Focus on TUSD - October 2007

Prestigious Program: Cholla Magnet High School Reviewed for International Baccalaureate
If Cholla Magnet High School is certified as an International Baccalaureate site, students who complete the program will have a golden ticket to the college of their choice and a bright future.

That's how Joyce Meyer, the Cholla teacher who would become the IB director, described the prestigious preparatory program last month when the IB Diploma Programme's site visit team reviewed the school for certification. The visit was the last step in the process for acceptance that began nearly three years ago. Cholla, at 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd., would become the first Tucson school to have the IB program.

"This would be a huge feather in TUSD's cap, a great honor," Principal Marcia Volpe said during the site visit. "We would move toward closing the achievement gap between minorities and non-minorities."

Meyer said all colleges guarantee admission to IB students. Some colleges even offer a full year of college tuition for an IB diploma or at least some tuition assistance, she added.

Michel Belanger of Ottawa, Canada, one of the three-members on the international visiting team, said IB's strengths are teaching students to perform independently, analyze information and develop an international perspective. "It develops the whole student, promotes elasticity of thinking and it's multidimensional and problem solving," he said. Those are traits that prepare students for the academic rigor at a university, he said.

If Cholla offers the program, 50 students a year from among the nearly 2,000 students at the school, would be enrolled for the next four years. In the first school year, juniors and seniors would be targeted, followed by sophomores the second year and freshmen the third year. Students would need to have at least a 2.5 grade point average to be considered.

"We will have meetings with the parents so they can support their children," Volpe said. "When kids come home and say this class is hard and maybe I'll drop it, the parent needs to step in and encourage them to stay with it."

Some students this year have already indicated they're interested in the program. Sophomore Ryan Morales said he hopes the classes would be hard because he's in honors English and science courses now and wants a challenge. Freshman Zack McNutt said his honors classes are easy and he welcomes more work.

Freshman Peter Gonzales predicts that Cholla's image as a struggling, south side school would improve with an IB program. "This school has hard working, dedicated students," he said. "People think we're rough around the edges but we're smooth."

Cholla's emphasis on international languages will mesh with the IB program, helping students expand their horizons and culture beyond Tucson to the world beyond, Meyer said. The IB program would be one of Cholla's smaller learning communities and would be part of the school's Intercultural International Magnet program.

To prepare for certification, Volpe and Meyer went on fact finding trips to schools in Scottsdale and Nogales, and to North High in Phoenix. They were trained last fall in Kansas City, Mo.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations