IB: Separate and Not Equal

[IBGrad01]

During my four years in the IB program at a Florida high school, I found that the implementation of the program fostered racism.

The program made our school a magnet, so while the non-IB (or "traditional" students) all came from the relatively poor local neighborhood (which students referred to as “the ghetto”), IB kids came from all over Tampa Bay and mostly -- though not uniformly -- wealthy families. Out of the 136 IB students in my class level, I can recall five black students and three Hispanic students, a fair number of Asian and Indian students, at least one Middle Eastern student, and the rest of us were white. Of the 300-something traditional students in my class level, the vast majority were black, a sizable number were Hispanic, and a distinct minority were white, with even fewer Indian, Asian and Middle Eastern students.

Technically, the program was open to all—there was no fee to enter. However, you did have to pay for the IB exams yourself and some IB teachers required that you buy your own textbooks. You had the option of going through a special application process at the end of eighth grade, although there was no official system in place to inform potential applicants about the program. I was privileged enough to receive knowledge of the program and encouragement to apply from my parents. If you didn’t maintain a certain grade point average during the four years, you were kicked out and placed in traditional. This practice of course maintained a nearly 100% graduation rate among IB students, while the graduation rate for the school overall hovered around 70%. Students entered IB in order to enhance their college applications, so there was also a sharp contrast in the number of graduates who continued on to college, let alone prestigious universities. Graduation rates and college admissions all contributed to IB students’ reputation as “the smart kids.”

IB students attended IB-only classes, our class changes were on a separate schedule and we even had our own lunch period. The only time we interacted with or even saw the traditional students was during our elective class, during fire drills, and before and after school when all students were part of the general crowd.

The teachers didn’t attempt to hide their favoritism. If you were caught in the hallway without a pass, the rule was automatic detention. However, if you told the accusing teacher you were IB, it became, “Oh, alright, well hurry back to class.” One teacher complained about the “monkeys” who made so much noise changing periods in the hallway while we were having class—she wondered why they couldn’t compose themselves in the hallway like we do? Another teacher said he was thrilled to be promoted to IB classes, where the students actually listened and behaved. A gym teacher during IB freshman orientation made a joke about how the traditional students might run faster, but they were slower at other things. My freshman biology teacher was demoted to teaching traditional after her first year because her methods weren’t considered challenging enough for IB. At graduation, the IB graduates were separated from the rest and seated at the front.

Everyone treated success in IB and college admissions as proof of intelligence, responsibility and work ethic, implying that traditional kids were less intelligent, less responsible and lazy. It was as if circumstance wasn’t a factor and the traditional kids were inherently inferior, an attitude that encouraged prejudicial assumptions about the obvious racial and economic trends. I remember once after our school received a D based on standardized test scores, one student commented, “Of course we got a D—look at how many black students we have! If they just counted IB, we’d have an A.” The few minority students in the IB program were viewed as exceptions to a rule. A friend of mine in the program—a dark skinned Haitian-American girl—was often jokingly told by our circle of friends, “You know you’re not really black, right? You’re such a white girl.”

How do we keep accelerated programs such as IB from creating such unfortunate side effects? Would discussing these types of programs early on in school and encouraging all students to strive for them lessen the racial and economic divides? I know there are other IB schools in which IB and traditional students take classes together, despite having somewhat different assignments and exams. According to one friend of mine who attended such a high school, “It’s not really such a big deal there. You don’t know who’s in IB and who’s not.” Would integrating the two groups at my school have encouraged equal treatment and solidarity? There must be some way to improve the implementation of the program. The fact that it so noticeably reflects (and furthers) racial divides and, consequently, encourages racist views are serious problems that we cannot simply accept or ignore.

[LMaxwell]

Your topic lacks a certain degree of realism. From reading this I can only assume that it isn't the IB that creates these unfortunate racist side effects but rather your school, the teachers and (to some degree) the students who seem to mimic this racist attitude. Your school seems determined to segregate the IB students from the students pursuing the traditional course. What can the IB program do about that?

At my school, IB unites rather than separates, reaffirming my feeling that what your school needs is not a new way to implement the IB program but an entirely new set of teachers with, in my opinion, correct views, i.e. non-racist ones.

[Eizhowa]

In my country the IB is free, and only strange people like myself choose it. We did't get any elevated status in any way. I think the FREE part is very important for equality, as if it were free only the truly dedicated bothers, as anyone can join the IB. You do need certain grades to join in my school, but I think that is fair as a person who sucks at maths shouldn't apply for maths HL. We were seperated from the rest of the student body like in your school, but I don't think anybody care (except for those who regretted joining the IB and wanted their social life back). We thought the other students were air-heads and they thought we were nerds. I think it is funny that your friend say that no-one could tell the difference between a non-IBer and an IB-er. I my school, you can always tell!

[Eizhowa]

Your topic lacks a certain degree of realism. From reading this I can only assume that it isn't the IB that creates these unfortunate racist side effects but rather your school, the teachers and (to some degree) the students who seem to mimic this racist attitude. Your school seems determined to segregate the IB students from the students pursuing the traditional course. What can the IB program do about that?

At my school, IB unites rather than separates, reaffirming my feeling that what your school needs is not a new way to implement the IB program but an entirely new set of teachers with, in my opinion, correct views, i.e. non-racist ones.

I see your point. The seperation between the IB and the other students seems to be more a sympthom than the disease itself. If there was viturally no racism there wouldn't be much of an issue. I still think the IB fees create an unfortunate gap, though.

[Emmi]

I agree with brofessional, it seems more like it's your school itself and not the IB program that's creating this "racist divide" that you talk about. If your school wants to lessen this traditional students vs. IB students, let the non-IB kids take an IB class or two, don't put IB students on a separate schedule with their own lunch basically shielding them from the rest of the school population, mix them in with other graduating students, etc.

Maybe your surrounding neighborhood just contains a higher portion of minority teenagers who happen to go to that school (I'm not super-familiar with the Tampa Bay area although I have a grandmother that lives near there) and perhaps they're all super-unmotivated and don't care about school and your teachers have decided that it's best to keep IB kids away from these "influences" to ensure the success of the IB kids. But I doubt that's true at all, and any animosities at your school between IB and non-IB kids are due to your school itself and its practices and not really by the IB.

At my school although it was usually just IB students that took IB classes, if a non-IB student wanted to take a certain class, such as HL math or biology they were more often than not permitted to do so as long as they had taken the prerequisite classes and could keep up with the work (and this year there were a couple of kids that did that). IB kids were allowed to take non-IB classes as electives if they had room in their schedules where they could see other non-IB kids (and I even did this myself each year of high school, making non-IB friends in the process!) And at graduation we were seated in alphabetical order and not in a special section, so both of the people seated next to me were non-IB kids. I'd say 98% of my IB class had friends in the school outside of the IB because we were not "shielded" from my school's non-IB population, which greatly outnumbered us.

[Award Winning Boss]

Your leap of logic here is amazing. But somewhat understandable given what's happened.

The IB doesn't foster racism. It's just an education system to torture kids of all races. How else would they make money?

It's the implementation of IB at your school that's made it seem that way. Whatever the system is at your school to help filter students to do the IB is to do with your school. The minority students remained a minority because they didn't get the grades or whatever. What benefit would the school have if they just discriminated against their own students?

I do think there's an undeserved sense of elitism that some people have when viewing the IB though. It's really nothing special. But it seems like your teachers have highlighted that by becoming the problem. I don't think racism is a problem caused by (or is a symptom of) the IB but rather an issue with economic and social gaps and ******y teachers.

[IBGrad01]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I think my topic title is causing some confusion. I want to point out that, as I said in my first post, it's the implementation of the program at MY school that REFLECTS a gap that is preexisting, thereby highlighting those existing racial trends and so encouraging unfair racial biases. I'm not saying that IB is like this everywhere, nor am I saying that it creates racism that wouldn't otherwise be there (only that at my school, it seemed to encourage it and certainly was used to defend it).

To make it a little more clear, what I'm really asking is 1) if anyone else has experienced this, and 2) what do you think my school could have done differently to lessen those effects? (Both of which many of you have addressed.)

Thanks guys

[Mindful]

The IB was started as a program designed to educate international students who lived in countries other than their homelands and to give some standard of education to these kids. The fact that your school chose to take the IB and turn it into an elitist thing, combined with your school's racial atmosphere, is not the IB program's fault. I think a school with an atmosphere as toxic as your would have used anything to create this division, not necessarily IB.

Personally, I've never experienced anything like what you describe, but then again I've never lived in a country that had racial issues, like the US. In my school, evebody takes IB, simply because it's an international school that uses the program. I think your school could have done plenty to lessen these effects, starting with trying to change the racial and elitist attitudes of the teachers, which seem to be taken up by the students (everyone wants to be considered "better" than somebody else, after all). I think that's the root of the problem here.

[LMaxwell]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I think my topic title is causing some confusion. I want to point out that, as I said in my first post, it's the implementation of the program at MY school that REFLECTS a gap that is preexisting, thereby highlighting those existing racial trends and so encouraging unfair racial biases. I'm not saying that IB is like this everywhere, nor am I saying that it creates racism that wouldn't otherwise be there (only that at my school, it seemed to encourage it and certainly was used to defend it).

To make it a little more clear, what I'm really asking is 1) if anyone else has experienced this, and 2) what do you think my school could have done differently to lessen those effects? (Both of which many of you have addressed.)

Thanks guys

In that case, I would like to point out that that wasn't exceptionally clear.

Your second question is not about whether they "could" but instead that they should have definitely done something differently. I think it's clear from mine and others' answers that we feel that your school/teachers are culpable for this racist attitude. How do you think that the tolerating of the teachers' racism would impact on the students? Well you could probably tell me that yourself, but I'm fairly sure that most of the students would eventually mimic the teachers' attitudes.

[IBGrad01]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I think my topic title is causing some confusion. I want to point out that, as I said in my first post, it's the implementation of the program at MY school that REFLECTS a gap that is preexisting, thereby highlighting those existing racial trends and so encouraging unfair racial biases. I'm not saying that IB is like this everywhere, nor am I saying that it creates racism that wouldn't otherwise be there (only that at my school, it seemed to encourage it and certainly was used to defend it).

To make it a little more clear, what I'm really asking is 1) if anyone else has experienced this, and 2) what do you think my school could have done differently to lessen those effects? (Both of which many of you have addressed.)

Thanks guys

In that case, I would like to point out that that wasn't exceptionally clear.

Your second question is not about whether they "could" but instead that they should have definitely done something differently. I think it's clear from mine and others' answers that we feel that your school/teachers are culpable for this racist attitude. How do you think that the tolerating of the teachers' racism would impact on the students? Well you could probably tell me that yourself, but I'm fairly sure that most of the students would eventually mimic the teachers' attitudes.

I disagree. When you take one group and uphold them as the smart, hard working kids and take another group and regard them as the lazy, not-so-bright kids and the first group is mostly rich white students while the second group is mostly poor black and hispanic students, it's very natural for that situation to affect people's view on race, often subconsciously. It's like the Haitian-American girl I mentioned who IB students teased about being white. It's not like anyone liked her less or thought less of her just because of her race, it's that being with the "smart high-achievers" and being "well" spoken, etc., didn't fit in with most of the black students at our school. She fit in with the group that was mostly white. It's not like some racist overseers were sorting the kids into each group. The cause of the racial divide is a complex web of social and economic factors. My point is that at my school, having IB heightened the visibility of that divide. It's not like people treated the IB kids better because we were white and they were racist, they treated us that way because IB was considered a challenging program and a sign of prestige. But you can't place people in a school like that where there is such an obvious gap between races, then treat the one group in such high regard and expect it not to have an effect on people's view of race.

Perhaps changing the view of IB students as elite would help, but how do you do that? It's not like you can just write is off as being due to bad teachers. What are you going to do, fire the principle and all the staff and replace them through an interview process that screens people on their view of students in accelerated programs? Not exactly realistic. I don't think it's a coincidence that most people there viewed IB that way. I think there is something in the way the program was run that encouraged that view in the students and teachers. For example, the point about how our school separates the two groups at graduation while Emy Glau-ski's school had everyone in alphabetical order-- that change would help reduce the elitist mentality. In fact, IB students at my school used to have different colored robes until traditional parents demanded that the school change their policy. I think that really made a point about viewing one group as "better," but clearly more needs to be done. But I also believe that the racial divide itself is unfortunate, even if it's made less visible. That's why I was wondering if, for example, the way the program was advertised would make a difference, so that IB's not just for the students privileged enough to have parents who tell them about it and push them to enter. I realize it's complicated, but I don't think the answer is just, "Well, you're school clearly has terrible teachers and racist students and the IB program there has absolutely no affect on the issue."

[Emmi]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I think my topic title is causing some confusion. I want to point out that, as I said in my first post, it's the implementation of the program at MY school that REFLECTS a gap that is preexisting, thereby highlighting those existing racial trends and so encouraging unfair racial biases. I'm not saying that IB is like this everywhere, nor am I saying that it creates racism that wouldn't otherwise be there (only that at my school, it seemed to encourage it and certainly was used to defend it).

To make it a little more clear, what I'm really asking is 1) if anyone else has experienced this, and 2) what do you think my school could have done differently to lessen those effects? (Both of which many of you have addressed.)

Thanks guys

In that case, I would like to point out that that wasn't exceptionally clear.

Your second question is not about whether they "could" but instead that they should have definitely done something differently. I think it's clear from mine and others' answers that we feel that your school/teachers are culpable for this racist attitude. How do you think that the tolerating of the teachers' racism would impact on the students? Well you could probably tell me that yourself, but I'm fairly sure that most of the students would eventually mimic the teachers' attitudes.

I disagree. When you take one group and uphold them as the smart, hard working kids and take another group and regard them as the lazy, not-so-bright kids and the first group is mostly rich white students while the second group is mostly poor black and hispanic students, it's very natural for that situation to affect people's view on race, often subconsciously. It's like the Haitian-American girl I mentioned who IB students teased about being white. It's not like anyone liked her less or thought less of her just because of her race, it's that being with the "smart high-achievers" and being "well" spoken, etc., didn't fit in with most of the black students at our school. She fit in with the group that was mostly white. It's not like some racist overseers were sorting the kids into each group. The cause of the racial divide is a complex web of social and economic factors. My point is that at my school, having IB heightened the visibility of that divide. It's not like people treated the IB kids better because we were white and they were racist, they treated us that way because IB was considered a challenging program and a sign of prestige. But you can't place people in a school like that where there is such an obvious gap between races, then treat the one group in such high regard and expect it not to have an effect on people's view of race.

Perhaps changing the view of IB students as elite would help, but how do you do that? It's not like you can just write is off as being due to bad teachers. What are you going to do, fire the principle and all the staff and replace them through an interview process that screens people on their view of students in accelerated programs? Not exactly realistic. I don't think it's a coincidence that most people there viewed IB that way. I think there is something in the way the program was run that encouraged that view in the students and teachers. For example, the point about how our school separates the two groups at graduation while Emy Glau-ski's school had everyone in alphabetical order-- that change would help reduce the elitist mentality. In fact, IB students at my school used to have different colored robes until traditional parents demanded that the school change their policy. I think that really made a point about viewing one group as "better," but clearly more needs to be done. But I also believe that the racial divide itself is unfortunate, even if it's made less visible. That's why I was wondering if, for example, the way the program was advertised would make a difference, so that IB's not just for the students privileged enough to have parents who tell them about it and push them to enter. I realize it's complicated, but I don't think the answer is just, "Well, you're school clearly has terrible teachers and racist students and the IB program there has absolutely no affect on the issue."

Then if it's the way the program is marketed at your school that is contributing to this "racism problem" then your school needs to make information about the IB program more readily available to students in the traditional program. Have an IB information night and hand informational flyers out to not just students in the magnet classes or more advanced classes but also to students in "regular" classes. Have IB students go to ninth and tenth grade classes and have them talk to students in these classes and show them what they do in the IB class, perhaps to get them interested. If they have no idea what the IB kids do in their classes, they won't know. Maybe they'll like what they do. Maybe they'll be interested and want to apply.

Sure not everyone in the traditional program will want to do the IB. But there might be just a few kids in the traditional program that are curious or uninformed, and letting them know more about the program will bring some of them over to the IB and start to bridge the gap.

You can't change the demographic makeup of the surrounding neighborhoods, but you can try to change the attitudes of the students that attend your school.

[LMaxwell]

I disagree. When you take one group and uphold them as the smart, hard working kids and take another group and regard them as the lazy, not-so-bright kids and the first group is mostly rich white students while the second group is mostly poor black and hispanic students, it's very natural for that situation to affect people's view on race, often subconsciously. It's like the Haitian-American girl I mentioned who IB students teased about being white. It's not like anyone liked her less or thought less of her just because of her race, it's that being with the "smart high-achievers" and being "well" spoken, etc., didn't fit in with most of the black students at our school. She fit in with the group that was mostly white. It's not like some racist overseers were sorting the kids into each group. The cause of the racial divide is a complex web of social and economic factors. My point is that at my school, having IB heightened the visibility of that divide. It's not like people treated the IB kids better because we were white and they were racist, they treated us that way because IB was considered a challenging program and a sign of prestige. But you can't place people in a school like that where there is such an obvious gap between races, then treat the one group in such high regard and expect it not to have an effect on people's view of race.

Perhaps changing the view of IB students as elite would help, but how do you do that? It's not like you can just write is off as being due to bad teachers. What are you going to do, fire the principle and all the staff and replace them through an interview process that screens people on their view of students in accelerated programs? Not exactly realistic. I don't think it's a coincidence that most people there viewed IB that way. I think there is something in the way the program was run that encouraged that view in the students and teachers. For example, the point about how our school separates the two groups at graduation while Emy Glau-ski's school had everyone in alphabetical order-- that change would help reduce the elitist mentality. In fact, IB students at my school used to have different colored robes until traditional parents demanded that the school change their policy. I think that really made a point about viewing one group as "better," but clearly more needs to be done. But I also believe that the racial divide itself is unfortunate, even if it's made less visible. That's why I was wondering if, for example, the way the program was advertised would make a difference, so that IB's not just for the students privileged enough to have parents who tell them about it and push them to enter. I realize it's complicated, but I don't think the answer is just, "Well, you're school clearly has terrible teachers and racist students and the IB program there has absolutely no affect on the issue."

OK I accept your points, but the blame would still nonetheless lie on the school/teachers no? My school has great multicultural diversity with some being rich, others being poor. Like your school, we have both the IB and traditional examinations. However, there is no such racism in my school.

How did the school achieve this? Presumably by instating a different attitude and ethos in the school. Things like separating the two types of students in your school clearly doesn't work and probably should be scraped. As Emy Glau-ski said, mixing the two could be beneficial (another one of the things that occur in my school). Although, I also think that the IB will remain slightly elitist as one needs a degree of academic ability to succeed in it, something that will automatically deter a number of students.

P.S. I never accused the students as the cause of this racism.

[Stanislaw]

My whole is heavily, heavily multicultural. By that, I mean that in my graduating class of 40, there are probably 20-25 countries represented (Japan, Ecuador, Poland, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, Congo, Algeria, Saudia Arabia,

In my IB class that finished this year, we only had 4 students; nonetheless, we had one quebecois / japanese, one french/polish, one congolese, and one quebecois

My school is Francophone, and has many immigrants that come. Another added bonus is that the school district pays for the IB exams, so even families with lower incomes can still allow their children an education

I think that the biggest problem is that the "ghetto" kids cannot afford to pay for this program ; it is not only the elitist attitude surrounding the IB, but also the pricetag attached that separates the IB and non-IB kids, which coincidentally, also separates the white/asian from the black/hispanic (generally, not always)

Edited July 4, 2012 by Stanislaw