I hate the IB Program (Shameless repost from /r/teachers)

There, I said it.

I teach in a public Title 1 high school in the USA that just so happens to be afflicted with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme . . . . . . and I hate it. I absolutely hate it.

Why do I hate it, you ask? Let me elaborate . . .

1. It limits student options: Students can't take IB classes until their Junior and Senior years. This means that students that could take advanced classes (cough, cough . . AP! cough!) have to wait before they can take the courses they want.

2. It's more work!: On top of demanding courses, kids have to do TOK, the Extended Essay, and community service. Wow! I never knew having no life was so beneficial! Why should any student work harder for a program that fewer universities even give credit for?! I wasn't a "full diploma student," that must be why I don't know!

3. It doesn't fit in with the American model of education: This one is the hardest to pin down, but I'll phrase it like this. The best argument in defense of American education is that it is democratic to a fault. Everybody gets 13 years of schooling. That is whether they choose to spend it taking APs, SATs, ACTs, and getting straight As. Whether they choose to do it playing sports or making art or making out behind the bleachers. You can get a high school diploma getting straight Cs and never arriving to class on time once. However, while not every student may be guaranteed to learn, every student is guaranteed an education.

Not so under IB . . . . .

IB is an elitist program not intended for the general public, no matter how much its greatest defenders may sing its praises. It was created by a Swiss woman who modeled it after the French baccalauréat back in 1968 and much like the diplôme it was modeled after it was not intended for everybody.

This flies in the face of one of the U.S. education system's saving graces.

4. As a world language teacher I hate the "Lang-B" (i.e. foreign language) expectations: This one is a bit personal but, as a teacher of Spanish and French, you would think I love the IB program. After all, it's international ™ . In fact, I absolutely hate it.

The IB Lang-B test's internal assessment is a 12-15 minute presentation + conversation in the target language. While in some countries this may not seem a tall order, remember that in the U.S. most students don't start studying a language other than English until they are in 9th grade (13/14 years old). The IB Lang B test was not written for that. It was written for students who have been studying their target language since they were in kindergarten (or at least lower secondary).

If you compare this with the AP Spanish Language or AP French Language tests, they are much more realistic for students that have only been studying a language part-time for four years. In fact, to put the severity of the situation into the language of IB, AP Lang is closer to ab initio while Lang-B is higher than anything on the AP framework.

Add to that an admin that is Hell-bent on "IB for all" at a Title 1 school where most kids are just trying to make it through high school and you can't win. As a language teacher, you just can't win.

5. Nobody even cares. Most schools don't offer this thing and there's a good reason for that. In fact, for it's claims of being international, the IB Diploma Programme page on Wikipedia shows just how few countries even care about this thing. In most countries, it comes to down to each individual university what status they're willing to grant the IB diploma and/or how much credit they'll even give you for it.

Submitted January 20, 2023 at 10:39PM by ASoloTrip90000 https://ift.tt/lWP8cLj