The IB Program Audits Four Seniors’ CAS Hours

Senior Madison Hattaway was visiting a college when she heard the news. It came to her in the form of a text message from one of her friends: her CAS hours were going to be audited by International Baccalaureate (IB) along with two of her classmates.

CAS hours are a requirement for graduation for all IB students. It consists of 150 hours divided evenly between three different categories, Creativity, Action and Service. At East students must complete these hours and turn them in before May 1 in order to graduate with an IB diploma.

Each year the IB program chooses a few of the schools involved in it’s program to be audited for meeting the CAS hour requirements. Three students are randomly chosen from the graduating class to be audited. The students being audited at East are seniors Hattaway, Jack Mitchell and Andrew Manalo.

“What used to happen,”  “is you had to send in a sample of everybodys’ [CAS portfolios] into IB,” said Monique Goodeyon,the CAS hour supervisor.

“A few years ago they stopped doing that and they left it up to the schools to decide whether or not they had met the requirement, but now I guess they realized that maybe some schools were not doing what they were supposed to so now they have instilled the audit process back in again.”Students, after completing their hours, must also compose portfolios which require them to include evidence of having finished their hours, such as an email from a supervisor. Also they must submit a written reflection on each particular activity.

In addition to the 50 hours required in the categories of Creativity, Action and Service, students at East are obliged, due to an established rule by Goodeyon, to refrain from doing more than 15 hours in each type.

“I put that requirement in because I wanted them to be able to have as many experiences as possible and to try to expound upon what they really might be interested in,” Goodeyon said. “I wanted them within that 50 hours to possibly do two to three to four different activities that allowed them to see what different types of service were out there or to see what different types of action hours were out there.”

The audit has placed a lot of stress on the selected seniors. They are representing the IB program for the entire school and this weight is presenting itself in the form of pressure from peers.

“One student posted on the IB page…‘if you don’t think you’re doing a good enough job drop IB,” said Hattaway. “People are just nervous [because] we’ve all been working so hard for the past two years and we don’t want some person to mess it up, because they’ve done a sloppy job.”

However some of the students have gotten together to help out their fellow students finish their portfolios.

“It’s a collective group thing,” said Manolo. “Not as much like a specific person…everyone is pulling for you just because their grade kind of depends on you. So if you need help like trying to write down a certain reflection well, then really anyone is willing to help out and proofread whatever you are trying to write down.”

Although several of the students are worried about this audit, Goodeyon feels there is no need for concern.

“I don’t think the kids need to worry, we were lucky that the three individuals that were chosen have done a very good job in their CAS activities, and so i don’t think there’s going to be any problem with them representing our school as a whole,” Goodeyon said.

She also believes that even if the portfolios of the selected students did not meet the standards of the auditing process this would not result in the temporary closing of the IB program at East or the withdrawal of IB diplomas, as some of the students have feared.

“IB never says ‘boom you’re done’… they always give you a chance to correct the problems that they have with your program and to do better,” Goodeyon said.

However, Goodeyon does express some regret that students don’t spend more effort in preparing their reflections after each activity. She wishes that they would reflect more on the real purpose of CAS which according to her is::

“Doing some new things, trying to figure out what did I learn from it, and is this something worthwhile that I would want to carry on for the rest of my life. It’s trying to get them to be involved in the community and to keep themselves healthy and to always go after those passionate things that you are interested in so that you become a well rounded person.”