The following are questions from the staff of Heritage High School regarding the start up and implementation of the International Baccalaureate program:

Course offering questions:

• Will we be combining AP and IB classes or offering them separately?
  o  We will be combining courses and rewriting the curriculums to include any IB  topics that may not be included in the current course.

• What topics are covered in the TOK class?
  o Some descriptive words: Perception, Language, Reason, Emotion, Belief, Value, Truth, Evidence, Technology, Intuition, Interpretation, Evidence, Certainty, Explanation. If you would like further information, please request and I will put copies in your mailbox.

• How will this affect the music program?
  o We will have discussions with the department members. We are uncertain at this point all courses that we might offer.

• Will small classes be allowed?
  o It is doubtful that it will occur. We are trying to match IB courses with our current courses. If 75 kids were taking Calculus, then 75 kids would be taking IB Calculus.

• What classes will be added/deleted?
  o The only course that we know we will be adding in two years will be the Theory of Knowledge course, as that is required for IB. All other courses should match up with what we currently offer. We will offer more as IB courses than we currently offer as AP courses.

• How many AP courses are now offered?
  o We currently offer 9 AP courses.

• Will any be dropped? Which ones?
  o We see no reason to drop any courses.

Program questions:

• How many students in AP now expected in IB?
  o Because many of the courses that are now AP will become IB/AP, all of those students would be involved. Because we can offer more courses than what AP allows, more students should be in IB courses. Right now we have approximately 150 students taking AP exams. More than that are enrolled in AP courses (not all take the exam). We might look at 200 - 300, or more.

• Explain the difference between Diploma and Certificate students.
  o We will offer 10 to 12 IB courses, and any student in those courses will be considered a Certificate student, and receive acknowledgement as such.
Example: If PreCalc is an IB course, any student in there is considered IB certificate student.
  o A Diploma student will need to fill the following to receive an IB Diploma:
Take one course in each of the following areas:

• Group 1 -Language A1 (English - World Literature)
• Group 2 - Second Language (Foreign Language)
• Group 3 - Individuals and Societies (Social Studies)
• Group 4 - Experimental Sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics)
• Group 5 - Mathematics and Computer Science
• Group 6 - The Arts (Theater, Visual Art, Music)
  Take Theory of Knowledge course
  Complete 150 hours of CAS (Creativity, Action, Service)
  Write an extended essay (no more than 4000 words)
  Accumulate 24 points in the system

• Address the concern regarding only 10 Diploma students.
  o The number 10 is a best guess on my part as to how many students will choose to complete the entire Diploma Program requirements the first year. This may be 30 or 40, or it may be 3 or 4. With our current program and student involvement, I think that 10 is probably low, but I want the target number to be conservative for the first round. (You may still help me by sending names of good candidates for this program! I thank you in advance!)

• How many students will graduate with an IB Diploma?
    o We are uncertain right now, but optimistic.

• How many students will benefit from this program?
    o Ultimately, we hope all students. You may only teach one IB course, but if you find that the methodology is really good you will probably adopt it for all of your courses. If you find that this really works well, you will probably talk to your peers and give them some ideas. Hopefully as a staff we can all benefit from the program, and hence our students will also.

• Why aren't more that 4 schools doing IB if this is such a wonderful program?
o Some factors that affect a decision like this might be:
Commitment
Work involved
Philosophy
Cost

• How will this program fit into the NCLB standards?
    o This program should improve our curriculum and instructional methods.
    o We can offer more opportunity for students to obtain college credit.
    o Teachers may be better trained in successful methods of teaching.

• Will this require staff changes plus or minus? How many?
    o Possibly with the introduction of the TOK class, this may add a few hours. This would in turn require possibly some additional staff hours.

• Will this require up grades of courses?
o Some up grades may be required. We will be rewriting curriculums and looking at resources and facilities.

• What courses and what upgrades/ materials?
o We will be working with the departments very shortly on some of this. This part will be an ongoing process throughout this year and next.

• The Brochure said ages 3 - 19 for the program. Is this our intent? If so, when? How much?
o IBO now offers a program for the Primary years and Middle School years. We are currently considering only the high school program.

Budget questions:
• What will it cost?
o We really do not know exact costs at this point. We have developed a projected budget, with many estimates. Please feel free to contact Joe Ellison or Sandy Terbrack to discuss details if you have further questions regarding costs.

• Where is the money coming from?
o The Board of Education set aside funds a few years ago to support the implementation of this program. This will cover the first few years. We are looking at Grant monies for down the line. This will be a Board decision.

• What will be cut to keep this program in place?
o As far as we know, nothing is being cut to support this particular program. The Board of Education makes decisions each year as to where funds will be spent.

• What is the start up budget per year to get it running?
    o Materials - We think we may need some in various areas.
    o Remodeling - We will be looking at that throughout this year
    o Staff - For these first two years of application, the training of staff will be an expense.
  o Administration - For the first two years the Coordinator position is the only cost factor for Administration of the program.

• What is the annual budget for 2 - 5 years?
o This is unknown at this point, and based only on best guess. Again, if you would like to discuss details on the spreadsheet, please see Joe or Sandy

• Will this require additional classrooms?
o Possibly one with the addition of the TOK course. We know that we are crowded now, and the Board of Education is aware of this.

• What is the cost per student?
o That is difficult to determine until we get further into the program. We know the expenses for the testing program. Books and Materials are yet to be determined.

These are a few other facts and comments I would like to share with you!

• There have been 28 staff members request information on particular courses! Some requested information on multiple courses. That is about 1/3 of the staff! This is awesome!

• 6 individuals provided us with the above questions. I am sure they may be speaking for many of us with these inquiries.

• The meeting on Tuesday started a good communication line regarding this program and what is happening. We need more of this!

• The timeline may mean more to you this year than last year when it was first presented. So very briefly:
o 04-05 The application will be written and submitted by June 1, 2005.
o 05-06 If the written application is accepted, we will have an IBO team visiting Heritage to evaluate our knowledge of the program, readiness for the program, and our facility.
o 06-07 If all is accepted we will begin offering IB courses and will have earned the right to call ourselves a world class school.
o 07-08 We could graduate our first IB Diploma students. (They would take all of their courses in 06-07 and 07-08.)

• I have many documents dealing with the application process and specific courses. Certainly if you would like any additional information feel free to stop in the office and ask. (Course booklets I check out if you would like to borrow any.)

• This program is new and scary to us. It is a proven program for many other schools. We will get there working together.

• What we are finding with the program as we work through this process is that many courses will match closely with our curriculums. We may need to do some tweaking. But the difference may be in the methodology and presentation. Also the method of student assessment may be different.

• It is okay that we are nervous and anxious about what is happening. We probably need to have more discussions about what is occurring.

• Please feel free to email me (Sandy Terbrack) any suggestions or comments you may have. The more we work together, the easier this will be.

• We are currently working on the process for determining IB courses and teachers. You will hear more about that shortly.