- April 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
With last year’s International Baccalaureate scores in the books, a new group of diploma candidates brace for their final year.
Last year’s International Baccalaureate seniors at Flagler Palm Coast High School have graduated, and are off to schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berkeley and Georgia Tech. But a new semester brings a new lot of diploma candidates, most of whom have been working toward this year’s end-of-course exams since their first day as freshmen.
“The IB program is the most rigorous, the most challenging program (in the district),” said Roger Tangney, advanced placement/IB coordinator at FPC.
While the average 11th-grader may take earth/space science or English III, IB students take college equivalents. Traditionally, most start in ninth grade pre-IB
Similar to advanced placement, IB offers the opportunity to earn college credit. Unlike AP, in which students choose which advanced classes to take, IB is comprehensive. Either you earn the full diploma, and all of the college credit (the equivalent of about a year of classes), or you don’t.
Last year, FPC recorded a 62% IB success rate, according to Tangney. Students get one chance at retakes.
Current senior Shannon Rich admits that she joined IB on her parents’ request. But she’s glad she did.
“It’s really gratifying to know that I can do it,” she said. “I think the IB program we have here at FPC is the best education you can get as a high-school student in Flagler County.”
In addition, Rich is the vice president of the Junior Medical Reserve Corps, she volunteers at a medical office, tutors sixth-graders at Old Kings Elementary and is a member on several school committees.
“There’s a misconception that IB students are nerds with their noses in a book,” Tangney said. “That is not true … They’re just like every other high-school student in America.”
Allyson Smith, another IB senior, agrees. “I want to get the most out of my education while I’m here, and I believe this is the best way to do that,” she said.
Smith is involved in band, the Mu Alpha Theta math club and the National Honor Society. She also runs varsity track and plays varsity soccer. She wants to be a structural engineer.
“It’s really fun,” said Jennifer Cheung, IB senior. “We learn so much. It really opens up our views of the world.”
IB students also take electives with non-IB students, most are Future Problem Solvers and all are required to complete 150 hours in personalized community service projects. In the past, students have led clothing drives for their projects, created animal-adoption and drug-awareness programs, and tested homemade biofuel, partnered with Embry Riddle.
The projects go hand-in-hand with IB’s “Think globally, act locally,” mantra, Tangney said.
“My greatest satisfaction … was discovering that the endless hours of studying and hard work had finally paid off,” said Rowan Littlefield, one of two recent IB graduates to earn the highest IB scores in FPC’s history. (See box on this page.)
Littlefield earned a perfect test score in junior IB biology, senior chemistry and senior math.
“It was one of the greatest feelings and accomplishments of my life,” he said.
Littlefield currently attends Florida State University and hopes to become a research scientist.
“My dream is to discover ‘Littlefield’s Law,’” he said. “And if you are wondering what that might be, I do not know yet. But hopefully it is coming to science textbooks soon.”
— Shanna Fortier contributed to this story.
SUCCESS RATE, STORY
Flagler Palm Coast High School recorded a 62% IB success rate last school year, according to IB/AP Coordinator Roger Tangney.
Out of 13 subjects, FPC scored higher than the world average in three: standard level math and chemistry, and higher level math.
Graduates Larry Tesler and Rowan Littlefield received four perfect test scores (scores run from 1 to 7 in six exams, with extra points coming from three core requirements), and accumulated a total program score of 37 out of 45, the highest in FPC history.
“You rarely see students score over 40,” Tangney said. “These are the two highest totals we’ve ever had. I’m very proud of these students.”
