IB team to visit Sebring High

After two applications and two years of preparation, the effort to establish an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in Highlands County reaches a vital point with a visit to the Sebring High School campus by an IB review team set for today and Tuesday.

The IB team will meet with school board members, teachers, parents and students.

The classrooms are observed and the facilities are examined to assure that everything is up to standards for the district to be able to offer the Diploma Programme, an IB North American spokeswomen in New York said Friday. Most recommendations and matters that need to be addressed come up prior to the authorization visit between the A and B applications.

Schools are informed about issues and make corrections in advance, so by the time of the authorization visit, there is a very good chance that authorization will be granted to start an IB programme, the spokeswoman said.

The pre-IB classes at Sebring High School currently have 21 sophomores and 38 freshmen.

Highlands Today asked the district's Director of Secondary Programs, Ruth Heckman, if there is a concern that those pre-IB enrollment numbers are too low?

"I don't think numbers are really an issue," she replied. The focus is on the rigor of the classes and if the beliefs of the IB mission and the school district's mission line up.

"Do we believe in rigor and critical thinkers and people who want to inquire and see things from different perspectives ... do we agree with those kinds of things," is what the IB visiting team will be looking for, Heckman said.

The district won't be informed about whether the authorization is approved or not until the spring, she said.

"I think they do all their visits to candidate schools and then they send out authorization letters," Heckman said. "Just because we have an early visit doesn't necessarily mean in two months we are going to get a letter saying 'yes - you are approved" or "no - you are not.' "

With approval from IB, the Diploma Programme would start at Sebring High with 11th-graders in August 2010.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, International Baccalaureate is a nonprofit educational foundation founded in 1968 with three programs for students aged 3 to 19.

According to IB, its programs help the students develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.

Worldwide there are 2,734 schools with IB programs serving 754,000 students in 138 countries.

The United States has 668 schools that offer the IB Diploma Programme.