HealthCare Reform Healthcare

In the end, students have to want an education that’s interdisciplinary and interconnected. They also must be able to handle the rigor that comes along with it, she says.

“So for students who are not up for that, that’s OK; there are other pathways, but this provides an outlet for kids who want that kind of education.”

The IB Middle Years program

This year, J. L. Long Middle School is on the threshold of becoming an IB Middle Years Program, which helps to ease students into the IB philosophy.

Applying to becoming an IB school is a three-year process, says Long principal Danielle Petters.

First, schools must apply to be a candidate, and once accepted, the school must implement the program as part of its curriculum. Teachers have to be trained, and the school has to pay a fee to the International Baccalaureate Organization. At that point the school is assigned a consultant who tours the school and makes recommendations.

Then there’s the authorization visit, which Long received on Oct. 14 and 15. During the visit, representatives from the national IB organization hosted intense interviews with groups of Long leaders, teachers, students and parents.

“It’s been an extremely rigorous transition,” says Long’s IB coordinator Dora Renaud, “but everybody’s on board.”

In November, Long met 32 out of the 33 requirements.

“The one matter that our school needs to address before the final recommendation and authorization is for our action plan to reduce the number of students not receiving 50 hours of instruction in all eight subjects,” Renaud says, “including an avenue for students to engage in both visual arts and performing arts.”

Renaud says the Long staff immediately began planning how to meet the remaining requirement to submit an action plan to IB nationals before Christmas break. Once everything is approved, Long will be named an official IB Middle Years school, and staff members hope to host a ceremony in the spring.

There are some distinct differences between the IB Middle Years program and the high school level or “diploma program” at Woodrow.

The Middle Years program is a more philosophical approach, a framework for the school, Petters says. Also, while students must opt in at the high school level, middle school students automatically become part of the IB program.

Long now hires teachers who fit the IB criteria, and the school has eight subject areas instead of seven, following the IB guidelines. Because of that, Long offers some courses that traditional middle schools might not, such as Chinese.

The core of IB stays the same at all grade levels.

“It’s about perspective,” Petters says. “So, how do you connect theater to life? To math? To science? To reading/ language arts? Where are those connections? It’s connections within those subject areas, and it’s also connections across cultures. It’s cross-discipline and cross-cultures.”

The hope is that the Middle Years program prepares students for the diploma program down the road, Petters says.

Petters’ daughter, a freshman at Woodrow this year, chose the IB academy, and all summer she was mentally preparing herself for the workload, Petters says.

“So if nothing else, I didn’t think of high school that way,” she says. “We also talk a lot about college, and a part of going to college is going to Woodrow. So they’re thinking about it.”