International Business Program (IBP)
International Business Program for High Schools (IBPHS)
“Global Business Education for the 21st Century”
Program Description, Expectations and Regulations Guide
March 2013
© International Business Program for High Schools 2013
Dr. Arnold Heller
Program Facilitator
5205 Perimeter Lofts Circle
Dunwoody, GA 30346
Ph: 770-674-0158, 404-550-1199
www.arnoldheller.org
arnoldheller@comcast.net, arnoldheller@arnoldheller.org
USA
Program Guide Contents
1. Introduction to the IBP
2. Three Step Application Process
3. IBP Aims and Objectives
4. IBP Criteria and Conditions
5. School Administration
6. IBP Lead Teacher Position
7. Subject Teachers
8. Students
1. Introduction
The International Business Program (IBP), a secondary level global business education curriculum, promotes experiential learning and applications in order to meet a wider range of learning styles. Conceived in 1997, the IBP evolved into a third challenging college preparatory option along with the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs. The International Business Program for High Schools (IBPHS) therefore welcomes your interest in the IBP and looks forward to working with you as you seek to implement the program at your school. This guide should be made available to all instructional staff who will be involved in the teaching and administration of the program. This guide indicates:
- The specific areas of a school’s operation that would be most directly affected by the introduction of the IBP
- Outlines the issues that need to be addressed by a school proposing to implement the program
- Provides a timetable for implementation of the program in a school
- Identifies school information needed to support the application process.
2. Application
Three Step Application Process:
- Step I: Schools must complete the application with the requested information and submit the application form to the International Business Program for High Schools (IBPHS).
- Step 2: The IBPHS Program Facilitator visits the school, performs a thorough needs assessment and consults with the school community
- Step 3: The Program Facilitator, after determining that the prospective school meets IBP criteria and conditions, assists with installation of the program.
Needs Assessment Process:
The Program Facilitator examines the school’s philosophy, curriculum, staffing and resources to determine the best means of program implementation for meeting school and student needs. All members of the school community are consulted, specific needs for remedy identified, and a timetable for responding developed.
Program Participation:
IBP schools are expected to:
- Address all deficiencies and remedy within the specified period of time
- Follow the proposed five year strategic plan or timetable for successful program implementation
It is incumbent upon the IBP member school to address issues in timely fashion and implement the program on schedule. Falling behind schedule may weaken the program’s instructional process and deprive students of educational benefits.
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3. IBP Aims and Objectives
The student who completes the IBP demonstrates a strong commitment to learning and mastery of real life business and technology applications. He or she is also encouraged to develop an internationalist world view, be tolerant of cultural differences, and to respect and appreciate human diversity.
IBP aims are:
- Develop a standard of excellence for international entrepreneurship education
- Provide the knowledge and skills that students need to successfully compete in the global economy
- Provide a respected academic preparation and qualification for admission into college or university
- Foster development of critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Educate the student to become a productive, creative and contributing member to society
- Cultivate in students an appreciation for the arts and sciences and nurture the development of abilities and attitudes that they will need to realize enriched life experiences.
- Provide international education opportunities that will promote human understanding and facilitate trade between the peoples of the world
4. IBP Criteria and Conditions
1. The IBP curriculum promotes opportunities for educational excellence and business track success through provision of a balanced and focused curriculum. IBP students are expected to establish a tradition of academic and business success through their school’s development of world class learning tools:
- Dynamic student run trading company
- Growing retail operation or wholesale distribution channel
- Construction of a program web site and attractive e-catalog
- Involvement in international trade through foreign buying missions and actual importation and exportation of goods or services
- Engagement in educational travel and student exchanges
IBP rising twelfth graders inherit the recent graduating class’s investments of capital and creativity and are challenged to expand, improve upon, or add new program learning tools and international education opportunities. In turn, as graduates, they endow the next class with a legacy of high academic achievement, enhanced asset creation, and an expanded global network of partner schools. The program web site is a vehicle for internet education, e-commerce instruction, and documentation of the program and company’s academic and commercial achievements.
2. Schools shall demonstrate to the IBPHS that they will have the required teaching faculty, administrative staff and other resources with which to successfully implement the IBP. The IBPHS is aware of the:
- Vast disparities in resources available to schools in different parts of the country and world.
- Current climate of tight educational budgets that places recent educational reforms and new innovative programs at risk.
- Pledges sensitivity in working with interested but economically pressured high schools.
3. The IBPHS offers the IBP to schools free of membership fees. The cost of implementation is the IBPHS Program Facilitator’s fee and expenses incurred during the assessment visit. The demands of providing a thorough needs assessment and successful program implementation require a minimum visit of four days and ideally six to eight days. The IBPHS is Atlanta-based and the Program Facilitator’s per diem compensation is $350 with daily expenses based on the following factors:
- If the school is located in the metropolitan Atlanta area and the Program Facilitator can drive to and from the location each day, expenses are $100 per day
- If distance is sufficient to necessitate air transportation, daily expenses for the first four days are $250 per day; for days five and six, $200 per day; for each additional day, $150 per day.
- If driving from Atlanta to the new school location is feasible but overnight lodging is necessary, daily expenses are $150 per day for the first four days, $125 for days five and six, and $100 for each additional day thereafter.
Full payment for services rendered is expected upon conclusion of the implementation visit. It is therefore incumbent upon the new IBP school to have the full approval of their school, system and Board of Education.
4. Schools shall agree to acceptance of IBPHS expectations. The appointment of an enthusiastic Lead Teacher is critical to program success. If funding and free periods are available, the prospective IBP School should instead create the position of a full time IBP Coordinator to fill the leadership role. A Lead Teacher that enthusiastically embraces the IBP vision is willing to innovate, assume new demands and challenges, will enjoy benefits from their investment of additional time and energy.
5. The IBPHS envisions uniformity in program performance standards. If a follow up visit is needed by the Program Facilitator to help a school remedy a deficiency, the fee will be discounted to $250 per day with expenses reflecting the same factors as listed for the authorization visit.
6. It is imperative that potential IBP teachers be fully certified and qualified in their teaching subjects, particularly in the following areas: entrepreneurship, marketing and economics. The IBPHS also expects the member school to assign fully qualified and enthusiastic staff to teach the IBP English, foreign language, mathematics, science, computer science, music, arts and physical education courses.
7. IBP member schools are expected to schedule for:
Eleventh grade students:
- Fall Semester – Entrepreneurship with a management focus
- Spring Semester – International Marketing with an e-commerce focus
- U.S. History that includes a Caribbean / Latin America strand
Twelfth grade students:
- Fall Semester – Economics with an international trade focus
- Spring Semester – Regional Area Study, choice of six subjects: Asia survey with modern Japan, China, India and Korea focus; Middle East, European Union, Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Latin America / Caribbean.
- Student Internship in an international corporation or work environment.
8. The IBPHS hopes that the program will become part of the school’s academic culture and positively influence those sections of the school not involved in the program.
9. The IBPHS reserves the right to revoke membership if the participating school is considered to be for three consecutive years deficient in implementing the program. All IBP schools are encouraged to faithfully execute the five year strategic plan of program implementation:
Year 1:
- Infuse ninth and tenth grade curriculum with emphasis on map skills development and discussion of global issues
- Schedule prescribed eleventh grade courses – Entrepreneurship, Marketing and a Caribbean / Latin America strand in the U. S. History class
- Incorporate a tax exempt enterprise and form a student run trading company
- Develop a program web site for internet education purposes
- Provide staff development processes.
- Enlist business and community sponsorships
Year 2:
- Schedule prescribed twelfth grade courses
- Organize and coordinate student internship work experience – minimum two hours a day, four days a week in an international work environment
- Guide students to write a business plan for their trading company
- Capitalize the trading company with a minimum of $1,000
- Purchase initial merchandise lines or provide marketable services appropriate for a school environment
- Update the program web site and produce an e-catalog.
Year 3:
- Open school store or engage in other retail operation or wholesale distribution channel
- Update web site, upgrade e-catalog and begin documenting program and company history on the web site
- Institute at beginning of each school a test of mastery that demands all students to display a basic working knowledge of their program, company, business plan and achievements to date
- Schedule first student exchange, either host or visit a foreign IBP school
Year 4:
- Schedule, organize and coordinate two student exchanges – one hosting and one educational travel experience serving as a foreign buying mission to involve students in international trade
- Import and export goods through collaboration with two foreign partner schools
- Representative student delegation attends International Business Program (IBP) Convention or Super-Exchange.
Year 5:
- All phases of program should be developed by end of fifth school year
- Challenging interdisciplinary curriculum reflecting full schedule of courses staffed by effective teachers should be in place
- Student internship program should be offering a wide range of vocational experiences in a variety of international work experiences
- Student run enterprise is growing and profitable
- Full web site documentation of five year implementation process and listing of academic and commercial achievements
- E-catalog should have online capacity to process customer orders
- Involvement in importation and exportation of goods from two or more foreign IBP schools
- Schedule two student exchanges, one hosting and one combination foreign travel and buying mission
- Representative student delegation attends annual IBP Convention
- If ready, scheduling of exit examinations and business plan thesis for IBP student candidates to earn awarding of first Diploma.
10. The IBPHS encourages all IBP schools to try and:
- Exceed the five year schedule for implementation
- Display capacity for innovation and excellence in development of world class learning tools or components
- Develop in students a respect for and tradition of academic achievement and business success.
More successful IBP schools will be recognized for exceptional scholarship levels, business acumen, marketing shrewdness, program innovation, extraordinary exchange concepts and other awards to be distributed at the annual IBP Convention or Super-Exchange.
11. A school and system that believes the $1,000 startup capital for the student run enterprise to be a hardship should enlist a business or community sponsor to contribute the money. The IBPHS encourages IBP schools to support student run enterprises to mirror real life business management to the fullest extent. If possible, the school and system should support the student run enterprise to employ risk-taking practices such as provision of commercial checking accounts, bank credit lines, and online credit card processing capacity. Given their nature and location, IBP school enterprises normally enjoy free rent, labor, exemption from taxes, nonpayment of utilities, system or school provided insurance coverage thus making business failure and financial losses unlikely to occur. But business failure and accumulation of debt is possible and must be assumed by the IBP School if the consequence occurs. The IBPHS is not responsible for any business failures or debt accumulation as a result of changing market situations, unwise decisions, goals that did not materialize or risks that proved untimely or unfortunate.
12. The IBPHS projects the scheduling of a battery of six exit examinations, writing of business plan thesis, and awarding of a Diploma to successful student candidates by the year 2020. The examination battery will be designed to:
- Identify knowledge and skills that students should have learned during their two years in the program.
- Provide a format for the demonstration of proficiencies that should have been developed.
- Influence program standardization.
- Establish a high standard of qualification for entry into college or university.
Presumably, two examinations would be scheduled at the end of the eleventh grade, four examinations and the business plan thesis at the end of the twelfth grade. The business plan thesis would describe how the student grew a business during their two year course of study or be the subject for a startup. The cost of organizing, scheduling and grading the examinations will require the collection of test registration fees that must be assumed by the student or their school or system. The IBPHS reserves the right at that point in time to require participating schools to schedule the examinations.
5. School Administration
The school administrative leader is responsible for:
- The school fully endorsing the IBP philosophy as a nondiscriminatory program
- The adoption of the IBP being welcomed by the teaching staff of the school
- Faithfully following the five year strategic plan of implementation
- Provide a professional development plan to support the teaching staff
- Adequate time is made available for IBP implementation
- The lead teacher or coordinator, if affordable, is appointed with a clearly formulated job description and sufficient time to carry out duties and responsibilities
- The school’s literature promotes school community awareness of the program
6. IBP Lead Teacher / Coordinator
The IBP Lead Teacher / Coordinator (LT/C) is the key person in any IBP school. Ideally, a full time coordinator should be empowered to build the program and nurture a constituency. If budgetary considerations force a choice between classroom textbooks for the students or a coordinator’s salary, then the position of Lead Teacher should be created with one period a day allotted for planning and implementation. Regardless, the LT/C should possess excellent interpersonal, communication and administrative skills, be business literate and have a strong sense of responsibility for the academic needs and enterprising and emotional welfare of his or her students. In general, the demands on the LT/C are proportionate to the number of IBP students and staff, and the number of subjects offered by the school.
7. Subject Teachers
Subject teachers are expected to keep up with developments in education, curriculum and teaching methodology. IBP teachers should meet regularly to coordinate instruction. Subject teachers need to apply the IBP’s aims, objectives and conceptual framework. The IBP should not be taught simultaneously with other programs such as Advanced Placement, the International Baccalaureate and the National Academy Foundation Academies of Finance, Information Technology and Travel & Tourism. The IBPHS projects the scheduling of teacher training seminars during summer 2016.
8. Students
Participation in the IBP Diploma demands intellectual commitment, high academic standards, a genuine interest in international business, and grounding in personal responsibility for ethical behavior. The IBP expects students to:
- Participate in the program curriculum.
- Complete the program over a period of two years.
- Be fully involved in the development and management of hands on learning components.
- Display honesty in the completion and presentation of all work.
- Recognize the IBP LT/C as the IBPHS school representative.