3 Programmes

The International Baccalaureate has three programmes of study (PYP, MYP, DP) developed to educate a child from 3 to 19 years old.

Primary Years Programme (PYP)
The PYP is designed for children 3-12 years of age (grades PreK-5 in the US). The primary vehicle for learning in the PYP is purposeful inquiry. There are 6 transdisciplinary themes, which provide a framework for balancing learning through and about each of the subject areas and learning beyond them. These themes are broad enough themes for any state or national standards to fit within.

The 6 themes are: Who we are, Where we are in place and time , How we express ourselves, How the world works, How we organize ourselves, and Sharing the planet.

There are also 6 subjects that the themes should be addressed through. These are: Language, Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Personal, Social, and Physical Education.

There are five essential elements: concepts, knowledge, skills, attitudes, action, that are incorporated into this framework, so that students are given the opportunity to:
-gain relevant knowledge that is of global significance
-develop an understanding of concepts
-develop attitudes that will lead to international-mindedness
-take action as a result of their learning.

Understanding how all these elements fits together are best illustrated in the PYP hexagon below. It shows the interrelated parts of a fluid curriculum.

PYP Assessment

IB allows for any local, state, and national assessments. In addition to these, IB PYP requires that teachers assess the process of inquiry as well as the result of inquiry. Teachers therefore record the detail of the inquiry initiated by the students in order to seek an increase in substance and depth.
In particular, teachers consider whether:
-the nature of the students’ inquiry develops over time; whether they are, in fact, asking questions of more depth, which are likely to enhance their learning substantially
-the children are becoming aware that real problems require solutions based on the integration of knowledge that spans and connects several subject areas
-the children are mastering skills and accumulating a comprehensive knowledge base in order to conduct their inquiries successfully and find solutions to problems
-the children are demonstrating both independence and an ability to work collaboratively.
Consideration of these points allows teachers to plan for effective teaching and learning opportunities that give students a chance to develop their inquiries further. These elements are assessed both formatively and summatively.

The Middle Years Programme (MYP)

The MYP is designed for students aged 11 to 16 years (grades 6-10 in the US). MYP, like PYP, provides a framework that is broad enough to accomodate the state and national standards of the school's home country. It promotes academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers.

The MYP curriculum has 8 required subjects that are taught through the lense of 5 Areas of Interaction.

The 8 subjects are: Science, Language A (mother tongue), Language B, Mathematics, the Arts, Physical Education, Humanities (social sciences), and Technology
The 5 Areas of Interaction are: Approaches to Learning, Community and Service, Human Ingenuity, Environments, and Health and Social Education.

Students are required to take at least 50 hours of each subject every year, and all subjects should be yearlong although a school may get two exemptions for this rule (but not for foreign language, it must be yearlong). Teachers must show evidence of hoirzontal planning within their grade level to show a variety of areas of interaction and evidence of cross curricular connections as well as vertical planning with a scope and sequence for a mastery of skills within each area of interaction from 6th through 10th grade (or the local equivalent). Each school is expected to design their own scope and sequence for each of the areas of interaction and show evidence for the teaching and assessing of those skills. Each unit is taught through the broad lense of one of the area of interactions, using the standards as the examples to illustrate their relevance. This method also increases relevance by promoting an understanding of the subjects outside of the school context and in light of current local and global issues and personal cultures. It also develops critical and creative thinking skills by framing knowledge in new and novel ways.

MYP Assessment
Assessment in MYP is both formative and summative. The MYP unit planner requires teachers to use ongoing formative assessment to reflect on and adapt activities and lessons to the students needs. Teachers can adhere to local and state summative tests, but the MYP summative assessments are culminating tasks that assess the the students' understanding of the significant concept and essential unit question which are integrated with the area of interaction to provide the big ideas throughwhich the content will be taught for depth of understanding.

Each subject area has unique criteria and teachers select which will be assessed each unit. Each subject must assess all of its criteria at some point throughout the year. IB provides rubrics for each criteria within each subject and these are used to score the culminating IB task. The IB task is scored for each criteria on a 0-8 scale, with students earning points for each piece of vital understanding evident. Some schools opt to convert this scoring to grades, but this is not supported by The IB.

At the end of the MYP (10th grade in the US) students are required to submit a personal project. This is generally started the previous year and is primarily done independently, although students are assigned a faculty member to help oversee their progress and give feedback along the way. Schools can elect to have IB moderate and score the projects in addition to in house scoring. Students that do not complete the persoanl project will not earn a certificate of MYP completion.

Diploma Programme (DP)

Much like the curriculum of both PYP and MYP, the DP programme is broad enough to incorporate a variety of specific subjects and state and national standards. In the IB Diploma Programme students study six courses at higher level or standard level. Students must choose one subject from each of groups 1 to 5, thus ensuring breadth of experience in languages, social studies, the experimental sciences and mathematics. The sixth subject may be an arts subject chosen from group 6, or the student may choose another subject from groups 1 to 5. The school or district is free to decide what specific classes it will provide for students within each group.

In addition to the above classes, the programme has three core requirements that are included to broaden the educational experience and challenge students to apply their knowledge and understanding.
The extended essay is a requirement for students to engage in independent research through an in-depth study of a question relating to one of the subjects they are studying.

Theory of knowledge is a course designed to encourage each student to reflect on the nature of knowledge by critically examining different ways of knowing (perception, emotion, language and reason) and different kinds of knowledge (scientific, artistic, mathematical and historical).

Creativity, action, and service requires that students actively learn from the experience of doing real tasks beyond the classroom. Students can combine all three components or do activities related to each one of them separately.

DP Assessment

Students take written examinations at the end of the programme, which are marked by external IB examiners. Students also complete assessment tasks in the school, which are either initially marked by teachers and then moderated by external moderators or sent directly to external examiners. Students are scored against the criterion and not nromed against their peers.

Diploma Programme written assessments are in depth essay and extended response examinations that measure the extent to which students have mastered advanced academic skills, such as analyzing and presenting information, evaluating and constructing arguments, and solving problems creatively. Basic skills, such as, retaining knowledge and understadning key concepts are also assessed.

The DP assessments also take into account intercultural skills where appropriate.

The diploma is awarded to students who gain at least 24 points, subject to certain minimum levels of performance across the whole programme and to satisfactory participation in the creativity, action, service requirement. The highest total that a Diploma Programme student can be awarded is 45 points.