I believe the current IB program offered by PPS is a good program. All three of my children have taken IB classes. The language and English classes are especially strong. Both of my older children found the preparation from these classes to be solid.
I have less experience in the IB math & science courses because two of my children went to KAMSC. KAMSC offers AP courses which are also very challenging and excellent preparation for college.
I am a firm believer that all children can learn and we have an obligation to teach all children. I am not certain that the current IB program and KAMSC offer enough choice to ensure that all our children are properly challenged and prepared for life after high school. Within our curriculum offerings, we need to make certain we address the needs of all learners. And we need to do this in a fiscally responsible manner.
We also need to collect more data from our graduates to make certain that our goal of preparing students is in fact being achieved.
I am not yet convinced that IB for grades 6 through 10 is a wise investment. More data is needed to make this determination.
3 comments:
A "Good" program? Please, it is a great program, one with international standards. Portage Schools have programs for all children, IB is one of them that students can select. KAMSC is a program that excludes children so if you believe that all children can learn, KAMSC does not. IB offers an Internationally acclaimed curriculum open to all students at a fraction of the cost of KAMSC. So are you in favor of removing Portage Public School support for KAMSC?
Excuse me, speaking of fiscally responsible, nothing could be more so than expanding the program 6-10. If we want to discuss fiscal responsibility let us consider athletics and the over 1.3 million each year Portage spends on those programs. Let us also look at the arts programming, much more costly than IB. So are we to assume if student achievement gains cannot be linked to those programs you would consider abolishing them?
There is nothing wrong with IB, but acclaiming it as the best thing since sliced bread absent any relevant data is indicative of less than analytical thinking. IB is mostly a western European acclaimed program. Calling it "internationally acclaimed" would be ignoring the millions of people in places like China, japan and India. The fact that these countries are turning out tons of technically proficient graduates who are beating our students in critical skill areas is not insignificant. On the other hand while KAMSC is selective, because funding is limited, the performance of those students far exceeds any international benchmark. So the answer is not funding programs with moderate standards, it lies in setting even higer expectations and making them possibilities for our children. Less "kool aid" and more facts please!
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