International Baccalaureate students balance DePaul’s mission and quality commitments
March 3, 2009
DePaul University's success in enrolling Chicago Public School (CPS) students who graduate from its International Baccalaureate (IB) program has offered one solution to a conundrum universities across the country are facing: how to balance an access agenda with a desire to enroll students who can succeed in a college curriculum.
Chicago is the only urban school district in the world that has invested in IB programs in neighborhood high schools on a large scale, says Brian Spittle, assistant vice president and director of DePaul's Center for Access and Attainment. Students in 14 public and two local Catholic high schools can pursue the IB curriculum, a program originally designed for the sons and daughters of affluent diplomats stationed around the globe to prepare them for entry into selective universities worldwide.
Chicago's IB program targets motivated students outside its selective schools who seek a demanding academic experience. The curriculum challenges students in a variety of subject areas and places a premium on writing, critical thinking and international awareness.
Spittle says DePaul has cultivated local IB schools and their graduates because they represent the type of students DePaul's mission seeks to serve. They are predominately students of color and immigrants, may be the first in their families to graduate from college, tend to be low-income and did not attend the most prestigious schools in Chicago.
For example, DePaul hosts the only city-wide event for IB students-a student service fair attended by about 300 students-and offers an intensive Heritage Speaker summer workshop with the Modern Languages department for 25 to 30 IB students whose first language is not English. The workshop explores issues of immigration, education and identity through oral history projects. DePaul also enables IB coordinators to meet on campus for quarterly planning meetings, and DePaul staff are often invited to speak at IB parent nights.
A critical outcome of these efforts is that about 30 percent of Chicago's IB graduates apply to DePaul, and in fall 2008, almost 10 percent of these graduates enrolled at DePaul.
This success has not gone unnoticed. "DePaul was the first university to recognize the importance of IB in Chicago and has done an exceptional amount of outreach to IB students and programs across the city," says Sara Leven, IB Diploma Programme Administrator at CPS.
DePaul has distinguished itself far beyond Chicago educational circles. Sandra Wade-Pauly, university and government liaison in the IB Vancouver, Canada office notes DePaul's growing reputation as an international leader in connecting to IB programs. "This is something that is recognized not only in Chicago but in the IB Americas community. We view DePaul as an ‘IB-friendly' university."
DePaul tracks its CPS IB students and finds promising trends that are evidence of the university's success in balancing increased student quality with its century-long mission of educational accessibility for urban students.
Spittle's analysis of the 137 Chicago IB graduates enrolled at DePaul found that 69 percent are eligible for federal Pell grants for low-income students compared with 22 percent of freshmen overall. Seventeen percent are African American and 39 percent Latino compared with eight percent and 13 percent, respectively, for DePaul freshmen as a whole. Additionally, 51 percent are first-generation collegians compared with 30 percent of all DePaul freshmen. At most institutions, these attributes would define a group of students who would be considered "at risk."
At DePaul, these students are doing more than just succeeding - they're thriving. They have a higher retention rate-about 90 percent-compared with the average freshman-to-sophomore retention rate of 85 percent. And while the numbers are small at this point, their four-, five- and six-year graduation rates are exceeding DePaul averages.
"Our IB students illustrate the limitations of traditional measures of quality and selectivity," Spittle believes, "particularly standardized test scores like the ACT, which average 22 for IB students compared to 25 for all freshmen."
They are modeling one way DePaul is maintaining access while increasing student quality. "Given that the admission measures universities typically rely on reflect socioeconomic circumstances as much as student potential, quality and access in higher education are often seen as being in tension with each other," according to Spittle.
"Not so with these students," he says, citing Clifford Adelman's research at the U.S. Department of Education that indicates the quality and intensity of the high school curriculum is the single best predictor of college access and baccalaureate completion, particularly for minority and first generation students. "The early indications at DePaul, at least, are that Chicago's IB students are confirming Adelman's point."