A newly adopted diploma program aimed at giving Redondo Union High School students a more international and rigorous educational alternative has come under fire from a group of teachers and department heads who are asking district leadership to delay its implementation.
The International Baccalaureate program, however, has been embraced by the Redondo Beach Unified School District administration and school board, and is scheduled to become part of the high school’s curriculum offerings in 2012. The board on Sept. 28 approved an initial investment of $10,000 to apply to become part of the network of IB schools – 3,097 schools in 140 countries, including 1,213 in the United States – and tentatively committed to spending as much as $100,000 for implementation of the program.
School board member Todd Loewenstein said the IB program would help RUHS become a destination school.
“This is, I think, a groundbreaking thing that will bring kids from all over the area,” said Lowenstein at the meeting. “I think this will bring kids from Hermosa, kids from North Redondo, and kids from other places that we wouldn’t normally get – not just because of our shining new facilities, and not just because of our great teachers, but because we have an entirely groundbreaking curriculum.”
Amy Santa Cruz, the president of the Redondo Beach Teachers Association, questioned why the district would spend so much money for a program that will only benefit a small number of students at a time when teachers have effectively taken pay cuts and health care benefit reductions.
“We are clearly in an economic crisis,” she said. “All the staff in RBUSD has had to absorb ever increasing health care costs without having had any raise in over two years or a [cost of living] increase. There are employees in Redondo who have dropped their children off of their health care plan because they cannot afford to keep them on it and pay their other bills.”
Five of the eight department heads at RUHS have also expressed opposition to the implantation of the IB program at this time.
“Primarily, we feel we really have not had the process of looking into how and why this program would be a good fit for RUHS,” said Linda Dillard, a teacher and the chair of the school’s science department. “And I think we are also concerned about the cost of the program.”
The district calculates that attracting 17 additional students would allow the program to break even financially. Superintendent Steven Keller said the school district is focused on giving students greater educational opportunities. He said that teachers who do not approve of the program do not have to teach any of its course offerings.
“This is what I say to teachers who are dissenting to the IB program and the IB approach – change is hard, isn’t it?” Keller said. “Well, guess what? We are not asking you to change at all. You don’t have to teach IB. So move on. This is another opportunity for kids – that is what it is, and if you don’t want that, it’s okay.”
RUHS Principal Mary Little said that teachers had been involved in the process. The district has investigated the IB program for two to three years, she noted, but had not applied to the program due to financial constraints. Little and assistant principal Amy Golden finally decided to make it a priority before the Oct. 1 application deadline this year.
“We just said, ‘Let’s make it happen,’” Little said. “We can talk about it forever, or we can just make it happen. Maybe that is part of the teachers’ concerns – they felt there should be more discussion of the process. But I feel we’ve had discussions, gone on visits, sent teachers to training. Everybody came back and said, ‘Wow, it’s a great program.’”
Little said the intent is to make the school as attractive academically as it is becoming physically as the 56-acre campus undergoes a $95 million upgrade under Measure C bond construction.
“You know, I’ve seen a huge transformation in Redondo Union High School since I’ve been here,” Little said. “This is my eighth year. We are looking to keep improving this school and make it the best we can. The facilities are going to be beautiful, so we certainly want what is happening on the inside of the classrooms to be on the same level as the facilities. This is the best academic program we could offer our students.”
The International Baccalaureate diploma program was founded by a group of teachers in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968 to provide a uniform education for the children of globally mobile families, such as diplomats, military personnel and businesspeople. It was originally adopted mainly by private schools, but now more than half of IB schools are public. The high school diploma program is particularly rigorous, featuring two years of essentially college-level work including three two-year courses, three standard one year courses, an in-depth research paper and a signature course on the theory of knowledge – how we know what we know, and how we learn – that seeks to tie it all together.
The IB diploma program covers students’ junior and senior years of high school, but can include preparatory courses. A program features a strong emphasis on writing skills – the famously difficult exam is largely written – as well as oral skills, community service, and extracurricular activities.
“It’s a whole program that encompasses more – it’s interdisciplinary and definitely more global,” Golden said. “Which we think clearly is a shift that is becoming more common and is going to be more important for students.”
Keller became a particularly strong advocate of the program after his son, Jaxon, earned an IB diploma last year at Valencia High School. Valencia Principal Jim Bell has visited RUHS and met extensively with RBUSD administrators. The IB program has been wildly successful at Valencia. Ten years ago, Bell said, his school was “hemorrhaging” students to the three other high schools in his school district – particularly high-achieving kids, who were attracted to a magnet school in Fullerton. Now, the IB program is driving an increase in student population and achievement at Valencia. Even the school’s athletics and performing arts programs have prospered because of the type of students who are attracted to the program, Bell said.
“It’s just been tremendous what it has done on our campus,” Bell said. “It’s a cultural change.”
Bell said that 43 kids earned IB diplomas last year on a campus of 2,500 students, and that number is expected to double in the next few years. But Bell said that the impact of the program is campus-wide. He said his school went from roughly 25 percent of kids continuing on to college 10 years ago to 45 percent last year, many who gained acceptance to some of the nation’s best schools. Bell noted that the University of California system recognizes IB courses, allowing one student to enter UC Berkeley this year as a mid-year junior in the engineering department. Most students enter the UC system as at least mid-year sophomores after earning strong IB grades and a diploma, he said.
Bell said that contrary to concerns many teachers had at the outset, the IB program has actually bolstered his school’s Advance Placement course offerings. Valencia High went from offering 229 A.P. exams and 13 classes with a 70 percent pass rate 10 years ago to 1,064 A.P. exams and 25 classes with an 83 percent pass rate last year.
“I would call that a transformation,” Bell said.
Bell was surprised to learn that the South Bay does not have a single school that offers the IB diploma. He said that 18 Orange County high schools offer the program. He acknowledged that it is not a good fit for every school but thought RUHS was a good candidate for success.
“You are always going to have skeptics, because they just don’t understand, and some people don’t like change,” Bell said. “If you have been top dog at the school and an AP teacher for years, you feel threatened. But there is absolutely no reason to feel threatened.”
Most teachers opposing the IB program at Redondo Union question the timing of implementation more than the program itself. Physical Education teacher and department head Donna Patillo said there was little teacher “buy in” on the high school campus as yet because so little input had been sought. She contrasted this to a dozen years ago when the school’s block scheduling format was implemented, very successfully, after two years of extensive dialogue among teachers and administrators.
“Teachers just don’t feel that they own the program at all,” Patillo said. “Our biggest question is why this is all of sudden being thrust on us.”
Math teacher and department chair Donna Williams said that among the concerns is the impact the IB program would have on the rest of the curriculum. She said that teachers would be more confident of its success if more consideration had been given as to how the program fit within existing programs at RUHS.
“It’s a very successful program at some schools…but we don’t know if it’s the right thing for Redondo,” Williams said.
Math teacher Tim Baumgartner said one unintended consequence may be increased class sizes in non-IB classes in order to compensate for the necessarily small classes the program would offer. Recent budget cuts have forced first year algebra from small class sizes to as many as 33 students per class.
“If they really want to help a large number of students, they should get the class sizes down,” Baumgartner said. “If they can find the money for IB, why the heck can’t they find the money for class size reduction?”
The overriding concern is the program will benefit a few students at the expense of many. Chemistry teacher Anita Reviczky Stoddard said the district’s stated priority in recent years is to help the so-called “middle” student but that IB does not do so.
“We have large numbers of these kids that we need to help,” she said.
Bell said that middle students at his school have benefited by the overall transformation of the campus. And he noted that he has met with administrators of the Fort Meyers High School in Florida – where the state offers free college tuition to IB diploma graduates – where close to half the graduating class of 600 students earned an IB diploma.
“You definitely have to have above average intelligence, but I think importantly you have to have a work ethic and self-motivation,” he said. “But it’s very obtainable.”
Little said that RUHS has implemented several programs aimed at middle students, including AVID, a program aimed at helping such students strive towards a college-entry course of study. Little said that the potential benefits of IB are so strong for the students and potential downsides so few that it just made sense to bring IB to Redondo Union.
“Why wouldn’t we do this?” she asked. “Often, the financial commitment is a hurdle, I think, to get going. But I think there are a lot of places where people talk about it, and we want to make it happen. I just think it would be great for our kids.” ER
