School’s prestigious program highlighted

School superintendent explains what International Baccalaureate means to students

Superintendent explains what International Baccalaureate means to students at McKinley Elementary School.

McKinley Elementary School in Fairport Harbor Village holds a title that applies to no other school in Lake, Geauga or Ashtabula counties.

McKinley is the only International Baccalaureate World School in the three-county region. The school earned its IB designation on Oct. 19 of last year, according to the International Baccalaureate website.

That 2018 accomplishment was the top item that Fairport Harbor Schools Superintendent Domenic Paolo covered in his recent State of the Schools speech.

He delivered that address after Fairport Harbor Mayor Timothy Manross gave his annual State of the Village speech.

Paolo enlightened the audience about the International Baccalaureate program and what it means for McKinley students who are learning through this style of education.

The superintendent said he first became aware of International Baccalaureate about 13 years ago, when Northeast Ohio school districts in Oberlin and Shaker Heights were implementing the program.

“I had never heard of (IB) before,” Paolo said. “It was the idea that kids would learn through inquiry. They would learn about the world around them — the whole globe, and not just their town, city or state. And global mindliness was a big theme in that and the interconnectedness of different things that are going on in the world were a big part of International Baccalaureate.”

Learning through inquiry calls for students to investigate, do experiments and work on projects, and not just be told something by a teacher, memorize it and repeat it back, Paolo explained.

That requires teaching students “in a fashion that sticks,” and not in a temporary or superficial manner, he added.

“We want our learning to last,” Paolo said. “I guess my point with that is, we are building our school around this notion — that if it’s worth teaching, we want it to last.”

Paolo said other important aspects of the International Baccalaureate program at McKinley Elementary include:

• Transdisciplinary learning. “What students are learning in math should be worthwhile in English class and the way they write a science report should be rewarded by the hard work in their English class,” Paolo said.

• Solving real problems through the action cycle — To reflect, choose and act.

• The learner profile, which aims to develop learners who are inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective.

“We want to focus on what the child has become and what they’re able to do, not just on what kind of score they can get on a standardized test,” Paolo said.

An organization called International Baccalaureate is responsible for developing and administering the educational program of the same name. The organization works with schools, governments and organizations around the globe to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment.

Paolo also discussed the challenges that Fairport Harbor Schools faced in preparing McKinley Elementary for its IB quest.

“When I first found about International Baccalaureate, it was all the rich schools,” Paolo said.

In hopes of implementing International Baccalaureate in Fairport Harbor Schools, which wasn’t as wealthy as other districts with IB programs, Paolo came up with the idea to seek funding from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

“Our people wrote a grant application and it was approved,” Paolo said.

The district received grants for three years from the Jennings Foundation — $20,600 in 2015, $17,400 in 2016 and $10,900 in 2017 — to help lay the groundwork for its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program.

Funding was used for items such as application, visitations and membership fees; and hosting a training detail from IB, which visited Fairport Harbor, rather than Fairport Harbor having to send its staff cross-country to train, McKinley Principal Elementary School Principal Jennifer Polak said in a previous News-Herald story.

Last year, officials from the International Baccalaureate organization also visited McKinley to assess the school’s progress in successfully adhering to the IB philosophy and meeting the program’s standards, before awarding the accreditation.

Paolo lauded Polak and the teachers at McKinley for playing a pivotal role in earning the designation.

“They really are the envy of the school districts around us,” Paolo said.

“Superintendents get together, we have meetings, and there is really no one in Lake, Geauga or Ashtabula counties that wouldn’t like to have International Baccalaureate in their elementary schools. They know that the program is a structured way to get inquiry and higher-order thinking and deep learning into their schools.”

While International Baccalaureate is a prestigious and innovative program, Paolo said any school interested in seeking accreditation also needs to know that IB is a lot of work.

“And our teachers don’t shy away from (the additional work) — they embrace it,” he said.