Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate: Do They Deserve Gold Star Status? asks a Fordham Foundation report. The answer is: AP and IB aren’t perfect, but they’re academically sound. For both AP and IB, biology courses scored an A, English literature B+ and history B-. The IB math course earned a B-, while AP Calculus got a C+. Education Gadfly summarizes:
On the whole, these programs succeed for two reasons. First, they’re built atop high academic standards and goals for learning that are clearly delineated for teachers, students, and parents. Their exams are well aligned (and sometimes superior) to their standards, testing students on the content of their courses and considerably more. Students are expected to make sense of complex materials; to write and defend their opinions intelligently; and to apply their knowledge in creative ways. . .
Second, these programs are linked with real-world benefits. AP and IB students not only develop knowledge and skills that better prepare them for college, but they can earn college credit (and sometimes college admission) for their efforts — a good motivation to stay with the program.
Fordham, generally a tough grader, deducted points in the math evaluation for excessive reliance on calculators, notes Jay Mathews in the Washington Post.
I like the Fordham report over-all. It is very detailed in its evaluation. Two questions: Why did Fordham only evaluate “standard level” IB courses, rather than at least some “higher level” IB courses? Students in an IB program have to take at least three higher level courses, which are a minimum of 240 hours. Some of the issues they raised about the standard level courses would be addressed. Also, they suggested that IB courses aren’t covering US History sufficiently and American Literature– but IB is only grade 11 and 12, and being an IB student almost insures that you took Math, Lit, science and history in grades 9 and 10. I think those concerns would be addressed earlier in high school, in most schools. The issue that might not be addressed in learning more western civilization, prior to 1800. Obviously I’m a fan of IB for the most part.