MMS TEACHERS RIP INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE PROGRAM

Several Maplewood Middle School teachers spoke out at Monday night's school board meeting against the international baccalaureate program that has been slowly instituted for middle school grades, claiming it is too costly and does little to help teaching.

A notice posted on the district website when the program began several years ago states, in part:
What is IB? 

IB stands for the “International Baccalaureate” – an international program that has, at its core, performance criteria designed specifically to prepare students for full participation in an increasingly globalized world.  It includes courses in all of the traditional subject matters, but taught in a way that guides students to a deeper, more student-driven, trans-disciplinary exploration into issues, questions and problems of global importance.

IB has three components – a Primary Years Programme for elementary students, Middle Years Programme (MYP) for grades 6-10 in the US, and the Diploma Programme for grades 11 and 12.  We propose implementing the MYP for all students in both Maplewood Middle School and South Orange Middle School 6^th grade in September 2013, 7^th grade in September 2014, and 8^th grade in September 2015.  The MYP does not provide a curriculum but a set of principles to guide districts in aligning their curriculum to meet key objectives.  The IB MYP principles and philosophy are very much in tune with the new national Common Core standards adopted in recent years by New Jersey and 44 other states.
 

But for several teachers who spoke out Monday night, it is not working: