June 24, 2010 - On May 26, the Tahoe Bonanza announced, "We Be Tired of IB". It appears that after a month long nap, the folks at the Tahoe Bonanza now realize that this is still a very controversial and unsettled issue. Recharged from its biased journalistic hiatus, today the Bonanza announces, "IB - With 2 months until school begins, "things are still up in the air".
No! Really?
And as a real teaser, the TB promises a fundraising update, an IB interview with outgoing HS Principal John Clark and an interview with lead IB propagandist WCSD Assistant Superintendent Pedro Martinez. We can hardly wait!
Controversial Principal Hired
June 6, 2010 - Incline Village school officials announced on Friday, June 4, that the district has hired Stacey Cooper, of Mansfield, Ohio, to fill the shoes of retiring high school Principal John Clark, effective July 1, 2010.
According to this article, Cooper was awarded a three year contract as the Superintendent of the Adams County/Ohio Valley school district which she resigned from after one week. Her "reason" for her resignation was that the job just "didn't feel right" and that she wanted to be closer to her daughters. Cooper denied that her resignation had anything to do with her 2009 legal troubles when she was arrested for a traffic incident in which she plead guilty to "reckless operation and failure to control". In exchange for the plea, an "impaired driving charge was dismissed".
There are a number of comments following the article from parents which were removed by the editor of the paper for alleged violation of terms. Chances are these comments weren't exactly complimentary and considering the first comment received five recommends, parents in Incline Village might want to do a little investigating on their own regarding this woman's reputation.
School District to IB Opponent - Shut Up and Go Away! First Amendment Doesn't Apply to Washoe County Schools When it Concerns IB.
Letters the Tahoe Bonanza Refused to Print
Brent Welling to Friends & Bonanza 5/16/10
Friends:
For about a year I have been investigating and performing my due diligence regarding the proposed implementation of the IB (International Baccalaureate) program in the Incline Village schools.
My conclusion is a vociferous "NO" and my reasons are numerous. Here are only a few of them:
1) Wooster High School in Reno (near Costco) is the only public school in Nevada to have undertaken this program and by every account and statistic it has been a dismal failure. To my knowledge, the only other IB school in Nevada is a private elementary school in Las Vegas. No data is available from this school.
2) A large number of schools in the United States which had implemented IB several years ago are now dropping the IB program as rapid as they can. Their remarks about the program are rather scathing and candid.
3) The IB program was originally founded in Geneva Switzerland as an "International School Program" and their hope was it could provide an education program that various countries could implement so the children of ex-patriots (corporate personnel, consulate employees, etc.) could have a better school to attend than those offered by the country's public school. This was particularly important for executives from various countries who were temporarily stationed in 2nd and 3rd world countries or in countries where their native language was not spoken.
I became personally aware of the program in 1978 when I was asked to take a management position and move my family to Hong Kong. Before I moved my family to Hong Kong, I spent three weeks in Hong Kong to make sure it would be a good move for my family. I spent several days with the headmaster, the teachers and students at the International IB school and I attended several classes. I discovered the IB program was more "touchy feely", " we are the world", United Nations like approach that focuses more on a 'sustainability' and "can't we all just get along" curriculum. Nothing wrong with teaching children to have a sensitivity to other cultures and societies, but math, physics, and the sciences were relegated to 'an afterthought' mentality. I did not like the fact that Math and Science were not main-stream topics and the course offerings were very minimal. English, French, and Spanish were the major languages taught and I remember thinking at the time it might be better and more useful for the students to learn the language of major world powers, such as German, Russian, Japanese, or Chinese Mandarin.
4) The IB program and the currently very successful high school AP programs are in conflict with each other and most smallerschools that adopted the IB program were forced to drop their AP programs. In my opinion, the AP program is far superior to the IB. IB is not as widely accepted at universities as the AP program.
5) IB is very expensive: large annual fees to the IB Foundation in Switzerland, new texts and curriculum, teacher training and certification, etc. Even the student tests are not free. These additional IB expenses must be borne by the community (aka Incline Village fund raisers, direct parent 'donations', and Washoe County says they will chip in using some of your tax money - - - yeh, right. Under severe budget cuts in WCSD . . . wanna bet?).
6) In my opinion, the initial interest in the IB program arose in an effort to attract more students into Incline's public school system because enrollment has been declining. If implemented, perhaps more students from around the Lake would enroll and come here every day because we emphasize the IB program is really rigorous. Particularly, maybe we could steal more students from Lake Tahoe School because they have a rigorous (and much better than IB program too).
7) We currently have and pay for excellent schools and terrific teachers here at Incline. We have a terrific track record for graduating superb high school students that go to top university and colleges in the country. We now have sport programs that may fall victim to an IB program. Do you really want to pay more $$$ for an inferior program that might supplant the AP program? I don't.
Perhaps you have been following the recent Bonanza and Reno papers with a small spot-light focused on the " To IB or not To IB, that is the question". Are you still confused? I am not. I have attached a URL to a petition now being circulated and I hope you will sign it and pass it on to others in the community who are concerned about the education program in Incline Village.
We can not allow the IB program to be shoved down our throats.
Of course, you may pass on my comments if you wish.
We delivered the petition (NoIBinIV) to the WCSD board last PM. As you probably have guessed getting 265 people to sign up to anything in this community is not easy. We feel that the number of signatures verifies the results of the poll your paper ran. The majority are not in favor, the money has not been raised, and in all probabliity John's first amendment rights have been violated by the district. I now believe Heath's uber loyal communication director got the lawyer to send the cease and desist order. She is a true believer of the nth degree (Heath's type).
If Kevin plans to move on to objective stories about implementation at this point he might be interested in the fact that step 2 hasn't been taken yet. The WCSD board has not voted up or down. So objectively;
1) The feasibility study was skipped
2) The board has not voted
3) The money has not been raised
4) The majority of residents aren't for it
5) People are pulling their kids (only the non vote has kept the number down)
6) Other schools are informally recruiting IV Finally, I still haven't got an answer how two guys just in from back east who don't live here know exactly how the Village is thinking? I hope Kevin hasn't decided that their ESP outweighs everything else?
Regards,
Willy Krusell
Jay Mathews to parent May, 2010
Dear Kathryn--- My view is that the two programs [AP and IB] are the gold standard for US high schools. I have a SLIGHT preference for IB because of the longer and deeper exams and the extended essay, I would NOT recommend a school dump AP if that program is thriving. It would be a lot of energy spent for very little positive gain. But I am not there. You and the IB supporters are, and you know the school better than I, and should decide what works for you. The latest numbers from your AP program show great participation rate and a passing rate of 64 percent, which is just about perfect, since it shows you are letting kids struggle with AP and sometimes fail. Please keep me in touch with this, and feel free to send this message to whomever you like and invite them to write me back. ---jay [mathewsj@washpost.com]
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.
INCLINE OFFICIALS EXPOSED - EXCLUSIVE!
April 30, 2010 - TAIB wants to give a big high five to our IB Watchdog in Incline Village for questioning with boldness by filing a FOIA with the Washoe School District to produce the district's three applications to the International Baccalaureate Organization. These three documents are presented below.
All Washoe County taxpayers should pay close attention to the misinformation that residents have been told by Incline school officials. The documents are lengthy and we will let you judge with your own eyes whether the information contained within aligns with the information Incline residents were told at the IB public forums and reported in the Tahoe Bonanza. TAIB contends it does not. Points of contention:
1. No feasibility study was conducted for the PYP. 2. No PYP implementation plan is included with the application. 3. The DP application's financial planning section is not present. 4. The DP application states the school anticipates 15 full IB Diploma candidates in the first two graduating classes. (It should be noted that Incline HS currently has at least 2 AP courses with 21 and 22 students enrolled) 5. Full DP candidates will have qualifications to meet to participate in the program. 6. ALL MYP students will be expected to participate in the program. 7. Tracking will be eliminated at the MYP level (no advanced/Honors classes) 8. District represents that it will pay IB fees and IB teacher training costs. 9. District severely underestimates cost of IB teacher training. 10. District mentions "generous community" which will help with fundraising, but provides no set financial goal. 11. On the PYP application it states that the district does NOT have intentions of implementing IB in any other schools.
There may be other contradictions which TAIB has missed. Please feel free to contact us if something jumps out at you and we will add it to the above list. It is absolutely unconscionable that school officials have already wasted over $100,000 on this educational scam. Please use this information wisely and demand a halt to wasteful spending, obfuscation and backroom deals. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
INCLINE VILLAGE IB PROPAGANDA VIDEO HITS YOU TUBE!
03/19/10
"The best education money can't buy"
REALLY??????????
What in the World is Happening in Incline?
This beautiful, bucolic ski village on the shores of Lake Tahoe is in turmoil. Neighbors are being pitted against neighbors and friends have stopped speaking to each other. Why? Because of IB. What is going on in Incline has to be the worst example of conflict over IB TAIB has witnessed since the ACLU lawsuit in Upper St. Clair, PA. We hope it doesn't come to that, for the sake of the community and the children.
The local paper is the Tahoe Bonanza. Up until 02/11/10 when the Tahoe Bonanza reported the reason for the cancellation of the IB forum as the "inability" of the "con" side to "finalize" panelists, the paper appeared to be trying to present a "balanced" perspective on the issue. However, the paper also features an extremely left-wing columnist by the name of Ed Gurowitz who is rallying for the pro-IB cause. A request for an impartial moderator of the forum was denied by the Tahoe Bonanza. IB has overwhelmed the local paper as THE most divisive and controversial issue of the day. TAIB will attempt to keep readers updated with links to the articles from the Tahoe Bonanza and eye-witness reports from Incline residents.
