No surprise here that the George School, a pricey private school in Pennsylvania, has been an IB World School since 1984. Also not surprising is the fact that once again, Glenn Beck has conveniently omitted mentioning the fact that this school with a decidedly left-wing "philosophy" is affiliated with IB.
As a private school, TAIB really doesn't care what they do. But do you really want our American public schools replicating "Occupy the North Pole" in order to fulfill IB student CAS credit?
John Loeffler of Steel on Steel hosted Laura Rambeau Lee and Lisa McLoughlin for an intense discussion about International Baccalaureate. TAIB wants to thank Laura for arranging this interview. We appreciate the opportunity to freely spread the truth about IB here in the United States and on the Internet with other people who "get it" and try and undo some of the Progressive brainwashing that has swept our schools.
December 6, 2011 - Over the past decade, whenever school officials are met with objections to IB from the community, it has been customary to distribute IBO's infamous "anti-propaganda propaganda" known as Myths vs. Facts.
As controversy over IB has increased in the United States, the increase in the number of high school IB Diploma programs has slowed to a crawl while it would appear that IBO has been making a concerted effort to expand its program which goes after our youngest children (ages 3-11) through the PYP. In 2010-2011, IBO authorized 102 IB PYP schools in the U.S., compared to 59 IBDP's, its supposed "signature programme".
It is important to remember that in the PYP, IBO mandates schoolwide implementation of the program and requires that every single teacher in the school must participate in IB's teacher training. It is therefore rather horrifying to discover that the 2011-12 PYP Workshop Materials not only include promotion of the UN's Agenda 21, but the Earth Charter, as well!
The Earth Charter states (10a):
"Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations, and among nations."
This is IBO's socialist agenda. IBO's regulations MANDATE the expenditure of YOUR taxdollars on IB PYP Teacher Workshops for public school teachers to absorb this Marxist indoctrination to be "taught" to YOUR children. Enough is enough. This should be all the proof any school district considering the PYP needs to call for an immediate moratorium of spending on IB in American public schools.
TAIB FAN MAIL
Comment: Let me start out by stating this: I understand your concerns. I also realize that the International Baccalaureate program isn't for all, taking into consideration the fact that some students don't enjoy rigorous academics. However, IB has helped me beyond explanation. I was failing my classes, bored of school, and overall didn't care until my parents thrust me into the program. IB may not highlight American exceptionalism for the reason that every country makes mistakes, and all countries are equally good. Now, as a Junior in IB, I have learned what it means to be a global citizen, especially now that I understand the full ethical implications of my actions. I cannot speak for people beyond myself and those I know who invested time and energy into IB, and I will sum up my beliefs and others' beliefs whom I know. This program has helped many students learn in many ways, and it caters to the needs of children like me who benefit from the global perspective. America is a great place, but other countries such as Japan are pretty cool too. Do you even know anything about Japan (well, besides what you were told in school about what a horrible place it is compared to America)? Japan is more technologically advanced than America, having robots that guide people on tours. Some of the famous Japanese electronics companies include, but are not limited to, Sony, Panasonic, and Nikon. That's only one example of my point. I apologize if you have trouble understanding the IB program, but I suggest that you quit this hopeless slander. IB is nationally and internationally accredited because of the exceptional level at which students are expected to perform. I sincerely regret your lamentable attack on us as a community, and I hope you find happiness (and hopefully some culture) in your life.
Signed, Concerned IB Student
Dear Concerned IB Student,
Thank you for writing. I appreciate the fact that you opened your e-mail by saying you understand my concerns, but I don't think you really do. Allow me to explain.
First of all, you say your parents "thrust" you into IB. Now my parents forced me to take Latin in HS, and while I argued that it was a "dead" language and I really didn't want to take it, in retrospect, I am glad I did. Latin is a very difficult, "rigorous" language but it is the basis for many English words (and it certainly helped me when I do crossword puzzles). However, forcing a student into a particular subject is very different than forcing them into a "programme" which, for all intents and purposes, does indeed "programme" you to believe a certain worldview - that worldview being one without borders and embracing redistribution of wealth. Let's examine this sentence you penned:
"IB may not highlight American exceptionalism for the reason that every country makes mistakes, and all countries are equally good."
This is a brutally FALSE statement. All countries are NOT "equally good". Can you honestly sit there and defend the barbaric treatment of women under Sharia Law in a theocratic, dictatorial country like Iran? Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, stands as the foundation for allowing America to develop into the greatest free nation on the planet. Why do you think millions of illegal immigrants risk their lives to cross our borders to live here? Can you point to ANY other country on the planet and say the same?
"Now, as a Junior in IB, I have learned what it means to be a global citizen...
What DOES the term "global citizen" mean to you? Let's look at the dictionary definition of the word "citizen": (from Merriam-Webster)
Definition of CITIZEN
1: an inhabitant of a city or town; especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman 2a : a member of a state b : a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it 3: a civilian as distinguished from a specialized servant of the state
1. You may be an inhabitant of the world, but there is no "global" entity which guarantees your rights and privileges as a free human being. Our Declaration of Independence, comes closest to being the most perfect definition of why being a citizen of the United States of America is the best citizenship in the entire world: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
2b - If you were to be arrested like those hikers on the Iranian border, as a "global citizen", would you turn to the UN for help securing your release? Or the U.S. State Department? All three of those hikers had American passports and it was the American government which negotiated their release. Do you think it's easy to get a passport out of say, N. Korea? How about Cuba? http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/02/17/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-2/ Only 1.5% of the Chinese have passports??? Now why do you think that is?
especially now that I understand the full ethical implications of my actions."
With all due respect, you are a teenager. No teenagers understand the "full ethical implications" of their actions and this begs the question, WHOSE ethics? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. IB teaches moral relativism. IB claims "others with their differences, can be right", yet this is the most hypocritical statement IB makes because anyone who dares to question IB's programmes is demonized. I readily admit I am much more of an absolutist than a relativist. It is NEVER right to strap explosives to one's self and blow up innocent people. NEVER.
Do you even know anything about Japan (well, besides what you were told in school about what a horrible place it is compared to America)?
Although I have never had the opportunity to visit Japan, it is one of the countries I would love to visit before my brief stay on this planet is over. I love Japanese food, the graceful, gentle beauty of Japanese art, the humbleness and politeness of its people and the intricacy of the Japanese language/symbols. I have great respect for Japanese advances in technology, however having a robot lead a tour group is rather cold and depersonalized, wouldn't you say? Who told you Japan is a horrible place? (although I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the part of Japan that suffered the tsunami and is still suffering from the radioactivity of the nuclear power plant that was damaged) I would love to take my Nikon camera and shoot images of Mount Nokogiri or Fuji. Does that mean I would want to be a citizen of Japan? No thank you. I can appreciate foreign cultures without renouncing my American citizenship, something I feel blessed to have been born with and will fight to defend.
I apologize if you have trouble understanding the IB program, but I suggest that you quit this hopeless slander.
Ahem. I am counting to 10 before responding to this sentence. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Nope, that didn''t do it. I am now going to make myself some breakfast and come back to this e-mail in a few minutes................. okay, now that I've had my cinnamon French Toast I can respond without taking your head off. Young lady, your IB arrogance has no bounds. Where do you get off being so condescending to an adult? Where's that "tolerance" IB supposedly teaches you? I completely understand what the IB programmes entail and I don't like it! I believe that under the First Amendment, I am entitled to free speech and freedom of the press. Yet you "suggest" I should "quit this hopeless slander". Do you even know what slander is? to make a false spoken statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone . Slander is oral, not written and it is personal, not pertaining to an inanimate object such as the IB Organization or its products. Furthermore, nothing I have said on TAIB is false, therefore your accusation of "slander" is simply offbase.
IB is nationally and internationally accredited ....
I'm sorry, but that is simply inaccurate. IB is not "accredited" by ANY scholastic organization or authority, nationally or internationally. IB World Schools are "authorized" by the IB Organization after a school pays boatloads of money for its mandatory teacher training, membership fees and "label". Universities may choose to bestow college credit for certain IB exams and scores, but that does not constitute "accreditation".
I sincerely regret your lamentable attack on us as a community, and I hope you find happiness (and hopefully some culture) in your life.
IB is a community? Now this is some scary stuff you've written. I actually used to have a page on this site titled "Is IB a Cult?" but because so many IB students went ballistic over it and were unable to focus on any other points I have tried to make, I took it down. But let's run with that thought for a minute. You consider yourself part of a community of global citizens, do you? A community of students who all believe that every country in the world is equal in terms of liberties and opportunities as the U.S.? In other words, our U.S. taxdollars are helping to breed a community of brainwashed Kommissar wannabes? Your e-mail simply reinforces everything I have come to conclude about this sham of a programme which is nothing more than Marxist indoctrination disguised as "rigorous" academics. Your insipid and obnoxious conclusion about MY PERSONAL LIFE, about which you know NOTHING, is beyond the pale. You know NOTHING about where I have traveled to, what languages I speak, what instruments I play, what relationships I enjoy or what cultural knowledge I possess. How rude of you, an IB teenager, to imply that because I oppose IB I am a miserable, uncultured individual. You should regret your choice of words far more than my opinion of IB.
Regards,
Lisa E. McLoughlin
IB Student's Sad Commentary
Over the years, IB supporters have dismissed the complaints about IB on the Internet by IB students as "typical teenage complaints". It is inconceivable how any educator can continue to endorse IB after reading the reflections below of an IB student, taken from the blog known as Tumblr:
A note on IB The International Baccalaureate Program was the biggest mistake I ever made. I wasted time, money and even my own sanity on this stupid, useless, unknown program. Now that I’m in college, I’m having to take all of these horrible core classes, because I couldn’t get college credit through IB. I barely took any APs, and the ones that I did take, apparently don’t matter.
I worked so hard trying to get As in Physics and English and History that by the time actual exam time came, I was burned out and unable to exert any kind of effort into my work. I hate it. And I will forever regret having done it.
I don’t care how smart you think you are or how talented and knowledgeable or hardworking you may be. IB will do nothing for you. AP is more reasonable, and PEOPLE ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT IT IS.
I remember feeling so smart and confident in myself during Pre-IB. All of us IB kids felt this way. We’d look at all of the other ‘normal AP kids’ and feel superior. Well, guess who ended up doing better? There were so many horror stories. People dropping out like crazy. Some people not showing up for months. Nervous breakdowns! Do you know how many of my friends would tell me on a weekly basis that they could just break out in tears at any random time?
And anyone who had the guts to leave was seen as weak. Weak. I mean that just sums it all up. It’s like this everywhere now. Oh because China and India are ahead of us we have to start working like robots too. Freaking shut up. You think it’s all fine and dandy, then you take a moment and realize that all you’ve done is helped make your child unstable and in my case, depressed.
Yes, the majority of us graduated and went on to college, but I saw what it did to people. We all did a pretty good job of hiding it, but truthfully, it broke us. The saddest thing for me is that the truly brilliant ones, those who were good, honest and intelligent, the ones that I believe deserved to end up at Harvard and Yale—they’re the ones who were screwed over the most.
Forever bitter, and forever a hater. That will never change.
The IB Diploma - Old Fashioned, Inflexible and 20th Century
One of the most argued canards regarding International Baccalaureate by its adorees, is that IB respresents "21st Century" learning and education. This has always bothered me, because from where I sit, there is nothing 21st Century about IB! IB's philosophy is based on the left-wing ideals of a woman from 1948!
Imagine my delight when upon re-reading Former IBO Director General George Walker's little plenary speech from 2005 (in which he referred to me as Mrs. Long Island), I took a closer look at something else ol' George pontificated upon. Walker was no dummy. He fancied himself a high-falutin philosopher/diplomat of sorts. Anyway, George relayed the following tale:http://www.ibo.org/dg/emeritus/speeches/documents/ibna_jul05.pdf
A new proposal
"I promised I would end on a more radical note and now I am turning to look forward 30 years. The reality is, under the present model the International Baccalaureate will remain a dream for the majority of young people and their parents in this and in other regions. Fifteen hundred IB World Schools in 120 different countries is certainly beyond the dreams of those early IB pioneers, but that very success has fuelled our ambition to achieve more, indeed to achieve much more. And that, I have to conclude is going to be very difficult within the present structure which is institutionally-bound, expensive and exclusive in the very simple sense that it excludes far more than it can ever admit.
One tiny event here in IBNA has encouraged me to start to think along different lines. About a year ago, a student at Duke University sent me an e-mail explaining that his family had moved in the middle of his IB diploma course so he had never finished it. In one sense it didn’t matter: he had been accepted by a world-class university without it. But he had enjoyed it so much he now wanted to complete it; could I tell him how he might obtain his IB diploma? The answer was, alas, with great difficulty because unless you live next to an IB school; unless you are aged about 16 and have a couple of free years ahead of you, studying an IB diploma is virtually impossible.
We are beginning to look just a little old-fashioned, just a little inflexible, just a little 20 th rather than 21st century. So what I am currently working on is a proposal to launch an IB open international college offering IB courses on line but in close association with the growing network of IB World Schools which will be invited to provide teaching, mentoring and other forms of support to students and teachers around the world who want to become part of the open college ...."
POINT OF FACT:If a student transfers into or out of an IB school during their junior or senior year to or from a non-IB school, they will be unable to sit for the IB exams.
This is very important. This speech was given in 2005, the year before Jeffrey Beard took over as Director General. We know very well that Mr. Beard does not have any background in education. So TAIB is going to give Mr. Walker props for his self-realization that there is need for "updating" IB, or at least bringing it in touch with 21st Century needs. It is now almost 2012. No such "Open International College offering IB courses online" exists! In 2005, George thought it could be a reality in less than 5 years! So in fairness, let's tale a look at what IB actually DOES offer online as of November, 2011:
Here is the IBO page promoting its Online Diploma Programme. Note how it boldly makes the following claim:
"Students unable to attend an IB World School yet want to experience an IB education."
If I was stupid and didn't know anything about IB, reading that I would ASSUME that any student, anywhere in the world could pay a fee and go online and take IB courses. That's what most NORMAL people would assume, right? Umm, no. Not with IB.
Now let's take a look at IB's PajomaEd page and its actual online courses. Let's go to admissions. What does it say?
Pamoja Education's online IB courses are currently limited to students attending authorised IB World Schools®. Enrolments are made through the school's IB Diploma Programme Coordinator, or another school official who has taken on this responsibility in agreement with the Diploma Coordinator. Pamoja Education only offers courses with exams in May.
WHAT? So in other words, these online courses are STILL only available to students who are "ENROLED" in an IB "authorised" school! This is no more open, less expensive or transparent! IBO is still demanding all of the application fees and training fees and annual memberships fees from a brick and mortar tax funded site!
IB is about as 21st Century as a pet rock. Let's retire this moldy, elitist, outrageously expensive UNESCO boondoggle NOW!
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BBCW:IBDiploma, So Last Century! By Truth About IB One of the most argued canards regardingInternational Baccalaureateby its adorees, is thatIBrespresents "21st Century" learning and education. This has always bothered me, because from where I sit, there is nothing 21st Century aboutIB!... BBCW
U.S. SAYS NO TO UNESCO!
This is big news, yet the mainstream media has chosen to focus on some baseless "sexual harrassment" smear against Herman Cain, the first black Conservative candidate for President. It certainly will not escape TAIB's notice as this is very significant as it relates to IB . Public Law 101-246, which the Democratic-controlled Congress passed in 1990, states that “no funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.”
Public Law 103-236 Title IV, passed in 1994, prohibits “voluntary or assessed contribution to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.”
Since IBO is an NGO of UNESCO and therefore an "affiliate", should it not also be subject to withholding of U.S. taxdollars under these two laws? At the very least, there should be some sort of addendum added to the 2009 ARRA prohibiting use of those funds for IB in American public schools!
Treasure Mountain is an American Treasure!
October 26, 2011 - Congratulations to Principal Bob O'Connor of Treasure Mountain Middle School for making the recommendation to remove the word "International" from the school's name. This is great news to TAIB! These are Americans in a public school that wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars running IB as a pilot program for five years that learned the hard way, IB simply isn't a "viable" choice for American public schools if they want to improve student academic achievement.
"Gardner said the school board will discuss options for taking the international attribution out of Treasure Mountain International School at the next meeting. The school district will pay for signage and costs associated with changing the name."
TAIB would like to send a contribution to the school district to help offset the cost of restoring the signs in support of the decision. Right now, we only have $56.54 in the TAIB account. If you would like to contribute $1, $5 or more for this specific cause, please click HERE.
Rochester, MN Supt. has Trouble Understanding NO to IB!
October 20, 2011 - TAIB was unable to log into the full online version of this story, but we smell trouble brewing. Rochester's very astute Board Chair and its Treasurer clearly state that they are opposed to IB for very sound reasons, yet according to the concluding paragraph in bold: Superintendent Michael Muñoz said he interpreted the board's comments to indicate that both ideas should be studied further.
Note the complete absence of a total dollar amount attached to this really, really poor overview. Besides the fact that IB schools are authorized, not accredited, the application fees are misrepresented and even inconsistent within this singular document.
HERE is a list of the Rochester BoE Trustees and their e-mails and phone numbers. TAIB will be sending a letter of commendation to the Board and offering assistance to support thwarting their change agent Superintendent's agenda. According to the presentation, no money has been spent on IB to date. However, if the Board allows site visits to other IB schools, this constitutes entering the Consideration Phase which requires the submission of a $4,000 fee per site to IBO. The Rochester district only shows district expenditures which exceed $10,000 online. Individual purchase orders to IBO for $4,000 cannot be gleaned online.
This is going to be a district to watch. It seems pretty obvious that Mr. Muñoz has his GPS's destination set for Geneva, Switzerland.
Concord Patch Publishes TAIB Op-Ed
A big thank you to Concord Patch editor Tony Schinella, for taking an interest in the IB story in Merrimack Valley Schools and for running my op-ed in its entirety.
"You see a lot of condescending attitudes toward everyone without a black card," said Kennedy senior Kiana Miyamoto, 16, of Buena Park, who has a black card and is enrolled in the school's college-level International Baccalaureate program. "One IB student said in class, 'Hey, you're in IB. Anyone who has a white card shouldn't even be in IB.' It's really sad to see people who have the black cards acting this way."
"Castle Park High’s former principal, Diego Ochoa, and assistant principal, Abram Jimenez, stepped down in early August after district officials discovered $21,583 had been taken from nine clubs at the 1,500-student campus without their knowledge. Officials also found $72,712 in bills, as much as two years old, had not been paid for everything from football and cheerleader uniforms to yearbooks and Advanced Placement tests. The problems are outlined in documents obtained by The Watchdog under the California Public Records Act. They show the school’s International Baccalaureate program suffered the greatest loss at $8,500, followed by the drama club, which had $6,000 taken from its account."
Of course, two sex scandals within two years should have no bearing on IBO authorizing Oprah's school, whatsoever, as long as her money's good. According to this site, Oprah's worth $2.7 Billion. Yeah, that should cover the cost of IB for a few years.
Barack Obama Academy for International Studies 6 - 12 10 IB World School OR Two Flashes in the Pan
To tally the extent of wasted taxdollars in the recent restructuring of the large Pittsburgh public system would be a massive undertaking that would require months. However, it should be PRETTY glaring how politically connected and wasteful the money sent to IBO for the International Baccalaureate truly was. This school was only authorized in 2009! You can see it is still wasting money on the MYP. Which means beginning in 2007, money was already being shoveled en masse to Geneva. Not only that, the district closed down the Schenley school which already had IB, and because the designation is not "transferable" within a district and separate applications are required for each SITE. A huge chunk of money spent on IB is the upfront, applicaton and training process. Here is yet another case where IBO walked off with a bare minimum of hundreds of thousands of dollars within a 5 year period.
*SNARK ALERT* Academy. Barack Obama International Baccalaureate Academy. Good grief! I remember when they tried to pull that crap in my district. I'm serious. They wanted to rename Locust Valley High School - The Locust Valley Academy after it bought IB. I stood up at the Board meeting and called them "pretentious" and "obnoxious" and reminded them that we are a PUBLIC SCHOOL!
DUMB AND DUMBER IB - Wasted Millions and Unanswered Questions
The documents presented at right were sent to TAIB by IB watchdogs from Texas and Arizona. The doc from the Waco, Texas, district is truly mindblowing. Please review pages 27-44 carefully. We are still searching the Minutes for an actual vote by the Waco BoE or answers to the questions and will post them if located.
The second document is a terrific compilation of schools which have dropped IB by state.
September 24, 2011 - What's it going to take folks? Where are the Liberals screaming about separation of church and state? Does any right minded American need any more proof of how IB is attempting to corrupt the minds of our children?
Make sure you take your antacid before reading THIS ARTICLE.
“My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. … Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. …I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. … Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. … I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.”
9 More U.S. High Schools Drop IB!
Coronado High School, Coronado, CA Loara High School, Anaheim, CA Wilmer Amina Carter High School, Rialto, CA Woodland School, Cartersville, GA Zionsville Community High School, Zionsville, IN
Apollo High School, Owensboro, KY
Hillwood High School, Nashville, TN
Virginia High School, Bristol, VA William Fleming High School, Roanoke, VA
Start Spreading the Word ...
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
To be sure, the folks at IBO believe in the above quote and believe that IB is the vehicle to change the world to its way of thinking. Here at TAIB, we believe that our thoughtful, committed Founding Fathers got it right with our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution and that these founding principles don't need changing. Change can work in both ways, and it is TAIB's goal to CHANGE IT BACK and undo IB's deceitful and lugubrious attempts to change our public schools and the minds of our children.
Progressives learned long ago that the key to "intellectual" domination of our public schools was through three powerful means: 1. Unions 2. Democratic legislation - Federal grants 3. Private Progressive non-profits/foundations
In other words, money feeds the agenda. TAIB has to ask; where are the Conservative foundations to help promote academic excellence in our schools? Where are the Conservative foundations with deep pockets to counter the Progressive agenda to dumb down our schools and create "global citizens"? The Heritage Foundation is one and we hope that soon we can enlist the help of Lindsey Burke to shed a national spotlight on the dangers of IB. Lindsey has appeared on FOX news and made several significant You Tube videos on the state of American education. TAIB would like to encourage its readers to e-mail Lindsey at:Lindsey.Burke@heritage.org with your concerns about IB.
IB in the News - While we anxiously await Andrew Breitbart's launch of BigEducation.com, we are thrilled to have made the acquaintance of Laura Rambeau Lee who is getting the word out about IB on BigGovernment.com, the same folks who broke the ACORN scandal: The Road to Rio is America's Road to Ruin . Great job, Laura!
From the Tuscon School District in Arizona, Debbie Niwa, author of the well researched paper IB Unraveled, made the local paper for her public comment at a recent school board meeting. You can hear Debbie's full comment HERE. Great job Deborah, keep up the great work!
Below is a somewhat depressing note to reinforce WHY we are committed to eradicating IB from our public schools. TAIB would like to share with you the e-mail of an IB student from Upper St. Clair, PA:
Comments: Hi, my name's Zack and I was an IB student at Upper St. Clair,…which ironically enough is mentioned on this site for its lawsuit against IBO. I guess I'll just jump right in, this site seems to paint communism with a very negative tone. In an article reviewing the IBO and its relationship with the UNESCO it is mentioned that China's education system is better than ours, but that claim is immediately dismissed as ridiculous because why would we want to be like communists...I think there is a lot to be said for countries that adopt communistic or socialistic ideologies. When people think of communism in this country, ruthless and evil tyrants and their horrible atrocities tend to be the first thing that comes to mind, however, these things are not a part of communism itself. Moreover, the wealth distribution in this country is pretty atrocious as well with the top 1% of the country controlling something like 30% of the country's wealth and the top 20% of the country controlling over 85% of the wealth while the bottom 40% is trying to survive with less than 1% of the country's wealth...does that seem fair? Take into consideration that these people in the bottom 40% are not lazy, and would work or go to college if they could, but many of them can't even finish high school because they have to take on jobs to support their families. There are many people in this country who are unreasonably rich, and who could live very well with half or even one tenth of the money that they have. And why should these people have more money? Because they work harder? No. Because they are smarter? Possibly, but then again they mostly received the best education money could buy and didn't have to worry about working constantly and paying their way through school. All I'm saying is don't be too quick to dismiss communism as evil...our economy could stand to be a little more equal and opportunistic. As for the rest of the issues brought up on this site, I respect your opinions, however, I might suggest not criminalizing the IB organization so much. I was a product of an IB education and I had lovely teachers and fantastic classmates who I am still friendly with...most of whom are going to ivy league schools I might add...All in all I had a lovely experience with the IB program. I'm from Upper St. Clair and there is currently a dispute going on hence how I found your site. Though the program doesn't graduate many IB diploma students, that's mainly because of the strict requirements that diploma students take all IB classes however inconvenient that may be. Regardless, there are many kids who took mostly (90% or more) IB classes who were just as if not smarter who are still getting into wonderful colleges all across the country. I feel like this site is unjustly villainizing an organization that is doing good work and that is benefitting a large number of students. We like to think of things in terms of "us" and "them." "Them" being the evil people who only wish to harm us, and the "us" being the ust people fighting for the good cause. Well, in all my 18 years, I've learned that it's never that simple...never. And that viewing things like this can lead to oversimplifying actions and only accepting things which confirm your feelings that they're wrong and you're right. All I want you to take from this is that IB does educate kids in a way that prepares them to be successful in life...of that I am certain. Obviously there were kids who are just as prepared who did not take IB, however, of our school's 20 or so Valedictorians, I would estimate that at least 17 took IB classes. IB may demand money for their services, but hey, that's how capitalism works! If they're going to prepare kids to be successful, then they want to get paid for it too. Why should they have to lower their prices when people will pay through the nose to have their kids succeed? It's a business, one that provides a useful service to the community and one that is quite successful at it. As for superiority to AP goes, i think that a student could be equally as successful taking all AP classes, in fact many of the AP classes and IB classes overlapped quite a bit, however, you can't put your kids in AP classes in grade school and middle school, years which are important in preparing kids to do well in high school. As for the "control" that they wish to have over communities, I don't think this is their evil way of trying to take over the world so much as that if colleges and universities are going to respect the program at all, then that program will have to ensure that the students they educate are adequately prepared to do well in these places of higher education. They have to be able to ensure the success of their students otherwise their product is worthless and they wouldn't be able to charge so much for it. I swear to you, I respect your opinions, you can delete this message and never think of it again, I just wanted to give you my two cents because I realize that however I may disagree with some of the beliefs you hold regarding IB, we are both citizens of this world and wouldn't be doing any of this if we weren't concerned with making the world a better place. I can tell that you care deeply that students get the education they deserve and that people are not being taken advantage of. That being said, I hope you see the same concerns in my words and can appreciate that we ultimately want the same thing. I hope reading my comment wasn't a complete waste of your time. And thank you for your time and your attention. If you'd like to respond, I left my email address, so feel free. I promise I'll give your opinions the same time and consideration as you have given mine.
"This gift enables us to re-commence the building work of the UNIS Master Plan." ~ George Dymond, School Director of one of the original 10 IB World Schools
NY Daily News 9/16/11
TAIB Statement on Anonymous' You Tube Video
TAIB is not associated with the making of, or endorsement of, the Anonymous War on International Baccalaureate video (right). TAIB is featuring the video here as it is relevant to "Breaking News" when a group (that is probably on DHS's terrorist list), goes after the organization which is the topic of this website.
TAIB does not advocate violence and believes IBO has every right to sell its product to private institutions. If IB is the excellent product it claims to be, it should survive marvelously on the free market instead of sucking the Federal U.S. government's and the U.S. taxpayer's teats.
As you can see above, IBO is busy scouring the Internet for information associated with "anonymous + operation + international baccalaureate". Because of this, TAIB felt it was necessary to republish this disclaimer.
We Love These Kids!
Hats off to the kids in this You Tube video (right) for putting together an hysterical (and very well shot and edited) parody of IB's Learner Profile.
Typical E-Mail from an IB Student
First Name: Kaitlyn Last Name: L Address Line 1: 123 Why Would I Tell You That? Lane City: State: Virginia Zip Code: Country: USA E-mail Address: redacted
Comments: Y'all are republican, aren't y'all? Not that I particularly have anything against republicans; my mom is republican. I'm independent myself (or as I like to put it, I go both ways, politically speaking). But before I explain why I find your site (Mr. Anonymous-Tight-Wad(s)) to be so ludicrously uptight and close-minded, IÂ’ll tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Kaitlyn L (as you can see from above), I live in South Eastern Virginia, I'm 15, and I am a rising sophomore in the IB MYP program at my small town public high school. As you have probably already guessed, I am more in favor of the IB program, which you, obviously, are very much not. I would like to DISCUSS (please note the capitalization, which in this case is meant for emphasis (not yelling) in a hope that you will respond to this comment with your own, as I would love to see more into the mind of a pigheaded isolationist) why I find your arguments and general ideals about IB to be wrong.
Firstly, the republican comment. You seem to be very narrow-minded, conservative, and definitely think the only opinion that matters and is right is your own. This, I feel, describes the completely right-winged republican. I live in an area that is absolutely FULL of republicans and I very often have difficulty having political conversations with some of my friends because of this. I'm sure I would end up having this same issue with very left-winged democrats as well, but I have never met someone like that (considering my environment) so I am solely speaking from the experience I have with right-wingers.
You strike me as the person(s) who find(s) "different"” to be "bad". Gay? You most likely think it's "wrong"”. Mixed race? You likely have the same feelings. Now these are just generalizations that I feel may apply to you. Even if you do not have feelings such as the ones I just described, you give off the vibe of someone who does. An "everything I think=good, everything else=bad"” mentality. That type of thinking will get you nowhere except having a website that simply pushes your own biased agenda on something that you have no experience with and have no business bad mouthing.
As I have been in the MYP program for 4 years now, I would say I have experience with how we are taught and what is expected from an IB student. The only times I can remember teachers ever seeming to somehow push their views on us was with a couple VERY republican women who just liked to hear themselves speak (let's just say I never really got along with those couple of teachers), and nobody really listened to them anyway. The best example of an IB teacher (or a teacher at all, for that matter) was my World History I teacher from last year. I was never interested in history before and usually got the worst grades in any humanities/history class I took. He made me interested enough in the subject as a whole that I actually went home and researched more in depth on some of the things we learned. Every time we came upon a sensitive subject (mainly religion) he would give us simply the facts and what we needed to learn. NEVER did he force a view of his on us, nor did he even give us an inkling of how he actually felt on the subject, as a teacher should when trying to give students a chance to formulate their own opinions. And NEVER have I had a teacher who tried to make me think any communist beliefs (as you believe the IB program is based upon).
I believe that the point of the IB program is simply to open students up to what is happening around them. I get involved in my community, I have had the opportunity to learn another language, I am learning ASL, and I have even had the privilege of traveling to Spain twice. I had little to no interest in doing any of these things before I entered into IB. The program is not trying to make us accept communism or utopia-like ideals. I'm gaining an understanding of how our world works, how our country works, and even how my own community works. I have always been a generally tolerant person, but now I am tolerant of even more than ever before, even snot-nosed bigots who have nothing better to do than diminish a great organization that has helped me and many, many other young people become smart, well rounded citizens.
Overall, I think it's about acceptance, understanding where someone else is coming from, maybe even sharing your opinion, but still respecting the other person. You might want to try and take your heads out of your asses for just a moment and see this all from my view, hell maybe not even my view, just somebody who might possibly think DIFFERENTLY than you. Maybe you'll realize that there are other ways to look at something and that just because your head is so full of haughty conceitedness, it doesn't make you right.
Get Over Yourselves, Kaitlyn L
PS: Have fun un-sticking your heads from your asses, it seems like they're already pretty far up there.
TAIB's REPLY:
Kaitlyn,
Thank you for writing. I always enjoy receiving mail from IB students. Letters like yours validate TAIB's position on IB extraordinarily well.
Did you show this e-mail to your Mom before you hit send? I'm curious as to what she would have to say about the tone of your communication.
As an examiner I have for years marked both IB HL and A level maths scripts. Nothing so special about IB, and in fact prefer A level maths as the answers required are precise. The IB questions can be open-ended, and vague , and hence the answers from students can be varied making marking difficult, and some questions are so ambiguous that maths as a precise subject loses out. The papers have flaws, moderation is not good at all, it is often cursory and there can be marking standard swings as students sit across countries. My son did A levels and is now a postgraduate.
- Rob, London, 27/8/2011 10:39
IB Halted, Kicked Out and Scaled Back
August 26, 2011 - TAIB feels like we hit the IB Trifecta! Check out these three stories:
1. http://www.easyreadernews.com/32327/ib-withdrawn/ - "Earlier in the year over fifty teachers from RUHS stormed the school board to protest the implementation of the program. Their objections included scheduling concerns, the cost of the program, and a lack of teacher input during the implementation process. The teachers also argued that Advanced Placement coursework already serves high achieving students and the IB program did not address the urgent needs of less high achieving students."
2.http://www.ticotimes.net/Business-Real-Estate/Technical-school-fights-for-prestigious-IB-program_Friday-August-26-2011 - "But a political change at MEP seems to have also been accompanied by a change of heart. Mata left her post and was replaced by Dyalah Calderón, who revoked the school’s authorization one year after it was issued....[SNIP] ... MEP officials see things differently. “We went over the request and we realized that the technical education that students get in any CTP in the country is not compatible with the IB academic program,” Calderón said."
3. http://isurfwaco.com/news/local/4664-report-higher-costs-than-expected-for-waco-isd-international-baccalaureate.html - "Watkins’ report suggests the IB middle-years program may cost far more during the next three years than district officials had anticipated. He estimates this year will cost $700,425, next year will cost $649,425, and 2012-13 will cost $976,200. This is the first time numbers like that have been presented. The totals include costs for IB training for teachers, mandatory fees, curriculum and course materials and new staff needs, including foreign-language teachers and IB coordinators. Waco ISD trustees gave the go-ahead for the IB program at Lake Air and Tennyson in April 2009. At that time, they were presented with associated costs of about $156,200 for 2009-10 and $164,700 for 2010-11 and the next year."
IB in Cottonwood, Arizona
August 21, 2011 - Two very odd articles were just published regarding IB in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek school district in Arizona. In the first, Superintendent Barbara U'Ren seeks to dispel runors that she was pushing IB because it was the subject of her doctoral dissertation. A denial is one thing. Let us read her dissertation to see the truth.
Across the U.S. TAIB has observed district administrators claiming that IB will "increase enrollment". This article demonstrates exactly what lengths a district will go to in order to try and validate that claim.
Be sure to read this just published Letter to the Editor from our friend Gene Birkeland - the last surviving Minutewoman of the U.S.A., "Guarding the land we love".
Arizona Senator Rich Crandall Called Out for Support of IB
The recent annual IB Conference of the Americas held in San Antonio, Texas, featured State Senator Rich Crandall lecturing about how to "build political support for IB".
Upon checking Rep. Crandall's website, TAIB learned: Representative Rich Crandall (R-Mesa), has been appointed as vice-chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) Standing Committee on Education. Rep. Crandall will be working with legislators and legislative staff from other states to provide advice, direction and input on the Committee's work on education issues. He begins his one-year term at NCSL's Fall Forum which meets December 9-11, 2010 in Phoenix, AZ.
TAIB is assuming that the 2010 date in the above press reference is a typo and urges Arizona residents to keep on top of this committee's "recommendations". Rep. Crandall may want to rethink his political support for IB considering how well it worked out for Tim Pawlenty.
TAIB would like to thank Gene Birkeland (Ellen McClay) for taking the time to write to Rep. Crandall regarding his appearance.
August 20, 2011 - TAIB is pleased to present the following e-mail exchange between an Ohio parent and an admissions officer at Ohio State University. The inquiry was forwarded up the chain past one admissions officer who claimed no knowledge of IB until a definitive reply was received.
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 9:39 AM To: Finlay, Charles Subject: International Baccalaureate OSU:
Good moirning! Our daughter is starting HS. We are debating an issue: IB vs AP. Can you help us? How many credits do incoming Freshman generally earn through each of these Programmes? Thank you so much, Concerned Ohio Parent --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jefferson BlackburnSmith <JBlackburn-Smith@esue.ohio-state.edu> Subject: FW: International Baccalaureate To: address withheld by request Date: Friday, August 19, 2011, 3:55 PM Mrs. XXXXXXXX: Thank you for your question. Although I can't give you the exact amount of credit we award to each program, I can tell you that we do award significantly more credit for AP scores than for IB scores, especially for students coming from Ohio. The AP program is much more common within Ohio than IB programs are, but that is not true in every state. Many schools offer both, and it is not uncommon to see students enrolling that have earned credit through both programs. Either program is recognized as being more rigorous than college prep or honors courses, and that is taken into account in our application review process. Students can earn the same amount of credit through either program: up to one year of undergraduate credit can be earned through IB and or AP tests. AllOhio Statecredit is linked to how well students do on the actual AP test or IB higher level test. We do not give additional credit for IB diplomas. You can see what credit is available for your daughter to earn, and at what score on the attached pdf. This information is also available at:http://registrar.osu.edu/testing/index.asp Feel free to email me directly or call if you have additional questions.
Jefferson Jefferson R. Blackburn-Smith Sr. Associate Director Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience 110 Enarson Hall 154 W 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 614 292-7605blackburn-smith.3@osu.edu
AP is Better Than IB - Administrative Testimony from Reno HS
After successfully preventing a K-12 IB takeover of Incline Village schools in the Washoe County SD, Nevada, patriot John Eppolito surprised even himself by stumbling upon this video featuring the Assistant Principal of Reno High School. Nevada has school choice and it appears as though administrators at Reno HS are making the case for students to choose their high school over the IB program at neighboring Wooster High School. This video never would have happened without John's tremendous efforts to expose the truth about IB.
TAIB is also featuring this video on our popular IB vs AP page.
IB PYP - How to Raise Idiots
American parents currently confronted with IB PYP takeover of their public elementary schools are questioning the value of this very expensive, schoolwide "programme", as well they should. Take a look at these three You Tube videos "celebrating" the PYP.
In the first, two little boys sitting by themselves at a coffee table in front of a disgusting mess which is supposed to be their dinner supposedly ask, "Where do vegetables come from?" Why they would ask that when there is nothing that appears to be a vegetable mixed in with the slop is beyond us, but let's assume they do. Where is Mom? Where is Dad? Don't they have a garden? Have they never visited a farm? Who prepared the food for them? They have a Mac laptop for goodness sake .... but they probably don't know how to spell v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e so they can't find the answer to their question there. So, these two little boys set off on their own sans any adult supervision and wander into a filthy restaurant kitchen, grocery store and off to a farm to learn the answer to their question. Note the emphasis on the importance of water (Agenda 21) and the primitive farming tools displayed. This is how IB uses constructivism - eliminate any and all family values and influence, waste precious time and encourage children to put themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
In the second video, the children sing of "a flame burning in the night, beckoning the fight for birth, for death, for life ..... one earth, one sky, one sea". Does that make sense to you? How does beckoning the fight for death create harmony and peace? This is a disgusting abuse of little children and TAIB would love to find someone who could actually interpret all of the other non-English words in that indoctrination chant to know what they mean.
In the third video, we learn what a collaborative PYP classroom should like like. God help the child with ADD! What a mess! Just looking around that room with the hundreds of post-it notes and IB "commands" to take action and perform service made this adult feel anxious and confused. This room is absolute chaos! The video tells us we should "hear an excited hum", yet do you see a smile on a single child in this classroom?
This junk "youth service" program must be kicked out of American public schools pronto! Wake up parents! Take ACTION and kick this UN indoctrination to the curb!
U.S. Public Schools Need to Learn IB Lesson from St. Helena
August 12, 2011 - Back in March, we learned that the St. Helena district in California had become disenchanted with IB a mere three years after having been authorized to run the Diploma program. A decision was made by the Board to abandon applications for the PYP and MYP and place the DP on "probation". The usual handful of vocal IB idealogues turned out at meetings to complain about giving up on IB too soon, begging to "fix" IB before throwing it out like "yesterday's trash", but a new Superintendent and newly elected Board Trustees determined that a return to academic fundamentals should take priority.
A new school year has begun and lo and behold, there was no mass exodus from St. Helena schools. The high school is once again offering AP courses which had been eliminated because of IB and based on student interest, this will most likely be the last year that IB is offered in St. Helena.
It is important to note how this district functioned in order to eliminate IB. The district requires 80% teacher "buy-in" to introduce any sort of major new program. Support for IB amongst the teachers was no more than 50-50. The public got rid of IB ideologues on the Board who in turn got rid of an IB loving Superintendent. It can be done, folks. Keep the faith. Let this be a lesson to all American public school Superintendents and Board of Education trustees - don't buy "yesterday's trash" in the first place!
Coming to an Arkansas billboard soon!
Gross and Shocking Waste of Federal Grants
August 10, 2011 - It is bad enough that the 2009 ARRA (stimulus bill) allocated over $10 Billion for the implementation of "innovative programs" in Title I schools. As we have seen, many U.S. districts are using this "free" money to implement International Baccalaureate (IB) in public schools, K-12.
THIS STORY out of Tuscon, Arizona, demonstrates further waste of a $92,000 Federal grant to be spent on "marketing" to attract "Anglo" students to attend these IB "candidate" schools. Kudos to Board President Mark Stegeman who voted no because he was "concerned about spending that much money on marketing, not education".
What a shame that Mr. Stegeman didn't see the depth of IB's social justice scam before voting to approve the magnet applications to the IB organization for three schools within TUSD. TAIB is assuming that there must have been some sort of Board action approving the educational "themes" for the magnet schools in question. It is unconscionable that so much money is being spent to bring in IB and then they have to spend more money to try and dupe the higher income/achieving "Anglo" children into being bussed into ghetto schools.
Frankly, TAIB is rather shocked at the use of the word "Anglo" in the headline. Can you magine the outrage this headline would have garnered if instead it read: TUSD spending $92,000 to attract Negro and Hispanic kids.
Mother Jones' Dementia
You know when the Progressives at the left-wing rag Mother Jones make a concerted effort to target those who oppose IB and Michele Bachmann, we've got their attention and they are afraid. Very afraid. For truth is on our side and all they can come up with are the tired old ad hominems. Note how Mother Jones tag teams the FrumForum blog so its sheeple can comment on both articles.
So put on your tinfoil hats, you conspiracy loving, stupid, ignorant, tea sapping morons. Isn't it interesting that Mother Jones targeted Julie Quist (our Facebook friend) but never linked TAIB? Very Alinsky of them.
We did manage to cull one quote from the comments that made us grin ear to ear:
"Baccalaureate is for lame-ass european wanabees. Real Americans play Texas Hold 'em." ~ath716/Mother Jones
Exxon-Mobil Promotes AP Math/Science
These advertisements which are currently on air, run contrary to everything IB stands for - Big Oil helping to fund an American academic product which promotes American exceptionalism.
National Math and Science Initiative
With a $125 million commitment of support, ExxonMobil became a founding sponsor of theNational Math and Science Initiative(NMSI) in 2007. To better prepare talented students and teachers for the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, NMSI replicates proven programs with quantifiable results — such as theAdvanced Placement Training and Incentives Program (APTIP)andUTeach.
NMSI is already making an impact, dramatically increasingAP exam pass ratesfor students participating in the APTIP and demonstrating the program's ability to help close achievement gaps for minority students.
One of the keys to success is providing high-quality professional development for current teachers. Since 2008, NMSI has trained more than 6,000 AP and pre-AP teachers across the country
A Christian Perspective on International Baccalaureate
July 28, 2011 - TAIB is pleased to have been contacted by Wally Caddow, Managing Director of the Trinity Classical Academy, in California. Mr. Caddow expressed concern as to how to field questions from parents seeking an understanding of the difference between a Christian education and the type of education which will be offered in a new IB charter school in the Santa Clarita Valley. Mr. Caddow shared with TAIB a statement from The Ambrose School, a Christian academy in Boise, Idaho. TAIB will reprint The Ambrose School's perspective in its entirety.
Our perspective on the International Baccalaureate Program and how it compares to classical Christian education.
Several Boise area schools including Northstar Charter and Riverstone International School use the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Parents occasionally ask how these compare with classical Christian education. IB programs have high academic standards, as do classical Christian schools. The main difference is in the IB worldview. IB program is typically recognized and preferred by liberal colleges because it combines strong academic standards with the progressive (liberal) multicultural view. The main difference between the two systems is that classical education bases itself in the traditional Western cultural and Christian ideal of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The IBO pursues a postmodern view of tolerance and relativism.
Below is the mission statement of the IBO:
The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
From this mission statement, families can expect an approach that is not sympathetic with the Western cultural tradition of America’s founding fathers (the position generally described as “conservative”). Of course, nothing in the IBO’s statement is directly objectionable. As classical Christian educators, we want to understand other cultures and respect their people as image bearers; we want students to be caring, knowledgeable, and inquiring; and we want our students to be humble in understanding that other people can be right.
However, these phrases are euphemisms that mean much more than they say. They represent postmodern ideas that permeate the educational environment and reject a divine standard of Truth in favor of personal truth, God’s goodness in favor of social relativism, and Beauty in favor of personal preference. What is really meant by the progressive mindset is that we cannot claim that a Western idea of justice is superior, for example, to the justice system which includes human sacrifice. The IBO’s values are more in alignment with the Humanist Manifesto which represents the moral system of progressives.
Classical Christian educators discuss the great ideas of human history and judge them based on their conformance to the standard of Truth outlined in Scripture and through reason. This is what develops our students’ passion for Truth, and enhances their mental and verbal reasoning skills. This is also what offends many who believe in progressive ideals. The claim that Truth can be judged by a universal standard violates their value system.
Many major universities are philosophically committed to tearing down traditional educational absolutes because they reject America’s Western cultural roots. At the same time, many of the country’s finest colleges recognize students who have a “Great Books” type of education in the Western Classical tradition. We’ve found that colleges are quite impressed with graduates from classical Christian schools.
So what should a parent conclude? If you seek an education centered on the values of tolerance and relativism, without a common understanding of Truth, then the IB schools are probably the right choice for your family. If, however, you desire your student to be taught under the assumptions that built traditional Christian values, you may want to consider classical Christian education.
After receiving the Christian Perspective update above, Sgt. White of Ozark, MO, submitted this excellent paper (featured at right) to TAIB. Please read and share for a better understanding of IB philosophy.
July 26, 2011 - It is very difficult to track U.S. schools which drop IB. Now and then TAIB hits upon an article which happens to mention a district's decision to get rid of IB. Such is the case in Bristol, Virginia (emphasis TAIB's):
"The program, Rhinehart said, could replace the ill-fated International Baccalaureate program, which school leaders dropped, citing high operating costs and limited enrollment. “A lot of people had the wrong idea about IB,” Board Vice Chairman Randy Whitesaid. “They thought it was strictly an academic thing, but it was much more than that.”
However, according to IBO's website today, Virginia High School is still an authorized IB World School and has been since 1999! Since it is well past July 1st which tends to be the technical start of the school year in most districts. we must assume that Virginia High School has paid its $10,000 membership fee for 2011-12 in order to finish out the handful of students entering their senior year. If we add in the 2-3 years of payments made to IB prior to 1999 and calculate through 2012, that equals sixteen years worth of wasted spending. SIXTEEN years!
Clearly, IB is not a sustainable "pilot programme". No one can say the district didn't give it "time to catch on".
This is Not a Joke!
July 23, 2011 - It is rare that anything concerning IB's brainwashing or psychological warfare techniques used on our children surprise us here at TAIB. We've come to expect the most devious and disingenuous employment of devices by IB administrators to enslave children in IB. But this:
8:15 AM:In the theater, our IB coordinator explains everything IB-related, from CAS hours to the extended essay to the theory that we're not going to be considered nerds if we stay in the IB program (false). On our way out, we're each handed THE YUMMIEST COOKIE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD—I'm serious, these cookies are legit. Each one has been decorated by a current IB student, and most of them have awesome captions like "Abandon All Hope," "Get Out While You Can," "Just Drop," and, my personal favorite, "IB Kids = SEX."
11:30 AM:As soon as we get to math class, the teacher shoos us away to the theater, where we hear the IB speech again. It turns out that today, every IB period is a cookie period. JACKPOT. If that's not a reason to do IB (at least at my school), then I don't know what is.
IB Conference in Texas Celebrates Ecuador's Governmental IB Endorsement
July 22, 2011 - Ahhh, the annual IB Conference of the Americas. Once you get past the drums and obnoxious "i" phone, pad, app, IB references, the service in action nonsense and all of the IB self-praise in the following video, one "announcement" was of particular interest to TAIB: (begin 16:12)
"The Federal government is committed to endorsing the IB authorization process at 22 state run schools ...."
And what do we know about the Federal government of Ecuador?
"Socialism will continue. The Ecuadorian people voted for that. We are going to emphasize this fight for social justice, for regional justice. We are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital. Nobody is in any doubt that our preferential option is for the poorest people, we are here because of them. Hasta la victoria siempre!
This is the true IB agenda - socialist takeover of "public" schools. Fortunately, the U.S.A. is not Ecuador. WE THE PEOPLE must put a stop to IB's strategic plan and we must do it NOW!
Jewish Socialist Foundation Provides Seed Money for IB Debacle in Waco
July 16, 2011 - THIS STORY demonstrates how IB solicits private socialist backers to bribe public school districts into engaging in "IB exploration". TAIB has come across other private foundations that have raised money for IB in public schools before, but NEVER have we come across a "foundation" with such a blatant socialist agenda as the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation of Waco, Texas. TAIB has confirmed that the Rapoports actually gave $152,418 for IB. (see excerpts from the Foundation's 990's below). It was only through the help of common people that he lived, and through relatives that he came to the United States and landed in San Antonio. In those early years in the States, he joined the Socialist Party, a movement that suggests common ownership and democratic control by all. He would soon meet Reva Feldman, the daughter of Hasidic Jews, who would later expose Bernard to the Jewish faith.
Media Matters? The ACLU? The AFJ? Planned Parenthood? Really? These are some of the other "charities" the Rapoports support. So what happens when a Socialist organization provides seed money to push a socialist educational program(me) in Texas public schools? Check out the difference in the original "IB cost projection" to the revision a mere two years later:
2009: $156,200 for 2009-10 and $164,700 for 2010-11 and $164,700 2011-12 2011: $700,425, next year will cost $649,425, and 2012-13 will cost $976,200
Let me ask you folks something. If you hired a contractor to "frame" a building for $450,000 and he turned around and handed you a bill for $2.5 million, would you pay it? Or would you say, "See you in court and get the hell off my property!"
Wake up Waco! Get the Rapoports and IB out of your public schools!
IB Explained
Despite his incredibly monotone and boring delivery, former IBO Director General George Walker's book promotion clearly demonstrates IB's real agenda. Watch and listen for the key phrases Walker uses: Diversity, Sustainability, European enlightenment, UNESCO Education for All, UN Millenium Goals, Climate Change, Equitability (redistribution of wealth) and of particular note, 40% of all IB schools are in the U.S. This percentage is up 7% from a mere two years ago.
As Americans, do you believe your "inalienable rights", those of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, come from Our Creator? Or do they derive from "the inherent diginity of the human person"? For it is the latter that the UN and IB stand behind: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm The right of everyone to "social insurance". What exactly does that mean? Equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need. Who will regulate and apportion this "human right" according to the UN? Through Agenda 21, the UN, of course.
IB has nothing to do with academic excellence. IB's sole purpose is to co-opt our youngsters for the purpose of promoting international socialism as prescribed by the UN to the detriment of national sovereignty.
IB Unsustainable in UK State Schools
July 8, 2011 - This is a well timed story from a reliable source. What is happening in the UK is the perfect example of what happens when socialist ideologues try and impose a very expensive programme on the public, but the public is too broke to pay anymore in taxes to support it! TAIB pointed out long ago that Fabian socialist Tony Blair had it all wrong with his promotion of IB and that the best laid plans of socialist leaders go belly up when they can't wring another cent out of a public whose prosperity has dwindled due to the global recession.
"It is a pity that the commitment of the previous prime minister, Tony Blair, to have a school offering the International Baccalaureate in every neighbourhood was one that (his successor Gordon Brown) decided to abandon." July 2010. ~ Michael Gove
IBO is experiencing a slight bump in new schools in the U.S. only because of Obama's 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In 3 years time, you will see exactly the same thing happen here that is happening in the UK. Once the "free" government funding ends, state schools will be unable to levy taxes sufficient to cover the onerous cost of IB. Billions of our Federal tax dollars are being wasted on a socialist educational scheme that fattened the pockets of a bunch of Euroeducrats, disrupted schools, caused division in communities and ultimately leaves the students hanging in the lurch.
THIS is a student discussion in the UK about the funding cuts to IB which makes for very interesting reading.
Despite gains of 279 IB schools in the U.S. since March, 2009, to the best of TAIB's calculations, IB has lost 24 IBDP schools, 23 MYPand 10 PYPor a total of 57fewer IB schools in the U.S.A.
Irreversible Blow
July 6, 2011 - Today is the day the IB finally releases the May 2011 exam results. Tragically, one young man who attended an IB school in the UK, never sat those final exams. Leonard Poets, 16, committed suicide before he had the chance.
"The Year 12 pupil talked about suicide after his mid-term results in the International Baccalaureatewere not as good as he had hoped."
TAIB would like to express our deepest condolences to the Poets family.
In other news, IB students in India who had hopes of attending Delhi University may have to delay their education a full year because of IB's July 6th reporting of exam results. It would appear that Delhi University, unlike most U.S. universities, requires proof of actual achievement, rather than accepting "predicted" IB results.
The late reporting of IB exam results has been a point of contention for TAIB. In the United States, high school graduations take place in June. IB Diploma "candidates" receive special sashes to wear and extra recognition on the school's commencement announcements as though the "honor" of receiving an IB Diploma is guaranteed. But the fact of the matter is an unfortunate 33% of IB Diploma candidates (or more in some cases), never earn enough points on their exams to land the actual IB Diploma. Merely because they invested their final two years of high school in courses with the IB label, regardless of success of failure, IB high schools elevate the "status" of IB students over the non-IB students. This is just further evidence of the smoke and mirrors "prestige" that is IB.
Leonard Poets, 1995-2011
4 Years, 4 Principals, 3 Locations Arabic NYC Madrassa to Become IB
June 29, 2011 - Slapping the IB label on a controversial all Arabic NYC school will be sure to take care of any potential anti-Western teaching and declining enrollment, right?
“We’re confident that the new location — accessible to families seeking an Arab-language education — combined with a curriculum that offers students Arab-language skills and tools to succeed after high school, will put Khalil Gibran on a path to improvement,” said DOE spokesperson Matthew Mittenthal on Tuesday.
“The school’s operators and community partners have committed to ensuring the school will have an IB (International Baccalaureate) program,” he added.
NYC Department Of Education's decision to move the controversial school into a building with emotionally disturbed students against the "will" of the Islamic community sounds like a disaster in the making. The article makes no mention of IB's "rigorous" two year authorization process or even a date when the original school will be closed.
Zead Ramadan of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) said, “Although there are many dual language schools in New York City, KGIA was the only one in which the city used our tax dollars to ensure failure by removing every element that could have made it succeed.”
And now, NYC will use taxdollars to send to Geneva, Switzerland, for the pretense of international excellence and world peace. Fortunately, the school is clear on the other side of Brooklyn away from the oh so tolerant Hasidic Jews who have a huge population in Brooklyn.
MUST READ!
From the state that just legislated "environmental literacy" as a high school requirement, (Montgomery County, MD), we bring you the words of graduates from a once AP, now mostly IB high school. IB is always claiming we have to "speak to the students" to understand the wonders of IB. We have. All we can do is wonder how any public school district can inflict the IB program on its students and taxpayers.
Recommended for ALL! (budding kommissars in full bore Progressive mode)
Hurry! Hurry! Purchase your very own copy of "Educating for Global Citizenship" - on sale for a limited time only for £16.20£14.58. (or $23.25 for you American troglodytes).
"It includes diverse examples from schools and organizations around the world and shows how schools can help students prepare for life in a “global village”. Author: Boyd Roberts
Oooo look, we even get a free chapter describing EXACTLY what IB really is!
Gee. What institution could that be? Think .... think .....
The Sonoran
Kudos to the Conservative Arizona paper - The Sonoran - for taking a stand on IB.
The Lost Year
June 13, 2011 - TAIB decided to take another brief look through the disastrous Review Book for IB History of the Americas by the Locust Valley School District in NY, before sending it off to our friend Deborah Niwa for further dissection. The section which really rubs us the wrong way is what we can only conclude are the "fine class notes" of LVHS student Emma deBeer Charno. TAIB is not seeking to demean the student, she obviously took notes on what was being taught in class. Her teachers obviously thought her notes were worthy of being used as a reference for all of the other students in the course.
Take a look at the excerpt from Ms. Charno's outline notes on the Civil Rights movement with regard to the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957. One line in particular jumped out at us:
"For like two months white parents don't send kids to school"
Is that so? I wonder what source Ms. Charno's teacher used for that bit of information? This aroused TAIB's curiousity as it didn't jive with TAIB's historical recollection of the Little Rock situation.
Something major was missing from IB's historical record. That something was The Lost Year. I don't know about the rest of you, but that seems like pretty important information when it comes to the operations of a school district. The 10th, 11th and 12th Grades were CLOSED DOWN by the Federal government from September, 1958 through May, 1959.
"Denying an education to all Little Rock high school youth profoundly affected thousands of families as the city ruptured into an even more divided community."
Well, that doesn't sound like white parents willingly kept their children home, now does it? But teaching kids about the ruling by the Feds and the school board recalls doesn't support the "blame whitey" mantra Progressives love. Here is the lesson that should have been learned by IB students regarding Little Rock:
"Perhaps most importantly, the Lost Year illuminates how the community took their schools back on an integrated basis and informs the world that all of Little Rock was not represented by screaming mobs of segregationists at Central High in 1957."
== 1. Re: James Meredith / Ole Miss
"Killed 2 marshals, wounded 160"
Truth: Two people died, but neither were marshals. Zero marshals died.
==
2. re: Emmett Till
"tied a fan to him to chop him up"
Truth: The murderers tied a 70-pound fan to him to weigh his body down in the Tallahatchie River. His body was not chopped up.
==
3. re: Emmett Till
"15 year old boy"
Truth: Emmett Till was 14 when he was murdered == And that should be "gouge" not "gauge". Are these really the most impressive class notes these IB teachers could find?
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" ~ Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987
June 11, 2011 - Today TAIB received a package marked "Media Mail" with no return address on it. Enclosed was a short typed note from a parent, identified only as "Concerned". It seems the Locust Valley School District has invested significant resources in producing the IB History of the Americas "Review" book featured below:
Look at the "patriotic" pictures they put on the cover! Uncle Sam, Rosie the Riveter, Ronald Reagan and I think that's Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. But, as we have been wisely told, never judge a book by its cover.
It would take TAIB many hours to pour through this book and point out all of the left-wing bias. One of the quickest ways to determine whether or not a social studies course or material contains left-wing bias is to examine how it handles Ronald Reagan's accomplishments. TAIB located a section of the book (which has neither page numbers nor an index), which provided an outline for IB students to follow in order to answer questions which may relate to Paper 3 on their final IB exam. The Cold War is the topic. Read with your own eyes how IB treats Reagan. Nowhere is Reagan's historic command to Gorbachev even mentioned OR the tearing down of the Berlin Wall! Equally offensive is this team of teachers' inability to properly spell Reagan's last name, misspelling it as Regan a minimum of seven times in the outline! *editor's note - upon further review, these notes appear to be those of a student so the failure to catch the misspelled name falls on the proofreader.
So we go from 1985 to 1989 with nary a mention of Reagan's historic "Tear down this wall" speech. Incredible.
I have no idea how much my district spent on these rain-forest killing monstrosities. It seems to me they could have loaded all of this propaganda on a CD and it would have been much more cost effective. But the cost is really secondary. It is the poisoning of young minds by the Left that is far more detrimental to our freedoms in the long run.
IBrainwashing
June 9, 2011 - Not just one, but two remarkably blatant examples of how IB uses and abuses children for radical left-wing causes are in the news today.
The first comes from Arizona. TAIB would like to congratulate Sonoran News for publishing this story. Not much critical thinking going on there, eh? But Ron Paul's quote in this article bears repeating:
Paul stated, “It is strange that in the 18 years since the United States left UNESCO, we only started reading about the beginnings of reform in the year 2000. Are we to believe that after nearly two decades of no change in UNESCO’s way of mismanaging itself things have changed so much in just two years? Is it worth spending $60 million per year on an organization with such a terrible history of waste, corruption and anti-Americanism?”
Then from Michigan comes this enlightening story regarding what IB students in an elementary school are teaching themselves.
IB student fundraiser disses local Conservative paper
Upper St. Clair & IB Back in the News
June 1, 2011 - It's hard to believe that five years have already passed since Upper St. Clair, PA was involved in the messy ACLU lawsuit over IB. In September of 2008, IBO "evaluated" USC's Streams Elementary School's PYP. In the report, IBO's visiting team recommended that: "the school district make decisions regarding the full school implementation of PYP at Streams Elementary School." Additionally, IBO recommended that a "job description" and more release time be provided to the IB Coordinator.
That was in 2008.
Nearly three years later, along comes this article in Patch. The article never mentions the 2008 evaluation and presents the issue as though this is just a casual "consideration" on the part of the Principal.
The IB cancer is no longer in remission. In order to retain IBO's authorization, USC will have to increase spending on IB teacher training, eliminate "traditional" Kindergarten and other elementary classes and shift those darn "traditional" students to one of the other two elementary schools.
That's the story which this Patch reporter completely missed.
Texas Study Finds "No Significant Difference" Between IB PYP/MYP and Non-IB Schools
You have to ask yourself, "Why would IBO feature this study on its website?" In these difficult economic times, why on earth would any public school district waste taxpayer money on the PYP and MYP if these programs don't produce significant differences in student achievement?
This makes the second study conducted on American IB MYP schools which concludes IB does not improve student achievement. Please reference the doctoral dissertation by Deborah R. Jackson from Virginia Polytechnical Institute HERE.
May 9, 2011 - The following press release from Gainesville, GA, immediately set off alarm bells for TAIB. "Saturday, May Day queens and princesses took their place of honor before the assembled crowd for only the second time since 1954, when the last May Day event was held."
And why did they STOP celebrating May Day back in 1954? Could it be because the real history of May Day is both the communist international labor movement and pagan sexual celebration?
This year, Americans were treated to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed on May Day. Being that it was a Sunday, labor unions already had the day off so there would be no point in having a rally because they couldn't call in sick to work. CORRECTION: SEIU MAY DAY RALLY IN LOS ANGELES! This Marxist holiday is being distorted to appeal to little girls in an IB school as just a spring celebration of princesses and queens. Marxist exploitation of innocent young girls duped into believing that this country is some sort of fairy tale monarchy.
"Over the years the women of the Newtown Florist Club, located in a neighborhood described as "an industrial fallout zone," have become a force for environmental justice and against racism through legal challenges, lobbying, media coverage, and testing of toxic levels. Youngsters are being groomed as the next generation of grassroots leaders."
May 7, 2011 - Now THIS is what TAIB has been looking for! This impressive five year study of IB student results at the prestigious University of Cambridge in the UK, clearly demonstrates that only the highest scoring (42-45), full IB Diploma students are more likely to be a top student at Cambridge than the average Cambridge student.
For the uninitiated, what does that mean? The IB Diploma is awarded based on the sum of a student's six IB exams plus points for Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay and CAS (Creativity, Action, Service). An IB Diploma can be awarded ranging from the lowest score of 24, upwards to a perfect 45.
Cambridge is the UK's Harvard. You can see from the charts that Cambridge doesn't even accept students with an IB Diploma score under 38.
So how many American IB Diploma students score a 38 or above on their Diploma? Let's take a look at Locust Valley High School in NY, the only public school district in the country where TAIB has been able to obtain actual IB results for the past five years. These figures were only made available after TAIB filed a FOIL request with the district. Only for the past three years has the district released the actual IB report form for review. You will see that the 'mean' score for the IB Diploma has been a consistent 29. The highest IB Diploma score attained was a 39. Note that the pass rate for IB Diploma candidates in Locust Valley for the past three years has languished in the 66% range. One out of every three Locust Valley students who spend their final two years of high school in IB, fails to even attain an IB Diploma with a score of 24, let alone the required 38 to be considered for admission to Harvard or Cambridge.
Five years of results. Close to $2,000,000 spent on IB in Locust Valley. For what? Two or three students who surely would have achieved outstanding results on six AP exams alongside outstanding SAT scores.
Thank you, Cambridge University. This is the kind of data TAIB has been seeking for a very long time.
Improper Grammar? Or Deliberate?
May 6, 2011 - Following one of ibo.org's tweets on Twitter, TAIB came across the following exciting advertisement:
"This guide outlines the new world religions programme ..."
Excuse us? This "guide" was just published yesterday. So that would qualify it as "new". The last time we checked, "new" is an adjective and should precede the noun it is intended to modify. The noun IBO chose to modify is "world".
This new guide outlines the world religions programme ...
Are we wrong? Should we spend the $32.80 to find out what kind of indoctrination is contained within? And here's another thought. Let's say IBO is using "new" to modify "programme" as a noun. When did a single IB course suddenly become an entire "programme"? Doesn't IBO use the argument that the IB Diploma is so much superior to AP courses because it is a "programme"?
TUSD - Hotbed of Socialist Activism
THIS STORY outlines the gross misdirection and misinformation parents and taxpayers were provided about the cost of IB, back in 2009. The budget documents are included for all to see. This story is significant because the concerned citizens actually obtained the expenditure sheets. Are you paying attention, Greenwich, CT? How about down in Ozark, MO? This minimization of IB's outrageous cost to the public is not an isolated incident. It is IBO's method of infiltration. Get the program in place and then the public will "love" it so much they won't mind paying for it.
The "Ethnic Studies Program" is nothing more than a revolutionary money pit comrade of IB's in TUSD. This is a district seriously out of control. (TUSD Board members were rumored to be in hiding across state lines ;-))
IB News Across America
April 29, 2011 - TAIB has recently been inundated with news about IB from across the country. Normally, we try to place a timely article in the relevant section of the site, but for now, we want to make sure readers are aware that objections to IB are not rare, isolated incidents.
Dexter, MI - Here, the story mysteriously disappeared: Moms Talk: Should Dexter Schools Have anIBProgram? Patch.com By Daniel Lai | Email the author | 1:00pm Dexter High School may implement anInternational Baccalaureateprogram for juniors and seniors in the 2012-13 school year. Courtesy of the Association ofIBSchools Dexter High School is on track to implement...
From Des Moines, IA to Boulder, CO - http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/28/sebring/ "On a larger scale than the charter school, the amount of money, time and sweat her administration has poured into establishing an International Baccalaureate program sounds impressive, until one understands that this program was rolled out while staff and programs at the majority of Des Moines schools suffered severe and drastic reductions during the same period. The harm done by these cuts to the majority of schools will impact a much larger percentage of our student population than the new IB program will ever touch. Dr. Sebring is not to blame for the budget shortfalls, but she ignored the most serious issues in favor of flashy new programs to distract the public. Said simply, the implementation of the IB program was more show than substance."
April 20, 2011 - IB has a brand new HL Geography syllabus out. For anyone who cannot see the blatant UN/Agenda 21 - UN Millenium Goals and extreme radical transnational agenda in this instruction, please, just stay asleep. After seven years of reasearching IB, very little surprises us anymore when it comes to what is being taught in American public schools. But this ... this takes it to a whole new level. This entire syllabus demonstrates total disregard for national sovereignty of countries, not just borders, but disregard for Constitutions.
TAIB hasn't had time to read through every section because we wanted to get this out to our readers. I could write an entire thesis on the bias and anti-sovereignty theme of this course. There are many greater minds than mine that subscribe to this website, among them, The Heritage Foundation, and TAIB is counting on many of you to take the ball and run with this. Print out the entire syllabus before it disappears off the web.
Time and time again we are challenged to produce evidence of IB's political agenda as it directly relates to the curriculum. With "Mother Earth Day" (April 22) fast approaching, we showed you where IB propagandizes in its Sharing Our Humanity lessons. But that is just one of IB's "themes". HL Geography is an actual Diploma course which IB will demand U.S. universities award college credit. And if they don't get it then they will whine and complain and have Jay Mathews write another column on how discriminatory our colleges are for not recognizing this NWO call to action as - "critical thinking".
Being a bit of a wordsmith, while clicking through the "new" syllabus, the word GLOCALISATION caught my eye. Say it out loud. It sounds like someone has something stuck in their throat. Those who understand and embrace it are called glocals. Do they glow in the dark from California? Who knows. Since this word is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, TAIB had to resort to Wikipedia to find an article detailing what this word, first uttered and concocted in the late 1990's, really means. Note that the word uses the British 's' instead of the American 'z'. Also quite apparent are IB's efforts to put a "more Islamic face" on the IB curriculum, as per the MoU agreement with the Aga Khan's Development Network. (see photos - left)
Remember, all of their intentions are laid out before you - in plain sight. This is not conspiracy theory. They're practically shoving it in your faces - brainwashing your children with it while trying to pass it off as "rigorous" education.
In other IB news, this little blurb caught our eye. [emphasis TAIB's]
"The way International Baccalaureate (IB) head of Global Technology Dr Leong Chou Ching sees it, in the near future, everyone would expect to work on mobile devices. Enterprises would have no choice but to provide the appropriate mobile architecture as they cannot afford to be outdated."
So exactly what are the "enterprises" which would have no choice in the world of public education? YOUR SCHOOLS, of course. So on top of having to pay IB's ridiculous fees, it will soon, in the near future, change its regulations to insist that IB World Schools must provide the mobile technology (ipads) to every IB student. And who will pay for that little luxury? YOU, the taxpayer.
More IB Whining in WAPO
April 18th, 2011 - It would appear not much has changed since Jay Mathews, veteran education reporter for the Washington Post, diligently began whining in 2001 about the terrible "discrimination" by our universities against IB students for their steadfast refusal to award college credit for IB's SL (Standard Level, 1 year) exams. The overwhelming majority of U.S. universities only consider awarding college credit for IB's HL (Higher Level, 2 year) exams or the full Diploma.
But that doesn't stop Jay! Ten years worth of whining and today he released a new column in which he has the audacity to make the unbelievable claim that universities "forced" IB students to take the AP exams! Mr. Mathews seems incapable of understanding that it's a bunch of knuckleheads like himself who are forcing hard working taxpayers to pay for this inferior, outrageously expensive, anti-American program!
As if D.C. Schools Weren't Bad Enough?
April 13, 2011 - No. Mayor Gray wasn't arrested for ushering IB into Washington D.C. public schools (although the thought is appealing). Mayor Gray was protesting the budget deal which cut spending for abortions in D.C. and re-established a voucher program for the children of D.C.'s poorest families.
While our country sits on pins and needles waiting for Washington bureaucrats to figure out how to deal with the out of control $14+ trillion deficit, the incredibly horrible D.C. public school system thinks it's a good idea to waste millions on bringing IB into its fold:
April 11, 2011 - TAIB is primarily concerned with IB's intrusion on American sovereignty. IB eagerly takes advantage of Federal U.S. funding for poor (Title I) schools in our country, but for some strange reason, IB has taken a battle to the Supreme Court level in India where the Indian government requires 25% of the students in a school to be poor. This points to a major flaw in U.S. law which permits this international organization to pocket boatloads of U.S. taxdollars without ever having to comply with U.S. laws or standards.
India currently has 64 IB schools. HERE is IB's Indian dilemma in a nutshell:
The schools are of the view that domestic laws in India should not apply to them since they are affiliated to international boards. Certain institutions such as Pune-based Mercedes-Benz International School have moved the Supreme Court on the issue.
“The government is unlikely to give them any exemption. These institutions are bound to follow the rules and laws in India as long as they are operating in the country,” a ministry source said.
As per the RTE Act, unaided schools must admit children from economically weaker sections to the extent of 25 per cent of their strength and give them free education.
The government will reimburse the expenses borne by these schools for poor children at the rate fixed by it.
TAIB's interpretation of this situation is that the particular institution in question is a private school which is not exempt from Indian law. This is very different from the U.S. where private schools are not bound by U.S. Department of Education regulations. The real question is; Why would a private IB school in India be opposed to accepting up to 25% of its enrollees from an underprivleged segment of society if the Indian government is willing to reimburse the school? Do the words 'elitist hypocrites' fit this scenario?
April 8, 2011 - It seems like just the other day that IB opponents declared victory in Incline Village. Wait a minute - it WAS the other day! And now comes the news that the voices of the 50+ teachers in Redondo Beach, CA, have been recognized and Application B for IB authorization, has been suspended. This is totally awesome news. The message is finally getting through to everyone it seems, except the HS Principal:
"RUHS Principal Mary Little sent a note to faculty late last week that cited budget concerns – one of the teachers’ primary objections – as a reason to suspend the application process. “The current budget crisis in California and the impasse over the governor’s plan for tax extensions will dramatically impact RBUSD,” Little wrote. “As Dr. Keller outlined for us at Monday’s staff meeting, there may be cuts at RUHS. For this reason, after consultation with Dr. Keller, who has spoken with board members, we have decided to delay the submission of Application B to become an IB World School. This additional time will give all of us an opportunity to learn more about IB.”
Pay attention, RUHS teachers, parents and students! Your Principal seems to think this is simply a "delay". While it's a shame that the district has already wasted over $40,000 in IB application and training fees, now your Principal and IBelievers will step up "private" fundraising efforts in an attempt to overcome budget deficits. The district is trying to make the IB issue entirely about money, while dismissing the professional opinion of the teachers that AP is a superior academic offering for the student body. Do not relinquish viligence on this issue - you need a resounding declaration from the Superintendent and Board of ABANDONMENT of the IB application process. "Suspension" and "Delay" are not sufficient!
Vote for Letwin!
TAIB wants to wish Board of Education Trustee candidate Shawn Letwin, success in the upcoming Dexter, Michigan, election. Shawn appears to have done his homework. In his own words, we can clearly see the pattern of abuse and lack of transparency foisted upon the public by IBelievers at the administrative level. [emphasis TAIB's]
"With no more new money coming into the school district, the district has allocated $500,000 to be available for spending this year on the International Baccalaureate program even though the community never asked for this. There are only a couple of dozen Dexter students who are interested and the district counselors recently stated that our graduates with advanced placement classes are not kept from admittance to universities by any IB applicant. Not to mention the fact that the Washtenaw Intermediate School District is starting its own IB program that our students could take advantage of. Although the IB folks recommend that a complete feasibility study should be performed, to date, the district has done no such study and does not appear to have one planned. So, whether the students, parents and taxpayers want an IB program, it appears that the board has decided we need one."
Shawn Letwin, Candidate
Silicone breast implants
IBoobs!
As soon as TAIB saw that this "teachable moment" took place in the Henrico district in Virginia, we let out a collective groan. Henrico is where TAIB had previously encountered Mrs. Biddle, the IB Coordinator at Henrico High School. We see that Henrico also has not one IB MYP, (authorized March, 2011), but three. Surely the IB PYP can't be far behind. It would appear that Henrico is quite overrun with left-wing ideology and wasteful spending, not to mention idiots at the helm who would support having silicone breast implants passed around to 9 year olds.
It is quite clear that Henrico's Superintendent and Board of Education are completely clueless as to what they are developing in their district. Or are they? Wake up Henrico parents and taxpayers! You have a bunch of misguided, left-wing ideologues hell-bent on destroying your child's education. The time has come to take back your schools!
IB: The Progressive Program
April 5, 2011 - For many years, TAIB has heard IBelievers make claims of some study that demonstrates that IB students are more well-prepared for college than AP students. Of course, whenever we asked for a link to such a study, IBelievers like Jay Mathews would either ignore the request or dodge the issue. Our hopes were elevated when we stumbled upon the following abstract of an oral presentation to be delivered at ithaca College, NY, but alas, there are no written report references. No, this is just another useless, baseless, non-verifiable claim as to the wonders of IB. Wouldn't it be nice if we could actually look at some sourced, comparative data? Several sentences in the Abstract jumped out at TAIB, not the least being the title, which clearly demonstrate that IB is all about advancing the Progressive agenda, and nothing more. [emphasis TAIB's] The IB program is under-utilized in United States, a problem this project is intended to remedy by discussing the IB’s superior potential to grow with and complement the American education system
Interviews with graduates of the IB and AP programs, as well as school district coordinators for both, reveal that students who have taken IB generally feel more prepared for college than their counterparts who have taken AP, and they claim higher grade point averages in their college careers.
One IB coordinator disclosed that some students are apprehensive about participating in the IB curriculum because they can receive more college credits for taking AP classes. Thus, for the IB program to be successful in the United States colleges need to change their policies on transfer credits.
Propaganda, nothing more. Apprehension, feelings and claims .... great. And all of the universities need to change their policies to adapt to IB's unproven CLAIMS of excellence.
I remember back when I was in college, I used to travel down from Oswego to visit my best friend at Ithaca College. Back then, it was an expensive party university in the same beautiful town as Cornell that basically anyone got into - as long as they had the bucks. It certainly looks like it hasn't changed much.
International Baccalaureate: The Progressive Program
Redondo Beach Teachers Unite Against IB Tyranny! http://www.easyreadernews.com/23459/redondo-international-baccalaureate/ "Linda Dillard, the chair of the school’s science department, told the school board that teachers have not been allowed to engage in a “data-driven, fact-finding process” to help determine if the program is a good fit for RUHS.
“The IB program has been dictated to the RUHS teachers by the administration,” Dillard said. “…In my 25 years at RUHS, I have never seen a program of this magnitude and economic impact forced upon teachers who are expected to deliver a high quality program without being given any input in the decision making. What do you think the chances of success are?”
Click on March 22, 2011 archive begin at the 56:46 mark
What Will it Take to Stop IB?
March 24, 2011 - Teachers object. Parents object. Students object. Taxpayers object. But these three Superintendents and their School Boards in three separate states couldn't care less. They are going to keep pushing forward with their applications to IBO, the public be damned.
Redondo Beach, California About 50 teachers from Redondo Union High School attended Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting in opposition to the International Baccalaureate program scheduled for implementation at the high school in 2012. The teachers, including department chairs, said they oppose the cost of theIB programduring a time of continued budget cuts. They also said it wasn't needed at a school with an award-winning Advanced Placement program.
This decision comes two week after the district helda public presentation on its application to the International Baccalaureate program attended by more than 300 residents. Ananonymous flyer handed out within the district had raised numerous questions and concernsabout its costs and curriculum. Sullivan-Kriss said the flyer forced the district's hand, holding a public meeting about it's two-year application to the International Baccalaureate program before the time line prescribed. Yet, she said it opened lines of communication between school officials and the community. Initially, the district planned to eliminate of 12 out of the 18 Advanced Placement classes offered at Hauppauge High School, eliminating those with similar counterparts under IB. High School students will now have the choice of which class they enroll in
Cottonwood, Arizona Opposition to the closing of schools within the district was growing rapidly and becoming loosely organized. No real groundswell of opposition took place regarding Tavasci Elementary, but the idea of closing OCS was meeting strong, and vocal, opposition among Cornville residents....The board also discussed where it will place the new International Baccalaureate Candidate School, which now has been named Mountain View Preparatory Academy. Garrison said the I.B. school likely will be placed on the Tavasci campus.
Of course there was no outcry from the Tavasci parents. Why? Because there was never any prior mention of making Tavasci the IB academy!!! A note to TAIB readers, this is the district where Gene Birkeland (Ellen McClay) was prepared to speak to the Board about IB, along with fellow resident Frank Ogden, but they were subsequently "univited".
Here is what TAIB recommends. In each of these communities, we have already witnessed a "partial" win against IB. Teachers and parents need to take it the next step and demand a halt to the IB application process NOW! Do not allow these IB tyrants to pacify objectors with a false "choice" or pushing the program to another school. Do not let down your guard, keep up the pressure. In Arizona, please try writing to Governor Jan Brewer and be sure to mention that the Chair of IBNA is also a VP of La Raza. That should get her attention.
"It's like the State Department ghetto"
March 18, 2011 - Oh dear. UN diplomats aren't happy about their accomodations in Falls Church, Virginia.
With each regime that teeters, each uprising that forces a U.S. embassy to be evacuated, more American diplomats, aid workers and their families seek shelter at a nondescript Falls Church apartment complex with a nondescript name: Oakwood. The only hint of its connection to international affairs is the United Nations flag flying overhead. Most families are there to enroll their children in Northern Virginia’s smallest school district, Falls Church. “Someone asked me the other day if I speak Egyptian. They ask if we ride to school on camels. I don’t think they really understand us,” said Hadley Rose, 13, who is in the eighth grade at George Mason High School.
But how can this be? George Mason High School in Falls Church is an IB World School and has been since 1981! So is the George C. Marshall High School and JEB Stuart High School which also offers the IB MYP. Where is the IB love? Here's the kicker: The students left Cairo American College, the city’s preeminent international high school, in the middle of cross country season, a few months before Advanced Placement exams and days before the performance of the semester’s musical. Less than a week later, they started classes in Falls Church.
WHAT? So they were preparing for AP in Cairo, now they get shoved into IB in Falls Church and because many of these students are arriving in the middle of what would be the 2 years for the IB Diploma, they won't qualify for the IB Diploma? Are you kidding us? Why is there absolutely no mention of IB in this WAPO article? This demonstrates the ultimate waste of taxpayer money on IB if the children of diplomats, whom IB was designed for, are unable to assimilate into an American IB school.
Chair of IBNA Board from La Raza!
March 13, 2011 - Who knew? Thanks to one of our Texas IB watchdogs who took our recent update on IB and Binghamton and researched a step further, we now learn that Delia Pompa, who serves as the Senior Vice President of Programs for the National Council for La Raza, also served as the IBNA Board President in 2006 and 2007, is the current Chair of the Board and member of the IB compensation committee and governance committee. Her specialty is "school reform".
March 11, 2011 - It can't be any clearer. The district-wide rejection of IB in this California school district is a phenomenal reference for anyone trying to stop the implementation of IB in their own district. TAIB will reprint the entire article as this sort of news tends to disappear from the web. We also urge you to print out the Power Point presentation compiled by the district. Note that EVERY COMPLAINT TAIB has featured on this site is referenced under "Challenges" and by the students themselves. St. Helena HS has 502 students. [bold emphasis in article, ours]
High school students knock IB
Jesse Duarte|Posted:Thursday, March 10, 2011 12:00 am
More than 170 high school students are urging the St. Helena School Board to eliminate the International Baccalaureate program in favor of traditional Advanced Placement classes.
A letter signed by 177 high school students — about a third of the student body — says IB is unnecessary, impractical, and less useful to students than AP classes, which have mostly been phased out over the last few years.
The school district has been polling staff, parents, students and the community as it considers scaling back the district’s K-12 IB program. The board is scheduled to discuss IB at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, at Vintage Hall.
The letter claims that IB doesn’t benefit the majority of high school students because “only a fraction of (the) student population is enrolled in an IB class.”
Only eight high school seniors are enrolled in the IB Diploma Program for juniors and seniors, but 110 students are enrolled in at least one IB class.
“The IB Diploma Program has essentially created an exclusive prep school within a public high school, funded with moneys that should be available for the benefit of all students,” the letter argues.
Students say the Diploma Program “isolates students from one another.”
“All juniors and seniors in the (diploma) program, and the majority of students taking more than one or two IB classes, are with the same students throughout the school day,” the letter states. “This contributes to a lack of student unity, and creates apathy as well as antipathy on campus.”
In February administrators recommended replacing the K-8 IB program with a “St. Helena International Program” that would maintain the benefits of IB without all the logistical hassle.
Administrators recommended keeping the IB Diploma Program for at least another two years for the sake of students who’ve already committed to it.
Students say the implementation of IB classes “has cut other much-needed classes, many of which were geared toward a wider array of students,” including vocational courses.
“In addition to cutting classes themselves, IB has eliminated the possibility of new classes in general, e.g., an anatomy/physiology course — SHHS is the only high school in the Napa-Santa Rosa area which does not offer anatomy,” the letter states.
Students remain unconvinced that IB is superior to AP, and question whether IB is necessary to give them a global perspective.
“In reality, thanks to modern technology and a world economy, we live in and learn through a global community regardless of the IB program,” the letter states.
Supporters of IB have said it values critical thinking and analysis more than AP, but students disagree.
“Certainly, IB encourages independent thought and analysis — but only if it results in a conclusion previously prescribed by the program,” students claim. “This serves to hinder true independent thought in students for fear of a failing grade.”
AP is far more likely than IB to be recognized by American colleges and universities, students added.
The struggles of IB have been attributed to a lack of understanding of IB among parents and students. But students say that after two years, “it has become painfully obvious that the more parents and students learn of the IB program, the less they want to be involved.”
The letter concludes that the district should cut its losses rather than “continue to pour time, money and effort into a poor investment.”
It doesn't get better than this, folks. EVERY objection to IB is covered in this summary. What a waste of over $1,500,000!
IB's Emphasis on English Language Skills
March 10, 2011 - Things are heating up in Hauppauge, NY. In THIS ARTICLE, we learn that "Several characteristics of the IB program place an emphasis on English language skills and research papers." That sounds great, who could be opposed to that? Ironically, after reading that particular article, TAIB received the e-mail below. We are withholding the student's name to prevent embarrassment, but will tell you that it came from the State of Washington.
Comments: I am a junior in the IB program. I find your website extremely offensive. Honestly bashing higher education just reflects poorly on you. I find that the program is helping to prepare me to be successful in a competitive college setting. We are given work that helps us take into consideration our effect on the world aroud [SIC] us. Rather than being closed minded americans. Since you have never completed the IB program..and you have never had a child go through it, your claims are completly [SIC] irrational..and honestly. There is a whole IB class discussing how completly [SIC] stupid your website is. Good luck. Cause you have absolutly [SIC] nothing to stand on.
So instead of teaching students how to spell, capitalize and write complete, coherent sentences, they are sitting around in IB class bashing TAIB. Tip to IB student - here at TAIB, we don't bash "higher education". However, we do make it our business to point out that IB does not deserve to be classified as "higher education".
Teachers and Parents Doubt IB!
March 9, 2011 - Normally, TAIB encounters disparaging articles about IB once a week. Yesterday produced a plethora of articles which cast doubts on the "prestige" and efficacy of the IB program. IB supporters like to claim TAIB is "biased" and that we have an agenda. They should keep in mind that we are not selling IB. Therefore, the accusation of "bias" is ridiculous. We flat out think IB is a harmful, controversial, expensive program that does not belong in American public schools. That's not bias, that's a strong negative opinion, to which we, as Americans, are entitled. As a result, TAIB features those articles which demonstrate the "ugly" side of IB. TAIB never claimed to be "balanced" in our reporting. And yes. We do have an agenda. To prevent IB from further infiltrating American public schools.
March 7, 2011 - TAIB will only use first names to share the following communique's. The first, from Lauren, is absolutely brilliant. Brilliant. The e-mail from the IB student, on the other hand, well, initial reaction from one reader, to quote was, "We're doomed!" You be the judge!
Subject: RE: IB pyp
Author: Lauren Date: 3/6/2011 2:05 am EDT
Thanks again for this forum. It good to be able to get different opinions on IB.
I'm posting again because I went to an information session/open house for a PYP school last night and wanted to share.
First off, I am really impressed with the academic, whole-child, global awareness aspect of the IB program. The pedagogical stuff is really, really great. For example, (completely seriously) they don't worry about "facts" in the PYP and work instead on teaching how to think *about* facts. The example the hosts gave was a recent 1st grade geography lesson about continents. They discussed what defines a continent (can Antarctica be a continent if no one lives there? Is Asia and Europe 1 or 2 continents? What about the "Americas"? US Americans tend to say "2" while South Americans tend to say it's only "1" continent. Good stuff, I think. The kids aren't memorizing (imo) subjective "facts" (because everything has to be simplified at their age anyway). There do learn some facts, of course. I saw lots of great student-created Venn diagrams in the 2nd grade classroom dealing with poetry and prose, ie poetry can be bits and pieces, prose has complete sentences, but both have themes.
Also, the handouts about their "program of inquiry" -- which is as close to a curriculum as I can find-- was impressive. There are 6 blocks taught each year:
1. The Artist Whithin [sic], focusing on "we express feeling and thoughts through the arts" 2. Where are we? (humans place themselves in time differently) 3. We are not alone (communities are organized so that members can interact and co-exist) 4. Roll up your sleeves (people establish practices for preserving the Earth's natural resources) 5. My world, our world (cultures have unique traditions and beliefs 6. Lights on (light: a natural and manmade phenomena that impacts our surroundings)
I think these are great academic starting points that I could do a lot with.
But there are some serious problems. For example, the social skills that the PYP advocates during these blocks are compromising, cooperation, fairness, listening to others, obtaining consensus, stating opinion so you don't hurt others, assuming responsibility, being sensitive to others, being courteous, etc. to the exclusion of standing up for oneself or others, asserting pride, making sound judgments, having independent thought, or going against the grain. Their global citizen is someone who is always willing to do whatever their neighbor wants them to do. It didn't sit right with me and I realized what the "social skills" set needed was a thorough review of Sun Tzu's, "The Art of War." As advanced as humanity is culturally, we are biologically still animals who are greedy, lazy, sneaky, violent, and frequently anti-social. But war is anathema to the IB, which means--since war is very much a reality--IB is creating kids who don't understand reality or know how to react to it. The IB defenders are delusional to believe peace is the only solution for life, and that they'll somehow eliminate all of those nasty human traits by the IB program.
Second, I assumed that with the global citizenry rhetoric, they would honor their home culture first, but they absolutely do not. I asked if they said the US or Texas Pledge of Allegiance (no and no), or celebrate any US holidays (not the Federal ones, except for Thanksgiving). While they don't explicitly celebrate other national holidays (such as Cinco de Mayo), they also don't celebrate Christmas. But they do discuss how people in other places celebrate winter, Diwali, Hanukkah, etc. Personally, I love the variety of the world--I'm an anthropologist and linguist by trade and training--but I think the IB is homogenizing the cultures. The classic saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" came to mind. The global rhetoric makes it so there is no differentiation--no Rome-- at all. It seems a bit Brave New World-ish for me.
Anyway, I'm truly horrified by how many schools consider IB a wonderful way to go. It's like they've drunk the kool-aid, and if they had their way, kool-aid would be the only beverage available.
So, that's my experience. I think I'd like to homeschool with an altered version of this curriculum. However, I would be an idiot to pay someone else to teach my child this brainwashing garbage part (even though I actually like the academics).
Thanks again for allowing this forum, and letting me say my piece.
-Lauren
ps. I noticed a student wall display of white pieces of paper glued to Popsicle sticks with peace signs drawn on them (surrender flags?) surrounding quotes from kids about how people should always protest peacefully because you "can't be good communicators if you're screaming at each other". IMO, they are creating an army of anti-militancy, militant pushovers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ First Name: Erin Comments: People make me laugh. I am an IB senior. Now, I am not going for the diploma anymore. As a junior I was planning on achieving the diploma, however I found the program is not for me. I hate IB, but some people commenting on this article are completely moronic. And yes, that probably makes me close-minded, opposite of what IB teaches, but if you truly believe that the IB program belongs to some sort of New World Order conspiracy, then please, so us all a favor, and go back into your cabin in the hills. The world has moved on from basic Christian indoctrination. And yes, I am a liberal and an atheist, but have been long before I ever came into the program. Let me explain why I hate IB. I am at a time in my life where I am not positive on what career path I want. I have many interests, but thus far cannot see any being the one true path for me in life. The IB program makes students take the six basic areas, and as a senior I wanted to take more electives to explore my other interests. I am horrible at math, and horrible at science, so taking those classes was both not enjoyable and inefficient. I know for a fact I will not be pursuing something that requires high math or science capabilities, so why should I waste two years building up knowledge in those core areas when I know down the road, yes I can say I am well-rounded, but I won't be using them? I also hate the workload. I have read that students in other countries have the ability to turn in major projects or research assignments on any given day of the "assigned week" without penalty. They also have excused days in which they can catch up on sleep. No such thing occurs at my school. In fact, I stayed home today in an effort to finish a large English assignment on 'The Guide' by R.K. Narayan (a horribly written book, if you ask me) but I have only been procrastinating. For me, and many of my friends, IB has turned us into bulls**tting experts. I really believe this is the case because my IB English teacher is new and completely incompetent, so she just assigns huge homework assignments in an attempt to "teach". My TOK class is awful. I was so looking forward to this class. I was told we would discuss philosophical questions and look deeper into our moral thinking, however, before the first report card even came out we were no longer allowed to have discussions because the teacher wasn't intelligent enough to keep up, so she banned them. Mind you, this is a teacher who cries everyday, and should not be teaching. I blame the horridness of my TOK class on the teacher, not the program. Overall, for where I am in my life, IB is not right for me. I must say, it is very challenging, as west as interesting material, however I believe my school has gone about it the wrong way. I am a seventeen year old girl who is going to graduate in about one hundred days, and I want to have a life. That also played a huge role in my decision to pull out of the program. Is it un-American? No. That claim is absolutely ridiculous. Unless your definition of un-American means that something doesn't teach that America is great and perfect and has no faults. Well then, yeah, I guess it is. All the program does is say, "Hey! You all have been learning from a one-sided perspective for many years, want to learn something different and interesting? Here's how Europe, China and the USSR viewed post-1900 events." Uh-oh! We might learn about people who believed in communism! What are we going to do? Maybe put some faith in children and understand that learning about something else does not mean you will actually come to believe in it. Indoctrination? Isn't the pledge of allegiance indoctrination? I don't say the pledge anymore because standing in a room with a bunch of kids reciting the same thing to a piece of fabric with my hand on my heart is kind of creepy to me. I love America and am so grateful for having been brought up in such a nation. That does not mean I have to be blind to America's mistakes. Some people are turning national pride into something scary, which is actually pushing me away from it. If I ever become "un-American" it will be because of the people who oppose to IB program because of your stupid ideas, no because of the IB program itself. Also, please stop associating Christianity with national pride. Many people in this country are not Christian, does that mean they should not be allowed to call themselves American? While separation of church and state may not be fully implemented in our government, we should still stand behind the philosophy that there is, indeed, a freedom of religion granted to us by the Constitution. Aren't those who oppose the right to question their religion opposing the Constitution, then? I'm sorry if some kids choose to no longer blindly follow how they were brought up. Hell, most of them, even after questioning, stick to their original beliefs, so what is there to fear? Let people think for themselves. It seems to me that those who are scared of kids falling for a world government caused by IBO are actually those who are truly trying to indoctrinate the children with false patriotism and blind Christian followings. I am in no way bashing Christianity, I believe the morals offered are important to my way of life. However, don't just hear and accept, look deeper. And if you're afraid to look deeper, build a time machine and go back to the 1800's. I hate IB, but not for your reasons. You know what I hate more? Crazy people.
Idaho School District Wastes Money on Non-Existent IB HS for Five Years!
Hard to believe? TAIB has the proof. Please read the full story HERE.
TAIB Gives Cottonwood, AZ School Board the "Finger"
February 15, 2011 - Jason Finger must have sensed something in the air when the issue of creating an IB charter school was unanimously approved by the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School Board last week. What he was unaware of however, is that Gene Birkeland, aka Ellen McClay, happens to be a taxpaying homeowner in the district. Gene has submitted the letter below to the local paper.
(.pdf available upon request)
Good News, Bad News
February 15, 2011 - Good News - TAIB always prefers good news first. In 2010, TAIB carefully watched the much larger growth of PYP and MYP IB programs in the U.S., compared to its supposedly premier Diploma program(me). It is therefore of great interest that the Glynn County Public Schools in Georgia are considering eliminating IB from two schools which were just authorized by IB in 2010.
International Baccalaureate was part of former superintendent Michael Bull's vision to offer themes and magnet programs at the schools in 2005, a time when the economy was booming. The program first began at Needwood Middle in 2006 with a self-study. The following year, the application process took place. In 2007, C.B. Greer jumped on board and officials began their application process. When the school system's budget took a huge hit in 2010, administrators were forced to cut millions out of programs, salaries and positions. Officials expect the next school year will be even worse.
Bad News - Last year TAIB removed a page titled "Is IB a Cult?" after being harangued by IBelievers and an IB teacher from Wales who insisted that the tragedy of teen suicide was just as prevalent in AP or the A-Levels. Since that time, TAIB has received numerous letters from parents regarding students in IB schools who were either suicidal or who became seriously depressed while in the IB program. Unable to verify through the press a direct correlation in some of those cases, TAIB has preferred to focus on the outrageous cost and misguided philosophy of IB, rather than assign a "deadly" warning label to the product.
THIS STORY however, forces TAIB to change its mind. What is deeply, deeply disturbing is the fact that not one, but two MYP IB students commited suicide within such a short time span. TAIB also questions the decision to use the money from this fundraiser for a scholarship geared specifically towards a student interested in pursuing further education in psychology with a focus on suicide prevention. Wouldn't it have been far more meaningful to present and future students and the poor families who lost their children to have created a beautiful memorial on school grounds dedicated to those two young lives lost? In four short years, HS students won't know or care who Caroline or Harrison were if their names are only associated with a scholarship awarded to a single student or two in their senior year. But if they have to walk past a memorial daily, just like those we erect for our veterans, perhaps it will serve as a reminder that there is life beyond IB if you "don't surrender".
Student: So I was wondering... Why aren't we allowed to take five HL classes? IB Coordinator: Because it looks bad for the IB program when students commit suicide.
How Very Odd
February 10, 2011 - TAIB decided to do a check on IB's IRS filings for the year 2009. No, IB still has not filed for 2009, but when checking on 2008, instead of the forms which were on the site for approximately a year, we came across the notice below.
So here's the question; If the documents which were filed with the IRS were scanned, how could they "not include" the information submitted by IB?
screenshot of IB's 990 form from Guidestar
Beaufort Gives IB the Boot
February 5, 2011 - THIS ARTICLE out of Beaufort County, SC, shows there are some right-minded, fiscally responsible Board of Ed Trustees left in this country. The Board hired a cost-benefit analyst to come in and take a hard look at its district. the consultant's recommendations are as follows:
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program at Battery Creek High School would be eliminated over two years and the program at Hilton Head Island High School put on probation if the Beaufort County Board of Education adopts a recommendation it received this week.
The analyst's figures do not include costs for the primary- and middle-years I.B. programs, offered at Hilton Head I.B. Elementary School, Broad River Elementary School, Hilton Head Island Middle School and Robert Smalls Middle School. The consultants also recommended those programs be discontinued.
By TAIB's estimates, Beaufort County schools could save between $1.2-1.5M a year if all six (6) IB schools are eliminated. Someone recently referred to this drawn out elimination process which mandates that students already in IB are allowed to complete it as IB's "poison pill". TAIB's apologizes for not being able to properly credit that incredibly apt phrase.
IB Lies Exposed! The True Cost and Purpose of IB
February 4, 2011 - TAIB has recently been inundated with fabulous information from primary sources which clearly expose the lies being sold to unsuspecting school districts. We are pleased to bring you the following budget document out of Tuscon, Arizona and an editorial written by IB teacher, Tom (last name withheld upon request) of Prince George's County, MD.. When Tom (a Calculus teacher) complained to Superintendent John Deasy about his dissatisfaction with IB, he received the following e-mail, "Yes I received your essay. I have no comment except to disagree with your position. If you feel you can not teach in the program you should seek a transfer or resign. We value your teaching and have no intention of changing direction with respect to students gaining access to IB."
TAIB urges anyone fighting the implementation of IB in their district to print out this page and distribute copies to their school board. A big thank you to Debra Niwa, author of IB Unraveled, for forwarding the finance information from AZ to TAIB.
Posted by tmilz on Monday, September 01, 2008 9:55:14 PM
I entered the seminar room about 15 minutes before the lecture began, aware that I would miss the night’s fireworks but interested in hearing how International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) would expound on "International Mindedness," one of the organization’s stated goals. At my early-July teacher training in beautiful Montezuma, New Mexico, this seminar opened my eyes to the fact that IBO is more ideological than educational. Moreover, it sent me on moral and ethical quest as I began to question the role of public education, the morality of a program such as IBO in ourpublic schools, my appropriate response to the program in my school, and how I will handle the schooling of my own children.
Dr. Steve Hreha, a physicist from Montreal and an IBO lecturer, spoke. His presentation was rooted in moral relativism, the worldview that morality is relative, or what is true for one person/group is not necessarily true for another person/group. He instructed that we cannot make value judgements regarding cultural practices. Rather, we must seek to understand the cultural backgrounds and reasons for such practices. This worldview has indeed become popular in our current post-modern age; but it is not the validity of moral relativism with which I must contend. Instead, my concern lies in the fact that a single worldview is given to IBO teachers (all IBO teachers must attend conferences such as this) as necessary instruction in their respective IBO classes.
It is a shame when education in skills and thinking is replaced by the presentation of a single worldview. Indoctrination cannot, in a society which truly aspires to individual liberty, be substituted for education. Author David Horowitz says it this way:
"In authoritarian and totalitarian societies schools exist to indoctrinate students in the orthodoxy of the state. In a democracy, by contrast, we teach studentshowto think, notwhatto think. In other words, in a free society the very purpose of education is to open students’ minds and encourage future citizens to figure out what conclusions to draw by themselves. It is not the purpose of a democratic education to force-feed students opinions on controversial issues that the teacher deems ‘politically correct’."
InMein Kampf, for instance, Adolf Hitler stressed "the importance of winning over and then training the youth in the service ‘of a new national state.’ The government school system would be the means to the end. "When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ he said in a speech on November 6, 1933, "I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’" And on May 1, 1937, he declared, "This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
The irony of values-based curriculum instruction is not wasted on this observer, for as a nation, we have spent the last sixty years trying get rid of the teaching of solely one set of values, attempting to clearly delineate, for example, the boundary between church and state. Yet, under the guise of global citizenry, IBO now does the exact same thing, preaching a gospel of its own values, its own religion.
IBO operates with the stated goal to develop global citizens, taking stands on everything from environmentalism to international diplomacy to population control. At my training, in a subject as seemingly objective as Calculus, I was encouraged to fill my curriculum with word problems that demonstrate an underlying agenda for the program – declining animal populations, the dangers of pollutants, global warming, etc. Would this technique be viewed innocuous by the school board if I were to give word problems that focus on the percentage of international terrorists that is Muslim or examine the statistical the correlation between higher gun control and higher crime levels?
Furthermore, IBO as a whole ascribes to the tenets of the Earth Charter, at one point even giving its full endorsement to this political movement. The Earth Charter initiative includes, among other things, calls for "universal health care," the "equitable distribution of wealth," and "responsible reproduction." (How is that working out in China?) IBO also has strong ties to groups like the United Nations and several of its subsidiaries, again ideologically partisan groups. For instance, the UN Population Fund has defended Chinese population control. Another example is how IBO and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization have collaboratively formed a "curriculum framework for peace education." Peace, in itself, is a desirable goal; however, educating about peace can be a very political and ideological task. There are, after all, strongly competing views on how best to achieve peace; one may promote peace through negotiations concessions, another may promote it through strength. Teaching such a thing is indeed values education.
Each is entitled to have his/her own opinion. Each is more over entitled the right to free speech. However, as Thomas Jefferson noted, "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." In other words, it is morally wrong, even "tyrannical" for a program such as IBO to be in the public school systems, paid for by those who fully disagree.
It is unethical for public education to support curriculum that promotes a single worldview to the exclusion of others. In order to be informed citizens, students must be taught to think analytically and logically, as opposed to merely parroting ideas. Therefore, I cannot, in good conscience, support the International Baccalaureate Organization, which favors the indoctrination of students at the taxpayer’s expense.
February 3, 2011 - IB is ramping up efforts to infiltrate high schools out on the east end of Long Island, NY. TAIB alerted our readers to the presentation made in the East Hampton district, and many of you joined in with wonderful comments. Today we bring you a story out of Sag Harbor which we encourage you to add your two cents to, as well:
When TAIB last checked, the CCHeadliner had disabled comments following Sgt. White's opinion piece. Perhaps it was just a technical glitch, but if anyone else is able to comment, please do!
GREAT NEWS!
January 29, 2011:
TAIB isn't sure which news item makes us happier, so we will celebrate both! First, out of the beautiful State of Virginia:
Testing-fee prohibition shot down in legislature RICHMOND — Local legislators have agreed to kill a bill that would have eliminated student fees as part of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate testing requirements inVirginia schools.
You can read all of the Liberal whining that follows the opening sentence, if you wish. As you can see, this was an attempt by a Democrat legislator to force ALL Virginia taxpayers to pick up the tab for IB exams. It is a disgusting example of IB attempting to ride on the back of the more recognized, less expensive AP, to worm its way into our public schools. Bravo, Virginia Legislature!
Nevada Patriots Take to the Radio to Fight Secret Meetings
Comments:It's sad when people are afraid of education. How cowardly and ignorant. I'm going to begin my IB courses next year. The majority of my class is enrolled in the IB programme. We are the Honors kids that are involved in the community, we are individuals, we are intelligent and we are creative. We are the generation that will be taking care of your kind when you're old and dependent on us. We are the generation ready to learn through new innovative ways. Move aside. ~ No name, no return address
The American Legion Officially Opposes IB
January 25, 2011 - TAIB would like to take this opportunity to commend MSG Ronnie White for contacting the National Headquarters of The American Legion with his concerns about International Baccalaureate. TAIB is proud to be the first to publish the following e-mail:
On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Novak, Michael<mnovak@legion.org>wrote:
Dear Comrade White,
Thank you for contacting The American Legion National Headquarters.
We appreciate your effort to bring this International Baccalaureate Program to our attention. In fact, the national organization is on record of our opposition to just this sort of attack on the U.S. education system. Resolution No. 31 (NEC October 14-15, 1992) states The American Legion Policy on Education. Specifically: "A major result of our educational process must be to provide people with the finest training in the world in basic skills of communication, and in knowledge which will enable individuals to think for themselves, to reason with facts, to comprehend with understanding."
We strongly encourage Departments to embrace the mandates stated by this resolution, and work with their state Department of Education to incorporate solid instruction in American History, civics, English, mathematics and science in their schools.
Students with an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma earn an average of 25-28 University credits, including 3 hours of credit in Philosophy for completing the Theory of Knowledge course
Once an IB student applies and is admitted to UNL, their IB Diploma may be worth a$44,000 scholarship(out-of-state students only).
International Baccalaureate George Beadle Scholarship Students enrolled and complete the IB curriculum and score a minimum of 27 on the ACT or its equivalent on the SAT are eligible for $11,700 per year up to 135 credit hours or completion of a degree, whichever happens first.
TAIB wonders why Mr. Beadle or UNL doesn't see fit to reward students from the home state of Nebraska with this generous scholarship? Is that a dumb question or does anyone else think it's a fair question? Don't a lot of kids like to go to their home state's university? This is certainly a good reason to halt any IB implementation in the State of Nebraska.
Aside from the residency issue, upon admission, readers will be interested to learn that those IB students UNL accepts will be placed in a "Small Learning Community". Hmmm. For the ability to group IB students together, students are billed an extra $95 per month on top of regular housing expenses.
With me so far? Okay. So in order to earn the $44,000 scholarship, you have to be from out of state, have an IB Diploma and pay an extra $95 a month to be grouped with other IBers. Would UNL give this to an IB Diploma of any score? (24-45)
IB COURSE CREDIT The specific number of earned credits you receive from UNL will depend on your IB course performance. The University awards credit in most IB courses with scores of 5 and above. (6 IB courses x 5 = 30)
Let's summarize the conditions that must be met for an IB Diploma student to actually be able to take advantage of that $44,000 advertised by UNL:
1. Must NOT be from Nebraska 2. Must have scored 30 or higher on the full IB Diploma. 3. Must have a score of 27 or higher on the ACT or its SAT equivalent 4. Will be placed in a "Small Learning Community" 5. Gets to pay $95 more a month for housing.
Guess it sucks to be an IB student from Omaha, Nebraska, eh? TAIB thinks KFAB needs to be updated on this bit of IB propaganda.
Is that right? WOW! The student who passes AP Calculus BC (score of 3, 4, 5) and Physics B (5) (each one year courses) can earn 20 credits for just those two courses!!! Meanwhile, the IB student who takes two (2) years worth of HL Mathematics and HL Physics, with scores of 5-7 will be awarded a measly 11 hours of credit. Keep in mind that "passing" for IB is a '4', while "passing" for AP is a '3'.
TAIB hopes the UNL model debunks IB lovers claims of instant scholarships and sophomore status to anyone who earns an IB Diploma with a score of 24-29 (average for most U.S. public high schools is 28) and the incredible disparity in credits awarded to AP's one year courses vs. IB's HL 2 year courses.
Can You Say Racist? Lisa E. McLoughlin
As an NYU student, my daughter subscribes to e-mail updates for scholarships. I told her to stop making stuff up when she told me she couldn't apply for the Gates Millenium Scholarship because she was white. She said, "No, Ma - LOOK!" Who’s Eligible?
Students areeligibleto be considered for a GMS scholarship if they: Are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native*, Asian Pacific Islander American** or Hispanic American
So how does this relate to IB? http://www.ibo.org/ibaem/documents/AthensOct06-ALucard_000.pdf At the top of the pyramid are the really big funders and the really big projects. For the time being, the major relationship that we are working on, and the major project associated with it, is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MYP/DP continuum.This program is in line with the particular interests of the Gates Foundation: to help students in the United States be successful in high school regardless of their socioeconomic background.
The Gates MS requires students to be financially eligible for a Pell Grant, which is only awarded to the poorest families. Unfortunately, poor whites and poor white Jews are not eligible.
Example of IB Brainwashing
January 15, 2011 - It's a shame this "Concerned IB Student" was too chicken to include a working e-mail address for a personal reply. So instead, we'll paste it here. TAIB's replies are in blue.
First Name: Concerned Last Name: IB Student Address Line 1: ... City: ... State: ... Zip Code: ... Country: ... E-mail Address: ....@gmail.com
Comments: People are afraid of IB because it teaches people how to think. Incredibly, this student manages to include not one but two IB "concepts" in their opening salvo. The first, is that those of us who oppose IB are "afraid" of it. Labeling opponents as fearful immediately categorizes them as weaker. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us who oppose IB must come to the table armed with facts, figures and research and be prepared to withstand the onslaught of Alinksy driven insults which will inevitably be hurled our way by IB supporters. The second, is that IB teaches students "how" to think. We have heard this talking point used in almost every single IB presentation ever given - "IB teaches students how to think, not what to think". Let's go to the Merriam-Webster's definitions of "how" and "what":
Definition ofHOW
1
a:in what manner or wayb:for what reason:whyc:with what meaning:to what effectd:by what name or title
Definition ofWHAT
1
a(1)—used as an interrogative expressing inquiry about the identity, nature, or value of an object or matter<whatis this><whatis wealth without friends><whatdoes he earn><whathath God wrought>(2)—often used toaskfor repetition of an utterance or part of an utterance not properly heard or understoodwhat>
As demonstrated above, it is impossible to define 'how' without using the word 'what'. TAIB is going to take IB at its word that it doesn't teach children "what to think". So let's eliminate the word 'what' from the definition of 'how' and substitute it with 'a' or 'an'. We can now see that IB's method of teaching actually eliminates inquiry and delivers education in a dictatorial, non-questioning manner leaving no room for individual identification of 'what' they are being taught.
People are afraid that courses such as TOK will make people question concepts such as religion, conservativism and turn innocent biblebelters into radical liberals. This is why America is concerned. People who oppose IB in American public schools are not afraid that IB will force students to question religion. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional to force students to question their personal religion in a public school setting. TAIB is repeatedly using the word 'force' because TOK is a mandatory core component of the IB Diploma and a student cannot attain the IB Diploma without completing TOK. Let us remember the three components of the Lemon Test and the fact that public schools in the United States are government schools.
While the ACLU has actively used the Lemon Test to make sure the name of God and the Ten Commandments must never be uttered in our public schools, the same test can be used to insure that government does not infringe on our childrens' right to hold religious beliefs without being forced to question them.
IB is better than AP, which is essentially memorization. Here we see how this student has been indoctrinated to believe that AP is inferior to IB because it requires students to actually remember the facts, theories and content they were taught. Now we know this may sound terribly silly, but if you don't remember what you were taught, then you didn't really learn it in the first place, did you?
IB instead teaches people how to apply concepts within the actual world, making these people who take IB much better prepared for the rigour of university (I havent even talked about the EE yet). Concepts based on redistribution of wealth, junk science, Keynesian economics, social justice and those preferred by global elites may well prepare students how to "go along to get along" with the 70-80% of Liberal university Professors, but they will not "better prepare" students to become engineers, doctors, mathematicians and scientists.
The fact that America has started to embrace IB, means that it has embraced the education of the future. The "fact"? TAIB hardly calls the adoption of IB in less than 700 American public high schools an "embrace". As we have demonstrated here at TAIB, many American communities consider IB a disgrace to our founding principles and American values.
AP is a throwback from 40 years ago, when educators thought that memorizing was the way to learn, people have to now learn things properly... And IB is a throwback to 1948 (63 years ago) when Fabian socialists like Marie Therese Maurette, the "Mother of IB", (or as George Walker calls her, someone with "strong left-wing political views") decided that "international mindedness is not acquired by some instinctive process of cultural osmosis. It requires specific interventions; a carefully designed programme of educational activities. It is taught, not caught."
IB's definition of proper learning involves undermining one's religious beliefs and brainwashing students into becoming Progressives who believe themselves to be superior, devoid of any of those pesky little facts and history that would make them truly understand how they have been manipulated. IB's relativistic methods combined with its constructivist pedogogy seeks to undermine American founding principles, traditions and core knowledge. To this end, IB must be soundly rejected, not embraced.
IB Semantics
January 6, 2011 - From TAIB's first exposure to IB, we have noticed how the programme deliberately plays games with the English language by attempting to twist, distort, negate and emphasize certain words to use to its advantage. For example, it is almost impossible to find an article about IB that does not include the word rigorous. IB uses 'rigorous' to selectively mean either "scrupulously accurate" or "very strict". But what are the synonyms for 'rigorous', according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: austere, authoritarian, flinty, hard, harsh, heavy-handed, ramrod, rigid, stern, strict, tough.
How about the word baccalaureate? Interestingly, Merriam-Webster doesn't even have a synonym for baccalaureate, and the only one we could locate called it a bachelor's degree. A high school diploma is not the equivalent of a university bachelor's degree here in the United States.
A recent discussion in Jay Mathews' Admissions 101 forum in the Washington Post with several IB zealots regarding IB's TOK requirements, has erupted into a no-win battle over the meaning of the word 'belief' and whether or not TOK requires students to question their belief in God. Thanks to Ann Marie Banfield of Bedford, NH, we have hard evidence that IB does . Yet, faced with the actual "text resource" used in an actual IB World School, IB zealots vehemently deny the truth of this evidence.
Today TAIB received an e-mail from a concerned parent from Novi, Michigan. He asked TAIB if we have any idea what the following means:
A school language policy is derived from the school’s language philosophy and is a statement of purpose that outlines the goals for language teaching and learning. It is constructed around pedagogical and learning beliefs and therefore is a statement of action describing practices for achieving and evaluating goals. Novi High School is in the establishment phase of a school language steering committee which will be responsible for overseeing the procedures needed to develop the language philosophy and policy of the school, and for communicating with those they represent.
To answer this parent, TAIB must cite Ellen McClay's book, In the Presence of Our Enemies, pg. 13:
"Broadminded, open-minded Americans raised on such slogans as "A man is as good as his word", fail to comprehend "to the Communists, words are tools to achieve effects, not means to communicate, in the search for truth." (28) Slogans have been created to create rational thinking. Hoover wrote about the Communist use of language as a weapon in their subversive activities, a study which is important in reading UNESCO material: "Mention must be made, to understand this double talk, of a communist deceptive device called Aesopian language. This is a roundabout presentation. So it is with the word democracy. Communists still use Aesopian language - they say one thing and mean another. In this manner, they fool non-Communists, encouraging them to believe that Communism stands for something desireable. The word 'democracy' is one of the Communists' favorite Aesopian terms. Full democracy, to the communist will come only when all non-communist opposition is liquidated." (29) 28. Dr. Stefan T. Possony, expert witness before House Committee, March 2, 1959 29. Masters of Deceit, The Story of Communism in America - J. Edgar Hoover, Henry Holt & Co. 1948
TAIB urges parents everywhere to be aware of IB's attempts to corrupt and co-opt language to further its globalist agenda. Forewarned is forearmed.
Chicago IB Community Rift
January 5, 2011 - THIS ARTICLE popped up on TAIB's Google alerts and we had to read deep into the article to learn that the cause of the "rift" is the designation of this newly built high school as an IB World School. There are two facts which the article excludes, which are very important. 1. South Shore HS is not yet authorized by IBO. 2. According to IBO regulations; 3.4 New schools should normally have been in existence for at least three years before they can be authorized.
So - with potential IB authorization at least five years down the road, why is the Chicago school system causing unrest in this low income community? (hint: Cloward & Piven)
IB Boot Camp
TAIB received an e-mail from a concerned Mom in Stockton, CA, who was unable to attain answers to her questions about the IB program in her HS. While searching for info on the IB operations at Franklin HS, we came across a detailed page on its IB Boot Camp. TAIB is guessing that this Boot Camp fulfills IB's definition of "rigorous".
#1 Story of 2010!
January 4, 2011 - TAIB agrees. The outrageous attempt by WCSD, along with the private interest non-profit IBIV to force IB into Incline Village public schools K-12 was not only the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza's #1 story, but TAIB's as well. TAIB was welcomed into the IB debate in IV at the tail-end of 2009 by John Eppolito. Our year-long communication and collaboration has resulted in what TAIB considers a memorable friendship and hopefully, a victory for freedom.
Unfortunately, THIS STORY does not have a final conclusion, as yet. Eppolito and 335 other signers of a petition against IB anxiously await the outcome of the 1/4 and 1/10 meetings scheduled between WCSD, IBIV and Eppolito's group. Unresolved is the matter of who is picking up the tab for money already expended on IB by WCSD, a complete accounting of those expenses, and a final decree abandoning pursuit of IB by the district.
TAIB expects the "final answer" to those issues by mid-month. It is inconceivable, in light of the unprecedented popular uprising, negative publicity and poor economy, that WCSD will press the IB issue in 2011. The IB issue consumed Eppolito's life in a way he never thought possible. God bless Eppy and his lovely wife Teresa for coming forward to lead the charge against IB in IV. The time has come to allow them to return to their lives as teacher, Realtor and parents and to be able to send their children to their public schools free of UN indoctrination.
WELCOME!
TAIB is pleased to welcome members of Citizens 4 Freedom, a Tea Party resource in Orange County, New York, to our readership! TAIB respectfully requests that Citizens 4 Freedom attend 2011 budget meetings for the Pine Bush school district and find out why Pine Bush HS, (which allegedly discontinued its IB Diploma program), is still listed as an authorized IB World School.
Thanks to one of TAIB's friends at USPEIN for bringing the three videos below to our attention. Charlotte Iserbyt has gone well beyond just our focus on International Baccalaureate. Now, some may find Alex Jones a bit loud and abrasive and disagree with his 9/11 Truther position, but this interview is worth spending a half hour on.
Two references jumped out at TAIB which specifically relate to IB. The first was regarding "identify the resisters". Iserbyt spoke of how she was "trained" to do this when she served on her School Board and how to cozy up to the community "leaders" to get them to oppose the resisters. Remember the IB Playbook? The other day on The Blaze, TAIB read about the possibility of Jon Huntsman Jr making a run for President in 2012. Where had we heard that name before, other than his famous philanthropist father? Oh yes, HERE. Scroll down to the bottom for IB's Case Study: Opposition in the Media:
Conclusion The accusatory op-ed piece against the IA was out of the blue, but principal Bert Okma was prepared for it and moved quickly and efficiently to squelch the opposition. He recommends to fellow principals the following steps: • Create, cultivate, and maintain relationships with parents, students, local government, business leaders, and other community groups. • Don’t wait for conflict to arise to decide how to respond. Have ready answers for many of the common complaints lodged against the IB and distribute them to your colleagues. • If you face opposition in a public forum, immediately notify your colleagues, your community, and the IB North America of the nature of the opposition and your proposed course of action. • Respond quickly and thoughtfully and enlist others, such as parents, to respond as well.
Sounds like a pretty solid plan to shut down the "resisters", eh?
The other area of relevance discussed was the Chicago school system and charter schools. Interestingly, Iserbyt refers to 1998 which was the year Obama and Ayers sat on the Annenberg Challenge and Woods Foundation, but didn't mention how, along with Arne Duncan, they also grew the number of IB schools in Chicago from one to 26. TAIB analyzes the Chicago system HERE.
The recent signing of an MoU between the Aga Khan's Development Network and IBO, stands as an official agreement by IBO to promote a pro-Muslim, anti-Judeo/Christian agenda. TAIB has found IBO's Global Engage "projects" offer a wealth of evidence to support this claim. Below are a few choice excerpts from the lesson: Intercultural Understanding: Extending Muslim contexts to extend learning. The full .pdf can be found at (left). What was a "pilot project" in 2008, most certainly has become standard fare for IB World Schools in 2010.
Given the current learning gap resulting in a “clash of ignorances” between Western and Muslim cultures, it is important that IB students have the opportunity to learn about, and appreciate, the diversity of Muslim histories and cultures, “a hugely diverse collectivity of civilisations that have developed, and continue to evolve, in response to multiple societal influences—agricultural and rural, commercial and urban, scientific and philosophical, literary and political. Just like other great traditions, the Islamic world cannot be understood only by its faith, but as a total picture whose history is closely tied to that of the Judeo-Christian world.”
The focus of this pilot project is not to teach about Islam as a religion but rather to illustrate how understanding both historical and contemporary Muslim cultures can contribute to, and enhance the understanding of, central ideas and significant concepts taught in IB World School
We purposefully time our unit to straddle the mid-year break, so that students have an opportunity to either explore their host country in greater detail, or contrast where they live with a place they travel to for the holidays. At a time when many of the classes are trying to work out where Father Christmas lives and how they can tell him where they will be on Christmas Eve, we find a natural link to introducing the globe and finding where Oman is in relation to the North Pole and to many other places in the world.
Isn't that special? And TAIB is "purposefully" timing this message five days before Christmas to wake up Americans who are considering enrolling their children in an IB school. Islam IS a religion. Do NOT let these globalists attempt to sell this snake-oil under the guise of Islam being a "culture".
How IB Ruins Schools & Real Estate by Lisa E. McLoughlin
In the summer of 2010, my husband and I decided we have had enough of NY and would be looking for less expensive southern pastures. We explored most of the eastern portion of the state of South Carolina and found a beautiful area called Summerville, about a half hour inland from the wonderful city of Charleston and fabulous Folly Beach. Taxes, 1/10th of what we pay on Long Island, are a major consideration so we had decided not to look in any school districts which had the IB program which would unnecessarily drive up school taxes.
On our first day of looking around, we met a nice man at the local gas station who struck up a conversation. He told us, "Oh, you folks will love Sumnmerville, just steer clear of North Charleston, that's where all the drugs and gangs are."
Of course, this gentleman had no idea that we were already steering clear of North Charleston because it had IB. South Carolina just released the AP/IB exam results for the state. Having explored the Summerville area in depth first hand, I was excited to see the comparison of scores for the three high schools in the Dorcester County district. As you can see in the charts below, the two non-IB HSs blew away the IB Fort Dorcester HS in North Charleston when it came to AP pass rates. In fact, Fort Dorcester's AP pass rates are in the same 33-36% ballpark as Locust Valley IB HS, NY!
This requires some analysis because all over the U.S., IB advocates claim that making a school IB will "draw" new students. Let's be perfectly clear. Home values are directly tied to the quality of the schools in the neighborhood. In case after case where schools have implemented IB, the pass rate on AP exams rockets downward. Why? The answer is simple. Administration discourages AP enrollment and assigns the better teachers to IB in order to try and justify the outrageous expense of the program. I personally think this constitutes educational malpractice when a school puts 254 AP students at a disadvantage in order to favor 36 IB students. You be the judge.
California Teachers Fight IB
December 16, 2010 - It would appear that the economy is finally beginning to trump ideology, even in California. Unfortunately, school board trustees and administrators (who probably, if the public were polled, would have the same approval rating as the 111th Congress of 13%), don't "get it". The administration tries to use the tired old faulty logic that IB will "attract" new students which will cover the cost of the program, making Redondo Beach, an education "destination". Now where have we heard that phrase before? Oh yes, Incline Village, NV.
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. ...[SNIP]... 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.”
Based on this article, TAIB is awarding Superintendent Steven Keller the IB Grinch of the Month Award: “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.”
And a bah humbug to you too, Mr. Keller!
Is this Dr. Steven Keller?
or is this?
"SHIFT HAPPENS"
Isn't that cute? No? I didn't think so, either. TAIB encountered this delightful propaganda when further researching the IB TOK lesson on Global Poverty which you can read more about HERE. Teachers are told to send their students to You Tube and search the phrase "Shift Happens". What comes up are a number of videos like the one to to your right. I almost fell out of my chair when the following statement popped up on the screen:
"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."
This pearl of "wisdom" was preceded by the statement:
"The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004."
Now words that absurd and prophetic are hard to forget. I'm pretty sure it was in 2005, I was in attendance at a Locust Valley Board of Education meeting (authorized as an IB World School in 2004) when I heard those exact same words proudly spew (with no citing of the source of the quote) from the lips of LVCSD Board President, Ronald Walsh. I was sitting with my dear friend Cathy Carusi. We turned to each other and said, "What the F is that supposed to mean?!?" We thought it was something this rather less than endearing man conjured up himself.
So now I know where Walsh got his propaganda from. For those who are interested, I searched for the Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010. From the smarterspend website, they are: I. Biomedical Engineers II. Computer Systems Analyst III. Physician Assistants IV. Biochemists V. Dental Hygienist VI. Computer Software Engineer VII. Veterinarians VIII. Environmental Engineers IX. Survey Researchers X. Physical Therapists
Did IB prepare students for ANY of these professions, which obviously existed in 2004 and for which technology also existed? You be the judge.
UK Blog Mocks TAIB
December 7, 2010 - When a blog defending IB has to refer to "opposition to its potentially ‘anti-American’ focus plagues school districts across several states" and "administrators in areas like Bedford, New Hampshire have faced parents objecting to the ‘United Nations agenda’ and its alleged ties to radical environmentalism", we know we are making a difference. The Progressive writer of this article yearns for the "pre-Balls" (sorry, but if that isn't funny, I don't know what is) philosophy of the UK's Labour Party under Fabian Socialist Tony Blair while referring to those of us at TAIB as outraged patriots, with the word patriots appearing in what can only be construed as fear quotes:
As an American researcher working for ISC, I found the New York Times’ article to be fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Luckily, it appears that common sense and strong pedagogy are louder than the outraged ‘patriots’ who started ‘Truth about IB’, a website detailing its many evils. But if the IB strikes you as a hotbed for anarcho-communist, radical-environmental, UN-funded plots, dopop on by.
Locust Valley TOK Consultant
Every now and then I get bored and decide to look to see how the Locust Valley school district is wasting my taxdollars. The October, 2010, Board of Education Actions reveals that the district has hired a Mr. Russell Reid as a "consultant" for TOK (IB's Theory of Knowledge course). Of course, LVCSD doesn't spell out how much Mr. Reid will be compensated for his services or how that would compare in price to sending a teacher to IB training. I wonder if 70% of the 43 IB Diploma candidates scoring a 'D' or worse on their TOK essays had anything to do with this decision?
Recommended Reading
TAIB was honored to be contacted by Ellen McClay (nom de plume), author of the book "In The Presence of Our Enemies". She describes herself as the last surviving Minutewoman of the U.S.A. Active in the 1950's and 60's, the Minutewomen warned of UNESCO's evil intentions for American public schools, long before IB was invented. Ellen was horrified to learn of the existence of IB which surfaced shortly after her departure from political activism into the mundane world of earning a living as a medical transcriber, or as she describes, "while she was sleeping".
The sub-title of the book is "A history of the malignant effects in American Schools of the UN'S UNESCO and its transformation of American society from the lips of those who did it".
Union Ugly
December 3, 2010 - THIS ARTICLE came to TAIB's attention because one of the teachers was giving a presentation on IB, but TAIB wanted to share this to demonstrate how our spoiled Long Island teachers behave during contract negotiations.
What was it that caused these teachers to give up watching House on a Monday night in order to don their black wardrobe and dour expressions? A request from a resident to make providing extra help to students part of their contract:
"In the letter, Stewart stresses the need to help middle level students who could use the extra help: "Please make extra help mandatory in the next teacher's contract and make a reasonable amount of time mandatory as well, left up to your expertise. This contract provision will give the principals of our school district the power to ensure that all students are assisted equally and not left behind."
Oh, the horror! Let me point out to others across the United States that Northport teachers are on a very similar payscale with Locust Valley teachers, meaning the average salary is around $86,000 a year with 20+ year teachers earning over $120,000. God forbid they should be forced to provide extra help to students without additional stipends.
Brazilian Blog Calls McLoughlin "Brave Lady"
November 21, 2010 - TAIB is grateful to the Catholic Families for its recent article about IB. It is hard to predict what sort of reach an interview of that nature will have, but TAIB can report that we have received hundreds of hits from the article's link to this website. A number of hits originated in Brazil and we found our way to a blog called ViVerdeNova. It is written in Portugese, but you can click on the "translate to English" tab at the top. I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought this was pretty darn cool. ;-)
Lisa McLoughlin, a housewife from Long Island who raised her voice to denounce and criticize the curriculum of the IB says that "education is the biggest fraud perpetrated against the American School today."(http://www.c-fam.org/Internationalist Curriculum Infiltrate U.S. Schools, by Seana Cranston, edition of 18 Novembro/2010).In Brazil we have dozens of schools in Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre ...cheating minds.
There are dozens of the best Brazilian schools, including some Catholics, who adopted the curriculum of the IB."UNESCO and the Bill and Melinda Gates, finance some of the IB. Is the education of future political leaders and opinion makers in the internationalist playbook, ignoring national sovereignty and promoting internationalism masquerading as environmentalism.
IB, is chaired by Carol Bellamy, who directed the same UNICEF, promoting abortion and promiscuous sex education of children, as well as a radical women's agenda.UNESCO also supports "legal abortion, homosexuality and the abolition of traditional gender identities."
The study plans of IB are intimately linked to internationalism, moral relativism and contempt for family values.Defend "local control to a foreign authority that promotes world government."The IB Foundation, endorsed the "Earth Charter", which "supports population control and socialism" so that "all nations to implement their principles by an international treaty."You are in the face!You are in the media, in movies, in music, in performances for the youth!
This is what we are teaching our children in our schools.Ok in the face! So says owner Lisa McLoughlin: "Students learn about IB's diversity, multiculturalism and internationalist mindset. But, you know math? Learn grammar? Learn to write an essay?"Who wants to know more, the site of this brave lady is North American:www.truthaboutib.com.The same can be said of Brazilian schools forming functional illiterates.
NEW YORK, November 18 (C-FAM) A sign nailed to a tree trunk in a family’s front yard reads, “NO IB, Stop Wasting Money, Keep the UN Out of Our Schools.” Across the Arizona town, a school board member criticizes a curriculum she says surrenders local control to a foreign organization that promotes world government.
The debate means one American community has awakened to the International Baccalaureate, a study program quietly embraced by nearly 1,000 U.S. campuses and 139 countries worldwide. While found mostly in public high schools, the curriculum has touched middle and elementary schools, and even a number of Catholic schools.
“IB is the biggest educational scam perpetrated on American schools today,” says Lisa McLoughlin, a Long Island mother and leading critic. She says schools shouldn't spend tax dollars on the program, and questions if Catholic schools are aware of its underlying, liberal internationalist philosophy.
“IB students learn diversity, multiculturalism, and international-mindedness, but can they do math? Do they learn grammar? Can they write a paper?” says McLoughlin.
The IB comes from a non-profit educational foundation of the same name founded in Switzerland in 1968. Its early money came from the United Nations, as well as the 20th Century Fund and Ford Foundation.
The baccalaureate foundation maintains close ties to the UN through its cultural and education agency, UNESCO. It regularly participates in UNESCO meetings and comments on its proposals in education. UNESCO still funds some IB projects, as does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite its direct relationship with the UN, IBdenies any UN influence on its curriculum.
But critics say IB is anti-American, undermines national sovereignty, and promotes radical environmentalism. Until recently, IB endorsed the Earth Charter, which supports population control and socialism. The Earth Charter argues that all nations should implement its principles in an international treaty.
Some also criticize IB’s non-traditional curriculum and lack of transparency. To discover the actual curriculum, outsiders must buy course guides from the foundation itself. But even then the course guides are vague, McLoughlin says.
McLoughlin became interested in the curriculum after it arrived at her family’s public high school. She created the website,www.truthaboutib.com, described by a Washington Post column as “remarkably fair” despite its clear anti-IB agenda.
She says IB promotes moral relativism and undermines familial values. An IB director, for example, said in a speech that questions about ethical obligations, human rights, beliefs, and moral responsibility have “no right or wrong answers.”
A document on IB’swebsite contains a curriculum model that emphasizes “Sharing the planet.” It promotes world citizenship, and says students need a greater understanding of internationalism because of the “prevalence of discrimination, racism in all its forms . . . and environmental destruction.”
Whatever its official relationship to the UN, the IB's personal ties run deep. The foundation's chair is Carol Bellamy, who formerly led the United Nation’s Children’s Fund. During her tenure, UNICEF promoted abortion rights, sex ed for children that encouraged promiscuity, and a radical feminist agenda.
And its close relationship to UNESCO draws the IB into another education controversy. As recently reportedby the Friday Fax, UNESCO promotes sex education for children of all ages. UNESCO also supports legalized abortion, homosexuality, and the abolishment of traditional gender identities.
UN Introduces Cholera to Haiti then asks for $164M!
November 14, 2010 - Normally, TAIB doesn't publish hearsay information without being able to identify the source. However, this e-mail received from Japan this morning has the "ring of truth" to it. We hope that once this teacher finds employment at a non-IB school (and we wish much luck!), he or she will write back to TAIB with all of the details.
Country: Japan E-mail Address: Comments: I work in a school in Japan that is in the middle of adopting the MYP. In spite of the fact that two school principals and a host of teachers who went to an orientation session about the MYP came back and said we don't need to adopt it, a school head wanting to build his resume went ahead with it. We were told that we would receive adequate training (which we definitely haven't) and that the money would be there to complete the process effectively. Part of the adoption process involves teachers being sent overseas on expensive trips for MYP training. We are talking about tens-of-thousands of dollars per year for the associated costs. The school head just pushed it through, saying something along the lines of "the resources will be there to do it well." Now, we have been told that we have overspent our budget for covering teacher absences, which never happened in the history of the school. Clearly we are over-budget because we are being forced to send teachers on international trips for training. Our school's business manager was pushing for us to have a change in our sick days, due to being overspent in the substitute teacher category, and in fact we now have had a policy change due to this. So, in effect, what was promised us has happened. Yes, the money is there for the additional IB training; it is just that it is now coming out of our pockets as we are having to pay to cover substitutes, in some absence cases, unlike previous years. Sorry, I just cannot add my name and other details to this email. I cannot afford to risk my job at this time. I plan to depart this school. Adopting the IB has been one of the most divisive experiences I have ever had in my career. Our faculty meetings now pit those who are pro-IB telling long-term teachers that they should leave the school and find somewhere else to teach. They are the types that believe that nothing better can come without change (which I agree about), but that doesn't mean that all change is for the good. Cheers!
IB School Raids Accounts to Pay for Paris, Leaves Poor Kids Behind
November 12, 2010 - Oh my. This story is truly scandalous.
RIVIERA BEACH— The long-time band director at Suncoast High used school money to pay for at least six family members to go to Paris with his marching band while leaving behind students who couldn't afford the trip, an audit found...[SNIP]... To cover the deficit, then-Principal Gloria Crutchfield emptied other school accounts, auditors found. Crutchfield, now a district director, also went on the Paris trip for free using school money, auditors found. ...[SNIP] ... The former principal used the school's advanced placement money to pay for her trip, justifying the expense by visiting two International Baccalaureate schools while she was in Paris, auditors wrote.
What a Mess!
November 12, 2010 - The headline for THIS STORY certainly was an eye-catcher: IB students won't receive diplomas in 2012. Why would this North Carolina school district deliberately screw-up the high school experience of an estimated 70 students?
Many International Baccalaureate students due to transition fromNorthviewand Mt. Mourne IB schools next year won’t receive their IB diplomas in 2012. South Iredell High School, which was chosen last year in a contentious battle between Iredell-Statesville Schools officials and IB parents to be the centralized location of the diploma program, has yet to be given the authority to issue IB diplomas, according to Mt. Mourne PrincipalJason Van Heukelum.
TAIB is sick and tired of school officials using children as guinea pigs for IB, wasting millions in taxes, causing controversy in the community and pulling the rug out from under the kids. While TAIB believes the kids will be much better off NOT being in IB, this sort of mismanagement of public schools is inexcusable. Those in charge of making these decisions are ignorant of IB's two year authorization process for another school, even if it is within the same district. IB is nothing but a money-making scheme that preys on hapless U.S. administrators who are oblivious to Swiss rules and regulations.
In the Charlotte-Mecklenberg district, (also in North Carolina) more IB parents are upset because of the decision to close their neighborhood IB school and move the program to another school.
TAIB is waiting for someone to explain to us how upsetting parents and students, creating class warfare and wasting $100-150,000 for every duplicate IB authorization makes "the world a better place".
How Many Ways Can IB Waste Your Money?
Aloha, Hawaii! That's right. The San Diego elementary teachers and Principal can start packing for their IB get-away at the Hawaii Hilton!
And what's this? Ooooo, a *new* IB environmental center, Ecoventure! How exciting. And where is this conveniently located? Ohhhh, look at that. The United Arab Emirates. That's great. Forget those field trips to your local science museums, laboratories, botanical gardens and such. Now, for a mere $135 per day, (of course, the article doesn't state how many days are included), you can pay to send American IB kids to the UAE for IB Eco-camp!
New IB Acronym to Learn - IBCC
November 1, 2010 - CORRECTION: In the article below, TAIB referred to the IB Career Certificate as a "phony credential". Okay. It isn't completely phony. It would appear that this new IB credential is being "piloted" and will be available to some "test" IB schools in the Fall of 2012. So technically, it was a phony credential at North Community High School in Minnesota since they are talking about closing the school at the end of 2011.
"While it has a career-related focus,the IBCC is not a career/vocational qualification. It has been designed to provide "value added" for schools and other educational institutions that are offering career/vocational courses to their students Uh huh. So how much does this baby cost? "The International Baccalaureate® (IB) will determine and communicate a services and fees structure closer to the initial mainstream offering. This offering will be for IB World Schools authorised for the Diploma only."
Oh great. Priceless. And what exactly is this new Rube again?
(See power point slide #2 for Aims as determined by UNESCO 2005)
They're not even trying to hide it anymore, folks.
An IB Bandaid that Didn't Work
November 1, 2010 - Here we have another example of a school district that thought busloads of students would be so enthralled with IB that they would travel away from their neighborhood schools and redeem this high school in Minnesota. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Not only did this district offer IB, they promoted a phony pilot called the IB Career Certificate. While that may be "creative", it is educational malpractice when there is no such program. The district blames the low attendance on "lack of publicity". All of this mismanagement dates back to a 1995 lawsuit filed by the NAACP. Gee, what a surprise.
In 1995, the NAACP brought a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota, and a few years later "The Choice is Yours" program was created to settle the lawsuit. It allows poor (those who qualify for free or reduced lunch) Minneapolis students to go to suburban schools with free transportation. The school district also closed Lincoln, Franklin and Willard Schools that fed into North. Just like Loring, Jenny Lind and Olson schools pathway into Henry, those schools pathwayed into North. Over time the school district let both the Suma Tech magnet and the Performing Arts magnet programs dissolve.
Then last year, the school district decided to make North a small citywide specialty school and removed North's attendance area. This meant that no students were automatically assigned to North as they are to all other high schools. They also said that poor students, living as far north as Dowling Ave., could opt to be bussed to Southwest High School. Although the school district brought in the International Baccalaureate (IB), IB Career Certificate and STEM/Digital Arts programs into North, there wasn't publicity to promote the new programs. Then in August the school board announced that they were going to sponsor two charter high schools, one of which would be in North Minneapolis. (This is in addition to the K-8 charter school they decided in March to sponsor on the Northside.) The combination of all of these things led to the decline in enrollment at North High. North had a number of different principals over these years as well.
"Hillwood High School Principal Steve Chauncy said this week only onestudent, a junior, is currently in the IB program, while last school year 26 students were enrolled. Only one graduated with an IB diploma. ... [SNIP] ... The new program will offer students 26 Advanced Placement courses, the largest Advanced Placement course offering in the district,school officials said."
IB's Muslim Agenda and Slush Fund
October 30, 2010 - TAIB wants American readers to fully understand what this "merger" means to IB programs. Most of you already understand that IB, despite its claims of rigorous curricula, is not a curriculum at all. Even at the Diploma level, what IB provides is a framework. IB's claim to fame is that its programs are the same, everywhere in the world. Let us use Jeffrey Beard's own words to learn what this means:
The IB's Director General Jeff Beard hailed the agreement as an important move in expanding the organisation's geographic reach.
"This is a significant development as it will allow IB to extend its reach in developing countries and draw upon the wealth of expertise AKDN has in providing education to students in some of the poorest and most challenging parts of the world," he said. "It will help us to broaden our international curricula with specific attention paid to the developing world and Muslim societies. AKDN is recognised for its decades of experience in countries where we would like to strengthen our presence."
The agreement results from a strong alignment of goals and values between the two organisations, including a commitment to pluralism, a desire to increase access to quality education, particularly in the developing world, and shared perspectives on issues such as the importance of ongoing teacher development, and inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning.
TAIB is pretty sure most Americans don't share the same goals and values as Ahmadinijad of Iran. Beware the wolf in sheep's clothing. Please help remove IB from U.S. public schools!
Don't Say We Didn't Warn You!
October 29, 2010 - This morning, TAIB received a very brief Google alert:
International Baccalaureate (IB), an educational board recognised by universities around the world, will no longer be restricted to the children of the elite in India. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the non-profit Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the IB Organisation in Paris yesterday.
AKDN has a substantial presence in India with 85,000 beneficiaries under its wrap. They have 10 schools located in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, including two in Mumbai.Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Head of AKDN's Social Welfare Department, and Jeff Beard, Director General of the IB signed the MoU.
Princess Zahra said, "The agreement with IB will bridge the cultural divide and enable our educational institutions to benefit from their educational philosophy, curriculum expertise and academic excellence."
The western countries, in return, will gain from a global perspective of the other countries. Till now, only students in international schools in India had access to IB.
So. Why does this matter to U.S. public schools? TAIB would like to point out something that we wrote two years ago when this website went live:
Beginning in 1998 under former Director General George Walker, IBO began an "expansion push" in the U.S. This blossomed when Goals 2000 was adopted and from 2000-2004, IBO made significant gains in this country. Now, with a new DG, IBO is turning its expansion efforts towards takeover in the UK and through the Aga Khan, with less attention being paid to the U.S. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is fact.
Why does this matter, you ask? Think globally. Think world domination and global governance. Who is traveling to India on November 6th?
To ensure fool-proof security, the President’s team has booked the entire the Taj Mahal Hotel, including 570 rooms, all banquets and restaurants. Since his security contingent and staff will comprise a huge number, 125 rooms at Taj President have also been booked, apart from 80 to 90 rooms each in Grand Hyatt and The Oberoi hotels. The NCPA, where the President is expected to meet representatives from the business community, has also been entirely booked. The officer said, “Obama’s contingent is huge. There are two jumbo jets coming along with Air Force One, which will be flanked by security jets. There will be 30 to 40 secret service agents, who will arrive before him. The President’s convoy has 45 cars, including the Lincoln Continental in which the President travels.” Since Obama will stay in a hotel that is on sea front, elaborate coastal security arrangements have been made by the US Navy in consonance with the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. “There will be US naval ships, along with Indian vessels , patrolling the sea till about 330-km from the shore. This is to negate the possibility of a missile being fired from a distance,” the officer said.
What else has the Aga Khan's Development Network been doing lately? Oh my, will you look at this! ADKN just received its 9th consecutive award from UNESCO for its "conservation efforts" in Pakistan. We wonder how many IB schools there are in all of Pakistan? One. How many in India? Seventy-one. Exactly what sort of "conservation" is the AKDN doing in Pakistan? If it was genuinely interested in "improving education" in third world countries and believes IB is the way to do this, why wouldn't the AKDN throw its billions into Pakistan instead of India where there is already a sizable IB base?
We here at TAIB are obviously not military commanders, nor are we the State Department. It is common knowledge that both India and Pakistan have nukes and that U.S. relations with India are far better than with Pakistan. We must educate ourselves about the beliefs of this Imam of Islam, the Aga Khan. What does he believe?
October 27, 2010 - After SignOn San Diego's Watchdog published the story yesterday about the Hawaiian trip for seven San Diego teachers, the public outcry was so intense that the Superintendent has issued a travel moratorium on all IB training pending further investigation.
TAIB would like to claim partial credit for this decision as we were the ones to point out that IB training was available in January, 2011, in Los Angeles (a 2 hour drive) in the comments following Tuesday's story.
"Some parents saw the conference as wasteful, especially considering there were options for at least some educators to conferences in Los Angeles in January."
Will this serve as a wake-up call to the San Diego Superintendent regarding its eight (8) IB programs? Maybe. We won't hold our breath.
Aloha IB! (or Wasteful Spending 101)
October 26, 2010 - TAIB knew when we saw the headline: School Plans Hawaii Trip for Seven that it simply HAD to be about IB teacher training. This particular training is absolutely shameful. Not only is this San Diego district using $8,000 of State grant money, its braindead PTO is contributing $3,200 to send six teachers and the Principal for a little R & R in Hawaii.
Isn't California bankrupt? Did anyone bother to actually reference the IBO workshop schedule? Because from where we sit, it appears that there are multiple IB workshops offered in Los Angeles in January, 2011, which do not appear to be SOLD OUT at this point in time. This is a mere two hour drive from San Diego!
Parents and taxpayers should demand that these San Diego teachers and Principal reschedule their little jaunt and stop abusing taxpayer money. Better yet, they should abandon their "quest" to turn their schools into indoctrination centers and concentrate on real teaching and learning.
Fairfax BoS Renews Lease for IB "Terror High"
October 20, 2010 - The National Review never mentions IB in THIS STORY. But we here at TAIB are very well aware that the Islamic Saudi Acadamy in Fairfax County, VA, was authorized by IBO in 2008, the same year IBO authorized the controversial King Fah'd Academy in London.
According to the story, ISA is about to lose its accreditation from AdvanceEd (how ironic that the Vice Chair of AdvanceEd's Board of Trustees is Dr. Lisa McLaughlin) It is important to note that AdvanceEd's accreditation is completely separate and independent of IB's authorization. It would appear that the Trustees of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors and the IB Organization have absolutely no qualms however, about taking Saudi money to enable an extremist Islamic school to continue to operate just outside our nation's capitol.
Based on the school's IB authorization date of December, 2008, we can expect the first Class of IB ISA graduates next Spring, 2011. We can hardly wait.
URGENT UPDATE! IB FEES RISE AGAIN - NH LEADS CHARGE FOR TRANSPARENCY
October, 17, 2010 - Kudos to Ann Marie Banfield of Bedford, New Hampshire for an outstanding write-up in the Bedford Bulletin on her courageous appearance before the Bedford Curriculum Committee. TAIB applauds Ann Marie's timely and eloquent presentation of facts, which we here at TAIB have apparently been slackers on. Perhaps after all of these years, we just expect IB fees to rise at super-inflationary rates.
In 2004, the IB fee for the Diploma program was $8,300. At that time, an IB exam cost $54 and you paid an additional fee for the marking of TOK and the EE. They combined those 3 assessment fees in 2005, at which time I believe it was $82. The "registration fee" used to be around $120. Now they want $10,000 a year for the IB country club seal of approval and $237 for the first IB exam.
In six short years, those fees have increased roughly 20%! Is that OK with you? Has your home value increased 20% over 2004 prices? Ummm, I don't think so! But your school taxes have increased 20%, haven't they? Are we seeing a correlation here?
Below are the links to the current IBO fees for all programs:
(Note - IBO has not posted the updated fees for student exams to its main website. Notification of the increase in fees has only been received internally by IB schools)
October 16, 2010 - Jay Mathews of the Washington Post announced in his Class Struggle column the demise of his Best High Schools List (or Challenge Index) in Newsweek magazine, due to WAPO's recent fire-sale of Newsweek for $1. His infamous List will however continue to be published in the Washington Post. Hopefully, the lack of a glossy front page on a national magazine will persuade Progressive public school Superintendents to turn to concentrating on quality teaching and learning in their schools, instead of trying to claim a higher standing on Mathews' meaningless List. "Next year the list will be in a different place, here at washingtonpost.com, and not on Newsweek.com where it has been since it began in 1998. The Washington Post Co., my employer for 39 years, recently sold Newsweek, so I got permission to move the list here."
Mathews is recognized for championing minority and low-income students to challenge themselves with more advanced courses and exams. While in theory that may sound very altruistic, the result of what Mathews created was a plethora of American public schools adopting open-enrollment policies and encouraging every warm body to take IB or AP exams. In his Class Struggle column, Mathews makes a claim which TAIB cannot allow to go unchallenged. He said:
"but the data show that whenever schools open AP to all the number of kids getting 5s increases."
Umm, no. The data does NOT show that. The data from The College Board, compiled for 20 years worth of exams, shows that the percentage of students earning '5's has remained constant. However, the percentage of students earning '1's, has more than doubled and is steadily on the rise.
It's one thing for a journalist to advocate what he believes to be a path to school improvement. It's quite another for a journalist to attempt to support his misguided Progressive advocacy with lies.
‘The end result was that we had a bunch of liberals wanting more money’
Great follow-up article by the Sonoran News.com's Linda Bentley to last week's article.
5 U.S. IB Diploma Programs Bite the Big One
October 12, 2010 - On TAIB's Home page, we attempt to track the number of IB programs that are eliminated, as well as authorized, here in the United States. This is not an easy task as the IB numbers fluctuate throughout the year. Thankfully, one of TAIB's Texas watchdogs has created a program to identify which schools have been dropped. Over the weekend, five American high schools finally rid their schools of this oppressive program. They are:
Pinecrest High School, Southern Pines, North Carolina North Augusta High School, North Augusta, South Carolina Calhoun High School, Calhoun, Georgia Bernards High School, Bernardsville, New Jersey Hunter High School, West Valley City, Utah
October 8, 2010 - Immediately following on the heels of the IB's Director General's embarrassing plagiarized speech comes this shocking story that IB plagiarized parts of its history marking guides from Wikipedia.
"One IB examiner told the TES they were "shocked" to discover what was called "serious examples of academic dishonesty" in the guide for one of the papers, with information for 14 of 24 questions containing sections copied from websites such as Wikipedia.
A teacher who runs training workshops for the IB told the TES they were "livid" and "stunned" and warned the programme had been put at risk."
And a big thanks to a TAIB reader in London who e-mailed us the story issued by TES:
October 7, 2010 - After being required to wait almost an entire month for LVCSD to fulfill TAIB's FOIL request filed on 09/15/10, we finally received the simple e-mail attachments for the 2010 IB/AP Reports which we will share with you now.
Although Newsday accurately reported the number of IB Diplomas at 29, what Newsday failed to report was the total number of IB Diploma candidates - 43. A little quick math reveals that this is the equivalent of a 67% pass rate - identical to the Class of 2009. TAIB would like to once again make the point that despite whatever "rigor" LVCSD and IB officials want to claim is included in the curriculum, apparently it is not being taught very well as one out of every three students who spend their final two years of HS in IB FAILS to attain the IB Diploma. This is not negative hearsay. This is fact.
The much heralded EEs, or extended essays, also received dismal results which included 26 'Cs' and six 'Ds'. It would appear that very little effort went into student TOK essays as there were astoundingly 29 'Ds' and only one single solitary 'A'.
TAIB has uncovered something else rather disturbing in the IB results. You can see in the official record that one (1) student sat for the IB SL Further Maths exam and earned a '2'. Did LVHS run an IB course for a single student? I would ask LVHS, but it would most likely take another month to get an answer, so we'll just let the facts show that one child sat for the exam, however that came to be. We know that AP allows independent study, but we were pretty sure IB insisted upon instruction in a course. And, from what we can see, IB SL Further Maths is not available online.
As to the remaining three (3) AP courses run in LVHS, all we can say is tsk, tsk. Fully 29%, the largest percentage, of all of the AP exam scores was a ONE (1)!!!! Only 36.6% of the 172 students scored a '3' or better - passing. In other words, 63.4% of the AP students FAILED the exams. Compare these results to 1995-96 when the lowest pass rate for AP was 66% in Physics with the majority of the students passing in the 75-100% range. Now, LVHS doesn't even offer AP Physics or IB HL Physics.
October 1, 2010 - Back on April 22, 2010, TAIB brought you the story of two students who had been severely beaten and burned at Deerfield Beach MS in Florida. (scroll down on this page). At the time, we noticed there was no mention of IB in the articles, but we knew it was an IB World School.
Today, THIS STORY, almost six months later, now tells us that the IB students are the targets of bullying:
"What happened last year at this school remains in Simpson’s mind. “It affected me because I’m not sure if somebody is going to do that to me, too,” said Simpson, who said he has been teased because he’s in the magnet program. “What happens to IB kids is they get bullied and they get called names.”
TAIB doesn't like to see any kids bullied. We have all seen the recent horrific stories about kids who have been bullied taking their own lives. Cause and effect is undeniable. The IB program at Deerfield is run as a magnet. But there is also another magnet program. What is it about the IB kids that makes them the targets? Resentment? Other kids feeling that the IB kids get special privileges?
This is just another example of how IB divides instead of heals our schools. Why would any school district pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring in programs that establish a new class of "victims"? TAIB has always maintained that the children subjected to IB really are the victims of misguided Progressive adults. These adults need to realize that the "whole child" inludes a physical body which consists of more than just a mind.
Big Sky Tea Party Takes on IB & ASCD
September 30, 2010 - TAIB was honored to be contacted by Thomas Hann of We The People to be a potential speaker at a rally held on September 18, 2010, in Helena, Montana. Unfortunately, uncertainty about the rally being able to take place prevented the finalization of arrangements, but Tom just sent us video from the event. Please take some time to listen to these thoughtful, well educated, well-spoken individuals. I think you will really enjoy them:
Tom also brought to TAIB's attention this recent Letter to the Editor of the Helena Independent Record written by Jim Walker of the Big Sky Tea Party Association board:
The Big Sky Tea Party has taken the position that the Helena School Board’s proposed ASCD Whole Child curriculum should be rescinded in its entirety on the following grounds:
- The process used by the Helena School Board is a direct violation of Montana State Constitution Article II Section 8 (Right of Participation) and Section 9 (Right to Know).
- ASCD Whole Child is directly associated with International Baccalaureate, or I.B., which is based upon United Nations’ established philosophies with an emphasis on development of “global citizens” while intentionally diminishing the importance of national heritage.
- I.B. education systems and the associated federal funding usurps governing control of the local school system away from local citizens and transfers it to federal agencies.
- The specific curriculum proposed by the Helena School District and the intent of I.B. systems violates individual parental rights and control to raise their children with the values and principles of their choice.
Therefore, the Big Sky Tea Party Association strongly urges citizens of the Helena area to insist upon cessation of any further attempts to implement the current health enhancement curriculum and also to remove any existing portions or segments of the ASCD Whole Child curriculum that may already be in place from the Helena School system.
Further, we urge the Board of Trustees to re-examine ASCD Whole Child and I.B. curriculum with an emphasis on researching and educating themselves on the negative impacts upon American heritage and culture. Should the Board of Trustees move forward with implementing the proposed curriculum, refuse to remove existing and terminate any plans for future expansion of I.B. style curriculum, the Big Sky Tea Party urges the citizens of the Helena area to use your power of the vote to begin systematically replacing the existing board members with candidates that will uphold traditional American and Montana rights, values and sovereignty.
Jim Walker is chairman of the Big Sky Tea Party Association board.
IB CEO in Hot Water
September 24, 2010 - Cost of applying to IB: $100,000+. Cost of running an IB program in a school per year: $200,000+. Jeffrey Beard, IB's Director General being accused of plagiarism? PRICELESS!
TheTESreports that while one of the toughest problems facing education boards today is plagiarism, “it has emerged that those running the boards do not always practise what they preach.Jeffrey Beard, the head of one of the world’s most respected assessment organizations—the International Baccalaureate (IB)—has been caught red-handed passing off someone else’s work as his own.”
The speech to which theTESrefers, was given in early August by Beard to theChautauqua Institute in New York, USA, which, the next day, issued a statement quoted by the TES saying that the speech “‘drew heavily upon and quoted extensively from a speech given earlier in the year by Sir Ken Robinson’” a British writer and speaker well known in education circles. The institute removed Beard’s speech from its web site, noting in its statement, cited by theTES, that Beard “neglected to cite his source or reveal the quotations for what they were. Yesterday’s speech was not original work.”
Jeffrey, Jeffrey, Jeffrey! And for this you get paid almost $500,000 a year? IB students are well aware of IB's very strict regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion. Just ask Joey. We've featured his You Tube video, "IB - Capitalist, Elitist and Hypocritical" here before, but this certainly warrants a rerun. It may not refund Joey's money or change the fact that IB ruined his life, but we hope this gives him some small bit of satisfaction.
Too Little, Too Late
September 28, 2010 - IB's Director General, Jeffrey Beard, has issued letters to the heads of IB World Schools attempting to explain his egregious public speaking faux pas. Beard blames his failure to cite sources for quotes in his speech saying that, "Conference speakers draw on other writers without citing every specific reference" and the fact that he was "working off notecards". Beard is defended in the article by Nicholas Tate, Director of the International School in Geneva. As noted in the very astute comment following the article, Mr. Tate is hardly unbiased as he is a member of the IB Board of Governors. Expect to see a big expansion of IB schools in Hanover County, VA, as Superintendent Stewart Robinson also sits on the Board. Does TAIB really need to ask if that constitutes a conflict of interest? Henry SimpsonSays: September 27th, 2010 at 8:57 pm Jeff Beard says “I nonetheless wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the issues with you directly.” The speech took place on Aug 5th, the Chautauqua Institution statement the following day. Why has it taken until the end of Sept to write tothe IB Heads? The Times Educational Supplement article appeared on Sept 17th. So it is not a genuine apology but a failed cover up. Nick Tate is hardly impartial – he is a member of the IB Board of Governors and QuantumEdge, the only supporter of Jeff Beard in the comments section of the TES article is a PR consultancy specializing in helping CEOs. Here is the Chautauqua Institution statement in full. “Talk Not Original Work” Chautauqua Institution has announced that a talk given by Jeffrey Beard on Thursday in the Hall of Philosophy was not original work. The address was reported in Friday’s edition of The Post-Journal. Beard is director general of the International Baccalaureate in Geneva, Switzerland. He spoke on reforming education. A statement read at the Hall of Philosophy on Friday, noted that the speech Beard gave “drew heavily upon and quoted extensively from a speech given earlier in the year by Sir Ken Robinson at a TED conference. Mr. Beard neglected to cite his source or reveal the quotations for what they were. Yesterday’s speech was not original work. We have withdrawn yesterday’s speech from our season’s offerings to the public online and at the bookstore. Mr. Beard’s behavior in this matter is not characteristic of the work done here at Chautauqua and violates the expectations you should have for that work. We acknowledge to you our genuine disappointment in this event,” the statement said.
History of the Peace Symbol
The popular 50th anniversary celebration of the origination of the peace symbol gives credit to Gerald Holtrom who claims he designed the symbol in February, 1958. Holtrom used the naval code of semaphore for the letters 'N' and 'D', which stood for Nuclear Disarmament.
According to the Teach Peace Foundation, Holtrom expressed regret for not designing the symbol with "arms uplifted to the sky". Had he done so, the semaphore would have represented a 'U' and could have stood for Universal.
But there are historical evil uses of the peace symbol and it is those that TAIB wants to make readers aware of. In addition to being used by Hitler's 3rd Panzer Division, the crow's foot also represents a broken cross, witch's foot and symbol of Satan. Bertrand Russell "supports" Holtrom's claim of origin on the one hand, yet the true inquirer can't help but take note of the following: Thesymbol has also been used to communicate support for communism. Bertrand Russell once said: “There is no hope in anything but the Soviet way.” Governments--both those who supported communism and those opposed to it--have perceived benefits in aligning the peace symbol with communist ideology. For people like Bertrand Russell, the author of the 1927 essayWhy I Am Not Christian, the symbol represented not only a pro-communism meaning but peace without God.11
The Power of Symbols
September 24, 2010 - Awww, what's the harm in using little kids to make a peace symbol, right? We see peace symbols slapped all over children's clothing nowadays. A peace symbol only means "good stuff", right?
The UN declared September 21, 2010, the International Day of Peace. Very nice. Yet on the very same day, the UN hosted Iranian madman Ahmadinejad into its chambers to spew his hate and threats against the U.S.
How can these young children "celebrate" peace when the same organization that endorses this educational indoctrination welcomes dictators and tyrants into its chambers? How does that promote peace in the world? What hypocrisy! Who gave the UN the right to adopt this symbol for its bogus call for a ceasefire?
Let us not forget that Hitler Youth proudly wore swastikas to represent what they were told was "the right thing". By the UN using little children to equate this symbol with UN declarations, it is employing the exact same method of indoctrination as was used by Hitler. Tell the children the symbol represents one thing while the "powers that be" condone eugenics and genocide.
OUTRAGEOUS! Nevada PTA President Names John Eppolito Public Enemy #1
September 17, 2010 - As many TAIB readers know, we have been following and involved in the IB controversy in Incline Village (IV), Nevada, since December, 2009. Many things have piqued our ire prior to today, but nothing has made our blood boil the way THIS ARTICLE from KOLO TV did today. Please watch the video.
"Donations are down because there has been an individual in town who has sent out emails, commented thorugh [SIC] the newspaper and emails, that there's no need to support the program because it's being paid for through I.B.," says Soli.
Is that so, Mrs. Soli? Only you care about "the children", eh? Shame, shame, shame on you! Let's take a look at how the Washoe County School District and Superintendent Heath Morrison have allowed this IB debacle to develop into this state of public animosity and fearmongering.
HISTORY In the Spring of 2009, the IV Task Force (which was originally charged with figuring out a way to expand student enrollment), without ever having a final vote, made the decision that IV schools would make application to International Baccalaureate for all three of its public schools, K-12. The former Superintendent who retired in August of 2009, personally donated $5,000 to the scheme and a private group of IV residents decided to raise money to fund IB. Exact monetary donations have not been accounted for to date, but it was reported that approximately $75,000 was originally raised which was immediately expended on IB application and teacher training costs. In December, 2009, John Eppolito became aware of the Task Force's plan and began to question and research IB. John contacted TAIB and on 12/31/09, the Tahoe Bonanza ran an article in which John and TAIB disputed the private fundraising group's cost projections for the IB programs in IV. Controversy began to build regarding the district's decision to force IB into the area's public schools which not only eliminated choice at the elementary and middle school levels, but threatened to undermine IVHS's successful AP offerings.
The first published reference to funding the $210,000 for not only the PE teacher's position, but also the elementary Art and Music positions, appears in the 06/09/10 edition of the Tahoe Bonanza: "Furthermore, the school district will pay $210,000 for 3.5 teacher allocations for the 2010-11 academic year for Incline's schools — with the caveat that the full amount must be reimbursed by International Baccalaureate Incline Village by Dec. 31, 2010. IBIV is a recently established nonprofit dedicated to raising funds for the implementation of IB."
According to the applications IV officials submitted to IB, the district will pay ALL IB fees (out of the General Fund for Washoe County without the Board of Education ever having officially voted on, or fiscally provided for, said IB expenditure).
DISTRICT OBLIGATIONS
Prior to the IB debacle, IV residents fundraised without complaint for the PE, Art and Music teacher salaries. Why? TAIB honestly can't say. A quick look at Nevada State Standards for these subject areas indicate that Nevada State Education Department expects certain standards to be met at the elementary level: Physical Education Content Standards Visual Arts Content Standards Music Content Standards If the State of Nevada expects these standards to be met, then the salaries of teachers for those positions should be paid out of the General Budget. Period. IV residents NEVER should have been approached by the district in the first place to fund those salaries.
Now, Washoe County School District has decided to co-mingle issues and co-mingle public and private funds to pit parent against parent in this outrageous handling of public education.
SOLUTION
Since Washoe County officials stated in print that it will pay the $210,000 for the 3.5 teacher positions without any sort of binding repayment contract from IBIV, then pay it they shall. The children shall have their PE, Music and Art. The $2,600 figure thrown out by Mrs. Soli is a strawman argument and must be dismissed:
"We have, to date, $2,600," says Sandy Soli, Incline Village Elementary School PTA President. "We still need at least $28,000 and that's a lot to raise in a week and a half."
What happened to the $210,000 figure? Is it possible that since Mr. Eppolito obtained 308 signatures of Washoe County residents and taxpayers opposing IB that IBIV has only raised $2,600? It would appear that Mrs. Soli only cares about PE and not the big educational picture. It would also appear that the district has encouraged and allowed this incredibly nasty and divisive situation to develop while hiding behind the age old fearmongering whine, "It's for the children!"
Enough is enough, Heath Morrison. Do the right thing. Abandon your ill-advised Quioxte-like quest for IB now and fund the elementary teacher positions. Stop pitting neighbor against neighbor. Man up and admit you have allowed this IB war to be waged in an underhanded and politically divisive manner. You made a mistake. We're all human. Believe me, people will think more highly of you if you admit this whole thing was handled very, very badly. Do the right thing - for the children and the taxpayers of Washoe County.
Newsday's Biased IB Reporting
September 14, 2010 - TAIB was contacted by Newsday reporter John Hildebrand for comments regarding IB. Lisa McLoughlin spent well over 20 minutes with John on the phone and even received a call back the next day for confirmation of the spelling of her name. TAIB is going to fact checkNewsday reporting of LVCSD's claim of 29 IB Diploma recipients for 2010 and will report back if the ACTUAL number is lower. Newsday incorrectly states that there are 718 IBDP schools in the U.S. when there are 717. Hildebrand didn't want to get into any real discussion about the ideological aspects of IB. I could already tell on the phone that this was going to be an advertisement for IBO, but I had hope that maybe Newsday would mention TAIB so that I could enjoy another round of hatemail from Liberals.
The same day, Hildebrand wrote another article called: "Dip in statewide SAT scores blamed on diversity": Rockville Centre has been offering IB courses since 1981, and administrators there say the program has influenced the district's entire curriculum. Case in point: Virtually all local eighth-graders take Regents-level algebra - a course originally designed for ninth grade - so they'll be ready if they opt for college-level studies later. District officials say SAT scores are rising there, but that this is a byproduct, rather than a goal, of rigorous instruction."The initiative wasn't so much that we were going to raise SAT scores, but that we were going to better prepare students for college," said John Murphy, an assistant principal at Rockville Centre's South Side High School.
This is reporting? How about a comparison of the mean SAT scores for SouthSide HS from pre-IB days to present? You're going to take "district officials" word for it that because of IB, SAT scores have risen? Only a reporter/newspaper interested in promoting the Progressive agenda would fail to fact check such a statement
.Anyone wishing to express their dissatisfaction with the IB fluff piece can reach Mr. Hildebrand at: 1-631-843-2956 or you can e-mail him at john.hildebrand@newsday.com
Monticello, NY, IB purchase orders and documents
For more info on the IB controversy in Monticello, NY, please CLICK HERE.
photo by Lisa E. McLoughlin
God Bless America - Restoring Honor Rally - 8/28/10 - Washington D.C.
by His Excellency Mr Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï, Chair of the Executive Board of UNESCO
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, 20 April 2009
August 24, 2010 - It cannot be called "conspiracy theory" when it is fact. The above speech by Mr. Yaï is not ancient history. It was delivered a mere 14 months ago in the spring of 2009 and heaps adulation upon the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency. Regarding Obama's election, Yai states:
"...the hope raised throughout the world by the election of Barack Hussein Obama, an African American, to the office of President of the United States of America.The prophetic words of Césaire spring to mind: “La relance ici se fait, Par le vent qui d’Afrique vient”.
In English, that means: "The revival here is done. By the wind which of Africa comes."
So if Barack Obama's election completes UNESCO's "revival, what was its original goal? It is important to remember that Ronald Reagan withdrew the U.S. from UNESCO in 1984. According to The Heritage Foundation; " When the U.S. left, many UNESCO programs and debates focused on disarmament, "collective rights," and other themes which Washington believed were departures from UNESCO's original mandate." It was George W. Bush who misguidedly rejoined UNESCO after 9/11 as a gesture of "goodwill". UNESCO immediately took advantage of Bush's goodwill by expanding its indoctrination efforts around the world, but particularly here in the U.S., via International Baccalaureate programmes.
In Mr. Yai's own words:
"You will recall, dear colleagues, that I said, before Mr Ban Ki Moon, Secretary- General of the United Nations, that UNESCO’s role is to think global governance. That is why the Organization was founded. We come to the rescue of the system especially when the economic machine runs out of steam, as it clearly has today. It is thus a matter of urgency to set up a long-term working group on global governance. I hope that a State or group of States will seize on this worthy proposal, and that the Organization, as of this session, will give it the attention it warrants."
Mr. Yai goes on to say:
"Our device must always be TRUTHS (in the plural) and CONSENSUS. A great thinker, Jaime Torres Bodet, had a proverbial saying: “the other name for UNESCO is truth”
."
Therefore, we must take Mr. Yai at his word - that UNESCO was founded for the purpose of global governance and to achieve that goal through education. TAIB finds the discovery of this quote incredibly ironic as we have been bombarded of late with demands for us to change this website's name and remove the word Truth from it.
TAIB will not change the name of our site. We are bringing you the truth. As they say, sometimes the truth hurts. It's time IB lovers suck it up and stop getting so angry at us for bringing them the truths they are simply too close-minded to hear.
TAIB - Fair and Balanced
August 23, 2010 -
I suppose it's a rather slow news day. Normally I would just post an e-mail like this to our pro-IB comments section. But this is different. The e-mail below came from someone who had been added to TAIB's e-mail update list as a courtesy. I found this e-mail to be so incredibly rude and obnoxious that I replied with: "This is to advise you that you have been removed from the TAIB e-mail update list". That hit a nerve. Ms. Rosson responded with: "Wow. I express a different point of view and you delete me from your mailing list. Sounds a bit socialistic to me. So, now the shoe is on the other foot. Below you chastize MLive and wonder if you will be published? Well, I now wonder if you are at all interested in discussion and challenging points of view and I am sure that I will not get published on your website."
You shouldn't have been so sure, Ms. Rosson. (uh oh, was that sarcastic?) For the record, I did attempt to acquire her written permission to reprint her e-mail, but got no reply. Therefore, her bold challenge stands as her permission. TAIB would be very interested in reactions from other TAIB readers to this "global business woman's" correspondence because frankly, her arrogance has left me speechless (and that's quite a feat!) __________________________________________________________________
Lisa, I am continually concerned that your biased and slanted web site in which I first started reviewing under false pretenses "truth about IB" is completely and utterly out of control. You do not care about the truth, you care about negative propaganda that is far from the truth.
Did it ever once occur to you to stop your terror and over blown fears and really look at a broader view? Have you once sat down with college admissions officers and discussed IB's rigor and breadth of learning which is truly being recognized over memorization? You pit AP and IB against each other, but just this weekend I spoke with a very prominent admissions counselor who explained that the difference between AP and IB should be viewed on horizontal and vertical planes......AP is horizontal, there is material taught at a higher level than standard high school curriculum, there is memorization of facts and figures and there is the test to prove success. AP has been around over 30 years and much of the content and testing is the same as 30 years ago. IB is vertical and drives down deeper into subjects and supports the subjects with Extended Essays, Projects, TOK discussion and debate and then test. She clearly said the rigor and time management skills acquired with students taking the IB route prepared them for the shock, freedom and rigor of their first year at University.
This website is not TRUTH, it is a biased, scare tactic aversion to change. It is people and organizations like yours that are causing our children to continually fall down and behind in the ranks of education.
There is a great big world out there and if you think for one minute that "TRUE AMERICANS" do not have to live, work, succeed or fail in it, you are delusional.
I do not fault AP, at all. As a matter of fact, if sadly, it is the most rigorous program a school has to offer, then AP is it. But, to push your fears, political bias and UN TRUTH on this web site as truth about IB is dishonest and deceitful.
I would suggest you speak with a few college admissions officers and hear what they have to say. I have and I can tell you that they appreciate both AP and IB. But, where IB is offered and students take the AP route, the AP route is judged as the less rigorous route. I love the fact that my daughter who is thriving in IB has had to think. YES, THINK, not memorize a statistic or fact, but think. This great nation was built by people who were not afraid to work a little harder, and were not afraid to think a little differently and deeper.
It continually saddens me everytime you send out an overzealous, almost panicked email about a slight that you feel someone has dealt your point of view. Your point of view is not well researched and is simply your point of view built on fear.
And by the way, my daughter and her graduating class of IB diploma kids are not socialist, nor are they out to bring sococialistic overhaul to our country. They are actually a group of diverse brilliant kids, Christian, Jewish, Undecided, etc., who have worked their hearts out thinking, analyzing and discussing. My daughter went in as a conservative Christian and remains a conservative Christian today. But, you bet she learned to think a little deeper and not just memorize a fact for a test. And, she clearly realizes that there are others with different points of view and beliefs. She said to me "success will mean toleration and the ability to understand that although someone may think or believe differently, it is what they think and believe and how we bring all of our points of view to the table and work for a better solution is certainly better than a constant bitch fest, where nothing happens".
I can also tell you that our district loves the fact that the teachers in the IB program have to step it up as well. They are evaluated on a higher level and on a level that is out of the politics and tenor of teachers who have grown bored and complacent.
I am not asking you to change your belief, but please change the title of your website. Change the misleading title to anything that truly represents your biased slant. All of the people who want to distrust and build a conspiracy theory around IB, will be with you and will continue coming to you. But, the rest of us will be enjoying our kids as we watch them continue to grow and learn in a global economy with a worldly point of view and not being sheltered or encumbered by a group who still believes that America is the only "right" and "brilliant" nation in the world. Many nations "Rome", "The Soviet Union" have fallen when they cease to learn, and realize they are not the only society on the planet.
Imagine for a moment if you will, a society of children and young adults with the foundation of greatness that built this nation. On this foundation they add building blocks of a worldly point of view and an open mind on ways that we can work together in a global society and business world. Imagine a group of young adults coming out of college wanting to listen and solve problems and not a group of young adults stuck in the old philosophy "I am American, that makes me right and I have the only solution to every problem". I know it because I tested and pass a test.
I am actually a bit sorry for you, because had you or if you ever choose to leave your prejudice behind, you may find a very different and honest point of view about IB.
IB is not perfect, but I have found few things in life that are perfect. And it is fact that with our current educational system, we are falling behind. Maybe you should also build a forum around the failures of our current educational system.
In summary, there is little TRUTH on your website, until you are challenged to post a positive and unbiased point of view about IB and then it is sparse and posted with your biased sarcasm.
Sincerely, Michelle Rosson Global Business Woman and Proud IB Parent
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Bye bye
Cardiff,
hello
U.S.A.!
IB Bethesda, MD headquarters
Teacher Knows Best
August 18, 2010 - TAIB received the following e-mail and is reprinting it with the author's permission. It is short and sweet, but enormously revealing.
I taught IB and AP chemistry and biology at several international schools. IB and AP should not be seen as the same, especially the SL courses, which are very rudimentary in both chem and bio. The HL courses are only slightly more difficult and only touch on college level topics. These topics are not at the same depth as those in the corresponding AP courses. The IB is getting far too much credit (undeserved) for being at the cutting edge in education. However, my biggest problem with IB is their internal assessment portion of the course. The process is contrived, very subjective and is in my opinion an enormous waste of time for both students and teachers.
Sal Pietromonaco Eugene, Oregon
Jay Mathews, Poster Child for American Center for Progress
August 12, 2010 - The Progressive push to globalize our American public schools began many years ago. Yet every day, TAIB learns something new as to how deeply entrenched some of the key "change agents" are in our society and how much they have accomplished thus far.
On today's Glenn Beck program, Glenn made reference to the Education Transformation report put out by George Soros' American Center for Progress. This report is not a recommendation for programs, but rather recommendations for the elimination of niche programs. Of course, International Baccalaureate is not considered a "niche" program by Progressives, however, the residents of Incline Village, Nevada, should be alarmed to discover that one of the programs Progressives do deem to be niche is We The People. This past spring, students from Incline High School won the state championship for We The People and earned the privilege of representing their school in Washington, D.C. For readers unfamiliar with the IB battle in IV, please read more HERE.
Opening sentence from the Education Transformation report: "All of America’s children need a high-quality education to prepare them for the changing needs of our workforce and increasingly intense global economic competition." Narrow, low-impact programs should be eliminated
The Department of Education supports numerous, mostly small grant programs that serve niche purposes. Many of these programs should be eliminated, including:
Academies for American History and Civics. This program, which provides workshops for teachers of American history, is not coordinated with other professional development programs within the Department of Education and is not based on the needs of states and localities.
We the People. This program is an earmark grant to the Center for Civic Education to instruct a small number of students on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
TAIB had never searched the American Center for Progress for anything related to IB before, but today's search revealed that someone TAIB knows well, is prominently featured by the Soros crowd:
Jay Mathews Jay Mathews is the education columnist of The Washington Post. He has been with the Post 38 years. He was born April 5, 1945, in Long Beach, Calif., and attended Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, CA, and Harvard Colleges and served with the army in Vietnam. He has reported from China and California, and covered the stock market in New York. He has written seven books, including works on China, disability rights, the famous Los Angeles math teacher, Jaime Escalante, and the lack of challenge in American high schools.
His rating system for U.S. high schools, the Challenge Index, appears every year in Newsweek and the Post. It has been cited in hundreds of newspapers and magazines since 1998 and is often the most-visited feature on the Newsweek.com Web site. It received 3.7 million hits the first week of its 2009 appearance.
Mathews' best-selling college admissions book, "Harvard Schmarvard," shows why admission to a brand-name school will NOT change your life, and instructs applicants in how to survive the application process with their family and their sense of humor intact. His book, "Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen Our Schools," describes the IB program's success in transforming ordinary schools, particularly Mount Vernon High in Fairfax County.
His most successful book is his most recent, "Work Hard. Be Nice - How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America." The story of how KIPP school founders Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg raised the achievement of impoverished students to new heights was a New York Times bestseller in 2009.
His column in the Post's Metro section, which began a year ago, appears each Monday. His "Extra Credit" column, six years old, appears Thursdays in the Post's Extra sections. His weekly online column, now nine years old, appears each Friday on his "Class Struggle" blog at http://washingtonpost.com/class-struggle, where he posts other items regularly.
He has won the Education Writers Association National Education Reporting Award and the Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting, as well as the Eugene Meyer Award, The Washington Post's top honor for distinguished service to the newspaper.
(this article will also appear in the IB in the Media section)
August 9, 2010 - Arrogance, thy name is IB. Are Texas taxpayers really going to put up with this kind of litigious nonsense should the IB students prevail?
According to this article, four students who attend the Lamar IB Academy are suing the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in order to be able to play sports at a nearby public high school. The Lamar Academy is a charter school and three of the four students do not live in the district in which the nearby high school is situated.
Lamar IB Academy does not have any sports teams. So much for the well-rounded student, eh? So rather than develop sports teams of their own, they have to sue the UIL to "bend the rules" to accommodate them because, well, they're IB.
These students knew Lamar didn't have sports when they enrolled in IB. They made their choice and now they're unhappy. Too bad. TAIB hopes the judge rules in favor of the UIL and Texas taxpayers.
The IB Loansharks
July 24, 2010 - A pattern has been established. It was apparent to TAIB based on my own district's Herculian efforts to bury the cost of IB in its general budget while claiming it cost $65,000 a year. It became more pronounced with the inquiry from Incline Village, Nevada, and the gross disparity between the fundraiser's estimate and TAIB's. Prior to Jay Mathews of the Washington Post's departure for a five-star stay at the Fountainbleu in Miami with the IB bigwigs, he ran a Class Struggle column in which he claimed the cost of IB to be about $56,000, while "forgetting" to insert my counterclaim of $200,000+ per school, per year. He did insert it, but then "forgot" again when he ran this thread in his Admissions 101 forum.
This article out of Waco, Texas, demonstrates even more dramatically how IB is fraudulently sold to gullible school boards by grossly underestimating the actual cost:
Watkins presented a detailed report that questioned whether adequate training had been done with faculty and administrators, whether all parents are on board with the program and whether a realistic budget has been created to reflect the costs of implementing IB at these three schools, among other concerns.“Your report is overwhelming, to say the least,” trustee Angela Tekell said.Watkins’ report suggests the IB middle-years program may cost far more during the next three years than district officials had anticipated.He estimates this year will cost $700,425, next year will cost $649,425, and 2012-13 will cost $976,200. This is the first time numbers like that have been presented.The totals include costs for IB training for teachers, mandatory fees, curriculum and course materials and new staff needs, including foreign-language teachers and IB coordinators.Waco ISD trustees gave the go-ahead for the IB program at Lake Air and Tennyson in April 2009. At that time, they were presented with associated costs of about $156,200 for 2009-10 and $164,700 for 2010-11 and the next year.One year later, in spring 2010, the district announced it also would pursue the IB program for Waco High.
Wow! There's that same ratio of almost 4x the cost, the same ratio I argued about with Jay. So forget everything else IBO claims about its programs, its rigor, creating life-long learners, global citizens, blah blah blah. Why should anyone believe anything IBO claims about its products if IBO and its main U.S. media mouthpiece repeatedly misrepresent the price tag?
The American taxpayers are tired of being lied to. We're tired of being bilked out of our hard earned taxdollars by ideological liars with promises of utopia and a "better world". When one starts out with a lie, everything else is downhill from there. For every $100,000 our public schools claim they are borrowing from the taxpayers, they are paying the IBO loansharks $400,000 of YOUR money. Please help put a stop to this scam now by exposing the real cost of IB.
Editors note: If the Waco article disappears, please let TAIB know as we have page-shot the article and will re-post in its entirety.
Where's the Rigor?
July 7, 2010 - My suspicions that LVCSD double-counted the number of IB exams in order to game the Newsweek List, were proven to be incorrect. While the district did misreport 566 exams instead of the actual 562 administered, the difference is statistically insignificant. This is how LVCSD reported its results to Newsweek:
Dear Jay,
Please find attached our 2010 Newsweek High School form. The pertinent year-on-year data are:
* # AP exams taken decreased from 162 to 148 (8.6% decrease) * # IB exams taken increased from 351 to 566 (61% increase) * # Seniors at the high school increased from 172 to 197 (14.5 % increase) * % IB scores > 4 decreased from 81% to 77% (4.9 % decrease) * Equity and Excellence increased from 51.7% to 61.4%
Conclusion: A 61% increase in the number of IB exams taken (2008 to 2009) did not result in a significant reduction in IB scores > 4. We’re reaching a broader spectrum of student while maintaining outcomes.
So what subjects did LVCSD manage to persuade students to take an IB exam in instead of following the basic Regents option? (the only other option in 11th and 12th Grades as almost every AP and Honors course has been eliminated)
The full report is featured as a .pdf file below. Right off the bat, we see that 81 students took IB HL English. Yet only one (1) student managed to score a '6'. There were zero (0) '7's' and 32 failed to earn a passing score of '4'. The average grade for the school in English was a 3.77 or in IB parlance, "mediocre". The Ivies require scores of '6' & '7' for credit. So based on these numbers, only one student out of 81 accomplished an Ivy worthy score. and overall, the class failed. How very sad.
The other two highly attended IB courses were HL History of the Americas and SL Math Studies, each with 74 students. HoA managed to produce one (1) student with a score of '7' and an overall average of 4.26 for the school. The easiest IB Math course gave us two '7's and an overall average of 4.65.
None of the foreign language courses were offered at HL, thereby denying those students any opportunity for college-credit. Despite Jay Mathews' insistence that, "No one ever gets a '1'", LVCSD students proved him wrong by racking up three '1's' in two subjects.
And what of the IB science and math courses that might actually be considered "rigorous"? The following are the average scores for the school:
There were only 11 students in HL Math. Something is seriously wrong if an IB trained teacher is incapable of getting all 11 students to pass the exam after a two year course. It should also be noted that according to the report, only 17 students earned the Diploma, yet last year when I went after these results, I was told that 19 students earned the full Diploma. This means that 2 students earned the IB Diploma on appeal. I have included the IB document which outlines the Appeal process below.
Despite these abysmal results, LVCSD shot up the Newsweek List to #135. The new Challenge Index for American students is to see how much money can be wasted on getiing worse and worse results. Way to go LVCSD and Newsweek!
July 2, 2010 - TAIB realized the NYT article broke at the same time the hateful e-mails from IB supporters started pouring in. On the plus side, it appears that John Eppolito of Incline Village, Nevada, and Ann Marie Banfield of Bedford, NH, weren't too badly misquoted. Plus, the reporter linked the article to our site without bashing us, which for the NYT, we have to consider a plus.
Some parents charge that it is anti-American and too closely tied to both the United Nations and radical environmentalism. From its start in 1968 until 1976, the program was funded partly by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is now associated with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council, and until recently, it endorsed the Earth Charter, a U.N.-originated declaration of principles of sustainability.
“When there is a program at the school with a specific agenda, which in this case is the United Nations agenda, I have a problem with it,” said Ann Marie Banfield, who unsuccessfully opposed the adoption of the I.B. program in Bedford, N.H.
Others object to its cost — $10,000 a year per school, 141 per student and $96 per exam — and say it is neither as effective as the A.P. program nor likely to reach as many students.
“We have 337 kids, and 80 of them take at least one of our 16 A.P. classes,” said John Eppolito, a parent who opposes the planned introduction of the I.B. in Incline Village, Nev. “If we switched to the I.B., the district estimates that 15 kids would get a I.B. diploma in two years.”
I.B. opponents have created a Web site, truthaboutib.com, to serve as a clearinghouse for their views.
LVCSD FOIL Status Update
June 30th, 2010 - Today marks the 9th business day since I filed a FOIL request with the Locust Valley Central School District for a copy of its 2009 IB Examinations Report. I received the following e-mail on June 24th at 3:38 PM:
Hello Ms. McLoughlin, This note is to acknowledge that I am in receipt of your FOIL request dated 6/18/10. We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably possible, but no later than Thursday, 7/22/10. Sincerely,Brad Chafetz
I responded to Mr.Chafetz's e-mail with the following, but to date, have not received any acknowledgement:
PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW, ARTICLE 6 SECTIONS 84-90 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW
3. (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, within five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written acknowledgment of the receipt of such request and a statement of the approximate date, which shall be reasonable under the circumstances of the request ...
It would appear that LVCSD has chosen to ignore the first provision of the law and decided to invoke the third option by citing an unusually long period of time to fulfill my request. The date in your reply of 07/22/10 amounts to 26 business days from my date of filing. While I suppose you are within your legal means to do so, this can hardly be viewed as a "friendly" action when my request is for a single document that most surely resides in Dr. Marino's computer and is relatively easy for you to access. If you have some "reasonable" explanation as to why LVCSD is unable to provide said requested document within the prescribed 5 business days which have already passed, please advise.
Regards, Lisa E. McLoughlin
Due to LVCSD's lack of response, one must reasonably assume that they have no reasonable explanation for the long delay. It must also be noted that while I sent this communique' receipt requested, none was received which means that the district deleted it without even giving it the courtesy of a read.
IB Schools Gaming the Newsweek List
June 21, 2010 - When I first started looking into IB back in 2004, one thing jumped out at me as extremely suspicious. After requesting the file from our IB Committee to see what sort of research had actually been conducted, the only paper in the file was a letter to Jay Mathews from the Locust Valley school district complaining about where it had landed on his Newsweek's Best High Schools List. It was at that point that I became engaged in e-mail correspondence with Mr. Mathews which continues to this day. I learned of his financial ties to IBO and questioned his evident bias in favor of IB in his columns and the ranking of obscure, IB charter schools on his List.
Anyone who follows IB will note how each year when the Newsweek List comes out, IB schools in particular are quick to send out press releases about how marvelous it is that their school made the List. These schools all "self-report" to Jay and he takes the Principals at their word that their reporting is accurate.
This year, Locust Valley skyrocketed to #135 on the Newsweek List, up from somewhere in the 300's in previous years. LV claimed to have administered 566 IB exams in 2009, up 215 exams from 2008. How could this be? I suspect double-counting. I have filed a FOIA request which should be complied with by June 25th to prove my suspicions. In the meantime, I have evidence from VA and GA that my suspicions are correct and that there must have been a directive from Geneva to report to Newsweek in this manner.
First, I encountered THIS DOCUMENT from Dekalb County, Georgia, which states: "During the four weeks of testing, most of the IB Seniors candidates took 10 exams ..."
I e-mailed the above link to Jay. Here is his response:
i wager he is making the usual mistake of counting papers, like the three papers in IB 20th century history, as individual exams. If your LVHS guys did that, then it would be a mistake, but I doubt they did. I occasionally have to remind schools about this. ---jay
After bringing up this dicey subject on Mathews' Admissions 101 forum in WAPO, an IB teacher from Virginia weighed in with the following:
"Each subject has at least two exams. Many HL subjects (i.e. Math HL) have three exams. If a student is taking 4 IB classes, 2 HL and 2 SL, they could take 10 exams." ~williamhorkan
Mr. Horkan confirms what Mathews said in the e-mail; the 3 papers are being counted as 3 exams. One IB subject equals one final IB exam. As Mathews states, to do otherwise is a "mistake". I don't care if IBO chooses to administer 20 different sections and have students sit for the subject exam for 20 days, it's still ONE IB EXAM.
I will report back with the Locust Valley results when I obtain them.
At $83 a pop (almost $2,000 for a single class of 24 students), it seems to TAIB that money would be much better spent compiling source documents for students to learn from and abandoning these sorts of biased textbooks altogether. TAIB also finds it appalling that in the 2010-2011 school-year, public schools are not developing lesson plans which include post 9/11 history, if indeed they are claiming to teach "modern" history.
TOK - Godlessness
"I Believe it Has Changed Me ...
June 5, 2010 - ... for the better into a more considerate person." So claims Christian Roovers, a graduate of the IB Diploma Program from the Notre Dame de Le Baie Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin. For those of you who don't know French, de Le Baie means "of the Bay". But of course, the English "of the Bay" wouldn't be hoidy toidy and affected enough for the IB lovers in Wisconsin, now would it?
So what else does this article tell us students concluded after their IB indoctrination?
"Most echoed the words of Kate Hein, who said,“IB enhanced my learning experience.I have become a much better thinker."
Luke Saphner, another diploma candidate, also saw the IB program for its character- building aspect:“IB really does create a person who is more willing to learn more.I learned a lot and opened up to the diversity built into the program.”
That's great. We can see IB has done wonders for self-esteem and feelings of superiority. But wait, what's this?
Valedictorian Nicole Florack reacted with a mixture of feelings—from knowing “I couldn’t not take the most challenging classes available” to wishing “I could’ve just had a normal high school experience.”
Wow. We had to read through quite a lot of BS to get to the truth, didn't we? Unfortunately for this school's Valedictorian, the only "challenging classes available" were IB, as AP is no longer offered in this private Catholic IB World School.
Looks like trouble is brewing in Jeffrey Beard's former stomping grounds. Nevermind the economic downturn and high unemployment throughout the country, IB must be funded!
The program's budget suffered a 10 percent reduction this year as a result of Gov. Chet Culver's across-the-board state funding cuts. But officials plan to restore funding next year, bringing it back up to $100,000, according to district figures. That has drawn criticism from some parents who say the district shouldn't be expanding the program at a time when there are steep budget cuts. They also say the program creates inequities among schools by providing IB students with more opportunities than peers in schools not taking part in the program. "It's pitting parents against parents and schools against schools," said Ann Wilson, a parent with a child at Callanan Middle School. "If there was more transparency, then perhaps people would have a greater understanding. But, instead, it seems like there is secrecy."
There's ALWAYS secrecy surrounding IB expenditures. Why would anyone in their right mind think there would be anything BUT secrecy surrounding a program, in which students are described as (in the Principal's own words):
"They are part of a flat world and not just Iowans," said Tim Schott, principal of Hubbell Elementary School. "If they are going to interact on the world stage, we want to prepare them for global citizenship."
Hey, Tim. The world is not flat. The world is round. How about you prepare these young students to read, write, research, compute, and celebrate their American history and citizenship? Wouldn't that be a novel idea? "Nationally, more schools are turning to the international model to help boost student achievement and produce graduates who are better prepared to compete in a global economy. The federal government gave it a boost this year when it recognized it as a reform model for the nation's persistently lowest-achieving schools."
And now, in English - Under the Obama regime, the 2009 U.S. Recovery Act allocated over $5B of your taxdollars to go to Title I schools (high minority and/or free & reduced lunch %'s) which implement "innovative programs". Unfortunately, school administrators believe this is "free" money that schools can use to further their new world order agenda. What they are really doing is enslaving the very children in their care to a future of unsustainable debt and anti-American indoctrination.
Hey California! Snap Outta It!
May 30th, 2010 - As I was about to go out and get the grillin's for a bar-b-q later, a FOX news story about a California school district that has to cut teachers and increase classroom sizes due to budget concerns, but which just allocated $100M for solar panels to "Go green!"
Now this sort of district has the eau' de IB all over it, so a quick search of the Irvine Unified School District revealed that it was way back in 2001 that the Irvine BoE ushered IB through its district's doors. That's almost 10 years of throwing money at Geneva, and now, my, what a coincidence, a green agenda for the district. The heck with the students and teachers, Irvine must comply with the Ecoterrorists.
Irvine Unified School District
Irvine, California
Board of Education
Minutes of Regular Meeting
April 10, 2001
Secondary Course of Study 2001-2002
Dean Waldfogel reviewed changes in course offerings. The Board discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the International Baccalaureate program.
On the motion of Member Kuwabara, seconded by Member McInerney and carried 3-0 (Student Members Busch and Shafer voting "Yes"), the Board approved the Secondary Course of Study for the 2001-2002 school year.
HERE is the local Irvine group pushing IB. Please ask yourselves, "Do you dream of "global unity through peaceful cooperation and understanding" by having your child attend an IB school"? I mean if you do, uh, ok, but stop dreaming on my taxdollars.
Gino DiSimone (I)
TAIB Endorses
Gino DiSimone for Governor of Nevada
You don't need to be a resident of Nevada to help Gino's campaign, We know things are tough. But you can't put a price on liberty. Click here to donate.
GO GINO!
IB, Water & UN Agenda 21
May 28, 2010 - It was about one week ago while TAIB wasreviewing the areas around the country where IB is causing controversy, that we were struck by something odd, many of these somewhat isolated communities seemed to be situated on or near important bodies of water. In the very recent past, the Obama administration has raised eyebrows by seeking to place new controls on inland waterways via NOAA.
Many of you have probably never heard of the UN's Agenda 21, or if you have, perhaps you dismissed it as "conspiracy theory", just as many objectors to this website dismiss IBO's connection to the UN as "conspiracy theory". TAIB can only present you with the facts. Whether you choose to believe these "frameworks" are directly linked to each other requires an open mind and critical thinking, qualities IBO claims only its students are capable of possessing. The UN's decade of "Water for Life" was launched on March 22, 2005. "The Decade aims to promote efforts to fulfill international commitments made on water and water-related issues by 2015, placing special emphasis on the involvement and participation of women in these efforts."
Today, TAIB was alerted to the following two press releases from IB PYP schools:
For example, in an inquiry about “Sharing the planet” for students aged 8 to 9, we might look at “Finite resources–infinite demands”. In order to understand better the central idea that “Our planet has limited resources that are unevenly distributed” and using water as an example, we would inquire into where water comes from, how different people and countries use water, how much water we use, what happens after we have used it, the distribution of usable water around the world, how human activity has affected the availability of water, and our responsibility for water conservation.
We know that the IB PYP is NOT a curriculum, but a means of trying to indoctrinate students to accept the UN's "directives" for the future of our planet. Water is life. TAIB does not consider this UN grab for international control of U.S. waterways a laughing matter. We hope you won't either.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO REMOVE IB FROM AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THANK YOU!
LVCSD, NY, photo by L.E. McLoughlin
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Incline Village, Nevada
Hey DHS - Pay Attention!
May 27, 2010 - TAIB knows DHS visits our site on occasion, so we wanted to make sure they found something they might actually do some good in following up on.
Is it fair of TAIB to ask WHY an international "non-profit" is allowed to collect U.S. taxdollars and spend almost $500,000 on foreign "programs" without having to "maintain records"? Are you telling us that IBNA could effectively steer almost half a million dollars a year to Al Qida and the IRS and DHS DON'T CARE?
Double-Dipping IB Execs?
May 26, 2010 - Thanks to TAIB's new friend Peyton Wolcott, we now know how to peruse IBO's 990's as public record. This morning, while searching to see if the Ohio "AIBWS" is registered as an official 501 (c)(3) (it's not), we decided to do a little cross-checking on salaries listed on both IBO'S and IBNA'S 2008 990's. We are not accountants. However, TAIB would appreciate input from any CPAs who can tell us whether reporting different salaries for two IB executives on separate 990 forms without cross-referencing them passes the smell test. The two names are: DREW DEUTSCH and RALPH CLINE. By TAIB's calculations, this would put DEUTSCH's salary at $363,829 and CLINE's salary at $362,325. Not bad, eh? Thank you for any information you can provide. (see docs below - enlarge to 500% view)
May 25, 2010 - Credit must be immediately given to Helen Sabin from The Constitutionalist Today for alerting TAIB to the following story out of California:
"Instructional materials for a controversial new Chinese language and culture classroom have come under scrutiny after community members said Friday the books include messages that will indoctrinate children with Communist ideals.
Activist Kai Chen and former Hacienda La Puente Unified Superintendent John Kramar reviewed the materials for the district's new Confucius Classroom on Friday.
"That's part of Chinese infiltration into this country and the corruption of the political culture of America," Chen said of the classroom, which will be funded by the Chinese Language Council International, or Hanban."
Of course, the mere mention of indoctrination and communism immediately brought visions of sugarplums and IB to TAIB's mind, so we searched Chinese International Language Council and IB and look what we found:
Now, the Colorado International School isn't just any old school. According to its website:
In addition to learning the language, an introductory mathematics course and IB will be taught. IB unit:The six IB themes will be taught during the year. Each theme takes six weeks and will be accompanied by a field trip that correlates to its respect topic. Though [sic] the IB unit, the students will explore science, nature, culture and social study in Chinese.
Funny thing, though. According to the official IBO website, the Colorado International School is not authorized by IBO. And what educational materials does the Colorado International School use?
*Hanban is the executive body of the Chinese Language Council International, a non-governmental and non-profit organization affiliated to the Ministry of Education of China. Hanban also is committed to making the Chinese language and culture teaching resources and services available to the world, to meeting the demands of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost, to contributing to the formation of a world of cultural diversity and harmony.
So. We can conclude one of two things. Either: 1. This school is illegally using IB as a cover for its program. 2. IBO is tacitly complicit in allowing this school to use its label to attract students.
You be the judge.
concern over curriculum
Something Stinks in Summit, Colorado May 21, 2010 - Someone wise once wrote, "Follow the money". As you know, TAIB follows IB "discussions" wherever we can find them. Inevitably, especially in this disastrous economic climate, the focus always revolves around FUNDING. How are we going to pay for IB? "It's so expensive, but we simply HAVE to have it!" the Progressives cry. "WHO CARES" if SEIU and the local paper endorse the politician who endorses this "new" educational foundation? Right? That's just a COINCIDENCE! It's FOR THE CHILDREN! Pay no attention to that money, where it came from, or what the political agenda behind it is.
Having read the following threearticles in a series about IB and the bias of the editor at the paper in favor of IB, when the "new" educational foundation story broke, it just couldn't be a coincidence. There are some more IB related articles at the Summit News Daily, but these were the three TAIB focused on.
Because the SND has already removed one of my comments from the "new" foundation article, I thought I would re-post my comments below in case the editor gets Stalin-happy again. Just the facts, folks. Follow the money.
These are the first two of my posts. #'s 1, 2 & 3 below are the ones I just lifted to preserve. I didn't include the responses of other posters as I'm sure they won't be removed. You can find them HERE _____________________________________________________________________________________ Team America wrote:
I see Lee Zimmerman earns $95,000 as director of the Summit Foundation which claimed a $5,780,944 fund balance for 2008. According to the Summit Foundation's IRS mission statement:
"Founded in 1984, The Summit Foundation is a community foundation that distributes grants to nonprofit organizations in Summit County and neighboring communities. Grants are awarded to organizations providing programs and/or services in Art & Culture, Health & Human Services, Education, Environment and Sports. The Summit Foundation also awards scholarships to graduating seniors attending post-secondary learning institutions. A four-year scholarship and college sophomore scholarships are also awarded."
So why the need for a "new" foundation with political backing from SEIU? Hmmm?
5/21/2010 8:45:48 AM on summitdaily.com
Team America wrote:
Comment blocked. Please read the Community Guidelines above or the Terms of Use at the bottom of the page.
5/21/2010 8:19:45 AM on summitdaily.com _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. LGB64,
Do you REALLY think people are so stupid that we don't see why this foundation is being set up now, in the middle of the brewing IB controversy in Summit County? I mean seriously, do you REALLY?
According to the above article: "The organization, which was formed only several weeks ago, has already raised $11,000."
How very odd! How does an organization formed only several weeks ago become an official 501(c)(3) and be able to advertise on its website that "all gifts are tax deductible as permitted by law"? http://sefcolorado.org/howtogive.html
I think I'll ask the CO AG. _____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. I see that SEF underwent the proper incorporation and state charitable licensing process, but I find it odd that on this document, it states that the IRS code is "pending".
Even a 2 month filing period seems an amazingly short period of time to be awarded "temporary" 501(c)(3) status.
Who put up the original $45,000, of which $43,000 was expended right off the bat?
I don't need to visit your, (what I'm sure is a beautiful county), LGB64, to look at the financials and political affiliations of a foundation. My questions and facts seem to be getting you and the Summit News Daily a little unnerved. I'm just giving the folks of Summit County public information that your local paper fails to provide. You want to dispute my facts? Feel free. But I would appreciate it if you would stop with the paranoid crap, ty. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. LGB,
"The real issue here is funding, and if you were from Summit County you would know that."
DOH! You mean this is all about MONEY? Nooooooo. Please, LGB. Stop insulting my intelligence. Funding is ALWAYS the issue with IB, no matter what part of the world it infects. And it ALWAYS comes down to Progressives trying to circumvent the public system to FUND their pet propaganda program of the week. Or decade. Or century. That's why I call it a SCAM.
Why do you think I like to follow the money? ;-)
Listen to the Teachers!
May 19, 2010 - One of the things TAIB has noticed across the United States when a district seeks to implement IB, is the unusual absence of "input" from the majority of the teachers. There never seems to be a survey of opinion, in fact, the teachers who oppose IB, are often threatened by administrators with transfers or other "consequences" if they dare to object. In the case of Cherry Hill, NJ, when IB came under fire, the Superintendent required a 70% approval of IB by the teachers in each school to continue the program. The teachers in Cherry Hill HS West ousted IB and now offer a strong selection of AP courses. The following letter comes from Incline Village HS, Nevada, and demonstrates some solid research conducted by its AP teachers. TAIB is going to reprint the letter in its entirety as this factual, non-emotional letter clearly shows that trying to combine IB with AP results in inferior scores and success.
Guest Column - IHS Faculty Wary of IB (North Lake Tahoe Bonanza)
We at Incline High School have worked hard to build up our AP program and, as a result, over the years we have had an impressive number of students accepted to prominent colleges and universities. We have been told on numerous occasions by students who have returned to visit us that our classes – particularly AP classes – prepared them well toward success in their college courses.
Washoe County School District, sensing our concerns, has assured us that we will not lose our AP program. They have told us we can teach both AP and IB together, and have pointed to Wooster High School as an example. So, how has Wooster fared? Some previous data they have given out looked promising, but could have been the result of creative number crunching. What we were interested in was the breakdown of AP scores alone, but it was difficult to get that specific information from Wooster.
Recently, several of our faculty visited with their counterparts at Wooster. One of the questions we were interested in was how well AP and IB classes could be taught together. When talked to privately, Wooster teachers confided that, although their classes are purportedly both AP and IB, they primarily teach the IB component. These students are then required to take the AP test, which presumably allows the school to claim an AP/IB program.
That could be acceptable if the IB curriculum adequately prepares the students for the AP equivalent. But how can you assess that without AP testing score data? Fortunately, we have recently acquired that information from the last two years, and the results are interesting, if not sobering.
AP scores range from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest possible score. A score of 3 is considered “passing,” but some colleges require a score of 4 or 5 before a student can be awarded college credit for specific subjects.
Let's begin with the English language and English literature tests. IB's strong suit purportedly is its liberal arts program, so one might presume this program would prepare students well for the AP equivalent. However, our students have consistently passed at or near 100 percent. In comparison, Wooster's best passing percentage within the last two years was 47 percent (for English Language), with its worst at 27 percent. Their English Literature scores were consistent at 45 percent. Less than 4 percent of all of these tests scored a 5.
As one might expect, our AP government scores, most certainly due to the success of We The People, average a very respectable 80 percent over the last four years, with 40 percent earning a 5 last year. The 2009 scores for Wooster were 39 percent passing, with a 29 percent figure for 2008. There were no 4's or 5's. Similarly, our U.S. hstory scores last year yielded an 81 percent passing rate, while Wooster weighed in at 56 percent last year and 47 percent the year before.
Although the bilingual component of IB has been a big sell, the average passing rate for AP Spanish over the last 2 years was less than 48 percent, with a 37 percent average passing rate for French. Our average passing rate for Spanish? Yep, higher — around 60 percent on the average.
How about science and math? The state average for chemistry and biology AP scores is an abysmal 2 and 2.5, respectively. Our AP chemistry students achieve a passing average of around 70 percent to 75 percent. Last year, six of those tests scored a 5. Last year, Wooster recorded a 33 percent passing rate, without a 5. Biology at Incline has averaged about 65 percent over the years, while Wooster acquired a consistent 15 percent passing rate over the past two years. Our calculus AP scores average around 60 percent while 48 percent of Wooster's students passed the test in ‘09, and 57 percent in ‘08.
When making these comparisons one thing to remember is that our scores are coming from a very large percentage of our junior and senior class (we allow sophomores to take AP human geography, by the way, and had 18 percent of the class earning 5s last year). Wooster's scores are coming from a small percentage, compared to their student population. Consider the fact that this is a magnet school for the entire Reno area and therefore presumably in possession of a large and elite brain pool, and the picture begins to look very dismal for Wooster's AP/IB program. Is it any wonder that a large majority of our faculty is hesitant about implementing IB?
— Steve Brown is a science and AP teacher at Incline High School.
The REAL Purpose of CAS
For the unindoctrinated, CAS is one of the mandatory core components of the IB Diploma. It stands for Creativity, Action and Service and requires a student to perform 150 hours of these "activities".
Apparently, making an IB promo and putting it on YOU TUBE, fulfills this requirement. In this student's own words, CAS requires projects ... "...such as this video right now, to further enhance people's perception of IB."
When asked what sort of service, he performs, this student replies, "I only do service for myself." How sad he does not realize he is being used as a pawn to do service for IBO.
Maurice Strong and the New World Order
This is not a joke. Let us repeat ... this is NOT a joke. When Glenn Beck mentioned Maurice Strong on his show, the name rang disturbingly familiar. Where had we heard that before? Ah yes...
Here's a wonderful weekend of teaching and learning about global issues. Keynotes have included Maurice Strong, Jean Francois Rischard,Hafsat Abiola and Jane Goodall. Boyd Roberts from the IBO is presenting on "sharing our humanity", the IB's community theme. Great weekend!
Great weekend, indeed, good grief! Everyone familiar with IBO's Herculian attempts to distance its association with the Earth Charter had to wonder why this organization would go to such lengths to deny its support. TAIB has proven HERE that IBO's Deputy Director General, Ian Hill, did not merely attend a dinner and sign the Earth Charter as claimed by IBNA representative Ralph Cline, but served as a representative for IBO on the Earth Charter's educational committee and forum.
So who drafted the Earth Charter?
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=5384 The Earth Charter was written under the co-leadership of former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and Canadian business man-cum-environmentalist Maurice Strong, one of Kofi Annan’s most trusted advisors who most recently has been in the news due to some alleged entanglements in the Oil-for-Food scandal. It was intended to serve as homage to the Sacred Earth and all of its living inhabitants and as a set of “basic principles to secure a viable future for the whole community of life.” The Earth Charter’s governing principle is that population and economic growth – driven by capital investment, entrepreneurship, efficient production and free trade – will inevitably denude the earth of its vital natural resources; instead, as global citizens, we must radically transform our current modes of production and consumption. Under the mantles of “sustainable development” and “social justice,” the Earth Charter’s authors want it to become part of binding international law to control population growth, force a slowdown of economic activity in the industrialized nations, and divert a massive amount of wealth from successful economies to failed ones by UN fiat.
Patriots of the WORLD, Unite?
May 14, 2010 - Don't worry. TAIB hasn't gone Andy Stern on you. We just received an e-mail from a Mom in Sri Lanka which she requested we share with our readers. While this website is focused on American public schools and we are constantly being accused of being xenophobic, we feel it is important to point out that IBO's "mission" is not to exclusively undermine patriotism and national pride in the United States alone, but in every country its education infects. Remember, the goal is one world government. Recently, TAIB has noticed complaints about IB's efforts to minimize national and local history coming from India, Indonesia and even Iran! IBO is attempting to make IB the "national" curriculum in Australia. The way to disenfranchise natives of ANY country is to weaken their national pride and convince them that only a global government will better serve the needs of the people. Whether that country is India or the United States, intelligent, right-minded citizens must wake up to the elitist propaganda being sold by this corrupt organization, take back their schools and not send one red cent, yen or Euro to IBO.
Comments: i do like your site the truth about ib, i would like to post a note on your site regarding what one of the oldest ib schools has done to my three children during this last academic year, my eldest being one of their most outstanding students doing the ibdp and the student body president has been asked not to attend school due to the fact that we are unable to pay the fees in full, my younger two have not been to any other school in this country as this prestigious ib school has refused to give us documents to pursue their education. if you let me have your response i would like to post the story on your website thanks. - Concerned Mom, Sri Lanka
Mrs. Koler being approached by police
SAY NO TO IBO!
TAIB is brimming with pride for the public action being taken by the Kolers. We are encouraging TAIB readers to offer words of support after the flurry of recent articles which have hit the Idaho papers. It was just reported back to TAIB that Duncan's Power Point presentation was a HUGE hit at a Tea Party meeting held in Mesa, Arizona, last night!
May 11, 2010 - TAIB was on pins and needles waiting to hear the outcome of the public meeting hosted by Duncan and Aileen Koler on May 10th in the Coeur d'Alene public library. Here is Duncan's reply:
Our meeting went well, and we're fired up. Front page news in this morning's CDA Press, fair coverage, but certainly not much depth. We had 6 speakers and went about an hour and a half until the library shut down at 8:00. All the speakers went a little long, so we didn't get to cover the financial and AP vs. IB as well as we should have, and there was no time for Q&A.
We had about 120 people, including 2 state legislators, a few state candidates, 2 school board members, the local IB high school principal, and citizens on both sides of the issue, although overall decidedly anti-IB. Enthusiastic reception for all 6 speakers. It was videotaped - would you like a copy? Next step: the School District's "Schools of Choice" workshop on 5/17. This was supposed to be a forum at which we could address our IB concerns, but the School Superintendent announced at the Board's 5/3/10 meeting that there would not be any public comment, questions or presentations -- just the school administrators will present.
Bravo! Be sure to watch the excellent Power Point presentation Duncan put together which includes stunning examples of the indoctrination being foisted on children in the IB PYP.
May 8th, 2010 - Parents of children with special needs know that it's difficult enough to obtain services for their children under ADA. TAIB has also pointed out IBO's less than generous regulations regarding extended time accommodations on IB exams as compared with AP exams.
Now, the Atlanta-based Center for the Advancement and Study of International Education has elected Mr. Alex Leblois to serve as its new Board Chair. Mr. Leblois is a senior special fellow at UNITAR, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. According to this article, Mr. Leblois is "assisting nations with policy implementation of global standards for people with disabilities."
CASIE works with the International Baccalaureate Organization. So if your child's school is an IB school, which "standards" will be applied to your child's needs? American? Or the UN's?
Fort Meade IB Update
TAIB spent a number of hours trying to obtain details about the IB Diploma Program housed in Meade High School at Fort Meade, Maryland. We have learned that in 2008-2009, the program was only open to students at Meade High School which has a population of approximately 2,000. In 2009-2010, the program was designated a "magnet" and opened to students from throughout the Anne Arundel system. The IB Coordinator of Meade HS referred our questions to the Anne Arundel IB Coordinator who was in meetings all week. Our next step was to contact the Accountability office. Unfortunately, there was no accountability in Anne Arundel schools last week as the staff were all in classes to learn the new data system. We found this rather amusing. The schools does not have DODEA affiliation.
It is safe to say that as of May, 2010, there have been NO IB graduates as yet from the single IB public magnet program which happens to be situated on a U.S. military base. However, according to an e-mail received over the weekend from Bob Mosier, the Public Information Officer for Anne Arundel Schools:
"In response to your question, there are 53 diploma candidates in the Class of 2010 Meade High School IB program. We do not sort participants in any program by whether or not they are children of military and non-military families."
For IB supporters to try and claim that IB is on "many" U.S. military bases and therefore it can't be anti-American, is a lie of gross proportions. TAIB will attempt to follow up on the actual pass rate of those 53 students in July.
CORRECTION: TAIB is issuing the following correction to the article "IBO's Latest Marketing Scam". One of our IB watchdogs from Texas has identified Meade High School, as being located on the Army base at Fort Meade in Anne Arundel, MD, and an IB World School. The school is administered by the Anne Arundel County Public School system. TAIB has requested IB Diploma stats from Meade HS and will report back when we receive the information.
IBO's Latest Marketing Scam
May 03, 2010 - The United States is IBO's largest purchaser of its "programmes" in the world comprising 38% of its world market (1122 U.S. IB schools out of 2,916 IB schools globally). IBO knows where its bread is buttered and will stop at nothing to strategically market its product. The most damaging charge against IBO by its opponents is its anti-American bias. Ever clever in deceptive marketing practices, IBO has now stooped to a new low by claiming that IB is taught in schools on U.S. military bases. After all, if our fine U.S. military families choose to send their children to an IB school, it can't be anti-American. Right?
TAIB first noticed this deceptive propaganda being spewed in Monticello, NY, followed by Incline Village, NV, and Bastrop, Texas. Note how the language is eerily similar:
"The IB has been implemented in Christian and Jewish schools, as well as schools where military personnel send their children ... some examples include Langley Air Force Base, Fort Belvoir, Fort Meade and Fort Hood." - Monticello Principal's Letter
"... there are many IB schools ON our military bases - here in the great USA - and in many cases, students living on base, are bussed to IB schools in neighboring areas. Even more importantly, all of the US military academies recruit IB students and award college credit to these students." - comment on the Tahoe Bonanza, Incline Village, Nevada
"I hear about IB being anti-American. How come there are schools ON military bases that are IB schools, and military academies award credit to IB students – if the program was anti-American. If IB was as “bad” as many claim, WHY would this be?" - comment on the Bastrop Advertiser, Bastrop, Texas
TAIB has a very simple answer for the reader from Bastrop, Texas. BECAUSE IT IS A BOLD FACED LIE! Not only are there not "many" IB schools ON our military bases, there IS NOT A SINGLE IB SCHOOL ON U.S. MILITARY BASES! The only, and we do mean ONLY, IB schools in the entire world with DODEA affiliation are located in Bahrain and Germany. Both of these schools are PRIVATE international schools and do not serve U.S. military exclusively.
We are urging our readers to spread the truth about IBO's deceptive and downright insulting use of our U.S. military to try and convince unsuspecting Americans that its product isn't anti-American. In our opinion, IBO has sunk to a new all-time low and MUST be exposed!
IB Lacks Rigor in Physics
April 28, 2010 - This blog entry conducted some interesting research on the number of Florida IB high schools which offer IB Physics. Florida and California are the two U.S. states with the largest number of IB schools.
In 2008-2009, of the 54 IBDP schools in Florida, only 30 of the schools offered either SL or HL IB Physics. Of those, only 15 schools offered HL IB Physics, the only IB Physics course which is considered creditworthy at most U.S. universities.
The Locust Valley school district in NY, only offers SL IB Physics. TAIB decided to check out IBO's reporting on IB Physics around the globe. What we learned was rather shocking. According to this difficult to locate chart on IB exam statistics, only 14,790 students took IB Physics - worldwide. Of those, only 6,023 took the IB HL Physics exam. TAIB was unable to locate IB U.S. state specific stats.
By comparison, in 2008, in the U.S. alone, 46,062students took AP Physics B, and 9,377 took Physics C, which is considered one of the most difficult classes offered to high school students. (55,439 total U.S. AP Physics B & C exams). It is quite possible that even more students took the AP Physics courses without taking the AP exam which is optional, whereas the IB exam is compulsory.
A final analysis of the pass rates on the exams reveals that only 78% or (approximately 4,800 IB HL Physics students worldwide) scored a 4 or higher with the possibility of earning college credit, compared to 33,020 U.S. AP students who scored a potential creditworthy 3 or higher in Physics B & C.
Google Map Proof IBO & IBE/UNESCO in Same Building in Geneva, Switzerland
IB YOU TUBE Video in Poor Taste
Wow. What a brilliant and insightful means of promoting IB - NOT! This program gets more disgusting by the day. TAIB had a hard time deciding whether to feature this video with flatulence and mocking Sarah Palin, the video about the drunk kids in TOK, or the TOK video with misspelled words, but this one won out. But hey, IBO technically "owns" all of these "delightful" recordings. I'm sure they're very proud.
But wait, what's this? When you go to www.ib-info.com, you get the following message:
RIP IB-info.com IB-info.com shut down on the 09th of April, 2010 because of the copyright issues associated with distributing Past Papers, Question Banks and other IBO material.
U.S. Should Take a Lesson from India
April 23, 2010 - The Indian government is taking steps to make companies like Cambridge and International Baccalaureate comply with national standards.
The Dasgupta committee, in its report, later accepted by the HRD ministry, had said that Indian and India-based international schools seeking affiliation to foreign boards would have to comply with guidelines like seeking government clearance, respecting the Constitution, adapting the curriculum to Indian context, making source of funding public and limiting entry of foreign teachers.
What a novel idea! If the United States Federal Education Department required the same of IB in this country, we think it's fair to say you wouldn't be seeing IB lessons like the one in the next update.
Mother Earth Day - Planet Has Rights!
Did everyone have a nice Earth Day yesterday? Well, we certainly hope so. It was beautiful in NYC when the President came to scold Wall Street. So today, let's review what IB students were taught in their leftwing IB classrooms about "Mother Earth Day": Having two "Earth Days" has been confusing. In 2009, at the initiative of Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day in a General Assembly resolution. So in 2010, for the first time, and for the 40th anniversary, the UN International Mother Earth Day and Earth Day will be marked on the same day. The UN resolution asked us to "reflect on the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit". Morales makes the point that in Western cultures, Mother Earth has been viewed as an object. He argues "Not just human beings have rights, but the planet has rights."
Really? Where is that written in our U.S. Constitution? Oh, and this is really special. Remember Glenn Beck's special on The Story of Stuff, produced by George Soros's TIDES Foundation? IB recommends The Story of Stuff to promote Cap and Trade on Earth Day. Nothing political there, eh? How ironic that TAIB's administrator was in NYC yesterday protesting Cap and Trade. Please be sure to watch the excellent You Tube rebuttal below.
Story of Stuff Promo in IB
American opposition to Cap and Trade
Just Say Phuket!
April 22, 2010 - TAIB apologizes for the juvenile humor. But when we saw this story, we simply had to share.
The Phuket International Academy Day School (PIADS) is working to develop into a three programme International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. As a pioneering international school in Phuket, it will integrate the uniqueness of Asian culture and the best from Western educational traditions, to cultivate inquiring, informed, and compassionate young people who know how to conduct their lives with integrity, cultivate true happiness, and strive to create a more peaceful and sustainable earth.
Imagine that! Only an IB education can cultivate TRUE happiness. Good grief.
IB Damage Control
April 22, 2010 - TAIB knows that IBO watches this site for stories that it may have to counter to protect its image. It didn't take too long before THIS STORY about Deerfield Beach Middle School, Florida, came out. If you scroll down this page, you will see we ran a short story about the recent vicious attack on a female student which left her in a coma that took place on school grounds and how there was no mention of the fact that it is an IB World School. Now the district is using the PR tactic of saying, "Move along. Pay no attention to those negative stories. Look, we're IB!"
Supporters say the school, at Southeast Seventh Street and Sixth Avenue, should not be defined by the two incidents. The attack on Ratley occurred after school let out and Brewer was attacked off campus. Rather, they point to the school's educational opportunities, including a health and wellness magnet program and an International Baccalaureate magnet.
Ironic, isn't it? Because here at TAIB, we immediately noted that both the Harriton HS in Lower Merion, PA, which invaded student privacy by school administrators spying on students at home through school issued laptops and Deerfield Beach MS were IB authorized schools, information that was missing from both major stories. Coincidence? We think not.
LVCSD's IB Elitist Snobbery
April 20, 2010 - TAIB has always wondered how it was that IB, a program geared towards "social justice" and allegedly "closing the achievement gap at under-performing schools" made its way into the Locust Valley school district on the Gold Coast of Long Island, NY. After much research, we came to the conclusion that the only reason Locust Valley is so enamored with IB is the phony prestige Board members and administrators believe comes with the IB label.
So today, when TAIB was perusing our daily IB Google alerts, we were shocked to see Locust Valley featured. Oh my, what had Locust Valley HS accomplished for its students with the IB program which has bilked the taxpayers over $1.5 Million for to date? Did the student acceptance rate to the Ivies skyrocket? Did LVHS's SAT scores improve dramatically? Were a record number of scholarships awarded?
Um, no. No, the IB news Locust Valley's PR firm felt was important enough to be featured in Newsday concerned a visit from Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine of Serbia to meet with IB students for a "symposium".
TAIB wants to make something perfectly clear. What we are about to say is in no way meant to disparage the family of Princess Katherine. Although TAIB's administrator, Lisa, has not met Princess Katherine personally, she did broker the sale of the family home of her grandchildren in 2005, and from what we have heard, Princess Katherine is a genuinely lovely and generous individual. This was not her first guest appearance in LVCSD. During the 90's, Princess Katherine met with students at the Locust Valley Intermediate School. At the time, the students brought in and decorated shoe-boxes which they filled with school supplies for Princess Katherine to send back to children in her country, which she did at her own expense. But of course, LVCSD wasn't an IB World School in the 90's so it didn't rate a press release.
The way the article is presented caused TAIB to do a little research on the Royal family. It would appear that LVCSD's PR firm should have done so as well, for the Royal roots stem from HRH Crown Prince Alexander (not the II as stated in the article, according to the family's official website), who was Princess Katherine's second husband. The LVCSD students who are her grandchildren, are descended from her daughter from her first marriage to Jack W. Andrews. Princess Katherine was born in Greece and received her university degrees here in the United States. According to the websites, the Prince and Princess currently reside in the royal palace in Belgrade. It is said that Crown Prince Alexander is "a proponent of re-establishing a constitutional monarchy in Serbia."
The politics of Yugoslavia/Bosnia/Serbia are fascinating and worthy of studying, yet TAIB finds it incredulous that the brief article submitted to Newsday chose to focus on "tolerance" and a resolution condemning the massacre of 8,000 Muslims. There is no mention of the years of communist rule in Yugoslavia or the Democratic Socialists who currently control Belgrade. No, the HS Principal thinks it is much more important to focus on the "power" and "character" of kings and queens and use student connections to royalty to promote the International Baccalaureate program.
Is it any coincidence that for the first time this year, IBO has changed the name of the Peterson Lectures to the Peterson Symposium? After all, a symposium sounds sooooo much more prestigious than a mere lecture, does it not? ;-)
"Finally Free from IB"
TAIB is pleased to share this post which was made to our forum page as Breaking News and also on our Dear IB page. One of IB's sales pitches is "Talk to the students!". We love talking to students, especially bright ones like Shannon who took the time to share their IB experience with us. Shannon has invited readers to ask her questions, which you can do by clicking on her name in blue. Thank you, Shannon!
I posted on here several months ago, complaining about IB and all of the ridiculous things I had to put up with while in it. Well, I put up with all of that for a while. And then, quite recently, I got to thinking about the fact that my SL courses and exams would not count for college credits at nearly every college. I was so stressed all the time, getting about 3-4 hours of sleep each night, and really starting to hate school when I used to love it. And I was going to suffer through three SL classes, with all of their IAs and exams, and not even receive credit for them?
So I finally decided to leave. And, of course, I had a lot of trouble doing so. The IB coordinator gave me a really hard time about it. And nearly all of my teachers frowned upon my decision and told me that I was "taking the easy way out" of high school.
Let me clarify for any IB-supporters who may read this: I haven't dropped out of IB to take an easier course load. I am now going to take AP Physics C next year, instead IB Envi Sci, the joke of a class that I was going to be forced into taking. AP Physics C is regarded throughout my high school as the hardest class the school offers. All of my other classes will also be AP/IB classes as well (since my high school stupidly combines AP and IB classes so that we are basically prepared for neither test by the end of the year). I read in another post by someone who supported IB that those who left IB simply couldn't "handle the work load." Believe me, I can "handle" IB just fine, I am just sick of putting up with its crap. My work load will be even heavier next year, when I am a senior, but I will not be dealing with all of IB's nonsense.
My friends who are in IB were equally disapproving; their responses ranged from telling me that they felt sorry for me and that I would regret, to telling me that I was pathetic and that no college would accept me now. All of this is, of course, ridiculous. My advice to any student who is currently considering entering the IB program is to AVOID IT at all costs. You will be forced into irrelevant classes rather than those that genuinely interest you, you will be forced to complete stupid assignments like the IAs, and you will come to regret your choice in the end, as I did. I'm just glad I got out when I did.
Luckily, my former Extended Essay mentor was very supportive of my decision. Somehow, he was not brainwashed like most teachers at my school have been. He understood that a student does not need to take part in the IB diploma program in order to be considered intelligent. I just wish the students and the other teachers at my school could see this as well. The dominating attitude in my school is that if you aren't in IB, you cannot possibly be intelligent.
If anyone has any questions for me about the IB program or my experience in it, I would be glad to answer. I'm here to help expose the truth about IB. :)
I wish to add to The Press' reporting of the April 5, 2010, School Board meeting and the citizens' comments about IB. Those who spoke against the program did so passionately but respectfully, and included a number of well- and internationally-educated citizens who had done their own research.
The students who spoke for the program stated unequivocally that there was never, ever any left-wing bias in their classes. This stood in stark contrast to CHS Student Body President Tyler Smotherman, who gave a reasoned analysis and offered his observations shared by other CHS IB students he spoke with that the IB program carried a decidedly radical left-wing tilt.
Not once has any proponent of IB disputed the research we have done, and the things we found that UNESCO and the IB Organization ("IBO") say about their education programs. We have provided citations to these UNESCO and IBO writings to all concerned, including the school board. Instead, the pro-IB folks point to the flowery, lofty-sounding marketing pablum put out by IB to sell their program.
The only contentiousness shown at the meeting was by those pro-IB speakers who resorted to name-calling, labeling myself and others opposed to the program as "propagandists" and "extreme right-wingers." I am informed that Trustee Edie Brooks echoed these sentiments after the meeting. Interestingly, Ms. Brooks claimed to be "conservative." Please, let's base our arguments on research and reason, and not resort to name-calling, as some have recently, both at the school board meeting and in The Press.
The defenders of IB (i.e., the IB teachers, their students and the "conservatives" on the board) claim that U.N. globalist curriculum is not reaching our kids through IB, because the curriculum is written locally by our teachers. In other words, they claim the teachers are filtering out the globalist, anti-American, anti-Christian material from IB. Let's review the facts linking the U.N. to the IBO and to our local students:
The U.N. says: (1) we need to downplay nationality in teaching, lest the kids identify too strongly with their country (this was written about in the 1948 UNESCO handbook, "Is There a Way of Teaching for Peace?"); (2) we need to teach "peace" defined by the U.N. as social equity (redistribution of resources); (3) we need to teach "sustainable development" (meaning putting resources out of reach and redistributing others under the guise of environmentalism and social equity); (4) we need to teach local-to-global activism to our kids; and (5) the U.N.'s related Non-Governmental Organizations (called "NGO's) - including IBO, are legally bound to execute UNESCO's educational objectives and to report back to UNESCO on their activities and results.
The IBO says: (1) that IB's goal is to create true global citizens with the ability to persuade others to their way of thinking; (2) that it's "no coincidence" that IB's Diploma Program grew out of the ideas from the 1948 UNESCO handbook's ideas regarding teaching a "special kind of history," teaching community activism and teaching acceptance of others' ideas; (3) Teaching "values" is a fundamental part of the IB/PYP programs, including the "values" of compulsory community service, openness to change, social equity/peace and sustainable development.
Our children say: (Hayden Meadows PYP 4th graders wrote "Essays to the President" titled, "If I could change the World" over the past two years. These essays are on display in the Hayden Meadows lobby.) Here are some of their suggestions for changing the world: (1) no factories; (2) no cars; (3) no logging or cutting down trees; (4) no building; (5) remove buildings and set more land aside just for animals; (6) stop global warming; (7) free housing for everyone; (8) take away all guns and weapons; (9) make everyone feel equal; and (10) "take the bull by the horns" and start to change the community first, then the nation, then the world. Ironically, the board announced that Hayden Meadows fourth-graders and their teacher were receiving a community service award for their activism in the community at the school board meeting.
It strikes me that the kids are learning exactly what UNESCO and IB aim to teach, mainly "Can't Do" instead of "Can-Do" American exceptionalism. Not one of the PYP fourth-graders suggested anything like, "find a cure for cancer," or "discover a new clean energy source." Also, we keep hearing about the need for change, openness to change and to be community activists for change. This sounds eerily familiar. What change? Draw your own conclusions, but first do your own research.
Where is the school board on all this? On March 1, I presented a formal request to have the IB/PYP program made an agenda item for open discussion at the April 5 school board meeting (i.e., a dialogue between the board and the citizens, instead of 3-minute citizens' comments while the board sits silent). In response, I received a letter denying my request. Instead, the board announced it will hold a public workshop to discuss "Schools of Choice" on May 17 at 5 p.m. at LCHS. They say that workshop will include discussion of IB/PYP.
To summarize, U.N. education is in our schools, and our bright kids are learning their lessons well. In response to legitimate, researched concerns about the U.N.-based curriculum our school board brought to our schools, we have encountered from pro-IB'ers, including school board trustees, demonization and an attempt to hijack and re-frame the issue as one of "choice." Let's take responsibility for our children and demand accountability from our school board - please be there on May 17.
by Duncan Koler, a Hayden Lake resident.
How IB is Dumbing Down Schools
April 15, 2010 - It's a little known fact that IB at the PYP and MYP levels forces the elimination of gifted and Honors classes. Progressives who embrace IB, also embrace detracking in general, claiming that by making every class heterogeneous, those at the bottom will rise to the top. What the same educators refuse to acknowledge are studies like THIS ONE published in the Educational Research Journal, which demonstrates that those at the top are constrained by this method of teaching to the lowest common denominator along with a social result in the classroom that teachers have deemed a "bad split". THIS ARTICLE, out of Racine, Wisconsin, not only clearly demonstrates parental concerns for the deconstruction of advanced classes, but for the first time that TAIB has seen in print includes statements from the school's Principal regarding IBO's mandates to this effect:
"Students at McKinley currently take classes as part of grade-level teams created in part based on student's skill levels with advanced students who are deemed gifted and talented grouped together. With the International Baccalaureate Program those teams will be dismantled in favor of new teams that include students of all skill levels.
Parents at the meeting wondered why, if students will be grouped within individual classes anyway, children could not just be grouped ahead of time at the team level? Yehle said that cannot happen because IB requires mixed skill team groups.
"We would not get IB accreditation if we did that," she said, adding that many studies also show skill-level based grouping, commonly called tracking, is not best because it can be hard to consistently evaluate students and because some students may be advanced in some subject areas and not others. "It's better to group (in class) and then regroup for new units."
Of course, the fact that schools are "authorized" by IB and not "accredited" seems to escape this Principal's grasp along with the fact that the MYP is not a curriculum, but why let those little facts get in the way of "progress" and "reform"?
The False Promises of IB Exposed
April 12, 2010 - The greatest truths are often revealed in the comments following articles about IB. TAIB was particularly struck by the following comment from an IB Diploma graduate from Florida. Granted, we have no way of verifying the identity of the poster, we suppose it could be someone who is "pretending" to be a student. We assure you, it wasn't us.
While the composition of this post does not represent what TAIB considers exemplary writing skills, we believe that even further demonstrates what a fraudulent program IB really is. From U.S. News & World Reports:
Not Good Enough "I successfully completed the IB program at a top notch high school in FL. My next step was to attend The University of Florida, where two of my brothers and my mother had attended. I was not accepted. I got a 32 on the ACT and a 1480 and the SAT as well as attaining the the IB degree and a cumulative gpa of over 5 (on a 4.0 scale). My mother nor my brothers had nearly as high test scores or had they participated in the IB program. I questioned the admissions office on why I had been denied and was told simply "there is a racial quota that must be fulfilled". It seems that I was denied admission because of my race, rather than my academic achievements. "
That's sad on so many counts.
IB Controversy Heats up in Idaho
April 12, 2010 - TAIB is proud to bring you the statement from the Coeur d'Alene Student Council President Tyler Smotherman, presented at a standing room only Board of Ed meeting on April 6th:
"It is clear to me that the IB program reflects a broader shift in the public school curriculum of many regions of this country, a shift toward a more relativistic, globalist and secular humanist world view," said Tyler Smotherman, Coeur d'Alene High School's student council president. "In my IB classes that I've taken, I've noticed a clear slant toward naturalism, socialism, radical environmentalism, pantheism, buddhism, gay marriage, abortion rights and other topics that could be grossly categorized as progressive or leftist or what have you, and I say grossly because those words are really inadequate."
Smotherman said he has also witnessed hostility toward some ideologies and belief systems like Christianity, American exceptionalism, traditional gender roles, capitalism, "and other topics that can be roughly categorized as more conservative."
The article also states: "Trustees heard from 22 members of the public, more than half pleading for the district to eliminate all IB-related programs from schools because they say IB promotes a United Nations agenda of global citizenship, is anti-American, costly and a threat to citizens' rights."
Right on, CDA patriots! Good for you for getting out and making your concerns heard! Keep up the good work!
The CDA Press also ran a "response" from IB Diploma candidates to criticism of IB.
When IB Doesn't Get Mentioned
April 7th, 2010 - TAIB hopes every reader will say a prayer for this girl , Jojo, who lies in a coma in a Florida hospital, the result of a vicious attack by another student who kicked her in the head with his steel toed boots.
Where did this happen? On the school grounds of an International Baccalaureate MYP World School. Of course, when it comes to terrible news, the initials IB are never mentioned. The school has been authorized by IBO since 2004, so it has had ample time to implement what it calls its "culture of peace". This is important because this incident isn't related to IB by six degrees of separation. It happened on school grounds at the end of a school day. It is tragic, despicable and clear evidence that IB as a tool for social change is a failed experiment. This school needs to get rid of IB and spend the money on school security instead.
Nor is it the first incident of violent behavior this year:
"The incident was the second attack on a Deerfield Beach Middle School student this school year. In October, student Michael Brewer was at a friend's house when, police said, a group of teenagers surrounded him, doused him with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire."
Tragic. Simply tragic. Great track record there, IB. Deerfield Beach administrators better get their priorities straight and throw out this junk educational scam and concentrate on identifying and removing dangerous bullies from its school.
IB MYP Training Film
TAIB came across this rather bizarre video on You Tube which claims to have been presented at an IB MYP "professional development" seminar for high school teachers.
An excerpt from Leadership Lessons From Dancing Guy:
"A Leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. What he's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional. Now this is key, it must be easy to follow.
The First Follower plays a crucial role. The Leader embraces the First Follower as an equal so it's not about just him anymore, it's about them - plural. The First Follower calls out to his friends. It takes guts to be a First Follower to stand out and be subject to ridicule. Being a First Follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership.
The First Follower transforms the lone nut job into a Leader."
THIS is what tens of thousands of your tax dollars are being spent on and called IB Teacher Training?? Training for WHAT? Promoting IB? Social reorganization? Brainwashing? Why the derogatory and insulting characterization of a leader? Why must one fear looking ridiculous if they believe wholeheartedly in the truth and goodness of an idea? People will gravitate naturally to brilliance and leadership, the originator or leader doesn't need a "recruiter" to rally them round, lest THEY look ridiculous for not agreeing with the leader.
This is dangerous stuff and these are dangerous days.
“I was taught that communism was bad until I took history in the International Baccalaureate program at Richmond High,” she said.
TAIB's good friend, the Anti-Corruption Republican (ACR) out of Texas, has put together an excellent analysis about this communist celebratory piece of art. For the past few years, ACR has downplayed the UN/IB connection and charges of being anti-American, preferring to focus on IB's lack of college-creditworthiness. It would appear that the IB student's appreciation for this work of art has finally led ACR to conclude that IB is "freakishly deviant".
The Gao Brothers are 53 and 47 years old and grew up in communist China. They claim that their work demonstrates the cruelty of communism, yet their intense focus on tyrants of evil seems to portray them in a celebratory manner. You be the judge.
55' Lenin/Miss Mao sculpture by Gao Brothers
Texas Parent Questions With Boldness
April 1, 2010 - Congratulations to Mary McGarr for signing her name and boldly challenging the "powers that be" in Katy ISD to get answers to her excellent questions before moving forward with implementation of IB. TAIB is honored to be cited as a reference in Mary's post which follows THIS ARTICLE.
Mary McGarr wrote on Mar 31, 2010 7:13 PM:
" Parents desiring this IB programme need to do their homework.
Please ask these questions:
How much will a school outfitted to accommodate an IB program cost for each level that is planned? (This does not refer to building costs as those are separate--this is just the cost charged by the IB organization.)
What will the ongoing cost be for each following year at each level? Does that cost always increase or does it diminish over time?
What specific employees will be required at each level to accommodate the IB program? Include program administrators, foreign language teachers, etc.
How will the regular curriculum at Wolfe be penalized in order to accommodate the IB program?
What kind of training will teachers endure each year and at what cost in order to be qualified to teach in the IB school?
How many students will be reasonably expected to acquire the IB Diploma at the end of their high school career? (Lamar High School in Houston ISD has been open for 25 years and in that time there are only 601 IB programme graduates!)
Will most of the students who attend Wolfe be taking the full programme or just an IB class or two here and there? If there are not students enrolled in the full program in sufficient numbers, how will this fact affect the enrollment numbers when students are not going to be provided with transportation?
Since the cost elsewhere is $92 per course, what will be the cost per course to the student in KISD?
What are the benefits of an IB diploma? Which colleges prefer/accept the IB diploma over AP coursework?
Are AP courses more difficult than IB courses? Are they comparable? Why are they or why aren't they?
What is the difference between AP and IB?
What is the background of the administrators who are trying to bring this program to Katy ISD? Did they work with this program somewhere else? How successful was that program? How is that success determined?
Will serving two year transient oil company executives from foreign countries serve the Katy community taxpayers who get to remain here and pay for this program after the oil company executives have gone back to their native lands?
Why is it that foreigners are so supportive of this program?
Will there be an athletic program at Wolfe? If not, why not?
Will there still be a Gifted and Talented program at Wolfe? If not, why not?
Will there be a fine arts program at Wolfe? If not, why not?
What will happen with Special Education students who might want to attend Wolfe?
How will building such a high school affect the Katy ISD yearly budget (and this excludes paying off the millions required in the bond issue)? Will KISD be facing the same scenario as announced yesterday by Ft. Bend ISD where they are having to lay off administrators and teachers, decrease bus routes, and raise the number of students per bus because they've spent too much money and their taxpayers have had enough or today in LaMarque ISD where they are deleting 58 positions for the same reason?
What binding requirements are issued by the International Baccalaureate organization with regard to keeping/getting rid of this program if it is found to be unworthy of our students? Could there be separation costs involved?
If this curriculum/school is so desirable, why wouldn't the administration want to locate it in the middle of the school district where it would be much more accessible and much more likely to be attended since transportation is an issue?
Is the District planning to sell off some of the land at the Wolfe site if it is not needed for the high school? What if the high school is not built--will some of the land be sold then?
Why isn't a brand new, plain old, plain Jane elementary school an option for the Wolfe Elementary site?
You might want to start here in your quest for answers: http://www.truthaboutib.com/ "
IB "Retooling" Young Minds
March 30, 2010 - "A Different Kind of Learning". What the heck was wrong with the good old fashioned kind of learning? What can possibly justify the complete and total indoctrination process involved in the IB's PYP and MYP? TAIB has noticed what appears to be a "trend" by IBO to expand the number of PYP schools in the United States.
Holland, MI —When students in Dave Stefanich’s fourth-grade class at Great Lakes Elementary School learn how a bill becomes a law, they don’t sit in neat rows. Stefanich doesn’t draw the branches of government on a chalkboard or play a “Schoolhouse Rock” video. Instead, students take on roles. They become senators and high-court justices, presidents and left- and right- leaning voters
That's just great! Some of these kids don't know their right hand from their left hand, let alone the difference between right and left politics. TAIB wonders who gets to play Van Jones, Anita Dunn and Andy Stern. ;-)
IB = "Lefty Happy Crappy"
March 28, 2010 - This story out of the Summit School District in Colorado, is very revealing when it comes to the mindset of Superintendents throughout the United States who have purchased the IB snakeoil. Rather than simply eliminate the entire scam they would rather recommend reducing student opportunities and eliminating jobs. What a shame.
What TAIB found most interesting were the comments from readers following the article who clearly "get" what a waste of money IB really is. Why aren't Boards of Education listening?
My2sense wrote:
Johnny's question (can you achieve the same results without being affiliated with the IB organization) is an important one to ask and cuts right to the core of what I think is a flawed belief held by this district. It seems obvious that this district desperately wants the cachet that it believes comes with IB sanctioning. I think that the aspects of the IB program that are effective can certainly be maintained without being affiliated with the organization. You can play golf on a city course, or belong to a country club, but it's still golf.
johnnyjones wrote:
The IB program has done nothing for my children but interfere with scheduling their needed classes. Maybe it's time to home school or form a charter school. Summit County needs an alternative to the public school system - there seems to be lots of students heading over the pass to Vail and now I hear of some who are finding schools in Denver. Apparently lots of people think it's worth the drive, we're certainly leaning that way. IB, Administration, and wasteful spending (food for their meetings) need to go first before cutting teachers and crowding classes. Believe me, we can't spare any more money to taxes either so let's hope they don't cry that that is where they will go to get the money.
JohnofDillon wrote:
The IB program is exactly where cuts should begin. In fact, eliminating the program and getting back to real education should be in the plan. I hate to see education cut, but eliminating a left-wing frill does no harm, only good, while saving money.
mabro wrote:
My God! After reading this article I feel like my kids are being indoctrinated. Get rid of all this lefty happy-crappy and get back to basics. I don't want Summit school district teaching my kids character development, empathy, and respect. They learn that at home. Much of what the IB program emphasizes can be learned through studying history. Can anybody explain how the IB program took root in our schools? Whose idea was it? Who ever was behind initiating the program should be fired. It's a huge waste of taxpayer dollars and intrudes on the family and what is being taught at home.
LGB64 wrote:
I personally believe that we ought to be worrying a whole lot less about the kids "character" and a whole lot more about their ability to read and write. Teach them. We don't need you to raise them. For those families that have a hard time with things related to character, there are a lot of organizations out there that are willing to help. Aside from the fact that not everyone agrees with the IB values, as outlined here by numerous posters in the past, the public school's job is to give them an education. Get out of the rest of it. Cut back to basics, quit trying to be the kids' mothers and fathers and best friends, and cut back the spending.
689th688th 690th U.S. IB Diploma World School
March 26, 2010 - IBO's growth can hardly be called "explosive", having added only 21 22 new IBDP schools in the entire United States since last year. At the same time, TAIB has found news articles indicating that at least eight (8) nine (9) districts will be eliminating the IBDP at the end of this school year, giving IBO a net gain of only 13 12 13 new DP schools. TAIB has been trying to track the rise and fall of IB in the U.S., however, even as we are in the midst of posting updates, the numbers fluctuate and it is almost impossible to determine which schools have been added or subtracted from IBO's search function.
Be that as it may, TAIB thought readers would enjoy reading the propaganda used to announce the new authorization:
"We're global citizens - part of a global economy, linked through a global communications network and subject to threats like global warming."
That's nice. Fearmongering with junk science and one world government is always a great way to sell a program.
Paul Campbell,spokesperson for IB North America spewed the following nonsense:
"It's a myth that Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate are competitors. Many schools offer both programs, and in fact, having IB often ends up spurring more students to take AP courses."
Have you noticed how IBO and the Progressives are big on distorting truth and claiming it to be a myth? Having IB spurs more students to take AP? What baloney! Having IB often eliminates AP and spurs more students to take AP exams to supplement IB's non-creditworthy SL exams. To the reporter's credit, she follow's up Campbell's rhetoric with:
"But for some districts, it comes down to a choice. Cleveland Heights-University Heights got rid of IB years ago when students began to gravitate toward the increasing number of AP courses being offered, said spokesman Michael Dougherty."
Ahhh. So when choice actually exists, (ie: choosing fiscal responsibility and the superior academic option)students and districts choose AP.
IB Diploma Phased Out in Roanoke High School
March 25, 2010 - School Board officials for William Fleming High School in Roanoke, VA, announced plans to phase out the IB Diploma program with the 2011 graduating class. The decision was made based on several factors including cost and declining enrollment in IB. Officials have decided to focus on Advanced Placement (AP) and dual enrollment options for its students.
A non-profit group known as Virginia Advanced Study Strategies provides a grant to the district's other high school, Patrick Henry, however Fleming was ineligible to receive the grant because of IB. One Board member whose daughter is currently in IB cited the decision as "personally painful" but noted that "the AP route is more inclusive for all students."
The district expects to receive the AP grant for the 2011-2012 school year.
Long Beach HS Becomes 3rd IB HS in Nassau County Your Stimulus Dollars at Work
March 24, 2010 - In October of 2004, a representative for IB told a gathering of 100+ parents in Locust Valley High School, "ALL of the TOP high schools on Long Island are CLAMORING for IB!"
In September of 2010, almost a full six years later, the International Baccalaureate Organization will be able to claim it has added ONE IB school to its roster in Nassau County. One. Long Beach HS can hardly be ranked among the top 25 out of 54 high schools in Nassau County. The City of Long Beach is one of only two cities in all of Nassau County, the other being Glen Cove which thankfully abandoned its pursuit of IB last year.
According to the Ed Money Watch Blog, Long Beach City schools qualified as a Title I district which received $1.03 Million in stimulus money in 2009.
According to this article, the school is already misrepresenting current AP courses and claims that those students in AP Biology will be "co-seated" with those students in IB HL Biology. Make no mistake about it, those students will be taught IB HL Biology with the "option" of taking the AP exam at the end of 11th Grade. The AP curriculum will be supplanted by IB.
The article also claims that a whopping three (3) students may attend Long Beach HS instead of private schools because of IB. Wowee, are you impressed?
IB has nothing to do with improving academic achievement and everything to do with "social justice". Long Beach HS serves as a premier example of IB's grab for your stimulus dollars. It will undermine and eliminate AP as it has done in SouthSide and Locust Valley. Once the stimulus money runs out, Long Beach taxpayers will be saddled with even higher taxes to pay for this international educational scam.
Coulter was advised against appearing because it would be "physically dangerous". Conservative political activist Ezra Levant called it "an embarrassing day for the University of Ottawa and its student body ... who chose to silence her through threats and intimidation."
"A protest organizer, international studies student Mike Francie, said he was pleased they were able to stop Coulter from speaking."
Anyone want to give TAIB odds on whether this student of tyranny was an IB Diploma graduate?
Arizona State University Billboard
The Arizona Mom who is questioning IB in the Mesa District, had been told by her Superintendent that IB was very well respected at ASU.
The billboard which appears to your right, is sponsored by ASU. Just for fun, let's take a look at ASU's college credit policy for IB vs. AP: ASU International Baccalaureate credit table
Students who present an International Baccalaureate Diploma/Certificate may qualify for university credit, depending on the level of the examination and the grade received. Arizona State University grants credit for higher-level courses only.A grade of 5 qualifies the student to receive credit for up to two introductory courses while a grade of 4 qualifies a student to receive credit for one introductory course. No credit is awarded for English as a Second Language (English B).
So. Let's take a look at a fairly common course, Chemistry. ASU only recognizes IB HL Chemistry which is taken over two years. If a student scores a 4 (passing) on IB HL Chemistry, he/she can earn 4 hours of credit. A 5, 6 or 7 earns 8 credits. If the same student took one year of AP Chemistry, they could score a 3 (passing) and earn 4 hours of credit, 8 credits for a 4 or 5, and go on to take 12th Grade Physics and earn comparable scores and credits.
So - the MAXIMUM attainable credits for the IB HL Chem course is 8 hours. The MAXIMUM attainable credits for AP Chem and AP Physics are 16 hours. Hmmm, which one is bigger, gosh, this is tough. In an IB World, 8>16. But in the REAL world, 8 < 16. How stupid do these people think we are? We can't read and do simple math? AP can earn TWICE AS MANY CREDIT HOURS AS IB! How is IB "better"?
A funny description of one commuter's annoyance with the sign can be read HERE. (warning:contains adult language)
It's all about false claims and pseudo-intelligence, is it not? ;-)
UPDATE - TAIB's astute friend, the Anti Corruption Republican in Texas, just e-mailed us this additional observation about AP vs. IB at ASU:
IB HL Math earns credit for Math 270 only
AP Calculus BC earns credit for Math 270 and 271
IB HL English earns credit for English 101 and 114
AP English (Comp/Lit) earns credit for English 101, 114 and 204
ASU - University of Higher Learning
Don't Do it Clarkstown, NY!
March 18, 2010 - As though these people don't have enough problems without introducing IB into the mix? TAIB is wondering, are only New York School Boards this dysfunctional? Or are children being held hostage as the political pawns of unstable adults throughout the country? We find this very disturbing.
Clarkstown School District, New City, is located about 25 miles north of NYC and southeast of the Monticello, NY, district where parents are organizing against IB. It has 2 high schools, one middle school, 10 elementary schools and one K-12 special needs school. Its proposed budget for 2010-2011 is $171M. TAIB is just guessing that the MS is a horror show. Just a guess.
In the top video, we hear the Board President introduce the HS Principal to give a presentation on the "International Bachelorette". Unfortunately, the IB presentation itself does not seem to be online.
The middle video finds the same Board President really "giving it" to a fellow Board member and getting accused of bullying by an audience member.
The bottom video is of a former Board member railing against the current Boards total disregard for what appears to have been a lengthy facilities planning process and formerly expressed aim to enlist the "help" of one of the Board President's good friends in Queens, ya know wadda mean?
The Board President apparently was endorsed by a group called the Concerned Taxpayers of Clarkstown. When we get some time, TAIB will see what we can dig up on that group with a name we approve of and get some of the "history" of this Noo Yawk community. But at this very early juncture, TAIB wishes to respectfully suggest to the Clarkstown Board that they worry more about making sure disabled students are able to use school bathrooms and less about IB.
Incline Insurrection Over IB
TAIB has been simply listing the barrage of articles in the Tahoe Bonanza on the IB controversy in Incline, Nevada, to date. But the comments that follow the March 16th article called "International Baccalaureate: Support appears to be growing in Incline" have earned a special spot here due to the boldly honest and intense responses by five Incline residents. TAIB is going to repaste those comments here, lest they disappear from the Tahoe Bonanza site. It is imperative that THE TRUTH ABOUT IB as told by local parents vs. the deceitful practices employed by IB supporters and the biased local paper be exposed!
And it's a good thing TAIB wasn't at that meeting because we would NOT have taken kindly to ad hominems being directed at Eppy, a decent, hard-working father of four who has had the courage and [gasp] the audacity - to ask questions about IB. Shame on whoever did that in "the name of IB". Despicable.
Eppy wrote:
The community has already raised and spent $75,000. With the $630,000 that would be at over $700,000 for the first three years. The amount the task force approved was less than $300,000 for the first 10 years. I know five task force members who are against IB for IV and/or feel the way the district is attempting to implement IB is not what was agreed upon; we are supposed to be in the IB "investigation" stage now. The district suggested IB to the task force and no other educational programs were considered.
In general FL public schools are poor and IB is an improvement. In Incline IB would be a downgrade for our high school, and research shows IB will do nothing to improve our elementary and middle schools, http://www.myinclinevillage.com/. Research shows both Core Knowledge and SpringBoard can increase student performance. AP has an international diploma, APID. Will the GT survive with IB? Most questions were not answered.
3/16/2010 7:22:14 AM on tahoebonanza.com
Don't Tread wrote:
This meeting did not show "gathering community support". Rather, it was a pep rally for the hard core IBIV group. For all the ad hominem attacks leveled against John E his meetings are much more fair and balanced than the districts. I left knowing how the supreme court felt at the state of the union address. Pedro communicates like either a fire hose or a diode depending on your backgound. The trouble is that he NEVER addresses specifics. He frames the problem however, it requires a leap of faith to buy his solution. This program is not one of choice, local control, or traditional american values. The biggest ovation of the night was gotten by an IB supporter for proclaiming that "lack of choice was the best choice"! At this point the majority of this community appears not to be pro IB. A straight up vote like we held on the Chateau would be cathartic. Remember we all fund these schools and do have a stake.
3/16/2010 9:11:18 AM on tahoebonanza.com
luvthesnow wrote:
"Martinez has repeatedly vowed to keep AP classes in tact."
INTACT - –adjective 1.not altered, broken, or impaired; remaining uninjured, sound, or whole; untouched; unblemished 2.not changed or diminished; not influenced or swayed
Currently the AP program at IHS is outstanding and produces students well prepared for college, as seen by the colleges attended by our graduates. AP classes are stand alone classes.
The proposal to save AP is to combine them with IB classes and teach them together at the same time in the same classroom by the same teacher, thus diluting the material and forcing kids to be exposed to IB whether they want to or not.
Please explain to me how this is keeping AP classes intact.
3/16/2010 8:53:18 PM on tahoebonanza.com
Tahoe Teacher wrote:
So much for fair and honest reporting. It's too bad this article did not address the number of questions Mr. Martinez did not answer. When asked to explain what IB's "proven" PYP program is, he regurgitated facts about IB at Wooster (someone should tell him Wooster does not have a PYP program). WCSD and IBIV are saying the District is paying for IB, yet can't provide a fact sheet on what exactly WCSD is paying for and what the community has already paid. It's too bad not enough local parents and teachers saw the presentation by IES teachers on a sample 2nd grade lesson. If this is what IB calls rigorous, then Lake Tahoe School and Tahoe Truckee teachers must be celebrating!
3/16/2010 10:39:31 AM on tahoebonanza.com
Incline Resident wrote:
I have to agree with Tahoe Teacher. The reporting on what really transpired was shameful. The poll was ridiculous in that there were no figures of how many were polled. That truly skewed the poll as well as who was asked and who did the polling. If the polling person only asked those who they knew were for IB, then the poll would be for. I would have to say that there were more parents and residents against judging by concerns expressed. The teachers presenting for IB were woefully inadequately prepared and their presentation was representative of the grade that they teach. Appalling. WCSD has not published what they are paying for. There was not representation of the Bonanza poll in which there were many participants. This was more about Dan Carne announcing that WCSD was implementing IB and "get over it. It is a done deal". Also, no opt out choice for parents that do not like the curriculum is not a good option. From Incline Resident
3/16/2010 4:38:04 PM on tahoebonanza.com
IB PYP Horror Fair
March 12th, 2010 - This video (top left) taken at the Lamar Elementary IB World School, is mind-numbing. Frankly, TAIB is flabbergasted at the topics these children covered. These children are 9 and 10 years old. We're aghast, we tell you. Simply aghast.
Child molestation (pornography) and abduction, puppy mills, animal abuse, gangs, gun control .... gosh, what happy thoughts and what a way to culminate their IB PYP experience!
Textbook Case of IB Failure
March 6th, 2010 - This story has it all - a long history of a district ignoring the opinion of its teachers, wasteful spending, false claims of IB's superiority, community divisiveness, pro-IB parental fundraising, legal intervention and the ultimate unwillingness of IB supporters to provide a long-term legal commitment to fund the program.
Because these sort of stories tend to disappear from the web, TAIB has captured them and features both articles in their entirety below. However, a quote from an editorial written by a Santa Ynez, CA, former IB teacher deserves to be featured in bold:
"Much has been said and written about the group’s drive to reinstate the IB program. Much of what has been submitted to the local media by ABC+ has been driven by inaccuracies and half-truths.
For example: The group has established faulty premises as truth and used them to generate support for its cause, such as that IB is a ticket to elite institutions of higher learning. This is certifiably false. Our very successful Advanced Placement program actually serves students at least as well as IB with the overwhelming majority of elite U.S. universities and has an edge over IB in how many units a student may be granted for his or her high-end work in high school.
Why would we accept seed money to install a duplicate but competing and mostly non-compatible program that would cost the district additional hundreds of thousands of dollars in the coming years, and water down an already thriving AP program?"
- Jeff McKinnon is a teacher of theater and English and a former IB teacher at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School.
Here are the two articles which currently appear online, however, should they disappear, please click on the thumbnails below to enlarge.
That's right. Whereas before, IBO buried its "global citizenship" propaganda within its mission statement and hid behind false claims of prestige and rigor, now IBO is bold enough to come out with an unabashed advertisement for its international revolution via children to create a New World Order.
"Aimed at teachers and school administrators it argues international education should [SIC] directed towards developing young people as global citizens."
Oh gosh, we're all a-tingle, especially since IBO appears either incapable of proper English or employing a proofreader for its website. So how will IBO do this?
1. Getting the conditions right 2. In the classroom 3. Events and occasions 4. Global citizen action 5. Recognising global citizens.
Now look at the poster to the right, featured on Glenn Beck on 03/04/10 and used by groups rallying around the country "for" education.
Today's Connect the Dots Quiz - What do the two photos to the right have in COMMON?
IB Community Theme: Sharing our humanity - Educating for global citizenship – a practical guide for schools
Educating for global citizenship – a practical guide for schools is a new book just published (February 2009) by International Baccalaureate.
Aimed at teachers and school administrators it argues international education should directed towards developing young people as global citizens. It draws on international research and practice in a readable and accessible style, and encourages schools to reflect on and improve how they prepare young people for responsible life in the global village. Topics covered include Getting the conditions right, In the classroom, Events and occasions, Global citizen action, and Recognising global citizens. The book includes activities, key questions and reflections and over 30 case studies from IB and non-IB schools around the world.
The author, Boyd Roberts, draws on over 30 years in international education, as teacher, administrator and school head. He is a consultant on global education, initiated the International Global Citizen’s Award, and is project director of the IB community theme.
Educating for global citizenship is obtainablefrom the IB Store http://store.ibo.org/
March 4th, 2010 - This is an interesting story. First, let's identify the fact that this very "diverse" school district in Georgia is suffering an $88 MILLION shortfall! Only one of its 20 Middle Schools has the IB MYP. And now, black parents have filed a federal civil rights discrimination suit against the district claiming that non-minority students in the IB school's neighborhood are given preference over minority students for the MYP.
Note the district's response that "the principals of those schools had expressed interest (in IB)". This is a complete and total cop-out. The district Board of Ed is responsible for submitting the applications to IBO and for overseeing the district's finances (which they are clearly having a very big problem doing). The taxpayers will now be billed for additional legal fees to address this lawsuit because of IB.
This is also what happens when an educational program is fraudulently sold as "challenging" when its ideology is "social justice". The result is not social justice at all, but elitism, divisiveness and controversy.
TAIB has a very simple solution for DeKalb County - DUMP IB ALTOGETHER! Problem solved and money saved.
The IBO Guide to Bilking the American Taxpayer
When the Obama administration rammed through the 2009 "Recovery Act", TAIB noted that there were BILLIONS of dollars within the legislation that could be applied towards IB. We were, of course, accused of being paranoid and making a mountain out of a molehill.
One year later, we finally have a copy of the official IBO document on how to "CAPITALIZE" on the recovery and investment funds along with additional funds being made available in the Race to the Top.
TAIB would like to point out to IBO, such a "prestigious educational foundation", that when boasting about this being"A HISTORICAL MOMENT", that proper English dictates that the "H" be treated as a vowel to be preceded by "AN", not "A".
March 1st, 2010 - Today's Drudge Report contained the headline, "Al Gore Found - What's a Few Mistakes?" It is beyond comprehension to those of us at TAIB, how this man and the UN have been allowed to get this close to creating a Green World Order. The Progressive movement has gotten away with, and continues to get away with, characterizing those of us who are awake to their scheme as "conspiracy theorists" and dismissing us as nutjobs.
Here is the Goricle's limp-wristed attack on FOX: "Simultaneously, changes in America’s political system — including the replacement of newspapers and magazines by television as the dominant medium of communication — conferred powerful advantages on wealthy advocates of unrestrained markets and weakened advocates of legal and regulatory reforms. Some news media organizations now present showmen masquerading as political thinkers who package hatred and divisiveness as entertainment. And as in times past, that has proved to be a potent drug in the veins of the body politic. Their most consistent theme is to label as “socialist” any proposal to reform exploitive behavior in the marketplace." ~Al Gore
Yeah, yeah, yeah, We're all such "haters", Al. But the problem is, you ARE socialists in denial of the socialist label! Waaah, don't "label" us! Sorry Mr. Gore, you can't have it both ways. You don't "get" to label us "divisive" and "packagers of hatred" and squirm like a baby and tell us we can't call you what you are - a socialist.
It is somewhat inconceivable to TAIB that the NYT actually provided three pages to this Goredrivel. Perhaps if it had been presented in video format, as when Al read his poetry, the NYT could have saved some bandwidth and its reader's eyesight. (not to mention the incredible loss of brain cells reading the entire op-ed requires) It is also somewhat inconceivable to TAIB, that Gore and the UN have gotten as far as they have with their Green World Order agenda - the Nobel Prize, the thankfully unsuccessful gathering at Copenhagen, cap and tax still on the horizon and of course, the Democratic majority in Congress and the Presidency. Healthcare reform, global warming, cap and trade - are all massive FRAUDS which must be stopped!
This is the agenda of IBO/UNESCO as well, and they want to make YOUR children "believers" or as one IB video likes to say, "Be a Tolerator, Don't Be a Hater!" Words mean something and the time has come to hold these people to their words. We stand by ours. Make no mistake about it. The sleeping giant has awoken. The truth shall set us free. -LEM
IB Mis-Promoted for Early Graduation Initiative
An article in the New York Times recently announced the adoption by eight states of an early graduation initiative for high school students. According to the article, a bipartisan educational panel of "experts" established acceptable 10th Grade exit boards. The eight states are: Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
It seems incredulous to TAIB that nobody on this panel of experts bothered to investigate IBO regulations which require that the IBDP only be available to students age 16-19 in the 11th and 12th Grades:
http://www.ibo.org/documentlibrary/regs_ibworldschools/documents/DP_regs_en.pdf Article 2: Role and responsibilities of schools - 2.1 The IB Organization has developed the Diploma Programme as a pre‑college/university programme aimed at students in the 16–19 age group. The Diploma Programme is designed to lead to the International Baccalaureate diploma (hereinafter “IB diploma(s)”) or certificates (hereinafter “certificate(s)”) for subjects forming part of the Diploma Programme.
Until said time that IBO issues a specific "exemption" to allow implementation of the IBDP in schools for children age 14-16, buyers in the eight states included in the initiative should be aware that IBO's current regulations cover only the MYP for the 9th and 10th Grade age group:
Article 2: Role and responsibilities of schools - 2.1 The IB Organization has developed the MYP as an inclusive programme aimed at students in the 11–16 age group.
TAIB will be contacting IBO to see if it is planning on "amending" its regulations to permit the IBDP to be used in 9th & 10th Grades. If IBO has no intention of revising its regulations, this is a wreckless, poorly researched and deceptive initiative designed to funnel money to IBO with the schools ultimately being unable to use the IBDP for the early graduation purpose intended.
Give Back Money Raised for IB - It's Over!
Oh, they fought hard, they did. The ABC+ pro-IB group in Santa Ynez, CA, worked to raise $70,000 and even managed to locate an "anonymous" out-of-state corporation to "match" their fundraising efforts for IB. The issue has divided the community and one High School Principal is resigning, citing "health reasons". Battles over IB are enough to make anybody sick.
"However, after reaching that goal by the district’s Feb. 1 deadline, the group was asked Tuesday to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) stating that ABC+ “shall raise a cumulative total of $484,418 during the term (three years) of this MOU in order to fund the IB costs associated with membership fees, supplies, postage, staffing and training.”
Pay attention, Incline Village, Nevada, and any other communities where IB zealots are attempting to control the curriculum of public schools. IBO requires schools to insure that they will be able to FULLY FUND IB. The Board of Education is in turn, LEGALLY RESPONSIBLE to require a financial guarantee from the IB supporters that their funds will continue past a single schoolyear.
“AP is a better program and IB has no advantages. It’s counterproductive to receive seed money for a duplicate program. It’s fiscally imprudent,” said teacher Jeff Reck.
Principal Suzanne Nicastro said the IB program was a “want,” not a need, and that more focus needed to be put on other groups of students, such as English-language learners and the socio-economically challenged."
Amen to that!
IB to Be Cut in Colorado
The Arapaho Herald reported that the budgetary crisis at the State level is causing the Littleton Public Schools district to look for up to $9 million in local budget cuts for the 2010/2011 school year. The Board has recommended cutting the International Baccalaureate (IB) programs from Newton Middle School and Field Elementary School.
(this article has been moved to the IB in Bastrop, Texas page)
IB Causes Hatfield & McCoy Situation in California 02/21/20
Of course the New York Times misses the causal agent of the educational feud taking place in St. Helena, CA. But as soon as TAIB saw the headline in the Politics section, we knew International Baccalaureate had to be part of the mix:
Cindy Warren has lived in the wine country town of St. Helena for more than 20 years, raised three children there and served on the school board since 2005. So it came as something of a shock when, one day after church, she bumped into a longtime acquaintance at the grocery store who gave her an ice-cold reception.
“She literally turned on her heels and walked away,” Ms. Warren, a former fashion model, said last week in an interview.
The problem? Ms. Warren and her erstwhile friend are on opposite sides of a bitter fight over public schools in St. Helena, a picturesque village of about 6,000 near the northern end of the Napa Valley.
The battle over an election to recall four of the five members of the school board has pitted neighbor against neighbor and friend and against friend, driving a wedge through a small school district that has slightly fewer than 1,400 students. The factions have taken to sitting on opposite sides of the high school gym and staking out separate bleachers on the Little League field. Several pro-recall parents took their children off a swim team after the coach sided with the board members.
“It has torn this community apart,” said Ms. Warren, who sells real estate in the valley.
The recall was sparked by the board’s decision last April to promote an assistant superintendent to the top job. Many parents had wanted to conduct a wide search for a new leader, but the trustees said they needed an insider for continuity as the district committed itself to a transformation built around the highly regarded International Baccalaureate program.
"Transformation built around IB". Okay, so TAIB's not exactly playing the violin for Ms. former fashion model/Board trustee. Cindy Warren and her fellow Trustees need to understand that it is THEY who are causing this divisiveness in their community by trying to "transform" a public school system with a wasteful, expensive, globalist program.
So much for IB making the world a "better, more peaceful place".
Two More IB Schools Bite the Dust 02/21/10
It will be a race this spring to see if IBO's "authorizations" of new IB schools can outpace the number of schools dropping the program(mes).
"About $5.4million of the cuts came from increasing K-3 class sizes to 30 students per teacher next year, eliminating high school librarians and athletic transportation as well as discontinuing the International Baccalaureate programs at Don Lugo High School and Anna Borba Elementary School."
TAIB would like to make it perfectly clear that we do not support increasing class sizes or eliminating librarians. However, perhaps if the district had not wasted millions on IB in the past (considering IBO mandates IB training of librarians and principals, making this entire situation rather sad and ironic), perhaps the district wouldn't NOW have to eliminate librarian positions!!!
Common sense, people! Where is the common sense?
Pennsylvania IB HS Spies on Students at Home! 02/19/10
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia school district used the webcams in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials would not comment on the accusation, but angry students have already responded by putting tape on their laptop cameras and microphones.
Of course the mainstream media doesn't make mention of the fact that this outrageous behavior by school officials took place in an IB HS. But as soon as TAIB heard the story, we did a quick search and sure enough, Harriton High School has been an IB World School since July, 2000.
Even more ironic, is the quoting of Witold J. Walczak of the ACLU in this article. Mr. Walczak, parent of an IB student, was the attorney who represented the pro-IB plaintiffs pro-bono for the ACLU in the nasty IB battle in Upper St. Clair, PA, in 2006. Why isn't Mr. Walczak providing these students with pro-bono legal services? Seems he can run his mouth for the press quite well, but won't stand behind real American civil liberties.
IB Brings You Soros & Stuff
In 2009, Glenn Beck focused on a video presented in some American public schools produced by George Soros' TIDES Foundation, called "The Story of Stuff".
Therefore, it came as no surprise when TAIB was reviewing IB's Sharing Our Humanity theme that we came across a page featuring a "U.S. based organisation" which provides IB with a "chance to review teaching materials on consuming stuff". The organization featured is called Facing the Future, and wouldn't you know, who is one of its supporters? Yup, the TIDES Foundation. Coincidence?
Is the repetition of Soros's socialist sophistry about "stuff" what the "intellectual elite" consider rigorous education? Does this kind of educational junk promote higher critical thinking skills? You be the judge.
Disgusting IB Elitism in Arkansas
TAIB has long been aware of IB's arrogant and shameless claim to be a program that benefits ALL children, when in fact, all it does is cater to the egos and reckless spending adored by the Progressive "elite". Nowhere has this been better illustrated than by these photos submitted by the concerned Mom of a special needs student in the Hot Springs district in Arkansas.
Now poised to get their hands on millions in Title I money in this administration's Race to the Top and from last year's stimulus bill, school districts are using the IB label as their "golden ticket" for "free money". While claiming social justice and promises of increased enrollment and graduation rates, public schools are using IB to line their own coffers and waste YOUR U.S. taxdollars on promoting inequitable education and frivolous construction while the truly needy students wallow in decrepit buildings.
"See, they didn't tell anyone they were putting the K-6th grade IB kids from Park in the new 12 million dollar building until AFTER it was built. They said it would only be all the 5th and 6th graders for the whole district BUT they built it large enough for 700 students. (We are under "declining enrollment too). After they built this palace and opened it in Jan 2009 in March they voted to put the Park IB school in this building (with NO public meeting or notice)."
Very nice, Hot Springs. And now, the Arkansas Senate is trying to pass legislation that awards $75,000 to Arkansas school districts to enable them to "get grants and aid" for IB in Arkansas public schools. TAIB urges Arkansas residents to write to their State representatives and demand that appropriation for IB be pulled from the legislation. PROPOSED ARKANSAS LEGISLATION - SENATE BILL 29
In the last examination session, students completed the following exams: Biology HL, Bus.& Man. SL, Chemistry HL, English A1 HL, Environmental Systems and Societies SL, Film SL, French B SL, Further Mathematics SL, History HL, Italian B HL, Italian B SL, Math.Studies SL, Mathematics HL, Mathematics SL, Philosophy SL, Physics SL, Psychology SL, Spanish B HL, Spanish B SL, Theatre HL, Theatre SL, Theory Knowl. TK, Visual Arts HL and Visual Arts SL.
So when TAIB saw that, knowing how a pro-IB poster on another forum had professed the "rigor" of that particular course and giving due deference to said poster's professional position as a university math professor, TAIB contacted the head of curriculum at LVCSD to find out how many kids took the course and what the pass rate was on the exam. Here is her response:
"This course was in the course catalog last year, but we didn’t run the class."
IB's 20th Century World History Course - Muslim Propaganda
We know. Skeptics are reading this and saying, "Oh good grief, TAIB has finally gone off the deep end!" We assure you, we haven't.
TAIB would never issue this kind of alert unless we had irrefutable proof. We have permanently downloaded the official IBO document into our database in case IBO gets wise and decides to pull it off the Internet. TAIB has also already identified at least one public IB school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which teaches this course.
TAIB cannot stress enough the DANGER of schools teaching American children WORLD history with a Muslim bias. Frankly, this smacks of a clear violation of church and state. Please read the document below and draw your own conclusions, but we believe the course outline is self-evident.
This timely article out of Bisbee, Arizona, tells the story of how IB detrimentally infiltrates American public schools. It is a story that has been played out in a number of districts, but never has the rhetoric and resulting community dissatisfaction been more apparent.
Residents in Incline, Nevada, should pay special attention to this article. The main reason they are claiming they "need" IB in Incline is because of declining student enrollment. The school district officials believe that IB will be the magic bullet that will attract more students. Apparently, so did Dr. Covington:
"Where student enrollment was on a nine-year decline, we have stemmed that tide and retained hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in lost revenue through correcting poor practices in the business office. We attracted parents and students (who were not being academically challenged) back to our district through the creation of the International Baccalaureate process at Greenway." - Dr. Covington
So there's the claim. But what is the truth? For the truth, we need to read the comments following the article.
What a joke, she knew that the board was going to get rid of her and thats why she’s “retiring”. I work for the school district and she has ruined this district. She’s spent all of our money and driven staff moral down the tubes. The people who are responsible for the child doing as well as they are, are the teachers and para’s who work with them day in and day out. Covington talks about “our children” like she had anything to do with their upbringing. What a joke, she’s so phoney that anyone with half a brain can see through her. As far as the IBO program goes at Greenway I hope the new superintendent gets it out of that school. Children will learn everything they need in a real classroom. - Mom and Staff Member
History always repeats itself. Pay close attention to this lesson from the Bisbee district. It is a powerful one. An important note: According to Bisbee's Greenway Elementary School's webpage, it is following the International Baccalaureate model, using six themes to drive their curriculum, K-5. However, according to IBO, Greenway is NOT an authorized IB school. This can mean one of two things; either Greenway is still in the throws of the IB application process, or it has already canceled its subscription.
Absolute IB Crap!
TAIB apologizes for the use of the word "crap". However, it is the best we could come up with when we watched this insulting mockery of U.S. History and the deaths of our freedom fighters produced by IB students in their History of the Americas class. TAIB dares any IB supporters to defend this garbage as "rigorous" education and "critical thinking".
Can anyone in their right mind believe that THIS is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of their hard earned money? Will you allow this crap to replace traditional American education in your child's school?
TAIB just received a comment from one of the students who produced this video which we feel compelled to share with our readers. We are working hard to make sure that U.S. students will NOT have to endure this "necessary evil" in the future. IB is evil, but it's definitely not necessary.
Author: IB Film Guy Date: 2/14/2010 6:00 pm EDT
I was involved in the creation of the "IB Crap Video" and all I have to say is, that it was intended to be a satire of the class. The current staffing situation at the school is less than ideal and this year is the first that my current IB Americas teacher is teaching the IB curriculum. As a result, many of us are learning very little from the class and instead are going to after-school tutoring sessions offered by the other, much more experienced, IB Americas teacher at the school. I am an honor-role student and would never create anything of such poor quality for a serious assignment.
While the above is true, I am very much against some of the IB curriculum but it is much better than what is offered throughout the rest of the district which is the reason that I am taking IB classes. So, I agree with this website to some extent, yet in some districts, participating in IB is a necessary evil to educate oneself beyond what public schooling would have allowed me to.
It's pretty safe to say that no matter what a parent's political affiliation may be, unless they are completely devoid of any parental love or responsibility, they want the best education that they can afford for their children. Most want their children to grow up and be able to lead successful and happy lives and to graduate at least high school with a sound foundation of knowledge and skills that will enable them to land good jobs. Some choose private schools, some choose to homeschool, but the vast majority of parents in the United States have come to rely upon their public school systems to provide the knowledge base their children need. While administrators have placed tremendous stress and emphasis on students continuing on to university, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, in 2009, only 69% of all public school students actually attained a high school diploma.
This is not a number we as Americans should be proud of. The inner cities and large illegal immigrant population in the United States have dragged this percentage down substantially. The New York Times published an article in 2009, which demonstrated the significant graduation gap of 54% in NYC schools, compared with 83% in the NY suburbs. If you haven't heard mention of "closing the achievement gap" by now, dare I say ,you must have been in a coma for the past decade.
When a public school system seeks to "reform" or "improve" its current standings, it should be incumbent on the powers that be to first categorize the schools as either well-to-do or significantly impoverished. Too often, educators and politicians believe that throwing more money at impoverished districts will magically solve all of the other problems. This is where IB comes in.
In 2008, Elizabeth Brock, head of research, development and communications for IB North America, was quoted in U.S. News and World Reports as saying, "In the United States, the IB has received much support from governments and policy makers, including the U.S. Department of Education and local school districts, to increase student achievement and to turn around low-performing schools."
Consider for a moment, that you, the taxpayers, are the ones who are funding the policy decisions of the U.S. Department of Education and your local school districts. We hear an awful lot about the need for accountability, but when it comes right down to it, where is the proof that this very expensive form of international education actually increases student achievement or turns around low-performing U.S. schools?
The answer is, there is no proof. A perfect example is the city of Chicago. In 1998, there was only one IB school. Under the leadership of Arne Duncan, our current head of the U.S. Department of Education, the number of public IB high schools in Chicago grew to 15, the most recent was authorized in February of 2009. Of the remaining 14, only ONE, Lincoln Park, met the NCLB benchmark of 62.5% in reading, but failed to meet the benchmark for science. It is vital that districts considering IB pay attention to the following stats: In 2001, only 27.2% of the students in Chicago's public high schools met or exceeded 11th Grade standards. In 2008, only 27.2% met or exceeded 11th Grade standards. When calculated separately, an abysmal 50% of the IB schools came in BELOW the 27.2% figure!
Eight years worth of data and not even 1/10th of 1% improvement. Ms. Brock's claim that IB received "support" from the U.S. government and policy makers is undoubtedly true. HOWEVER, that support did not yield the intended results - or did it? It would be very convenient for our current administration to blame those results on President Bush, but the fact of the matter is the spread of IB in Chicago came directly as a result of partial funding from the Annenberg Challenge, a board on which Obama and Bill Ayers both sat. Interestingly, as of April 2009 during Obama 's first year in office, the Chicago Public Schools website is "no longer a public site". However, in March, 2005, Arne Duncan was quoted as saying about IB, "We're proud to be leading the nation in incorporting this program. We want as many students as possible to have access to a challenging and innovative program like the IBMYP provides."
Is IB really challenging, Mr. Duncan? Or is it just a political ruse to indoctrinate students by a foreign entity that is an arm of UNESCO?
As Americans, we are now faced with a government that is spending like a drunken sailor without any regard for the debtload our children and grandchildren will have to bear. It should be clear that the Obama/Duncan endorsement of IB is a bigger part of its socialist political agenda to dumb-down our public schools and make them subservient to IBO's ideology to create "global citizens" and a New World Order. (pg. 11)
Do not be swayed by globalist rhetoric and educationese espoused by elitists. Improving our public schools should be a priority. Americans are waking up. We are tired of being lied to, we are tired of seeing our hard earned dollars being wasted on programs the don't work. In order to improve entire schools, we must focus our attention on providing the basics and real skills, not a designer label which benefits a handful of students who would naturally excel anyway with our existing educational options. I have shown you long-term, documented proof that IB does not improve low-achieving public schools. It is now up to you to apply common sense and prevent this program from taking over your schools, no matter how tempting short-term Federal grant money may be. Because in the end, once IB gets its foot in your door, the Federal money will disappear and the taxpayers get stuck holding the bag.
Comic Relief from IB
Sometimes we just can't help ourselves. When TAIB saw
(Is our President bowing because the Mayor is an Asian-American?)
Upstate NY Taxpayers Revolting Against IB
There's something in the wind this week. TAIB has received more feedback and inquiries from parents and taxpayers around the country than ever before! While Americans are waking up in Arkansas, New Hampshire, Virginia and Nevada, it would appear that over-taxed New Yorkers are leading the charge to stop IB from being implemented in their public schools.
In Corning, NY, the Corning Area United Taxpayers Association (CAUTA) is organizing strong opposition to the Corning Painted Post Facilities Plan, Option C which includes IB, calling it "wasteful spending" and pointing out the insanity of purchasing "the most expensive program it can think of". Be sure to watch the video in the following article:
CAUTA makes an excellent suggestion. If Corning, Inc. endorses IB, let it open its own private school.
Stay tuned for more news in the near future on another upstate NY community after TAIB meets with community leaders and taxpayers on 1/31/10 to help them fight IB in their town.
IBO Celebrates Communist "Heroes" and Mother Earth Day
Everytime TAIB thinks IB can't get any worse, IBO boldly surprises us with a new announcement:
Earth Day is 22 April. Starting in a small way 40 years ago, it now involves a billion people finding out more about our shared planet, and taking action. Following a resolution in 2009, the UN has now designated 22 April as Mother Earth Day. IB is inviting IB World schools to mark Earth Day by taking part in activities and teaching the specially written IB global lessons on or around 22 April. IB global lessons will be available for Theory of Knowledge in the Diploma programme (also relevant for Ecosystems and Societies, Geography and Biology)
Isn't that special? What might those "specially written" lessons also include? Hmmm, since this is based on the UN's proclamation, do you think IB will try to impress your children with UN Heroes?
"The president of the United Nations General Assembly, Rev. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, on Saturday declared Bolivian President Evo Morales as “World Hero of Mother Earth” in a ceremony at the presidential palace in this capital. ...[SNIP]... Besides Morales, the former Cuban head of state Fidel Castro has been named “World Hero of Solidarity” and the late ex-president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, will be honored as “World Hero of Social Justice.”
Morales - Socialist Castro - Communist Nyerere - Socialist
Do right-thinking Americans need ANY more proof that this horrendous educational "program(me) should be removed from each and every public school it has infiltrated?
IB Stinking Up American Communities
Something's rotten, not only in Denmark where the UN "climate change" debacle was held last month, but in the U.S. in Nevada and California. TAIB has shown you what is happening in the schools in Incline, Nevada, which just today announced the creation of an "IB Implementation Supervisor" : http://www.tahoebonanza.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100120/NEWS/100129996/1061&ParentProfile=1050 Remember, the ad hoc group IB in IV, after receiving a cost overhaul of its gross IB underestimate for 10 years from yours truly, revised its fundraising goal up to $1M. IB is not in place yet in Incline. There's still time to stop it if enough Incline parents and taxpayers wake up and put their feet down.
"District Superintendent Paul Turnbull was invited in mid-November to the headquarters of the foundation, which insists on remaining anonymous, to explain how the IB program benefits SYVUHS students. About a month later, the donor informed Turnbull that the foundation would provide the matching grant — but only if the other half of the funds are raised from the community, not provided from the district’s funds."
Santa Ynez is a PUBLIC SCHOOL!! Since WHEN is an anonymous non-profit and a small group of parents allowed to cut a backroom deal to control public school curriculum? This is the most outrageous abuse of the public trust that we at TAIB have witnessed to date. Unfortunately, comments are suspiciously CLOSED at the santamariatimes.com. This ABC group needs to come up with another $26,000 by February 1 for its "anonymous" non-profit to provide the matching funds. TAIB urges any and all concerned taxpayers in the Santa Ynez school district to immediately file FOIA requests and DEMAND that the identity of this non-profit be revealed. You have the right to know who is trying to control your public schools.
IB and the UN
TAIB has demonstrated in numerous ways how IBO is affiliated with the UN. Yet time and time again, IB supporters rail against this fact, claiming that we have no "proof" that IB actually "teaches" UN ideology in the classroom. It is TAIB's contention that while it's pretty difficult to inject indoctrination into algebra, IB has embraced the UN's overall anti-American, one world government agenda and posits questions and topics to students in such a way that the global perspective, is the correct one.
In 2004, when Lisa McLoughlin interviewed with Jay Mathews for his book Supertest, she critiqued a speech of former IBO Director General George Walker's, in which he celebrated Jean Jacques Rousseau's philosophy and called for a new "social compact". While looking for more evidence of IB's definition of "international education", McLoughlin came across the following 2005 speech by Walker:
"This movement of – let us now use the accepted name of international education - gathered momentum after the Second World War and in 1946 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was established with the inspirational introduction to its constitution, attributed to the American poet, Archibald Macleish. Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed. I said I would return to UNESCO and I do so because in 1974, its General Conference adopted a recommendation urging all member states to reflect the following guiding principles in the design of their national programmes of education:
•an international dimension and a global perspective in education at all levels and in all its forms •understanding and respect for all peoples, their cultures, civilizations, values and ways of life, including domestic ethnic cultures and cultures of other nations •awareness of the increasing global interdependence between peoples and nations •abilities to communicate with others •awareness not only of the rights but also of the duties incumbent upon all individuals, social groups and nations towards each other •understanding of the necessity for international solidarity and cooperation •readiness on the part of the individual to participate in solving the problems of his community, his country and the world at large.
Twenty years later, in 1994, these principles, which build a bridge between education for the nation and education for the world, were accepted by the world’s ministers of education meeting in Geneva. So let us be clear what this means. Every country that is a member of UNESCO has agreed to build an international dimension into its national programmes of education."
I understand the term ‘globalization’ to mean more than the movement of different forms of capital around the world; more than the rapid transfer of information. I understand it to embrace those activities which can only be studied meaningfully from a global, rather than a national, perspective. So, for me, ‘globalization’ includes the steady environmental degradation of our planet, it includes the management of disease, it includes human migration and it includes a knowledge of and respect for the organizations (WHO, IOM, ILO and WMO, for example) that are trying to manage the impact of globalization, particularly on those people who are least able to manage it themselves. And let me remind you that it was the vision and drive of two American presidents, in 1919 and again in 1945, that created first the League and then the United Nations which led to all those UN-related organizations."
George Walker viewed himself as an international educational diplomat. He was also IBO's most outgoing, outspoken and prolific snakeoil salesman. His product? IB. There is no way any sane and rational individual can deny beyond a shadow of a doubt that IB's mission to create "global citizens" is completely, utterly and entirely based upon a UN agenda.
Unfortunately, one of George W. Bush's major points of confusion was to rejoin the U.S. to UNESCO. Walker's entire argument above hinges on the United States' membership in UNESCO as agreeing to buy into IB which to the best of my knowledge is the ONLY international education product on the market. Remember, Ronald Reagan withdrew the U.S.'s membership from UNESCO. Perhaps with Scott Brown's victory, we can look forward to 2012 when a new Preisdent and withdrawal from UNESCO can once again be possible.
"Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.
The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse."
Berkley High School was authorized as an IB school in 2008:
The Charlotte-Mecklenberg district in North Carolina has had IB since 1995. Originally, the IBDP was structured as a magnet program in which students committed to the full IB diploma. Over the years, the very large district expanded IB into two other high schools, as well as adding MYP and PYP. In the 15 years that followed, the district embraced an open-enrollment policy which permitted students from outside of their neighboring boundaries to enroll in one of the three IB HSs, even if they weren't committing to the full IB Diploma.
With overall declining enrollment throughout the district and faced with major budget cuts, the carelessness and poor planning on the part of district officials forced the Board of Education to revisit neighborhood boundaries and propose limiting the IB programs at North Mecklenberg HS to children who reside within its boundaries. This caused an uproar among IB parents who came out in force to demand that their children be allowed to remain at N. Meck for IB.
Requesting a reversal, a vote was taken under the old Board of Education, then again under the new Board of Education, and yet AGAIN under the new Board of Education. IB supporters lost in a 7-2 vote. It would appear most had already given up the fight by the time they demanded the 3rd vote on the issue, as only 10 showed up for the meeting.
If the fight was really about IB, these supporters would have willingly sent their children to one of the other two high schools in the district that offer the program. But it wasn't. It was about the perception that N. Meck was a "better" (but overcrowded) HS overall, and being forced to attend the HS in their own neighborhood or one of the underutilized IB HSs. This shows how using IB as a tool for "social justice", ultimately backfires.
IB Student Speaks Out
This week, TAIB received an e-mail from a South American IB Diploma student. We received her permission to reprint it here. She requested that we edit it for grammar as English is her second language, which we did, but only minor corrections were necessary. We have left her somewhat strong language in place because it speaks to the passion of her experience:
Regarding the IB, I sat for the November 2009 session, tomorrow I'm getting my results. This whole IB thing is bullshit. We learn nothing about our country, our culture, it's all British and TOK is the teacher's view. For my history internal assessment, I researched a cold war case. My teacher, who happens to be the IB coordinator, is left-wing. My task turned out to be left-wing too, because I could have failed the subject if I wrote anything confronting its view. The school only wants to say: hey, I'm different from the others! I'm an IB world school. WOOOW! That's awesome! You pay for everything. You want to buy a pen, IB charges you. You want to read previous exams, IB charges you. EVERYTHING IS AVAILABLE AT IB STORES. Excellent. And what about our writings? Oh, sorry they belong to us. Do you want to get an example of an English internal assessment? Pay for it. Oh it happens to be my internal assessment (that now belongs to IB) and I have to pay for. It's ridiculous.
Another thing to add is the way they get results of internal assessments. The teachers in schools mark them (if there is a personal issue between student and teacher it may influence the mark). After that, the school sends examiners a sample (the best, the worst and some in the middle) If those are well marked it means that the others at school are marked correctly as well. But let's not forget, if the teacher marked a student less than he/she deserved because of personal issues, his/her paper wasn't sent. IB says the teacher's grade is correct! Ok, who should i complain to? My teacher hates me. I pay the IB to mark my internal assessment but it turns out that mine was not sent and IB trusts in the teacher. Ok, you have to complain amongst yourselves. No other option.
Lets see, we also need to pay attention to the diploma. What do we do after we get it? NOTHING! In my country colleges don't care if you took IB, what's more, they ask you what!? IB!? What's that!? No, not here. Some colleges do recognise it if you got a +40 (only 5% i believe can get that). It's a whole mafia to make money, to imprint in students minds (forced by parents and the school) political, ethical ideals that are far away from us. if we are taught to learn how to critically think, why do every single IB student turn up to think the same? I got sick of IA , EE and CAS, yes we helped people but filling in all those applications were a complete lie. WHY DID YOU DO THIS PROJECT? To earn the fucking CAS hours you stupid.... WHAT DID YOU LEARN WITH THIS? I learned to not take the IB. Well, I actually repeated a thousand times: i learn to be responsible, to help people , to be nice to all.
I think i have no more truths about the ib.
I wish i had found this website when my dad forced me to do the program.
Good luck! It's all truth , but you need to take in account IB students critiques. They are more used to it, as I am.
And you know what? You were right when you stated that there is a differentiation. IB's and non-Ib's. in our school we even created a song and slogans.
Remember barby girl from aqua?
I'M AN IB GIRL, IN AN IB WORLD. LIFE IS STUDYING, IT'S FANTASTIC!
C'MON BUDDY, LET'S KEEP STUDYING!
... and the slogan referring to 1984's big brother:
IB'S WATCHING YOU.
This student wrote back to TAIB to let us know she scored a 32 on her Diploma, very commendable. We wish her much luck in the future and are pleased that there are some students who survive the IB experience, yet remain free in spirit without succumbing to IB's indoctrination techniques.
IB Battle Heats Up in Incline
When it comes to politics, 2009 was the year that proved that those who consider themselves "Progressives" use the only ammunition they can muster to fight the truth - smears. Such is the case in Incline, Nevada, where a writer from the notoriously left-wing Huffington Post writes:
"There is also a lot of what I consider nonsense going around. There is a website called truthaboutib.com that is apparently the project of a woman in New York who has made it her mission to torpedo IB programs wherever they are proposed. Of course, she has a perfect right to do this and I have no idea what her motives are beyond those she professes on the website. However, I use the web a lot for research both for my consulting work and for my writing, and as a rule of thumb, I've concluded that websites called “The Truth About…” rarely live up to their name. TAIB starts by disclaiming any objectivity — they have a bias and are admirably up front about it. But then they claim to be presenting facts, many of which are either inaccurate, incomplete or plainly untrue and that appeal without apparent substance to a right-wing political bias. Notwithstanding that, people here have cited TAIB in their concerns about or opposition to IB."
TAIB is thinking of installing a red phone like Glenn Beck has on his set, so the smearers can call and "set the record straight". Of course, they are also free to e-mail TAIB or write honest articles in which they can "correct" our facts which they claim are "inaccurate, incomplete or plainly untrue and that appeal without apparent substance to a right-wing political bias.".
Just like Glenn, we're waiting!
Arkansas residents protest IB
TAIB Gives Incline Residents Million Dollar IB Wake-Up Call
Never give up on making a difference! That's our motto for 2010! While most Americans still scratch their heads and say "What's IB?", the power of the Internet and the power of truth shall prevail.
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The fundraising goal needed to implement International Baccalaureate at Incline's public schools has more than doubled to $1 million, residents announced this week.
Oopsie! Someone dared to challenge all of the IB happy talk? Hats off to Incline Realtor John Eppolito for questioning with boldness, to the Tahoe Bonanza for following up on the story, and a big BOOOOO to Mr. Gary Lee for grossly underestimating the cost of IB, misleading residents, and for accusing me of "wildly exaggerating" the real IB expenses. My 2.6% adjustments for rate of inflation can hardly be considered a wild exaggeration.
Mr. Lee's hurry up and lie approach to ram IB into all three Incline schools strongly resembles the approach our Democratic Congress has taken regarding the stimulus package and health care. I hope all of the teachers, parents and taxpayers of Incline sit up and pay attention to the deceitful tactics being used by this group "IB in IV". Only when a pain in the neck New Yorker at the request of a concerned citizen pointed out their extraordinarily poor IB math skills did they "adjust" their fundraising goal up to a million dollars. Additionally, I hope any residents who have already contributed to this ad hoc IB fund demand their money back immediately. Allowing a small group of private citizens to control a public school district's K-12 curriculum by privately fundraising for a UN affiliated organization is unheard of.
IB's "Values Education"
TAIB has become increasingly frustrated with some American parents and educators who wish to completely ignore the moral and political aspects of IB in order to focus only on the pedagogy. To borrow a phrase from MOMwithAbrain, this is akin to analyzing a math textbook without discussing mathematics. It can't be done. Therefore, IB supporters who insist on this approach are being intellectually dishonest.
Please read the following IBO power point presentation from 2006:
Some sections of United States society are increasingly fundamentalist with the ‘we’ and ‘us’ mentality clearly on the rise. After 9/11, there has been a dangerous increase in the idea that ‘we’ are good and ‘they’ are evil. ‘We’ stand for freedom, democracy and the American way (including capitalism, low taxes and, in some quarters, with links to negative attitudes to homosexuality and abortion) and ‘they’ stands for anyone who rejects ‘we’.
According to this document, both relativism and what IBO seems to think represents fundamentalism, are “mistaken” and “dangerous”.
My fellow Americans - do you believe capitalism, low taxes, freedom, democracy and the American way are “dangerous” and “mistaken”? How could any right-minded American support an educational program that teaches these most basic tenets of American life are DANGEROUS?
Notable IB Alumnus - Al Quida Christmas Terrorist
You won't read about this in the main stream media. Few will ever connect the dots. IB supporters will rail at TAIB for even making this public. But, facts are facts and you can make of this what you will:
As a teen, Abdulmutallab attended the British International School in Lome, Togo, a Nigerian paper reported. There, he quickly acquired a reputation as a devoted Muslim. "At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his schoolmates and he was popularly called 'Alfa,' a local coinage for Islamic scholar," according to The Day.
The British School in Lome, Togo, has been a private IB academy since 1994. IBO's mission statement includes the following: These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
2001: According to Michael Rimmer, his history teacher at the British School, Abdulmutallab is a "very religious" boy who once defends the Taliban during class discussion on the topic. Religiousity aside, Rimmer characterizes Abdulmutallab as a "dream" student: "Very keen, enthusiastic, very bright, very polite."
A polite terrorist. Did the IB education Abdulmultallab received teach him that his defense of the Taliban was "right"? Apparently so.
In 2008, a disturbing trend in the IB authorization process came to light. Two Islamic academies, one in London, one in Fairfax, Virginia, were both authorized as IB World Schools. Both schools are private and run by the Saudi Arabian government.
The King Fahad Academy in London was written up in the UK papers during the time it was pursuing IB authorization. According to the timesonline.co.uk, the school was ordered by a tribunal to award a teacher it had unfairly dismissed £70,000 for making public allegations that the school was engaged in anti-Judeo Christian teaching. Extracts from an Arabic textbook revealed that children were taught to believe that all religions other than Islam were "worthless". The books in question referred to "the repugnant characteristics of Jews" and stated, "Those whom God has cursed and with whom He is angry, He has turned into monkeys and pigs. They worship Satan."
Apparently, this sort of news didn't enter into or in any way affect the IB team's evaluation process of the school. The above story was published on April 15, 2008, and in June, 2008, the King Fahad Academy became an IB World School. One particularly upset and diligent London parent undertook a letter writing campaign to obtain an explanation from IBO as to how they could justify authorizing a school where its teachings were so clearly contrary to IB's mission statement. After many detailed e-mails which provided links to the newspaper stories, she finally received a reply from the Director General himself, Jeffrey Beard. In the letter, Mr. Beard stated that the King Fahad Academy, "met and continues to meet all of our standards. The matters you raise in your correspondence was [sic] not in evidence during the authorization visit and appears to be unfounded."
To any rational and right minded thinker, this response from the CEO of an educational company should set off all sorts of alarm bells. Grammatical construct of the response aside, was there anything involved in the authorization visit besides rubber stamping the authorization? According to Beard, the process is "rigorous". Were these egregious teaching practices and news stories not "in evidence" because the IB turned a blind eye? What kind of standards does IB have if this school met them? During the same two year application period, the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) here in the U.S. was making news of its own. The school had earned the nickname "Terror High". In 2004, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for first grade textbooks which taught that "any religion other than Islam is false" to be removed. The school's 1999 Valedictorian was arrested in 2005 for plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush, and he was just recently sentenced to life in prison. Of course, the sentencing of the former ISA student was never mentioned in the mainstream media. More recently, another ISA student was arrested at a Florida airport for carrying a 7" butcher knife and the Principal was arrested by Fairfax County Police for not reporting the abuse of a little girl and for following Sharia law by turning her back over to her father. World maps throughout the school conspicuously omit the country of Israel. Ninth grade textbooks allegedly contained diagrams of where to properly cut off the hands and feet of a thief. None of these arrests or the general atmosphere at the school seemed to make any difference to IB which authorized the Islamic Saudi Academy as an IB World School in December, 2008.
Virginia High School Eliminates IB
Virginia High School in Bristol, Virginia, was authorized by IBO in July, 1999. After 10 years, the school's IB program simply didn't generate the enthusiasm or results to make it sustainable in today's rough economic climate. In a 3-1 vote, the city's school board voted to make this year's junior class the final group of students to participate in the "college-prepatory" program.
According to TriCities.com, "The 2010 graduating class has two students working toward earning an IB diploma and one committed for 2011, according to the memo. Virginia High currently offers 14 IB classes, which have an average attendance of 6.4 students. A total of 22 seniors and 12 juniors are enrolled in IB classes."
The opening line of the story sums it up best: "A highly regarded academic program bit the dust Monday – the victim of budget concerns and low participation."
With 2010 and a new round of budgets to prepare, school boards across the United States should sit up and take notice of this common sense letter from a student in Michigan:
"Last, I think we should be able to switch our IB program to AP. Colleges view both IB and AP as having equal value, therefore the students in IB would have nothing to lose from this switch. According to the Newspaper of Education Rights, “The IB program almost always pushes out the AP classes and the IB program has much less focus on advanced science and math classes. IB classes and tests result in students receiving little or no college course credit compared to what they would obtain for AP classes and tests.”
But the main incentive for this switch is that it will save an incredible amount of money for Portage. On average, it costs taxpayers about $200,000 per year over regular school expenses to have the IB program in a school. This is more than twice the cost of having an AP program. We must use taxpayer's money in the most efficient way."
"The program is something the district simply cannot afford right now - not when other programs might have to be cut."
Congratulations, Marin County, on your decision to shelve the International Baccalaureate program. Good job! Also please note the $200,000+ figure included in the article. As the need to justify abandoning IB becomes more apparent, so does the need to expose the real cost.
Some things, like FREEDOM, never go out of style. Please gather your children around the computer for 10 minutes to watch this timeless message.
Glenn Beck - A Mother's Challenge
The entire show is available in five parts on You Tube, but today TAIB is pleased to present the segment featuring our own Lisa McLoughlin, speaking about IB. Glenn didn't seem to quite "get" the whole IB thing, but we are hoping that mothers and fathers from around the United States will write to him and request that he investigate this organization.
The IB International Liberal Fascist Movement by Lisa E. McLoughlin
Five years ago, I wrote to Washington Post and Newsweek journalist Jay Mathews to complain of the IBO Director General's love affair with Jean Jacques Rousseau and his advocation of a "new Social Contract" for international education. I have been labeled a crackpot, a right-wing extremist, a xenophobe, a heretic and a racist for my condemnation of Rousseau's philosophy as something that is "bad" for American education.
This morning while reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, I have finally been vindicated for my deepest suspicions about what is wrong with IB. From page 39: "According to Rousseau, individuals who live in accordance with the general will are 'free' and 'virtuous' while those who defy it are criminals, fools or heretics. These enemies of the common good must be forced to bend to the general will. It was Rousseau who originally sanctified the will of the masses while dismissing the mechanisms of democracy as corrupting and profane. Such mechanics - voting in elections, representative bodies, and so forth - 'are hardly ever necessary where the government is well intentioned".
Therefore, it is beyond ironic that in 1799, a very different George Walker wrote a book called The Vagabond, a satire directed against the Jacobin philosophers that IB's George Walker exalts.
It is of even greater concern that under the current one party domination of the United States, I stumbled upon a "wing" of the IB called www.ibarms.org. Based right here in our beautiful Rocky Mountains, IBarms bases its movement on J.F. Rischard's book High Noon. (Please bear with me, the One World Government ties are too clear to dismiss as conspiracy theory, as IB supporters will do by their very nature) For those of you unfamiliar with Jean-Francoise Rischard, he was vice President of the World Bank from 1998-2005. All of Rischard's writings are readily available at a site called UNJobs. My "favorite" on the list is: Getting Serious About Internationalizing the CurriculumJ.F. Rischard High Noon. Sharing our rule book. Issues needing a global regulatory approach"
A "global regulatory approach". Here we sit in the abyss of a global economic meltdown unparalleled in history while an unpublicized amendment is passed in the U.S. House of Representatives rebuking President Obama by a vote of 429-2!
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-overwhelming-rebukes-obama-signing-statement-2009-07-09.html "House members approved an amendment by a 429-2 vote to have the Obama administration pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities. The amendment to a 2010 funding bill for the State Department and foreign operations was proposed by Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), but it received broad bipartisan support. The conditions on World Bank and IMF funding were part of the $106 billion war supplemental bill that was passed last month. Obama, in a statement made as he signed the bill, said that he would ignore the conditions. They would "interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions," Obama said in the signing statement."
All Americans should be outraged at the audacity of a U.S. President who arrogantly seeks to ignore funding statutes approved by Congress for regulatory authority over the World Bank and the IMF's use of U.S. taxdollars. Certainly Rischard would roundly applaud Obama's trampling of the U.S. Constitution in favor of handing power over to the World Bank and the IMF on our dollars.
This is no conspiracy theory. This is carefully plotted history being made before our very eyes. The Left will attempt to mask this plot and dismiss such allegations as "ignorant" and "foolish". But facts are facts, we must always know the history behind such movements and make sure that this one, more carefully orchestrated and global in intensity due to modern technology, doesn't overtake us before it's too late. There is still time to stop this annihilation of U.S. sovereignty. But it is short. Time is very, very, short indeed.
A California agency rejected plans for a Moreno Valley charter school that planned to offer an International Baccalaureate program and specialized curriculum in visual and performing arts and for English learners. The County Board of Education said, "The plans for the Gabrieliños Charter Academy did not provide a sound educational program, failed to provide sufficient detail and was not likely to succeed."
"Moreno Valley Unified officials argued that the proponents did not provide enough detail about their financing, had not obtained the necessary credentials to offer an International Baccalaureate program, and had demonstrated that they don't know the workings of a public school, such as requiring to comply with the state's open meetings law, the Brown Act, prior to making a decision."
Makes sense to us!
Still Left Behind
A stunning report just released by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago reveals to all Americans exactly what kind of school improvement we can expect under the leadership of Arne Duncan - NO improvement. While there appears to be a plethora of failing charter schools in Chicago, of particular note to TAIB are the IB high schools which came into existence under Duncan's school "reform" measures and with support from the Annenberg Foundation. You can locate an earlier article about Duncan and the Annenberg Foundation further down this page.
It is important to note that ONLY ONE IB SCHOOL (Lincoln Park), met the NCLB benchmark of 62.5% proficiency on State standardized exams in one subject, Reading, but not Math or Science. Overall, in 2001, 27.2% of Chicago's public school students met or exceeded 11th Grade State standards. In 2008, 27.2% of Chicago's students met or exceeded 11th Grade State standards. Eight years and millions upon millions of dollars spent on "school reform" and not even a 1/10th of 1% in improvement!
The report contains no flowery language and makes no excuses. IB is not directly referred to in the report. TAIB identified the IB schools by referring to IBO's search engine. Of the 16 Chicago IB schools, two are not reflected in the report; The British School as it was authorized in February, 2009, and St. Scholastica, which is private.
Below, please find the range of proficiency for Chicago students in Science, Math and Reading at schools with the IB Diploma Programme: (pgs. 4 & 5)
British School - N/A (authorized 02/09) Curie Metro - 30-41% George Washington - 11-18% Hubbard - 31-33% Hyde Park - 10-20% Lincoln Park - 59-62% Michele Clark - 16-26% Morgan Park - 32-40% Nicholas Senn - 11-15% Prosser Career - 32-35% Roald Amundsen - 18-23% St. Scholastica - N/A (private) Steinmetz - 18-23% Thomas Kelly - 20-30% William Howard Taft - 33-40% William Bogan - 10-18%
Not only are these outcomes abyssmal in general, 50% of the IB schools came in BELOW the abyssmal flat statistic of 27.2% meeting or exceeding State standards!!
The proof is "in the pudding" as they say. The CCCCC Report stands as stark evidence that when stripped of its smoke and mirrors, its bloviating and boasting, IB does nothing to improve schools for inner city children.
IB Exam Scam
The exam results for hundreds of Greek IB students are being withheld indefinitely, possibly causing them to miss university application deadlines and leaving their futures in limbo.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100010_07/07/2009_108710 "According to officials at the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), a nongovernment organization affiliated with the United Nations that is best known for offering the respected IB diploma, a Greek teacher allegedly obtained this year’s IB examination papers from a source in Geneva, where the IBO is based, before distributing them to pupils. The teacher, who has not been identified, is alleged to have received significant payment for his illicit initiative....[SNIP]... According to IBO officials, who have been investigating the claims since early last month when they emerged, the teacher in question had been in contact with students at six different schools. The teacher was forced to resign from his post in the wake of the claims, sources said."
TAIB's question is this: Why only private Greek IB schools? If this teacher "received significant payment" for his "illicit initiative", who is to say that the exams weren't sold to other IB schools in other countries? Who was the "leak" in Geneva? How do we know that the "leaker" wasn't the one who received "significant payment"? Will s/he ever be identified and fired as well?
If this happened here in the U.S. with AP exams, it would have made the front page of the New York Times. The saddest part is, the students are the ones to suffer because of the actions of IB officials.
2008 IB Donors
A recent search conducted by TAIB to prove that, yes, UNESCO is indeed still a donor to IB, revealed far more interesting information and demonstrates the devotion of the radical American Left to IB.
IB's 2008 Donor List: http://www.ibo.org/informationfor/supporters/donors/completetlist/ gives special mention to individuals and organizations who are members of the Director General’s Circle and contribute $10,000 annually. The names that jumped out at TAIB were Joe Kennedy and Stephen Spahn. In the article directly below this one, you'll note
May 21, 2010 - Someone wise once wrote, "Follow the money". As you know, TAIB follows IB "discussions" wherever we can find them. Inevitably, especially in this disastrous economic climate, the focus always revolves around FUNDING. How are we going to pay for IB? "It's so expensive, but we simply HAVE to have it!" the Progressives cry. "WHO CARES" if SEIU and the local paper endorse the politician who endorses this "new" educational foundation? Right? That's just a COINCIDENCE! It's FOR THE CHILDREN! Pay no attention to that money, where it came from, or what the political agenda behind it is.
Having read the following three articles in a series about IB and the bias of the editor at the paper in favor of IB, when the "new" educational foundation story broke, it just couldn't be a coincidence. There are some more IB related articles at the Summit News Daily, but these were the three TAIB focused on.
Because the SND has already removed one of my comments from the "new" foundation article, I thought I would re-post my comments below in case the editor gets Stalin-happy again. Just the facts, folks. Follow the money.
These are the first two of my posts. #'s 1, 2 & 3 below are the ones I just lifted to preserve. I didn't include the responses of other posters as I'm sure they won't be removed. You can find them HERE
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Team America wrote: