Posted 6:10 am Monday, May 05, 2008
Tyler ISD Set To Vote On John Tyler IB Program Tuesday
By MEGAN MIDDLETON
Staff Writer
The Tyler ISD Board of Trustees will vote on allowing John Tyler High School to withdraw from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program during a special meeting Tuesday.
Staff Writer
The Tyler ISD Board of Trustees will vote on allowing John Tyler High School to withdraw from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program during a special meeting Tuesday.
At the board's regular meeting in April, trustees tabled this item to allow the school more time to inform the public on the reasons behind the school's recommendation to withdraw.
The school offered a community meeting this past Tuesday, presenting data to about 100 people who attended and allowing them to ask questions and express concerns about the withdrawal and plan to replace IB with a broader-based Advanced Placement (AP) program.
There will not be a public comment period on the issue during Tuesday's special meeting, in part, because officials felt they had given plenty of opportunity for public discussion on the issue, TISD Superintendent Dr. Randy Reid said. Reid, along with several board members, attended the community meeting this past Tuesday.
According to TISD agenda information, reviews of the IB program at John Tyler in the last eight years have cited John Tyler for high teacher turnover, low number of diploma candidates and diplomas earned, school administration misunderstanding of the program as well as lack of growth and low student interest.
According to the agenda information, "Despite serious efforts to strengthen the program, JT has been unable to do so. In short, IB is not successful by IB standards."
In 10 years, 95 students have completed the IB diploma program and of those, only 41 have earned IB diplomas, according to the information.
John Tyler officials believe that the IB organization will likely terminate the school's authorization for the program possibly within six months of submitting a five-year review, which is due later this year.
In lieu of the IB organization terminating the authorization, John Tyler Principal Vanessa Choice has said she felt it would be in the best interest of students to voluntarily withdraw and turn efforts toward building a strong AP program as well as offering more dual credit courses and Career and Technical Education (CATE) programs.
Officials have said the IB diploma program is very prescriptive, "all or nothing," while AP offers students more flexibility to pick and choose which advanced-level courses they want to take. They hope the new program will allow more students to take advanced courses.
PERSONNEL
Also on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting are several personnel items, including consideration of the non renewal of two teachers because of a reduction in force action previously taken by the board.
At a special April 1 board meeting, trustees approved a reduction in force of two positions because of a program change/elimination of courses in Career and Technical Education (CATE).
Also at the special meeting, the board will have a non-renewal hearing for Sharan Dews, a teacher at Griffin Elementary. Although the agenda shows that the hearing will take place in closed session, Reid said that late Friday he received word the hearing was requested to be open.
