You IB, We IB, Latinos IB?
Today’s Teenager
These days, teenagers have a lot on their plates: school, social media, issues with body image, some even face racism, social-economic status (SES) issues, and immigration status issues. We expect 14–18 year olds to juggle the struggles of being a teenager in the technology age while learning how to become an exemplary member of society.
IB leads to University for all*!
Since 1968, the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) Program has been gaining popularity in the United States and has even pushed out the popular Advanced Placement (AP) courses that have been offered at most American high schools across the nation. The rigid curricula of the IB program is enticing to our youth because evidence shows students who complete the diploma program are more likely to go on to university and pursue higher education programs than those students who didn’t complete the IB program (www.IBO.org).
Or does it?
Researchers have taken interest in the IB because of the “too good to be true” factor that surrounds the diploma program. As it turns out, not all students that attend an IB school benefit from the program. In fact, those that benefit the most are students that don’t have to worry about their SES, immigration status or racism due to the color of their skin or ethnic background. To put it bluntly, if you are a Latino student chances are you’re not going to be chosen for the advanced IB program, much less, excel in it. According to the United States Census Bureau, as of April 2010 in the US, Latinos make-up over 17% of the national population and living in California where the state’s Latino population is more than double the national average and comes in around 38.6% — it is vital to our success as a state and country to ensure all students, including Latinos receive the educational support needed to prosper just like their white counterparts. For Latino students, graduating high school is an uphill battle.
According to Aliah Carolan-Silva and Roberto Reyes (2013), Latinos need to develop strong relationships with people in order to truly take into consideration of any new information or advice they relay to them. In other words, if the student does not feel there is a strong foundation in regards to a relationship with an academic counselor, the information the counselor gives will not sway a student to seek the counselor out for any additional information for future educational purposes.
Only 56% of Latino students are graduating from high school, and of those 59% only 6% graduate from honors coursework. In comparison, white students graduation rates are at 80% with a 36% of those graduates having completed advanced placement coursework!
Don’t believe me, here is an excerpt taken from the International Baccalaureate Organizations own webpage dating back to 2006-
“Despite our best intentions, our growth is not distributed evenly…indeed; there is good evidence to show that our growth is mainly benefiting the economically advantaged.” -(IBO)
When schools fail, we all fail
In failing to support Latino students in taking advanced placement coursework such as taking part in the IB diploma program when they have reached their junior and senior year of high school, we are failing our Latino students. We fail them by silently telling them that they are not worthy of higher education opportunities like their white counterparts. We fail them by allowing them to believe that they should only think about enrolling at a community college because they could never make it at the university level. We fail them by waiting for them to come to us only until it is too late.
How can we help?
As future educators, parents, and exemplary members of society- we need to help our students of color! Providing additional support through academic counseling can be beneficial to our nations youth. Academic counselors are one of the first adults that our high schoolers meet due to counselors visiting 8th grade students and informing them of the programs the high school has to offer the incoming class. Instead of having one counselor for every one to 300 hundred students to advise, why not hire more counselors instead of more over paid administrators that never meet all the students within the district they oversee? Lets put taxpayers money where it is most needed, in our youth’s future!
