Global Perspective Adds Gloss to Campus’ Image

In Room 213 at Pasadena’s Wilson Middle School, Patti Schindler’s seventh-graders are discussing the trans-Saharan trade during the 14th century. How did North African merchants, Schindler asks her students, change the societies of West Africa?

A high-level discussion of Islam and economics ensues. Although the subject of the lesson is prescribed by the state’s content standards, Schindler actually pays closer attention to a set of guidelines posted on the wall. They are issued not by the California Department of Education or the Pasadena Unified School District, but by a Swiss educational foundation best known for granting special diplomas to the college-bound.

Tuesday, Wilson became the first middle school in Los Angeles County to receive full authorization from the International Baccalaureate Organization. The rigorous--and prestigious--program, founded to provide standardized instruction to the children of diplomats, emphasizes cultural exchange and international perspectives.

Its arrival at Wilson represents a departure both for the school and International Baccalaureate. The authorization gives an overcrowded urban school with test scores below the state average a high gloss. Even before Tuesday’s approval, word of the school’s association with International Baccalaureate was drawing students to Wilson who might otherwise attend private schools.

In recent years, schools such as Wilson have slowly been embraced by International Baccalaureate. The nonprofit educational foundation is known for its demanding two-year honors program for high school students. But over the last decade, International Baccalaureate has quietly adopted a “Middle Years” version of its program for sixth- through 10th-graders. So far, 25 U.S. middle schools--in partnership with high schools--have received International Baccalaureate authorization, including five in California.

Such programs have proved attractive to districts such as Pasadena. There, the public schools, under a new superintendent, are seeking to develop distinguishing programs to keep promising students from leaving for nearby private institutions. And though some critics argue that the group’s Middle Years Program lacks the focus and rigor of its high school diploma curriculum, the public relations value of the International Baccalaureate name is undeniable.

At Wilson, the student population has risen by nearly a quarter since International Baccalaureate methods were first introduced three years ago. Interest in attending the school is so high that Principal Meg Abrahamson conducts a weekly campus tour for parents and prospective students. Last fall, Wilson had to turn away students from other neighborhoods whose parents had sought permits to get their children into the school.

“It has clearly changed the image of the school,” says Abrahamson, who is in her first year as principal. “A lot of people want to come to Wilson now, and because they’ve heard of International Baccalaureate, that’s the primary focus of their interest.”

In Pasadena, a handful of parents with children approaching middle-school age first discovered the Middle Years Program on the Internet four years ago. Intrigued, they talked with district officials and shopped the idea to middle schools. At Wilson, Rich Boccia, who was then principal, expressed interest.

The Middle Years Program has the same emphasis on international perspectives and cultural exchange as its better-known diploma counterpart. But it is less a curriculum than a set of themes and guidelines. Students work in teams. They must study eight academic fields--English, Spanish, humanities, mathematics, sciences, art, physical education and technology--with an emphasis on developing themselves in five areas. Those are study skills, community service, social education, the environment and “homo faber”: literally “man the toolmaker,” or how the creativity of people shapes society.

“It’s a more global perspective, where you try to show relationships between different fields,” says Marilee France, a Wilson teacher who coordinates the program.

Some educators have derided the International Baccalaureate guidelines as vague. But at Wilson, parents and administrators saw the program’s requirements as a tool to enforce improvement in teaching and curriculum.

To meet guidelines in academic areas, for example, foreign language instruction had to be boosted. International Baccalaureate guidelines on equipment and instruction also have prompted an upgrading of the school library and extensive new training for teachers. And the program’s insistence that each student complete an extensive personal project has raised expectations for students.

“It has been a vehicle for change,” says school board member Peter Soelter, the father of a Wilson eighth-grader.

Wilson launched the program in the fall of 1999 with its sixth-grade class. Each year since, Wilson has extended the program forward an additional grade--eighth is new this year. Next fall, Blair High School, as Wilson’s partner in the program, will bring its ninth-graders under International Baccalaureate.

School officials call the schools’ certification cause for celebration, though some Pasadena parents are not so sure.

“I’ve had the opportunity to go from extremely hot to slightly more cool,” says Rene Amy, a general contractor and local education gadfly, who was an early backer of International Baccalaureate. In the state’s latest Academic Performing Index rankings, Wilson rated below overall averages for the state, but between the 70th and 80th percentile for schools of similar demographics. “For standards stalwarts, it’s definitely a little bit fuzzy ... but it’s certainly a popular program that has attracted people.”

At the least, Wilson seems to have succeeded in creating an attraction that slows the number of defections to private and parochial campuses. In the fall of 1999, more than 100 students from outside the school’s neighborhood borders transferred in. In the fall of 2000, 80 more did. Last fall, with more neighborhood children choosing to attend Wilson and enrollment growing, new transfers were not allowed. The school now has 1,500 students--making it the second-largest in the Pasadena system.

Abrahamson is frustrated by the crowding that comes with success. On a recent tour she conducted for prospective parents, the Wilson principal led a conversation that shifted between the luster of International Baccalaureate and the difficulties inherent in a large urban school. In particular, she fielded several inquiries about growing class sizes, which reach the high 30s in the sciences.

Suzanne Lawrence, a small business consultant who was on the tour, is considering whether to take her seventh-grade son out of private school and put him in Wilson next year.

“[International Baccalaureate] is a major draw, and I believe the school has picked up a notch,” says Lawrence. “But at the same time, not everything is better as a result of it.”

On the tours, conducted Wednesday mornings, Abrahamson often drops by Schindler’s classroom. Schindler’s seventh-graders study world history, as the state requires. But the class is clearly influenced by International Baccalaureate.

Students sit in groups of four and complete written work together. Schindler grades on a 1-10 numerical scale suggested by the program. She shares students with an English teacher across the hall, so the subject matter and reading in history and English are related.

Halfway through the lesson, she talks about the homework assignment. The students must write out a travel guide for those crossing the Sahara in the 14th century.

“The format and specifics are up to you,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how--it just matters that you get there.”