The latest Florida school to join the ranks of International Baccalaureate may turn heads.
Bhaktivedanta Academy, a high-performing Hare Krishna school just north of Gainesville, is private, religious and enrolls more than half its student body through a state-supported scholarship for economically disadvantaged students.
But Bhaktivedanta principal David Aguilera said the motivation was simple. His team wanted to provide the richest possible academic environment for a diverse school. Six years of preparation paid off last month when the Hare Krishna school was designated an International Baccalaureate World School for the Middle Years Programme for grades 7-10.
Bhaktivedanta serves 88 students, of which 55 are on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. Step Up For Students administers the scholarship program and this blog.
“As a school we favor the ability to have a diverse, socioeconomic enrollment and without the scholarship we wouldn’t be able to do that,” Aguilera said. “This is providing opportunity that students wouldn’t normally have.”
The IB program has a reputation for high standards of teaching and student achievement. Students take a rigorous battery of tests before leaving high school that allows them to receive college credit.
“It ensures that students coming out of this program are prepared for the demands of higher education because the thing with IB is it deemphasizes the concepts of rote learning and reemphasizes students applying knowledge to different situations and looking at themselves as global citizens and having a real purpose in the world,” said Aguilera.
Bhaktivedanta joins 69 other schools in the Middle Years Programme in Florida. In total, there are only 176 IB diploma programs in the state, making up 12 percent of high schools, according to the Florida Association of IB World Schools. There are nearly 5,000 schools in the world that offer such a program.
Jaya Kaseder, middle years program coordinator at Bhaktivedanta Academy, said the classes taken with the IB designation are akin to a student taking an honors course.
Once students graduate from the Hare Krishna academy, they can join an IB diploma program to finish high school or take dual enrollment courses at Santa Fe College, Kaseder said.
“It is preparation for life in any direction that they may go because it is concept-based, not just content-based,” said Kaseder. “It requires more of the student. It doesn’t allow them to sit back and be passive in their learning. It requires them to be active, engaged learners.”
For example, Kaseder said, students in design class, one of IB’s core eight subjects, are required to develop an idea, create a solution and reflect on the process. So, several students marketed their own soda brand and determined how to improve it for the future.
Aguilera said the IB program is accessible to all students.
“It requires students to deeply think about subject manner and apply it to real world situations,” he said. “It is not easy in that sense, but it is not beyond the capability of any student.”
