“My own child, who was part of this system for a year in grade 3, is extremely well versed in building structures out of Popsicle sticks. Furthermore, she understands the lives of pioneers and she is good at making puppets and making them act. However, she cannot understand word problems, subtract three-digit numbers with zeroes as place holders, or string a sentence together grammatically or with proper spelling. Happily, my daughter is now being home-schooled - and all of a sudden all these things have started to make sense to her.”

The above summarizes it perfectly, and the data streams of outcomes provides the evidence of the lack of structure. What works best? Structure as the teacher, Monika has expressed in her blog posting. .

Your assessment of the IB Primary Years Program raises some valid points, but still think it is superior to what is offered in regular elementary schools. It is inquiry-based and designed to spark intellectual curiosity. So, in the hands of thoughtful, innovative teachers, it can be genuinely engaging and intellectually stimulating for younger learners.

You correctly point out that it is distinctly different than the IB Diploma Program in its conceptual design and pedagogy.  That’s because it is designed to spark curiosity and to worry less about mastery of the basic skills. It would be a mistake, I think, to assume that Primary Years teachers aren’t attuned to the importance of good foundational preparation.

Schools new to the IB World find that elementary teachers lack the educational training to both engage and challenge younger students. That’s why some of the activities devolve into progressivist “play theory” exercises. Let me assure you that the best IB Primary Years programs expose students to children’s literature of the highest calibre demanding advanced vocabulary and comprehension.

On the flip side of the coin - a study, 2010 by Hanover Research - “Indeed, many studies and research efforts conducted by the IBO have sought to answer the question of the long-term effects of IB education. Due to the crucial relationship between success in the DP and the transition to higher education, almost all of the existing research relating to IB education looks exclusively at the DP.

Because of this there is only limited research regarding the Primary Years Program (PYP) and the Middle Years Program (MYP). As such, the following review focuses primarily on the DP.”
http://www.ibsom.org/pdfs/Current Trends in International Baccalaureate Programs - Membership.pdf

As such, there is a dark side of the IB primary and middle years programs, that has not come into the light. The experiences of parents, such as Monika picking up their children from the IB school, and take them to the private tutor to addressed the weaknesses of the basic foundation in the 3 Rs. It goes largely unnoticed,  as it does in the public education system model.

In the Hanover study, the criticism of the IB programs are related to the political cultural wars, the costs, and the pedagogical approaches. What is not coming out and has not been studied, the weaknesses in relationship to education quality and outcomes of students.

” What Everyone Should Know About International Baccalaureate (IB)...
...that your district won’t tell you!”
http://myinclinevillage.com/2011/07/31/what-all-parents—students-should-know-before-enrolling-in-ib.aspx

“As an educator I believe constructivism and inquiry based learning has merit in many settings. The problem with IB is they use these methods on our youngest children to teach “personal and social education” to “develop attitudes” and get the children to “take action.”
http://www.ibo.org/pyp/curriculum/index.cfm
This is non-academic manipulation of our children by IB/United Nations (11 below) under the guise of developing “critical thinkers” and “world citizens.” 

One of the biggest problems I have with IB is that parents are rarely (if ever) notified IB is a UN sponsorored programme, and that the goal of the programme is NOT to education but to develop attitudes and get the children to take action.

This mother had her daughter in IB in for nine years and didn’t know IB is a UN sponsored programme. When she discovered this fact, everything she had been going through for nine years finally made sense. Here are her comments,”

On the down side, all facets of the IB programs are not receiving equal proportions for discussion and debate. The opponents of the IB programs are hogging the stage, and avoid answering the questions such as a Washington Post article asked, “So what’s in store for these kids when they get to a high school IB program? When they have to take college-level classes in science, math and a foreign language? When they have to sit for a battery of oral and written tests that can last three weeks? When they have to write a 4,000-word research paper, on, say, cortisol levels in mood-disorder subjects?

“What I’d say to a 10-year-old,” said Sebastien Davis-Vangelder, 17, a senior in the IB program at Fairfax County’s George C. Marshall High School, “is that it’s not going to get any easier.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600954_2.html

And apparently no guarantee for entry into an ivy league school. It is one of the outcomes, why parents are rushing in to have their kids enrolled in the IB schools - a shortcut to entry into the ivy university schools.bypassing one and all.

So, does the IB programs live up to its glowing press coverage? Time will tell, but they sure are having a hard time expanding in United States, Canada and England for various reasons.

Much as I am not crazy about IB due to elitist notions, I thought you folks were all about “let 100flowers bloom”. Doesn`t competition solve all of these problems.

Further to Nancy’s last comment, I’d like to point out that with my older daughter, I recently attended the Go Girls Engineering Workshop at the University of Waterloo. These are held at universities for girls in grades 7 to 12 to encourage them to consider engineering as a post secondary option. While there, we had a direct Q&A session with the engineering admissions department and with current students who are in various years of all the engineering fields.

The question about admission from IB programs was asked directly by one of the parents pertaining to a) direct admission and b) omission of certain first year courses due to the fact that the information was “so thoroughly covered in the IB (DP) program”.

The response was quite straightforward: a) absolutely no direct admission and no admission to second year - not even if you are an IB honours graduate; b) no allowances made to omit ANY first year courses.

The reason they gave is as follows: the program is so intense and so indepth, and the labs are so precise, time consuming, and a direct application and observation of all that was learned in theory that no allowances can be made as this material was definitely not covered in any high school to this degree.

Perhaps this will change in the future, but the requirement to gain admission as told to us, is to achieve the highest marks possible in calculus, algerbra, chemistry/biology, physics, english, and any other course, plus well rounded passions or accomplishments achieved OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL. Nothing else will do. Maybe other universities have other criteria. Maybe other programs do as well. But it is highly recommended that parents and students do their homework regarding entrance requirements before enrolling in programs that may not help them achieve their post secondary dreams.

The IB Primary Years Program is, in the end, only as good as the teachers because it demands a fuller commitment to “inquiry-based” teaching and learning, fully attuned to the foundational needs of young children. It’s supported by the UN for one simple reason—it provides a reasonably rigorous, consistent globally-focused curriculum from K to 12 well suited to families moving from one country to another, usually as a result of job transfers.

I’ve visited about a dozen IB Primary Years programs in Canada and the US and they are all over the map.  The newest, the New Booker School in Wolfville, NS, certainly challenges the children.  All the readings are advanced and so is the mathematics. It’s significantly better than the local elementary schools.

True - the program IS to provide a reasonably rigorous, CONSISTENT globally-focused curriculum BUT…..

In the training we received for certification in the IB PYP (Primary Years Program) the thing that had me very wary of it all was the fact that the specific program design is entirely up to the teachers. Of course the principal and IB coordinator (who essentially took a few more courses) are there to facilitate and make sure there is no overlap between teachers. And here is where the problem develops: teachers are supposed to teach via the 6 transdisciplinary themes. Each theme needs a concrete focus and 3 lines of inquiry which will be specifically addressed by the children in their pursuit of knowledge for a rather broad topic. Terrific, as the school makes sure that the growth of plants is covered in grade 3 and not again in grade 6, while stories and poetry are covered in grade 5 and not repeated somewhere else, etc. So the children do delve deeply into the subject matter.

BUT the fact remains that this program (assuming each school has it brilliantly designed and wonderful teachers, and fantastic lines of inquiry with no subject overlap, but with some re-visiting where necessary for further enhancement) is designed to be transferrable among schools and it is not.

If school A - even with subject overlap, covers the growth of plants and all things plant related (i.e. biology and botany) in grades 2 and 5, a student who joins in the beginning of grade 3 and transfers at the end of grade 4 to grade 5 to a school that covered their version of biology/plant knowledge in grade 4, this student will have missed out completely on this related subject matter.

This is especially a problem if there are split classes, and as I’ve seen, all children learn the same thing but express it at their level.

There is no direct communication between schools as to what will be taught and when, and although one of the main intentions was to provide a curriculum that was initially designed for families moving from one country to another, this aspect making sure that kids cover it all in all schools is omitted entirely in the structure, composition, and design of the program.

To make matters more difficult, in my personal experience, all textbooks were removed for one year, and could only be introduced at the request of the “inquisitive child”, who usually did not know the books existed and turned to library and internet sources. The following year, textbooks were re-introduced, and allowed to be used if something pertained specifically to the line of inquiry being studied.

The teachers may be doing the best job possible - truly - as I saw in my child’s teacher. She was very dedicated and proceeded to provide as many resources as humanly possible within the classroom so kids had materials from which to learn. She bent over backwards in many aspects, and had the children do about 90% of the work in class, so that it was truly child focused and completed by the child at their level of understanding without the help of parents. But sadly this did not leave enough time for math, which she saw but was unable to address properly due to constraints of the IB teaching methodologies.

Again - in theory, this sounds wonderful, but sadly in practise, it remains flawed - at least in some places. And this in itself raises concerns about online international learning, as the courses for IB training are such: online and 100% international. Perhaps some of us, based on our foundational education and training interpret what we are taught in IB training differently.

Monika you are right about Waterloo engineering.

Whether or not IB and AP courses completed with high marks are given full or partial first year credits seems to be dependent on the calibre of the program and of the university offering it.

Engineering and Computer Science programs in high regard such as Waterloo and U of T do not give any credit (not for math, not for science).

Other engineering and math programs do give partial of full credit for math. Most business programs do give credit for first year university math.

I think these programs are extremely good in setting well defined and high standards of achievement. They help both the students and the teachers who are willing to do the work to have clear goals.
Whether or not IB or IB help with admission in Canada, I don’t know.

My personal guess is that since high school marks vary from high school to high school and probably from teacher to teacher the programs who care about the quality of their students either track high-school marks versus first year marks or look for other “markers” that highly correlate in their experience with high-achieving students. These markers seem to be extracuricular activities, results in certain competitions.
However these are only my guesses because that’s what would make sense.

I would very much like to know how admission decisions are really being made.
Does anybody know more?

There seems to be far too much concern in the reform community generally regarding the methods to give some students advantages over other students. IB, AP, vouchers, charters, more rigor, and so on.

This is incompatible with the general educational uplift of a nation. We need to focus ONLY on those policies that would allow the downtrodden,to catch up with the rest be they Aboriginal, poor, certain minorities, and so on.

One of the themes running through the article and the comments is the signal role of the teacher to interpret and achieve the goals of the primary IB program. The other is the variable results achieved from school to school. Sounds like the public school system from a results viewpoint. Why would one expect uniformity and consistency of results from school to school ?

Without an objective basis for comparison, we once again fall back into an argument about qualitative beliefs rather than verifiable facts or statistics. 

There will be best practice and less effective approaches. If the IB Primary program is oriented towards achieving or inculcating a particular ideological outlook, is this less desirable than having a high functioning student who has little or no ethical lens to view the world but a high level of functional competency ? 

I am inclined to hope that students would achieve high levels of both with an exposure to the opposite side of the ethical viewpoint as well.  The biggest challenge for many parents is understanding exactly what they are introducing their children to and what the likely outcomes will be. For the most part, like the public school system, it is unlikely that the IB Primary schools have much in the way of standards governing their ultimate graduates nor a way of demonstrating that they have fulfilled their educational promises.

Very good intelligent discussion here from Paul, Nancy and Monika.

A good column. One of the best lately IMO. It relates very easily to those who have been there.

Three articles of interest.

“This article presents a case study of a state-funded international school in the Netherlands undertaking program reform. During the school year examined by the case study, the school was in the process of promoting the inclusion of children with special needs into its mixed ability classes, and diversifying and improving teaching and learning methodologies for all students. The study demonstrates how decisions made and implemented by the school leader and administration established a climate of inclusion, which aided program reform efforts that were focused on teaching methodologies.”
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:R7m9yWjkJuEJ:www.internationalsped.com/documents/15Sperandio.doc+&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgeAZfCDY68xJ0WJFBhl26-pvc-51fQvG-vtsc05hft-iYdAlhCiRoQv_EmbHaPK2AoLmDF2A9po-ynCu3HnXF2NaWRG0iMbrDRooJlq1TUz_PicbTmyZvC2aEEcBCQQOb7TfuE&sig=AHIEtbTB1URuHfiEcjguqnS71IYbIfAXVA

“So who did get into UGA this year? Here?s a profile”

“The rigor of students? high school curriculum continues to be a key factor in admissions decisions, with some 95 percent of the students having enrolled in College Board Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes while in high school.”
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/08/08/so-who-did-get-into-uga-this-year-heres-a-profile/

The last link is about the Honk Kong education systems, including the IB program or as I have discovered, the common term in Europe and other parts of the world, the international schools. Private and boarding schools are distinct from the international schools.

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/education-and-language/threads/115878/shocked-by-hong-kong-secondary-school-test!/

A chat forum - really revealing on the state of the HK education system.

“Aemom -I have heard that many expat parents here have secondary school kids who can’t cope with the demands of the IB programs, which most schools have recently adopted. Many families are sending their kids back to go to boarding schools while parents stay here to work. It’s quite unfortunate that families are broken apart because HK lacks an education system with various approaches to learning, private or public. And you are right - this school hires its own grads as well.

Katherine - as far as teaching by ability - my son’s school places students in a Class in which they are supposedly streamed according to ability. In actuality, many of the students in the top stream are just from better off families. So, if a child is poor in math, but great in languages, he/she won’t get the proper support because they are placed into a stream in which they are generally suitable. On the other hand, if a child is placed in a lower-level stream class and excels at math, that’s too bad b/c the opportunity would never be there for the child to reach his/her potential.”

What I was looking for, was the willingness of the primary to middle IB schools to admit students with disabilities. The first link, is the closest to a study, and the last link, is typical of parents with children with learning difficulties, and IB schools. It is not a coincidence that most of the complaints are hailing from the Asian part of the world, and parents would rather send their children to private school rather than to the international schools.

This is an excellent article, written by a Mom who saw through all of the “internationallyminded” BS packaged by IB as a prestigious, rigorous, 21st Century, “international education”. There is nothing 21st Century about IB. IB was created by UNESCO and serves as an educational infiltration vehicle for the UN and the NWO.

The IB PYP and MYP are NOT curricula. By IBO’s own admission, these two programmes, developed in the 1990’s to align with Agenda 21, are nothing more than radical environmentalism served up with a side of social justice. You’ll see the following claim in research about the IB PYP and MYP that “IB’s real benefits can’t be measured by standardized testing”.

Academics, the basics and FACTS in general, are all supposed to be acquired by children through their own “inquiry”. The teacher is a “facilitator”.

I am the administrator of http://www.truthaboutib.com IB is. an outrageously expensive, globalist scam.

If you want to see some real time brainwashing of IB students in the lower grades, visit http://www.mvsd-ib.org

One of the themes running through the article and the comments is the signal role of the teacher to interpret and achieve the goals of the primary IB program. The other is the variable results achieved from school to school. Sounds like the public school system from a results viewpoint. Why would one expect uniformity and consistency of results from school to school ?

Without an objective basis for comparison, we once again fall back into an argument about qualitative beliefs rather than verifiable facts or statistics.

There will be best practice and less effective approaches. If the IB Primary program is oriented towards achieving or inculcating a particular ideological outlook, is this less desirable than having a high functioning student who has little or no ethical lens to view the world but a high level of functional competency ?

I am inclined to hope that students would achieve high levels of both with an exposure to the opposite side of the ethical viewpoint as well.  The biggest challenge for many parents is understanding exactly what they are introducing their children to and what the likely outcomes will be. For the most part, like the public school system, it is unlikely that the IB Primary schools have much in the way of standards governing their ultimate graduates nor a way of demonstrating that they have fulfilled their educational promises.
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Your article is quite timely, I saw another blog with similar information here
http://internationalbaccalaureatewarning.wordpress.com/

Parents should have concerns about their children being exposed to such a non-curriculum, in other words a separately designed indoctrination program that sits next to the formal state curriculum and pretends to add value. In fact it blends UN indoctrination concepts within the regular curriculum so they are less identifiable to parents.