Educational Discrimination

The International Baccalaureate program has always been one that prided itself on providing a fair, universal marking system to any student around the world. Any other year, students would complete a standardized paper and tests for each class, that would then be marked and/or reviewed anonymously by qualified teachers around the globe using a prescribed rubric. This meant that no matter who you were, your grades would be based solely on your merit and efforts.

This year, due to COVID-19, exams were cancelled. IB claimed to create a new algorithm that would make up for this anomaly and provide fair marks, but has yet to release how this was done. At the time when exams were cancelled, they only had access to the papers written and predicted grades for each student.

Marks were distributed to students worldwide July 6th, at 4:30 pm GMT, but the shock waves have yet to subside. Students marks had dropped an almost unheard of amount of up to ten points.

For those unfamiliar with how IB grading is done, each student is given a mark for each class from one to seven. It is very difficult to progress from one number to the next. An analogy would be:

7 - NBA All-Star and hall of fame

6 - One of the best players on your team

5 - A reliable player, but not exceptional

4 - You managed to make it on the team

3 - You played college ball

2 - You played in high school

1 - It was fun playing in elementary school

As you can see, there is a large difference in ability even between a score of five and seven. To drop by an overall 10 points means that that difference happened in almost every one of your classes! But it gets worse. In order to graduate from IB, one needs to receive at least 24 points in total. These seemingly random four to ten point reductions mean that 75% of candidates worldwide are at risk of failing. (According to the IBO statistical analysis of may 2014)

So, what information did IB have that caused them to so drastically differ from how the students were predicted to do on the exams, and the marks they received on their papers? Past school performance.

Marks were raised or lowered based on how well past students had done from that school. Simply put, if past students had done poorly in your school, then IB would drop your marks to fit the curve.

In general, students from poorer socio-economic areas tend to do poorer than those who are not, due to increased stress, lack of opportunities/resources, having to work, and lack of food to name a few. Therefore, schools that reside in these areas tend to have a lower grade average. This year, those students who worked their asses off to gain the marks they deserve are having them ripped away because they do not fit within the curve.

Those differences in points will especially affect students in those areas, as it jeopardizes both university acceptance and scholarships, which are mainly awarded on the assumption that the grades earned by the students will be upheld.

This process differs quite strongly from IB's previously touted philosophy of equality in education. Not only does it punish students who worked hard to earn marks most in their situation could not, it robs those individuals of the future they worked hard for.

In response, multiple petitions have been made in an attempt to get IB to regrade students fairly, and one of them can be accessed here: bit.ly/ChangeIB

These students need public backlash to prevent the destruction of their marks, and they need it now. Please, share this information however you can.