Educators, Parents Eager for an Edge Opt for IB Classes In Grade Schools

School systems that sign on -- and pay to the tune of nearly $10,000 for each of their schools to apply for the IB organization's authorization -- are not hesitant about embedding the branding into their subculture. At Randolph, for instance, students every morning sing a very multisyllabic anthem that begins like this: "I am a star, a Randolph star. I am a curious and inquiring International Baccalaureate student."

Students buy into the program eagerly. "It looks good on your primary records, and then they will probably put you on another level to get you smarter," said Asia Winkler, 10, a Randolph fifth-grader.

At Randolph, which finally met academic standards this year after test scores rose, IB dominates the school's mind-set. With world maps on the walls and several clocks set to various international time zones, the school is festooned with IB ornamentation. Essays interpret the meaning of being an IB student, and flashcards feature IB Learner Profile words -- risk-taking, communicative, well-balanced, inquiring and so on -- that students must incorporate into their behavior.

Fifth-graders are even anointed by their classmates to be members of the IB Council, which works with school staff to help select their graduating exhibition project.

One recent day, in a science class studying "How the world works," third-grade teacher Judith Kendall urged her students to ask questions on a broad level.

"Let's review the questions that inquirers like to use," Kendall said during a lesson on motion. "Let's read them together: What is it like? How does it work? Why is it the way it is? How is it connected to other things?"

Afterward, one student asked: What else makes things move or stop?

"I had the same kind of question. Is there any other kind of force?" asked Nieve Schimley, 9.

So what's in store for these kids when they get to a high school IB program? When they have to take college-level classes in science, math and a foreign language? When they have to sit for a battery of oral and written tests that can last three weeks? When they have to write a 4,000-word research paper, on, say, cortisol levels in mood-disorder subjects?

"What I'd say to a 10-year-old," said Sebastien Davis-Vangelder, 17, a senior in the IB program at Fairfax County's George C. Marshall High School, "is that it's not going to get any easier."