Newbury Park High Hopes to Give College-Bound Students a Boost : Education: It may qualify for program offering advanced classes in exchange for university credit.

Move over, Advanced Placement classes.

There is a growing trend in educating college-bound students, and Newbury Park High School could be the first school in Ventura County to pursue it.

Begun 30 years ago to provide a standard curriculum for students enrolled in international schools, the New York-Based International Baccalaureate program requires students to take a series of six advanced classes over two years in exchange for college credit at schools from Harvard to Berkeley.

“It’s a curriculum that students and teachers can sink their teeth into,” Newbury Park High Principal Charles Eklund said. “It’s what we’ve wanted to do all along. That is, provide a curriculum that helps students succeed beyond high school.”

An International Baccalaureate committee--with members from as far away as Honolulu, Salt Lake City and Vancouver, Canada--visited the Newbury Park campus Monday and Tuesday to determine whether the school has the faculty, motivation and facilities to qualify for the program.

Currently, 30 schools in California offer the curriculum, and Newbury Park High will learn in December whether it will be added to that list.

The school already has seven teachers signed up for training classes in Chicago and San Antonio this month, and it has a benefactor who will donate $25,000 to cover the annual cost of the program.

“We’re excited about our changes,” said Marcine Solarez, an English teacher who is organizing the effort. “It looks really thrilling, integrating all different areas of education in one package, or one unified block, that turns out the kind of thinking that is needed in all areas.”

Unlike the Advanced Placement, or AP, program--allowing students to pick and choose which classes and tests to take depending upon their strengths and weaknesses--the baccalaureate program requires students to take all six classes in the curriculum.

The classes are English, a modern foreign language, an experimental science, a social science, math and an elective. The program focuses on analytical reasoning and writing, and approaches literature and history from an international perspective.

To earn credit for the program, students must pass a standardized test--similar to the AP test--at the end of the year that makes up about 80% of their grade. They also must write a 4,000-word essay, take an advanced philosophy course and perform community service. The program costs students about $475.

Sage Publications, a Newbury Park publishing company, has committed $25,000 annually to the district to keep the program and others up and running. Sage President David McCune, who has a son at Sequoia Junior High School, said the program’s international focus appealed to him.

“The teachers and administrators, they really want to bring this to the kids,” McCune said. “You can see the fire in their eyes. And you’re going to extinguish that fire because of a lack of money? I couldn’t let that happen.”

Richard Simpson, assistant superintendent in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said he expects Newbury Park High to become a magnet for advanced students in the county once the program is up and running.

Simpson also said the district would monitor the program to make sure it does not detract from other programs at the school. “If you were taking money away from the district to do this program, I would be concerned,” Simpson said.

Paul Campbell, associate director of the International Baccalaureate programs for North America, said such concerns are common among newcomers to the program.

“One of the charges leveled against us is that we’re elitist,” Campbell said. “But in a well-run IB program, the impact goes beyond students in IB classes. IB teachers often teach students in other classes and share the knowledge learned in IB training. The equipment acquired under IB is available to other students. We want schools to succeed.”

Campbell said the program accepted 25 of the 30 schools that applied last year.

There are 606 schools in 83 countries offering the IB program this year. Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton--consistently rated one of the best schools in the state--has one of the most extensive International Baccalaureate programs in California, offering advanced classes in a variety of subjects from Portuguese and drama to statistics.

Sunny Hills head counselor Don Joynt said the program, which has been at his school for 10 years, has boosted student achievement and attracted students from about 20 districts to the school.

The school graduates about 70% of its seniors, many with college credits, to four-year colleges, thanks to the International Baccalaureate program, Joynt said.

Simpson hopes the program will have a similar effect on Newbury Park High.

“What we understand from other schools that have been in it is that it prepares them incredibly well for college entrance,” Simpson said. “Things that we had to deal with our first year of college, like managing time and meeting college-level requirements, are almost second nature to them when they finish this program.”