Education Week highlighted the prestigious International Baccalaureate curriculum, which is springing up in schools across the country.

The Geneva, Switzerland-based curriculum, originally reserved for the children of diplomats and boarding schools, eschews “multiple-choice tests in favor of research papers and oral presentations, IB aims to teach critical-thinking skills, partly by training students to examine the bases of truth and bias.” In terms of its rigor, it is often compared to Advanced Placement, although there are less multiple choice tests in IB than in AP.

IB is so respected that most universities offer IB students credit and scholarships for courses and some universities -- like Oregon State University in Corvallis -- even offer automatic admission to students who achieve a certain score in an IB program. Colleges, in general, like to boast how many IB students they have in their freshman classes.

Because IB has only lately popped up on many educators’ radar screens, there have been no national studies of its relative effectiveness in educating students or preparing them for college.

But (Oregon State University’s) Ms. Sandlin said she’s impressed with the quality of IB-educated applicants she sees.

“The IB students that we get are very prepared for college,” she said.

There is one barrier to implementing IB nationwide even though it has received even the praise of President George W. Bush: cost. For a school to become IB-accredited it has to undergo an expensive training and authorization process. It costs $10,000 just to become an IB school. The teachers and staff must undergo training, which costs $1,000 per person plus traveling fees and accomodation.

Even after a school is authorized, IB high schools must pay $8,850 a year in fees while middle and primary schools must cough up $5,220 annually.  Schools must pay additional fees per student and per subject and mailing expenses to get some exams graded -- as this takes place overseas.