Iroquois Point school nears elite accreditation

After three years of curriculum overhauls and teacher training, Iroquois Point Elementary is poised to become the first public school in Hawaii to gain accreditation for the prestigious International Baccalaureate primary years program.

The rigorous curriculum, which includes teaching children a foreign language, focuses on global citizenship and is designed to lay the educational groundwork — as early as kindergarten — to ready students for college prep courses in high school.

The designation comes as more primary and middle schools locally and nationally are turning to the elite IB program as a way to create global, bilingual, "transdisciplinary" scholars.

At least seven other public schools are also moving toward the IB designation, and two K-12 complexes — the Campbell complex in Leeward Oahu and Kaiser complex in East Honolulu — are on the road to offering the IB program for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Statewide, three public schools have attained IB accreditation — Campbell and Kaiser high schools and Niu Valley Middle School. Two private schools, Mid-Pacific Institute and Le Jardin Academy, also have the designation.

"We’re trying to lay the foundation and the values where a child can be a citizen of the world," said Heidi Armstrong, principal of the Iroquois Point campus.

The school, with 750 children, is scheduled to be fully accredited for the IB program in November, joining 283 IB-accredited primary years programs across the country.

The growth of IB programs, educators say, is emblematic of a major push in America’s school systems to better prepare students for living, working and learning in an ever-shrinking globe.

For public schools seeking the distinction in Hawaii, it’s also a way of elevating expectations and bolstering enrollment by attracting students whose parents may in some cases have opted for private schools.

The Geneva, Switzerland-based IB diploma program, which debuted in 1968, has long been heralded by educators. It has been in the islands (at Mid-Pac) since 1986. The middle years accreditation was first offered in 1994, and the primary years program kicked off three years later.

This year, the primary years accreditation saw the greatest growth of any IB program. There are 701 primary years IB programs worldwide, up 25 percent from 2009.

Le Jardin was named the state’s first IB primary years program in December, and Campbell was the state’s first public high school to offer an IB diploma.

That program was accredited in December 2007, and Campbell graduated its first IB diploma students this summer.

Julie Do, Campbell academy of international studies director, said the school had 21 seniors who were IB diploma candidates.

Four fulfilled all the requirements to be conferred the special diploma.

But all the students got college credits for taking IB courses and were accepted into four-year colleges, from Stanford University to the University of Miami.

"What I tell parents is, it’s not a guarantee for anything other than providing your child the most rigorous education," Do said of the IB program.

The process of becoming a so-called IB "world school" is not easy — or cheap.

As part of its accreditation process, Iroquois Point Elementary had to send all of its teachers to IB training — and many had to go away for it. Thirty of the school’s teachers have been to the mainland so far for professional development.

Armstrong, the principal, estimates the school has spent about $80,000 since 2007 on everything from teacher training to application fees.

The school was able to cobble together the money for travel, application fees and other costs by setting aside some of its state funding and applying for grants.

Largely because of its upfront costs, IB is sometimes seen as a program reserved for affluent communities, but that’s also changing. About 36 percent of students at Iroquois Point are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch, about 10 percent have limited English proficiency and about 40 percent come from military families.

At the campus this week, the IB philosophy (from being a global citizen to being courteous to others) was evident everywhere: on a classroom bulletin board that read, "We, the students of the world," in signs hanging from hallway corridors — and in the children themselves.

As Armstrong walked through hallways buzzing with students headed to and from recess, she got hugs and jovial "good mornings."

Josh Alvarado, a fifth-grader, said the IB program includes "in-depth" studies but also stresses a positive attitude and respectful behavior as a way of getting along better with people, no matter their differences.

In one assignment last year, he said, every student learned about the country their ancestors were from and then shared it with the class with a potluck featuring food from around the globe.

Thomas Galeai, a shy 10-year-old, said the IB program helped him learn more about himself.

"I’m caring and creative," he said.

His friend, 10-year-old Abby Duffel, piped in, "He’s respectful to his friends."

"Thank you very much," Galeai replied, sincerely.

For high schools, the IB diploma program is an alternative to Advanced Placement courses, which can also get students college credit.

The difference is that the IB program is designed to be more holistic — students must take certain classes to get the diploma and fulfill other requirements, such as completing essays and projects. College credit for IB courses is based on the work a student does throughout the year, rather than on how they perform on an Advanced Placement test at the end of the year.

And students must be proficient in a second language to earn an IB diploma.

Do said the diploma program gives students a "good foundation of critical thinking and global awareness."

Hahaione Elementary School expects to secure IB primary years accreditation in fall 2011. Principal Cindy Giorgis said students from her school will go on to IB programs at Niu Valley Middle and then Kaiser High School, of which Hahaione is a feeder school.

Giorgis said the school, which plans to offer Mandarin or Japanese to students, has gotten a strong buy-in from parents on the program.

IB, she said, is fundamentally about creating a culture of "internationalism" in schools.

"We expect our children to be college-bound. Why shouldn’t we bring them up as 21st-century learners? Look at the Internet. This world is very, very small."