The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has been marketing its Diploma Program (DP) since 1968. In that year, the DP was launched as an experiment, and was launched as a mature plan several years later. The IBO prefers the spelling ‘Programme’ for the DP.
In the following half-century, reams of prose have been published about the DP, some writers praising it, and others damning it. No attempt is here made to summarize, or give an overview of, the mountains of text which describe the DP.
Instead, five brief observations:
- One strength of the DP is its emphasis on Foreign Language instruction. Especially in the United States, any trend which energizes World Language instruction is welcomed.
- Another strength of the DP is its unabashed and explicit focus on high-stakes standardized examinations as exit tests. This prepares students for professional board and certification tests, and for the tests which they will face both in the university and in their efforts to gain admission to graduate schools.
- One weakness of the DP is occasional confusion of form and content. In some ‘Language Acquisition’ assessments, it is possible for a student with lower language skills to earn a better grade by mouthing IB doctrines about various topics — the importance of environmentalism, etc. — while a student with stronger language skills might earn of lower grade by choosing to talk about modern architecture or 19th-century poetry.
- Another weakness in the DP lies in its directing students away from practices which would foster academic competency. Regarding the ‘written assignment’ for language acquisition, for example, the IB instructions state: “A formal (literary) essay is not an acceptable text type for the written assignment.” Students are then allowed to choose how they will structure their writing, but the one option which they may not choose is the one which they will need for their university careers. (This assignment was replaced for the examinations starting in springtime 2020.)
- One more flaw in the DP is the manner in which teachers are prepared to instruct in the program. A careful analysis of the DP reveals that effective teaching will focus on giving students the skills necessary to achieve on the assessments which will earn the Diploma. Yet many of the seminars which claim to prepare teachers for the DP direct teacher attention away from test preparation and toward a multitude of other topics and activities.
No educational program is perfect. In choosing an education, students and parents must simply decide which set of problems they can accept. The DP has both advantages and disadvantages. Wise students and parents will find their own ways of compensating for the DP’s weaknesses while enjoying its benefits.
