October, the time of year for tricks and treats, and signing up for International Baccalaureate – Diploma Program (IB DP) testing. Being an IB school, it’s safe to assume that the majority of eligible attending students will DP test, and many do. Despite the growing numbers of testing students, there is a constant gap between students of color testing, in comparison to caucasian students, a trend noticed by Highland Park’s Senior High School principal, Dr. Tucker.

When asked to comment on why caucasian students are more prominent in the DP classrooms, Dr. Tucker said, “Quite frankly, I think the biggest thing is working to really purposefully support and encourage more of our students of color to take advanced classes…Our focus is, and remains, having the support of more of our students of color are taking the advanced course work so they’re better prepared for college. That’s a challenge that we face, it’s a challenge that every Saint Paul school faces, and frankly is a challenge that is nation wide.”

How is this trend being addressed? Dr. Tucker explains that there are “Dreamline tutors for ninth graders,” and, reportedly, the DP program itself is attempting to counter the trend. The DP program does specific recruitment of students, through the teachers of DP classes, and 9th and 10th grade accelerated classes.

Highland Park IB DP coordinator, Charlotte Landreau, has been the IB DP coordinator for Highland Park since 2001. During her time, Ms. Landreau has noticed striking trends. “My first year it was fall 2001, and that spring, we had two full Diploma students. And I think a total of twenty-four kids testing. So last spring, in May 2016, we had thirty-four full Diploma kids and a total of 261 kids testing.” The significant spike in students registering to test is because “It took a while for teachers and students to feel confident they could do well on the tests,” says Ms. Landreau.

Since the founding of IB in 1968, there have been numerous revisions to the program, in attempt to create the ideal learning environment for all high school students. However, Ms. Landreau even admits that “[T]here is some trouble with the program. I actually believe it should be much more flexible…The program is designed to fit your school. I think, in the United States, it runs more parallel to being AP, which is more established, and stricter in terms of ‘like, it’s gotta be taught at this pace’.” This is in contrast to the popular IB philosophy that the program gives students and teachers the opportunity to take and teach the classes they want to. The goal is to give the students the opportunities to expand on their talents and interests.

Another goal for IB is to create a demographic reflection, comparing the IB testing students, and student population as a whole. Essentially, that means the IB program encourages all students to spend four years preparing for their tests, to at least give them a try. Highland has been progressing towards the International Baccalaureate goal of demographic reflection. Dr. Tucker stated, “It’s a continual challenge because some students feel they can’t do it, and that’s not true; it’s really a mind set. If you put your mind and effort to it, and you feel comfortable in the class, you can be successful in the class. It’s a lot of work though.”

Last year, of the 34% of full IB Diploma seniors testing, 31% identified as Asian, African-American, or Hispanic. Of all the juniors and seniors testing for the Honors Diploma, 35% identified as Asian, African-American, or Hispanic. Ms. Landreau assures all of the students that if you don’t do well on an exam, she will not send in the scores, and it will not impact your classroom grade.

Positively, due to budget changes, the Saint Paul Public School District has waived the fee for IB DP exams, originally $40 per exam, making it easier for students to test, and giving students the chance to be successful in an IB American High School in 2016. This new change may not last, as the budget is assessed on a yearly basis. Ms. Landreau, and other IB DP coordinators, are anticipating an answer for next year’s exams fee situation by February or March.

Even though SPPS has been accommodating in helping with the IB DP testing costs, other areas saw a decrease in funding. According to a faculty member of Highland Park Senior High School, there were reading classes offered two years ago, but due to budget cuts, Highland wasn’t able to keep that tool for struggling students.

The school district did take away a significant barrier for students, by making IB DP testing a completely risk-free, and free of cost, experience. However, the district has yet to prepare their students for these rigorous classes, and exams. The retraction of the reading classes has proved difficult for ELL students to receive specific support for their English literature skills.

Not only are there still obstacles for ELL students, but there are obstacles for all the students, obstacles that have yet to be observed by the school board. Obstacles include large class sizes, and not having remedial classes for students who need a little more support. Ms. Landreau observed that “by not setting systems in place that really helps every kid get there, we end up saying ‘you didn’t try hard enough, so you’re not prepared.’ And to a certain extent, people do have to try, but they have to feel supported as they try.”

Ms. Landreau encourages students to “always balance what you’re interested in, and what all your other interests are ’cause I don’t think anything is worth being exhausted and stressed out. I just think you need to live your life. But taking a challenge when you can, and figuring out how to rise to that challenge, I think that’s a good life skill. So that’s why I think it’s important to take the classes. But I don’t think it’s a ‘everybody should do it, the whole way’. I think everybody should be encouraged to, and we should set up our classes so that kids can do well in them.”

To all the students of Highland Park Senior High, Ms. Landreau reminds them “There are other ways to be successful in an American high school in 2016.”

If you are interested, or have any more questions concerning IB DP testing your junior or senior year, you can talk to your counselor, Ms. Landreau, or visit http://www.spps.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=8395 for more information about IB DPexams.

Exchange students visit Highland every year, and every year Highland Students are exchange students. Exchange students will say that it’s one of the best parts of their life so far. Usually, exchange students enjoy it here and vice versa for students of Highland that went to a foreign country.

Usually, an exchange student will stay with a host family. Host families are a family consisting of at least one parent and one child under the age of 18. Host families sign up to take care of an international student for the school year. They feed the student and introduce them to the culture of America.

A recent example of exchanges students coming to our school were the Indian exchange students that visited our school. They came for only a week, but chose a good week in Homecoming week. They had the chance to see, and compare, how a public school in Minnesota, America compared to their school in Delhi, India.

To have the chance to be an exchange student, one could go to asse.com. You have to apply, but you can pick the country that you’d be interested in staying in. One thing the program won’t be is free. To visit Germany for example would be almost $8000 U.S dollars. Another program that is commonly used here at Highland is SHARE. This organization will organize everything for you, including a host family and placement. When I visited the counselor, this was the first program they mentioned.

An exchange student doesn’t always have to go out of country either. National Student Exchange (NSE) is a program that allows college students to go to another university in U.S states and territories, such as Puerto Rico and Guam.

At the end of their experience, exchange students often love their time in a new country/state, and the ability to learn about a new culture is often priceless for many.

Minnesota has a very large Hmong community. Today there are more than 66,000 Hmong people living here in Minnesota, and many of those people live here in St. Paul. Because of this, Johnson High School wants to invite all Hmong youth students to their Hmong Youth Summit to come and learn more about their culture.

On Thursday, October 20, Johnson High School, located on 1349 Arcade St., Paul, MN 55106, will be holding an event that goes from 8am to 4pm, and it’s free to all students. This event will include free breakfast and lunch. They will also be showing a movie, named 1985, that is based off of the lives of those Hmong people who had traveled after the war.

There will also be workshops going on throughout the day, where each workshop is there to help the Hmong youth learn new things about their culture. This is to help the youth find out who they are, and to also meet new people from different schools.

This event is one that you will have to register for so if you want to be able to attend you need to register at http://bit.ly/hmongyouthsummit. 

On Friday, September 30th, Highland had their annual Pep Fest. Grades 9 through 12 were all exited, clapping and shouting for their Royalty nominees and their favorite group of cheerleaders. There was no ignoring all that energy packed into the gym.

As everyone found their seats and packed themselves together, the Highland Park Symphonic Band played their instruments and got everyone in there all hyped up.

When everyone was settled in the staff began introducing the crowd to the Royalty nominees. With this year’s change in the way people were nominated there were a lot of different pairs of nominees. Out of the 19 pairs, only one from each grade could win.

So, congratulations to our new Highland Homecoming royalty: Calvin Boone and Marcus Hansen – 9th grade, Yeabsira Tekeste and Arianna Gonzalez – 10th grade, David Argenal and Rasjus Jackson – 11th grade, and Dreem Kelly and Gabriela Masiello – 12th grade.

After the Royalty was announced, some of the after school clubs and sports teams came up and made anouncements. The football team invited everyone to the Homecoming game the following morning. The boy’s soccer team anounced their upcoming games while the girl’s soccer team bragged about winning their game against Central and invited everyone to their games. Also, the clubs anounced their meeting dates and times.

This year the dance team’s preformence was amazing. Even though they had technical issues with the music at first, they hung in there and dealt with it like champs. They also incorporated the line kicks that the dance team is known for, into the preformance. Overall, the dance team’s preformance was really fun to watch.

Right after the dance preformed, the cheerleaders ran up and began their routine. They did their dance to the song “cheerleader” by OMI then did something very different. They preformed a really cool routine with some of the football team. Both preformances were upbeat and entertaining.

Overall, the 2016 Pep Fest was a success, everyone looked like they were having a good time. It got everyone back into the school spirt and gave them a little more school pride.