International Baccalaureate. Options in Education Takes Listeners to the Core of the Issues. Program No. 305.

The International Baccalaureate, a special program for bright public and private high school students, is described in transcriptions of broadcasts from National Public Radio. Over half the 43 schools in Canada and the United States that offer the program are public. For the approximately 1,200 high school juniors and seniors in North America enrolled in the program, admission into most foreign colleges and advanced standing at many American colleges are likely outcomes. Students take either individual honors courses, or a full program that can lead to a special diploma once the student passes rigorous exams graded by the international office. Students working for the diploma are required to take five enriched courses and one elective: a foreign language, math, an experimental science, and a social studies course like history or economics. The seventh required course, Theory of Knowledge, concentrates not just on learning, but on the experience of learning. Each participating school pays about $3,500 a year in international dues, and a few thousand dollars for special textbooks and teacher training in the first year. Students pay up to $200 for the final exams. Included in the transcripts are: a class discussion on theory of knowledge, student discussion on how learning affects the rest of their lives, a principal's views on why the program was needed, a history class discussion of how bias affects one's interpretation of history, students' perceptions of pressure from the program and from senior exams, and a teacher's reaction to added pressure. (SW)