Book Review-

Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate can Strengthen Our Schools by Jay Mathews


Co-written by my nemesis, Jay Mathews. Mathews formerly reported on education for Newsweek and made the famous public high school rating system based on how many AP or IB tests per number of students. The rationale was research that correlated success in college with taking AP and IB classes (With the new emphasis on sitting in the class and not on scoring well on the test, I think these classes do not prepare students as well as they did when I started teaching). He co-wrote with Ian Hill, the Deputy Director of the IBO. The bias, which is admitted, does not a completely undermine a detailed history and explanation of IB. Mathews alternates between chapters on history/current issues with anecdotes of one low income school instituting and growing an IB program. Mathews reports and addresses controversies and criticisms about IB, suggesting but not stating they are unfounded. Despite the bias, I recommend this book because the specificity of the information explains IB very well in terms of history, theory, and experience.