 I am pleased to announce our students’ results on the International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations, which they took in May. For those unfamiliar with the IB Program, it is a rigorous two-year program for students in grades 11 and 12 offered in over 2,200 schools worldwide. The students take six courses in a range of subjects, English, languages, math, science, social sciences, and the arts. Three of these courses are taken at a higher level, which is equivalent to the university level first year courses. The students also take a Theory of Knowledge course and complete an Extended Essay, a 4,000-word report on a topic they have researched.
The students’ exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 7 with 7 being the highest possible score. External moderators, educators who are not employed by ISD, assess the exams. They also can be awarded up to three extra bonus points for the Theory of Knowledge work and Extended Essay. Therefore, the maximum possible score is a 45, six exams times seven points each, plus three bonus points. To earn the diploma, students need to earn, at least, 24 points.
The IB exams are very challenging. Last year, only 79% of the over 67,000 students who took the exams earned the diploma. The worldwide average score was a 30.
ISD started the IB Program in the fall of 2013; so last year’s graduating class was the first group of ISD students to ever take the IB exams. It was particularly challenging for them as many of the teachers were new to the program and they did not have older students to help guide them. As ISD allows any interested student participate in the program, the IB classes students had a wide range of abilities. Twenty-one of the 25 grade twelve students tried to earn the IB Diploma. The percentage of ISD students in the IB Diploma program was high compared to similar international schools.
I am thrilled to announce that 17 out of 21 students, or 84%, who attempted the diploma has a passing score. The average score for the ISD students was 31. Both of these numbers are higher than the world averages. This is a significant accomplishment especially given that it was our first group of students to take the IB exams.
By offering the IB Diploma, our school has a more challenging high school program. As a result, our students will have a better chance of being accepted to some of the top universities in the world. In the past, ISD graduates have been accepted to top universities in the United States including Harvard, Stanford, and Cornell. We can now proudly say our graduates are also studying in the top universities in Belgium, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. We are very proud of the students who attempted the IB Diploma. Their success was due to their hard work and perseverance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IB teachers, who devoted a significant amount of time and energy preparing lessons, assessing student work, and providing feedback to the students. A special thank you goes to Wendy Welander, our IB Coordinator or as the students call her Momma IB, for guiding the students and the teachers through the process, and Brad Bell, our Secondary School Principal, for his overall leadership.
The teachers and Ms. Welander are already hard at work improving the program for this year’s IB students. Using the feedback from external moderators, the teachers are making adjustments to the curriculum and the assessment to better prepare the students for the next set of exams. |
Director's Dispatch >