What Comes Next: Low sophomore enrollment raises major questions for International Baccalaureate program

After finalizing schedules with counselors, there are 14 sophomores enrolled in the International Baccalaureate diploma program for the 2020-21 school year, with an additional 20 enrolled in IB certificate — the lowest numbers since 2004. 

This school year there are 23 juniors in the IB diploma class — a decrease from the 39 seniors currently in the diploma program. The downward curve illustrates a drastic decrease in IB student enrollment, which has led to a number of scheduling problems for IB classes.  

According to IB coordinator Monique Goodeyon, the numbers of students that came to the meetings and the luncheon were the same as previous years, so she was surprised by the substantial decrease of students enrolled. 

“I’m not really sure what happened,” Goodeyon said. “In terms of recruiting, I did the exact same process that I’ve done for the last couple of years. The numbers that came to the parent meeting were the same. But then after that a lot fewer committed.”

One reason for the low number of students is the fear of time commitment, according to IB senior Samantha Glidewell. Glidewell believes that it’s partially the fault of students in IB because they often complain about the large amount of assignments, but is also the fault of AP students telling sophomores to not participate in the program. 

“If you are not in the IB certificate or IB diploma, you have no right to tell what IB is or isn’t,” Glidewell said. “You haven’t experienced it for yourself, therefore you can’t accurately judge what it is.”

Junior Lily Utt is a student taking six AP classes who voiced her opinion about IB. Going into junior year, Utt was set on doing IB until she did research and found out she gained more college credit from AP tests — the national test that you take at the end of the year covering a course’s material — which she shares with students who ask her for advice. According to Utt, many sophomores came to her for advice this year when deciding between the programs. 

“I don’t think I necessarily told people not to take it,” Utt said. “I can’t make decisions for people. All I can do is share what I know and what I researched.” 

Sophomore Jack Rhodes, who plans on doing IB diploma next year, was disappointed when he found out about the low number of students he would be surrounded by next year. 

“I expected that there were going to be more people doing it,” Rhodes said. “I was surprised by that. I like being with a large variety of people, but it’s not going to keep me from doing it.”

Due to the low number of students enrolled in IB next year, there will be only one section, or period, of several classes offered next year for the students, including IB History of the Americas and IB Psychology. These single sections will result in less room for kids that want certain electives like debate or orchestra, which are only offered during certain hours. 

For IB certificate students that go to the Center for Academic Achievement during part of their day, the single sections will limit the IB classes they can take. Since only one class will be offered, if the student is at the CAA during that period, they will have to take the AP course instead. 

“Scheduling is going to be a lot harder,” Goodeyon said. “In the past, I’ve always been able to pretty much get every elective because I could play a little bit more with the schedule then I’m going to be able to next year.”

In addition to the single sections, IB SL (standard level) 1 and HL (higher level) 1 math will not be offered next year. Students taking SL 1 will take Honors Precalc and students taking HL 1 will take Calc BC, before moving into an IB math course their senior year. 

According to current SL teacher Jennifer Horn, students will miss out on the extra practice that SL 1 and HL 1 gives them in terms of the way of thinking, the grading scale and the specific vocab terms that IB uses. Students will have to catch up their senior year to accommodate for the IB testing style.

“I’m not very happy about it,” Horn said. “I think it’s an important class and I think it should be offered to support the program.”

If the downward trend continues, the program could be phased out, according to Goodeyon. IB is an expensive program due to the extra classes and teachers needed, and East used to have the biggest one in the district. Shawnee Mission North is currently phasing out their IB program due to the low number of students.

Goodeyon, along with new IB coordinator Meredith Sternberg, plan to implement more shadow work with the sophomores next year and more marketing for the program in order to bring the numbers back up. 

“I don’t know what really happened with the sophomore group,” Goodeyon said. “But we are going to plow forward and I’ve got some new ideas for recruiting.”