International Baccalaureate: Provo High to join growing number of schools offering rigorous program

PROVO — Provo High School is seeking a little more international flair in its curriculum.

An estimated 20 percent of the student body has parents who immigrated to the United States; many students are immigrants themselves.

Provo High administrators hope that by 2007 it can offer classes for the rigorous International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. If its application is accepted by the International Baccalaureate Organization, the school will join a handful of others offering the program throughout the state.

"It turns your diversity into an asset," said parent Kristine Manwaring, who's on a committee that's promoting the IB program. "It's a broad cultural education where, for instance, the papers and projects the kids do are graded at another high school somewhere else in the world."

The International Baccalaureate Organization offers diplomas for high schoolers and programs for middle and elementary school students. Provo High administrators hope to be the first in Utah County to offer the diploma program to any students willing to take on the difficult course load.

High school juniors and seniors in the diploma program must take six IB-approved classes: English, experimental science, social studies, math, the arts and a foreign language.

But mere completion of IB classes does not guarantee a diploma. Students must take and pass oral and written exams.

Last year at Hillcrest High School in Midvale, 10 students applied for IB diplomas and nine received them. One did not fulfill all the requirements for the diploma.

"You can see it's very rigorous," said Victoria Brinton, Hillcrest's IB coordinator. "Students don't make it to the end."

West High School in Salt Lake City has had the program for more than 20 years. Hillcrest High was the second school to get the program. It began two years ago.

Skyline and Hunter high schools in Granite School District began IB programs last fall. Like Provo High, Bountiful and Clearfield high schools are also in the application process.

The Jordan School District Board of Education pushed for an IB program at Hillcrest High School, and it is a magnet for students throughout the district. About 90 students are enrolled in the program.

"This is like the ideal liberal arts education," Brinton said.