By JIM FAILE

DARLINGTON - The Darlington County Board of Education got updates on two programs education officials say are bringing improvement to schools of the Darlington County School District.

Johnny Andrews, IB Diploma coordinator at Hartsville High School, gave a report on the International Baccalaureate Magnet Program at Hartsville High.

Hartsville High graduated 27 IB students in May, with 26 students receiving IB Certificates and one an IB Diploma.

The program was accredited in 2007 by the International Baccalaureate Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and began classes for juniors and seniors in the fall of 2008, Andrews said.

The IB Diploma Program is a rigorous two-year program offered in the junior and senior years of high school. It is recognized worldwide as the “gold standard” of high school programs, Andrews said.

International standards are used to assess students in the program. Students are assessed internally by faculty and externally by the international IB Organization.

Andrews said the program is the most advanced college preparatory program in the world.
Students can choose to pursue the full IB Diploma or an IB Certificate.

The IB Diploma is recognized by leading colleges and universities around the world, Andrews said. “There are increasing scholarship opportunities in South Carolina for IB students,” he said.

In addition to rigorous course work in English, history, mathematics, computer science, music, biology and French or Spanish, IB students complete a course called Theory of Knowledge, which Andrews described as a course in “how you know what you know.” They must also write a 4,000-word extended essay and complete 150 hours of service projects in the local community, he said.

The IB Program at Hartsville High is open to any Darlington County high school student who meets the required criteria.

“The big advantage that I see is in making the transition from your senior year in high school to your first year in college,” Andrews said.
He said the program is also having other effects.

Andrews told of one student whose family moved from another state to the Pee Dee region. After looking at schools in the region, they chose to settle in Hartsville because of the IB Program, he said.

“It’s put us on the map,” Andrews said.

Andrews said the teachers in the program are the keys to its success. All of the IB faculty members go through extensive training, he said. “If you don’t have the right teachers in place, you’re not going to be successful,” he said.

Juniors in the program scored an average composite score of 1561 on the 2010 SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test), well above the state average and the averages of other surrounding high schools, Andrews said.

Eight of Hartsville High’s Top 10 students in 2010 were IB students, he said. And six of the seven Palmetto Fellow Scholarship recipients from Hartsville High in 2010 were IB students, he said.

“The IB program is making a huge difference in our school and in our county,” Hartsville High Principal Dr. Charlie Burry said.

Burry said the program is having a positive impact on all of the students at his school, not just those in the program.

“It’s impacting in a manner that is unprecedented in the Pee Dee,” he said.

The board also heard from Hartsville Middle School Principal Meredith Taylor who presented a report on the Team Foxes Learning Academy.

“We’ve seen some great things happen with this program,” Taylor said.

The Team Foxes Learning Academy (TFLA) began as a pilot program in the 2007 – 2008 school year exclusively for eighth-grade students. The program proved so successful that the next year school officials expanded it to include sixth- and seventh-graders, Taylor said.

The overall goal of the program, Taylor said, is to engage students academically and equip them with appropriate life skills.

Students are invited to participate in the program based on teacher recommendations and parent requests, Taylor said. Students may be recommended for a variety of reasons, including academic issues and behavioral issues, she said.

She said the results of the program are evident in the improved academic performance of students. The program is also helping keep students in school, she said.

“We’ve seen grades improve, we’ve seen self-esteem improve and we’ve seen behavior improve,” Taylor said.

“We identify the children who need to be in the program,” she said.

The Byerly Foundation of Hartsville was so impressed with the program that it gave Hartsville Middle School a $1.5 million, three-year grant to fund the TFLA.

Key components of the program include single-gender classes, small group instruction and an extended school day, Taylor said. Service learning projects, community involvement and academic and incentive field trips are also a part of the program, she said.

Currently the learning academy serves all three grade levels and includes a facilitator, a behavior interventionist, a tutor/counselor and part-time literacy and math interventionists, Taylor said. “The grant has helped us fund all of those positions plus two teachers we would not otherwise have,” she said.

“One component Byerly looked at is that we are reaching children so they can have an impact in the Hartsville area,” Taylor said.

“That community involvement piece is crucial. What we stress is we’re trying to develop productive citizens,” she said.

The learning academy also includes a strong parental component, Taylor said.

What may happen to the program after the three-year grant runs out is still uncertain. The school district has not committed funding to continue the program, and Superintendent of Education Dr. Rainey Knight said that with the state of the current school funding situation in South Carolina, it may not be able to.

Taylor said the Byerly Foundation has indicated it would consider renewing the grant, but she said the foundation ultimately wants to see the school district pick up the program.