Date: September 15, 1997
Contact: Irene Cromer
703/791-8720
 

International Baccalaureate (IB) students at Stonewall Jackson High School posted composite scores above the world mean in three of eleven subject areas and increased the overall percentage of exam scores earning marks of four or higher for the May 1997 exam session.

The top scores were earned on examinations in Math Methods (5.55 SJHS, 4.20 world), Math Studies (5.11 SJHS, 4.81 world), and Business and Organization (5.50 SJHS, 5.01 world). Math Methods exams have been above the world mean for three straight years. The number of students taking examinations in the eleven subject areas offered at Stonewall increased by 9.1 percent from May 1996. IB exams, which are similar to advanced placement tests, are scored by examiners from around the world. Students earn a 1,2,3,4,5,6, or 7, with scores of 4 and above required to qualify for college credit. Two hundred and seventy of the 315 IB exams taken earned marks of 4 or higher, for a success rate of 86 percent, marking an improvement over last year's success rate of 79 percent.

The IB program at Stonewall offers a rigorous academic program based on a European model of Education. To earn the IB diploma, students must, during the eleventh and twelfth

grades, take external examinations in six subject areas, write an extended 4,000-word essay

equivalent to a college research paper, take a philosophy course entitled AThe Theory of

Knowledge,@ and perform 150 hours of Creativity, Action, and Service.

For their efforts, students may earn credit for admission to colleges and universities throughout the world. The IB program offers an international curriculum with multi-cultural perspectives and international standards of achievement. It concentrates on the education of the whole person and an educational process that focuses on learning how to learn.

This summer school officials announced that fourteen graduates from Stonewall earned the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The students and the college they are currently attending are: Mary Shannon Baumgardner, James Madison University; Jennifer Borders, James Madison University; Danielle Alyssa Davy, Barnard College of Columbia University; Sarah Yvonne Gluck, College of William & Mary; Andrea Fehr Hampton, College of William & Mary; Corey Neil Hatch, University of Virginia; Bryan Jeffrey Katz, VPI &SU; Kevin James Lawler, VPI & SU; Thomas C. Liu, Georgia Institute of Technology; Sarah Rose Motsch, VPI & SU; Amy Michelle Saunders, VPI & SU; Michael Francis School, College of William & Mary; Irina A. Tarsis, University of Virginia; Christina Carol Turner, Winthrop University.

For information on the IB program at Stonewall Jackson High School, call William Bixby, IB Coordinator, at 703-368-2106.