Des Moines Schools' Doubling Down on IB comes with a High Price

I am not a trained educator. But, I have been an education advocate for more than 20 years and as a former Des Moines school board member, parent and businessman who has been involved in economic development issues for even longer, I know well how important it is to fund the diversity of programs required to advance students across the learning spectrum.

I am proud of the education my three children have received as students of Des Moines Public Schools. They have excelled in ways I could have never imagined thanks to the creative teachers and sound programming available in our schools. My oldest son will head off to the United States Naval Academy later this year. He will tell you, as will I, he earned this honor in large part because he was a student of the outstanding Des Moines Central Academy. Connor is only one of thousands of Central students who have been able to go on to great things because of this proven, award-winning program.

Des Moines Central Academy

Central Academy is a district-wide program that challenges students to achieve in a learning environment geared to their abilities. Central Academy allows the Des Moines Schools to offer advanced placement, language and other classes in a centralized location to students from across the district. It would not be financially feasible for Des Moines to provide a similar level of instruction and learning if it were to try to recreate these classes at individual high schools. A dismantling of Central Academy would mean students at some high schools would have better access to some classes than would others who live across town. Yet, Des Moines Schools is on the verge of pursuing a plan to do just that.

Des Moines Schools is taking steps to offer fewer of the classes that have made Central a national education model in an effort to bolster the International Baccalaureate (IB) program that has had difficulty gaining traction in our district. Des Moines has struggled to recruit enough high school students to the IB program to justify the millions of dollars the district has invested in IB. The superintendent is doubling down on IB by shrinking a Central Academy that is working well so the district will have space and resources to gamble on the program that has yet to take hold in Des Moines.

Such thinking is wrongheaded.

Today, Des Moines Schools officials quietly started spreading the word Central Academy classes such as Environmental Science, US Government, and Statistics would be replaced with IB geared classes like Microeconomics, Computer Science, Art History and Spanish Literature. This is much more than a minor change in class offerings. If this plan is implemented, it will represent a significant departure in Central Academy’s focus and will result in a loss of accessibility to a core group of Advanced Placement courses for a majority of Des Moines high school students.

Few educators will argue against the merits of a well-run IB program. Its curriculum is also proven and many students across the globe have benefitted from it. But, the choice between IB and Central Academy is a false one. Building a successful IB program should not and must not come at the expense of Central Academy, a program that has a long track record of achievement.

The mission of Des Moines School is to create programs for students in every corner of the district. If the Des Moines School Board takes Central Academy apart in an effort to prop up its latest project of the moment, IB, the people of Des Moines will lose because our district will give up something remarkable in the process. Someday the Des Moines IB program may reach the student levels the District has promised it would, but if it does so at the price of Central Academy, Des Moines will be much the less for it.

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Added 2:10 p.m., 1/31/2014
Because blogs are living documents capable of being commented upon and, one could hope, evolving, I would like to update this piece based on some conversations I have had with others.

One teacher friend of mind pointed out "Every (DMPS) high school is offering AP Env. Sci. and Gov. and, in most cases, have more than one section of them! I can't speak to AP Statistics, but I know we have it at North (with multiple sections again). So it seems as if DMPS is trying to eliminate duplicate offerings, not trying to dismantle Central Academy. Many classes will still need to be offered there because they are not offered at the comprehensive high schools."

My friend raises a interesting point and one that forces me to consider one of my previous assumptions about accessibility to AP classes. If the classes being cut from Central are being made available at the individual high schools to the standards they have been offered at Central, I could see why DMPS may want to eliminate them at Central. But, we should not lose sight of the second piece of my statement, these classes have to meet the same standard they do at Central.

To that point, a student friend of mine chimed in with "At Central Academy the quality of education, teacher involvement, & peer competition is irreplaceable at a home school for those students who do want to get the best education the public school system can offer."

I thank these two friends and others who have challenged me on this piece, what I seek passionately (perhaps, too passionately at times) to protect at Central Academy is not any individual course offering or group of courses. I fight for the all too uncommon atmosphere Central Academy creates that helps students from across our district to highly achieve. If classes are being moved to home high schools to make room for IB or some other program and the classes fall even slightly short of the standard at which they have been taught at Central Academy, our district loses something valuable.

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Added 10:30 a.m., 2/1/2014
I have had the opportunity to talk to many teachers, students, district personnel and one school board member about this issue during the last 24 hours. The DMPS officials assure me this change has nothing to do with downgrading AP standards. The AP classes offered at the individual high schools will meet or exceed the standards set at Central. If true, this is welcome news. Time will tell, but I must say I am assured by their confidence and willingness to talk this through.

Let me end with something I believe strongly. It is crucial DMPS preserve and bolster Central Academy. It is a proven entity that has helped thousands of students achieve great things over the years. One glaring fault of Central is that there remain students in our district who do not take advantage of the programs offered at Central. However, this problem cannot be solved by offering a handful of classes in our individual high schools. Central offers a learning environment and camaraderie that, without exaggeration, changes the trajectory of many learners. The goal should be to grow this unique program by increasing the diversity of its student body, not break it apart and sending its pieces back to individual schools.

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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com 

This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.