Despite student support, State College will end its International Baccalaureate program

Despite passionate support from its small but dedicated group of students, the State College Area School Board voted Monday night to phase out its International Baccalaureate program.

The motion to disband the course program passed 4-3, with board members Peter Buck, Aaron Miller and Dan Kolbe voting no. Board members Gretchen Brandt and Carline Crevecoeur were not in attendance. Buck also made a motion for the board to postpone the vote to Nov. 18 because two board members were absent, but the motion failed 4-3.

International Baccalaureate, or IB, is a two-year diploma program with advanced material designed to allow students to earn college credit, a concept similar to Advanced Placement classes but markedly different in method. Unlike AP courses, which are available to students starting in ninth grade, IB courses are only offered for grades 11-12.

Students in the IB system are split into two categories: diploma and a la carte. Diploma students take two full years of courses, making up the majority of their schedule, while a la carte students can take one or more classes depending on interest or course needs. Both types of students can earn college credit.

The program will cost the district an estimated $93,000 for the 2024-2025 school year, after graduating only 13 diploma students in 2023-2024. This year, the program has only nine seniors.

Not only does the program have low enrollment, State High assistant principal Brett Wilson said, but IB classes are often below the board’s class size policy’s threshold of 12 students, requiring 21 of the 39 IB courses to require board exceptions. To grow the IB program, the district would need an additional four to six teachers. Even if the district added personnel, it lacks the classroom space to add additional courses.

The district’s transition away from the IB program will start this school year, discontinuing new admissions into the IB diploma program but allowing students already enrolled to complete their courses. Throughout 2025-2026, IB course offerings will be reduced, while still allowing the final IB diploma class to take the courses they need to graduate. In 2026-2027, the district will cease all IB course offerings.

Many IB teachers already teach other courses, including AP. One reason for the administration’s recommendation is the demands IB classes can put on teachers who are co-seated in classes with both IB and AP students. In some classes, especially world language courses, teachers have both AP and IB students, requiring them to create two different lesson plans and assessments for the different groups of students.

Superintendent Curtis Johnson said during the meeting that continuing to co-seat teachers can have negative effects on teacher workload and mental health.

“We have to concern ourselves with the mental health of our teachers as well, and putting more and more on them, co-seating things is something that we need to be concerned about as well,” Johnson said. “It’s not just for students, it’s employees as well.”

Removing the IB courses would allow the district to restructure course offerings and allow more flexibility for teachers and students when it comes to scheduling. Because of the specific course requirements of the IB diploma program, students in IB are given top priority when it comes to scheduling over the rest of the high school population.

“That’s a big prioritization,” board member Jackie Huff said. “And I would just encourage people to think about what’s getting deprioritized when we are putting that first.”

But Buck said the IB program offers something unique to students and if State High stops offering it, students might seek the program elsewhere. There is no brick-and-mortar charter school in Centre County with a diploma program for 11-12 grade students.

“If we get rid of this program, a kid who wants to be a diplomat has nowhere to go,” Buck said. “And I think that something that the board really ought to consider is that we close this program down, whether we like it or not, we are in competition with charter schools, and there will be a charter that will seek to fill this void real fast.”

Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction Christine Merritt said the recommendation was not one the administration brought lightly.

“This is not without a very heavy heart that we bring this recommendation to you,” Merritt said. “This makes none of us happy at all, but when we look at the challenges of scheduling, the challenges of recruiting, all of the things that we have done and tried — and Dr. (Jennifer) Schreiber has done an amazing job at running that program. So this is absolutely not a reflection on anything that we have done or not done.”

Several State High students sat through the four-and-a-half-hour-long meeting to defend the program during public comment. Senior and diploma student Cheyla Ramirez Crawford said she was frustrated and hurt following the vote to dissolve the program she loves, feeling that the district was making a mistake that will undoubtedly impact future students.

“I think the district will regret their decision in the upcoming years,” Ramirez Crawford said. “As students move into the high school and feel a lack of belonging in a smaller school that can give them so much learning enrichment and really bring opportunities to the table that they didn’t have before.”

The board will meet next on Nov. 18.