IB or Not IB

She knows some parents aren't happy, but she doesn't think they're in the majority, and she's sure their problems will get worked out.

"Whenever there's any change, there's pain," Calvert says.
Other parents say they don't want their kids to suffer while administrators work out the kinks. They count Millet's reassignment as a step in the right direction. But despite that victory, the parents aren't celebrating. The botched chemistry course was just a symptom of the greater problem, says Juli's mom, Karen Kucker.

"The crumbling persists," says Louise Moorhead. "It's still there. The acute insult is being rectified, but why was it allowed to go on so long? We continue to have our crisis."

Case is still resigning. Lauren Jacobs and Stephanie Oddo, both 16-year-old junior IB diploma candidates, joined the program because they wanted to take her Theory of Knowledge philosophy class senior year. They're upset that they won't have the same IB experience their older friends did, Lauren says.

"I don't like this whole experiment that they're doing," Stephanie says. "The whole system is changing -- and we're the guinea pigs."

E-mail Wendy Grossman at wendy_grossman@houstonpress.com.