Mayor Mike Rawlings helps Alcuin celebrate becoming an IB World School.
For more than a decade, students in grades 6 through 10 at Alcuin School have participated in the rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme. Earlier this week, the school added another notch to its belt and became an accredited IB World School.
Starting this coming fall, students in grades 11 and 12 will enter the IB Diploma Programme. After completing the IB Diploma curriculum, they’ll take a series of exams, written and scored by the Switzerland-based IB Organization. Those who pass the assessments and successfully complete a series of service projects and a 3,000 to 4,000 word “Extended Essay” on a topic of their choice will be eligible to earn the IB diploma in addition to their Alcuin diploma.
According Alcuin’s website, “an IB student can earn college credits by taking and passing the IB exams. For example, Texas Senate Bill 111 prescribes 24 hours of college credit for any student earning the IB diploma.” Of course, all this hinges on the individual policies of colleges and universities.
Even those students who don’t earn an IB diploma are expected to benefit from their participation in the program. The University of Chicago conducted a study in 2011 of nearly 25,000 IB Diploma Programme students and discovered that “IB students were more likely than the national average to attend college full-time, with nearly 70% attending selective or more selected colleges.”
Statistics like this have led many schools in our neighborhood to implement the IB curriculum and seek official IB certification. In August, Advocate reported that “This coming spring, Preston Hollow Elementary expects to be named an official International Baccalaureate school after three years of demonstrating its success with the ‘global thinking, global learning,’ curriculum. Hillcrest High School and Franklin Middle School … also are embarking on the process and won’t be far behind. Neighborhood school Arthur Kramer Elementary is making efforts toward International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, too.”
Learn more about IB and why so many schools around town are getting on board by clicking here.
