What's Wrong With AP and
IB?
Q. President Bush proposes a 73%
increase in funding for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate
programs for low-income and minority students. Is that likely to help?
Anything
that can be done to improve the achievement of those student groups, especially
males, is a positive step. But the attention probably should focus on what
isn't happening in grade school for those students. On the average, they are so
many grade levels behind their advantaged peers in reading and math by high
school that in most cities there aren't enough low-income and minority students
qualified for AP and IB to even make a scientific sample group.
They're
not missing much, anyway. Advanced Placement tests appear to be a tool
for creating a nationalized curriculum controlled by the federal government.
The dumbing down of the AP tests to get more schools and kids signed up has
been well documented, with the quality of the higher-level courses in many
American high schools now compromised.
AP
appears to be about "spinning" their attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviors
toward the standardized specifications of the educrats. Consider this item from
November 1997 from Eagle Forum, www.eagleforum.org/psr/1997/nov97/psrnov97.html
The hard sciences and
math AP tests aren't as politicized. But just you wait: the fix is on to
replace AP programs nationwide with the much-scarier International
Baccalaureate program, which is even more like Socialism 101.
The
IB program (www.ibo.org) is supposed to be
world-class, high-octane learning that can position a student to be competitive
with the brightest kids from around the world. It's supposedly the knockout
punch for getting in to a top college. At least, that's what parents and school
boards think when they undertake to add the program, which can cost an
additional $200,000 over the regular education program, more than twice as
costly as an AP program, according to PABBIS (Parents Against Bad Books in
Schools).
But
PABBIS says the multicultural literature selections in IB programs can be
downright disgusting. Examples: a 9-year-old girl encounters her teenage cousin's
genitalia and is propositioned by him for oral sex (Cracking India) . . . a 12-year-old Japanese boy spies into his
widowed mother's bedroom and sees her having sex with her sailor boyfriend,
then talks with his friends about how much they hate "fathers," torture a
kitten, and are getting ready to murder the sailor as the book ends (The Sailor Who Fell From Grace). . . .
And
according to www.EdWatch.org, IB programs
push world government, relativism and socialism over an alignment to key American
principles such as national sovereignty, individual liberty, and
Judeo-Christian values such as inalienable rights. IB fits in with the United
Nations educational model from UNESCO and gives minimal attention to, or
actually contains content hostile to, the United States.
Now,
those familiar with the curriculum say it doesn't come right out and say
communism is best or to ignore the values of past generations. The approach is
much more subtle; you can tell what it's all about much more by what is NOT in
the curriculum, than by what IS included. But by the time parents figure that
out, their children are out of the two-year program in most American high
schools and literally don't know what they missed.
You
know, Ben Franklin said that half the truth is often a great lie. That's what's
wrong. The curriculum and assessment decisions are out of the hands of local
parents and teachers, and given over to foreign officials who know or care
relatively little about American principles.
Time
on task is also different. IB may seem more challenging and time-consuming, but
the knowledge gain per student is actually less than with a traditional
college-prep course of action. IB requires a huge amount of community service
by the students, for example, and long, subjectively-graded essays rather than
easily-scored, objective, fact-based tests.
IB
also usually pushes out the AP courses, because schools can't afford both. But
the IB has much less focus on advanced math and science, and pushes much more
of the social-engineering type, politicized, global education concepts such as
sustainable development, population control, global warming and other
left-wing, New World Order type fare.
IB
courses result in no college credits. And worst of all, according to EdWatch,
IB tests are sent to Geneva, Switzerland, for scoring. That raises huge red
flags about the personal, values-laden data on each student that comes along
with test answers, and now is being collected and stored in a foreign database.
A
better way: better locally-set curriculum and more freedom for teachers to
deliver it, K-12, without these add-on programs.
Homework: Search for more about AP and IB on www.ibo.org, www.collegeboard.com, www.pabbis.org and www.EdWatch.org
2/20/06
• Show 'n' Tell for Parents • © 2006 • Susan Darst
Williams, www.DailySusan.com and www.GoBigEd.com, is a writer, wife and
mother of four who lives at the base of Mount Laundry, Neb.
