The elimination of the International Baccalaureate program in Upper St. Clair is the latest in a series of similar attacks against the program alleging that its curriculum is contrary to American values.

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In recent years, the school program, which was developed by a 68-year-old organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, has faced at least nine other challenges based on similar arguments.

The IB program aims to give students a world perspective and develop critical thinking skills.

Critics of the International Baccalaureate program in those nine districts all used "similar language and similar underlying reasoning," said Paul Campbell, director of outreach at the U.S. regional International Baccalaureate office in New York. The critics can be found at conservative Web sites, including www.edwatch.org.

Mr. Campbell mentioned articles in the conservative Washington Times in 2004 that focused on the faults of the program and how it failed to hold up against the Advanced Placement program that already existed in the Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, Va.

One article cited a parent in the Fairfax district who said the program pro- moted "socialism, disarmament, radical environmentalism and moral relativism, while attempting to undermine Christian religious values and national sovereignty."

A proposal last year to derail an International Baccalaureate program in Minnetonka, Minn., used similar arguments to those employed by Upper St. Clair board members in recent weeks.

The Minnetonka proposal, backed by two school board members, said the IB "rejects the Judeo-Christian values held by the majority of families in our district and instead promotes the atheist, Secular Humanist principles of multiculturalism, one-world government and moral relativism."

The Minnetonka board eventually voted to keep the program.

Some Upper St. Clair school board members contended the program goes against traditional Judeo-Christian values, could be considered anti-American and is associated with groups that support Marxism.

Despite an overwhelming majority of 1,000 parents and students who came to Monday's Upper St. Clair school board meeting to save the International Baccalaureate program, the board voted 5-4 to discontinue the program, which serves about 700 students in elementary, middle and high school.

"Upper St. Clair is the only time I know of that politics have led to a discontinuation of all three IB programs," Mr. Campbell said.

Upper St. Clair is the only school in the region -- and one of 35 in the nation -- that uses the curriculum in elementary, middle and high school levels. The high school program is used at both Schenley High School and Vincentian Academy in the North Hills and in the middle years program in Quaker Valley.

The IB program is used by 1,731 schools in 122 countries, including 616 in the United States. Students who do well in the high school program can earn college credits.

Upper St. Clair school board member Mark G. Trombetta said he didn't rely on EdWatch, a parents' rights group which works on various projects with Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, or other "political sites" but did "substantive research" on the curriculum at the library and on the Internet. He concluded it is weak in some subjects and was concerned that the testing was "developed in a foreign country."

Julie Quist, director of EdWatch, which is based in Minnesota, said she has been tracking the IB program for a number of years and was pleased to learn about the board's decision yesterday.

"It's wonderful. We're just delighted that they would have the foresight to do that. I'm really amazed because most people are just not knowledgeable about it to know what's wrong with [IB]. It's a radical curriculum."

Ms. Quist said EdWatch opposes the program on ideological grounds because it teaches "a sense of global citizenship which is contrary to what it is to be an American citizen."

Alan Lesgold, dean of the school of education at the University of Pittsburgh, said he thinks the board's decision is "very embarrassing to Upper St. Clair, quite frankly.

"Here you've got this district that's got a really positive reputation of having all of these really strong programs and now all of a sudden they're dumping the program that has the clearest externally validated credibility. It's a weird thing."

The first IB program to be cut was about eight years ago in suburban Vista, Calif., near San Diego, where a newly elected board prevented an effort to extend the high school IB program to middle school students, Mr. Campbell said.

About two years ago a group of parents pushed the Fairfax, Va. district to end a year-old IB program at W.T. Woodson High School. "A lot of that had to do with the age-old misunderstanding that IB and AP are competitive programs," Mr. Campbell said.

But Janice Leslie, director of instruction for the Fairfax district said, "some people claimed IB was an international conspiracy."

The Fairfax district still has the second-largest International Baccalaureate program in the country, including nine IB programs at other high schools, he said.

Judy Budreau, who documented the debate in Minnetonka, Minn., for a parent group called Tonka Focus, said the board members in Minnesota also initially argued against IB's ideology but then switched to a discussion of budgetary matters.

The five Upper St. Clair board members who voted to end IB Monday, all cited cost as a key reason. The program costs about $85,000 in a district with an annual budget of $50 million.

Dr. Lesgold said the IB program has a "very strong reputation."

He said charges that it is against Judeo-Christian values or Marxist are "basically crazy. Any program that has students confronting real tough issues and thinking hard is going to strike somebody somewhere along the line as not entirely agreeing with their values."

Dr. Lesgold noted a Catholic high school -- Vincentian -- offers the program in conjunction with a Catholic university -- Duquesne.

"They wouldn't be doing it if it was anti-Christian," he said.

Those who complete all of the requirements earn an IB diploma, which is recognized at many colleges and universities around the world.

The IB Web site's list of colleges recognizing the diploma is practically a Who's Who of American colleges -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford universities as well as many other elite schools.

Mr. Campbell said the program is not "anti-anything."

He said, "First and foremost, we require them to attend to their own culture. We take comfort in the fact it seems to fit in so many types of communities -- conservative, progressive, urban, privileged."