What is IB?

What is IB?

IBO Mission Statement

 

The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

IB Curriculum

              The International Baccalaureate Program is a rigorous pre-university course of studies, leading to examinations that meet the needs of highly motivated school students in grades 11 and 12.  Designed as a comprehensive two-year curriculum that allows its graduates to fulfill requirements of various national education systems. The International Baccalaureate diploma model is based upon the pattern of no single country but incorporates the best elements of many. 

                International curriculum planners seek to ensure that the organization's educational aims are embodied in the structure and content of the program itself.  The means to achieving the diploma is displayed in the shape of a hexagon with six academic areas surrounding the core.  Subjects are studied concurrently and students are exposed to the two great traditions of learning – the humanities and the sciences. 

                Diploma candidates are required to select from each of the six subject groups.  At least three and not more than four are taken at the higher level (HL), the others at subsidiary or standard level (SL).  HL courses represent 240 teaching hours, SL courses cover 150 hours.  By arranging work in this fashion, students are able to explore some subjects in depth and some more broadly over the two-year period (11 th & 12 th grades); this is a deliberate compromise between the early specialization preferred in some national systems and the breadth found in others. 

                Distribution requirements ensure that the science-oriented student is challenged to learn a foreign language and that the natural linguist becomes familiar with laboratory procedures.  While overall balance is maintained, flexibility in choosing higher-level concentrations allows the student to pursue areas of personal interest and to meet special requirements for university entrance. 

                Our school offers a Pre-IB program for 9 th and 10 th grade students.  This preparatory program readies students for the rigorous demands of the diploma program.  Disciplines covered in depth include but are not limited to the following courses:  English I & II, Spanish I-IV, World History, American Government & Economics, Biology, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra II, Inquiry Skills and the Arts.