THE UNIVERSITY boasts of its highest graduation rate for black students and its tolerance for gay and lesbian students. However, in one academic category, the University is among the most discriminatory institutions in the country. The International Baccalaureate high school academic program has been a silent victim of inequality and prejudice compared to the Advanced Placement program. The University must stop this discrimination, start giving credits for both standard and higher levels of IB subjects,and place AP and IB on the same credit level. Otherwise, it will continue penalizing students unfairly, risk losing more students to IB-friendly universities and waste an opportunity to promote multiculturalism.
The IB program was created in 1968 to provide a standard global curriculum so the children of diplomats could move easilybetween countries. The IB Diploma Program consists of six two-year (three higher level, three standard level) subjects, ending with an examination where the maximum possible score is a seven.
However, the University has a policy of not offering credit for standard level subjects, which make up half the IB program. Why not, if these exams are perfectly comparable with AP exams? AP students are allowed to take as many exams as they want, but IB students are left with only three possible exams which they can get credit for. This is unacceptable.
IB students also find that for the exams that they can get credit for, it is harder for them to get credit than it is for AP students at the University. For instance, while AP students can get up to six credits for a score of four or five on their exam, IB students must get the maximum seven score for the same credits. Why the disparity when IB Spanish is at least at par with its AP equivalent? AP students also get up to eight credits for taking American history, while IB students can only get a maximum of six credits for taking IB history -- a more comprehensive combination of U.S. and world history. Why is the University penalizing IB students for taking a more internationalist perspective to history?
The University is backward in this category compared to other top academic institutions. Private institutions, such as Princeton and Harvard, as well as state universities such as the University of Michigan, have a fair system for awarding credit -- a seven on IB is equivalent to a five in AP, and a score of six is equivalent to a four. The University needs to eradicate its discriminatory policies and adopt credit systems similar to other institutions of its caliber.
Associate Dean Frank Papovich contends that the subject departments, which largely determine the credit policy, have little first hand experience with IB programs compared to the AP. Well, for heaven's sake, get some if you are going to be determining the standard of an academic program! Papovich subsequently stated that standard levels are not at an AP standard. But says who -- the woefully IB-inexperienced departments?
Papovich was also unable to reconcile the departmental credit discrimination -- in History, for instance, while he cited some major changes in the IB exam over the years, he could not explain why these breakthroughs did not merit a change in the credit system.
But why should we even care about the IB? The answer is because reforms in the credit transfer system would benefit not only IB students but would make the University more competitive with other academic institutions and would also play an integral role in improving the overall cultural awareness of the nation.
First, these reforms would erase the legacy of an inequitable credit transfer system which results in IB students getting a lesser "academic standing" and signing up later for classes due to their inferior credit status.
Second, a fairer credit system would make the University more attractive to top IB students and more competitive with other universities.
Third and perhaps most crucially, the University will be playing its part in increasing cultural and global awareness in the United States, a crucial tool in a globalized world where we are fighting a war on terror.IB is notable for its internationalist agenda and is an effective weapon to combat the problem of America's notorious ignorance of other cultures. According to post-Sept. 11 surveys conducted by the Asia Society, four of 10 college-bound American students could not name the ocean that separated the U.S. from Asia. Eight of 10 students did not know Mao Tse Tung was the founding father of China. Why are we rejecting a program which is the best bet we have to combat this insularity among high school students?
The IB program has been grossly discriminated against in terms of accorded credit and ignored in terms of its value in promoting multiculturalism. It is the University's duty, as well as in its interest, to give the IB program its deserved place among the AP and other academic programs. As a former IB student myself, I find it incomprehensible why there is an ignorance of something with large benefits for students, the University and the nation at large.
Prashanth Parameswaran is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.
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