core Diploma-only classes: Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity, and Service. IB classes are also interdisciplinary, promote critical thinking, and have a community mindset. The individual IB classes do not have prerequisite requirements. 

What are the differences between AP and IB classes? This seems to be the big question for students and families alike. RHS teachers and students familiar with IB offerings concur that the difference is that IB classes provide the opportunity to take a deep dive into texts or cases. As Anthony Frabizzio put it, “IB courses are much more focused in terms of content, where there isn’t this race to cover all of the topics in a particular course ...it reminds me a lot of undergraduate courses. Not so much in terms of how many texts you can get through, but rather determining which case studies you want to spend the most time in.” Junior Grayden Cast said, “In the AP class I took last year, we were always really locked in…constantly learning. For the IB classes, it’s been so great to have more time to focus on the one subject.”

Another difference is that IB courses take a global perspective and are reflective of 21st-century learning. Courses can be one or two years long. Assessments are also different; they are more open-ended. Students can choose texts to use and prompts to answer, and the methodology might vary. For example, the Language and Literature exam requires students to present a ten-minute lecture on two texts, connecting them to a global issue, and then field questions from the teacher. Frabizzio thinks this will engender “a lot of interesting heavy lifting, and it’s going to be new to them.”

This school year, there are six students enrolled in the IB Diploma Programme (Board VP Jenn Boyle described them as “in the early adopter category”). Two of them, Juniors Anna Gimpelevich and Greydon Cast, spoke at the Board meeting, describing what drew them to IB. Both were interested in the global aspect of IB and in specific IB classes, including Computer Science and the Theory of Knowledge class, taught by Caitlin Schmidt, which is a blend of philosophy and history. 

Currently, there are a number of students taking one-off IB courses. The Business Management class taught by Caitlyn Schmidt currently has four sections; Mr. Frabizzio described it as “the real hit of the program.” Anna Gimpelevich said of the class, “I enjoy the focus on real-world applications. There is more of a focus on each concept one by one, and you go in-depth on it.” 

What kind of student should consider taking an IB class? Both Anna and Greydon agreed that the rigor of IB classes matches that of AP classes they have taken. Anthony Frabizzio said, “The student that might best fit the IB program is someone who would identify themselves as interested in studying things on a global scale, doing additional research and writing outside of their courses, and engaging with their community beyond the classroom.”

While the District hopes that many more students will opt to join the IB Diploma Programme in the years to come, there is no intention whatsoever to “do away” with AP classes. Board of Education President Jane Anderson had this to say at the November 18 Board meeting: “We will continue to maintain a full complement of AP courses in addition to our IB diploma programme courses.” 

She continued, “One will not supplant or take the place of both of those complements of courses because they are different skills and they’re for different kinds of learners and they offer different content…the idea that you can take an IB Business Management course, that’s not available in the AP world at this time.”

The goal, as delineated in The Rye Commitment, is to offer the best possible options for all learners. As Dr. Blume said, “A lot of what we are offering is really great because it's individualized learning…allowing students to take ownership of what they want to learn and who they want to become.”