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International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate Diploma
program (IB) is a rigorous pre-university course of study that meets the needs of the
highly motivated secondary school student. Designed as a comprehensive curriculum that
allows its graduates to fulfill requirements of the various national systems of education,
IB Diploma candidates are required to complete tests in each of six subjects in the final
two years of their secondary schooling. The intent is that students should learn how to
learn, how to analyze, how to reach considered conclusions about people, their languages
and literature, and how to apply mathematics and the sciences. The IB does such a fine job
of preparing students for college study that many American universities, including the
most highly selective, such as Michigan, Harvard, Williams, Middlebury and Bryn Mawr, will
grant up to a full year’s advanced placement credit to students with IB diplomas. The
Board of Regents of the University of California has recently announced that students
earning an IB diploma will be awarded 35 units within their university system at all of
their schools including Berkeley and UCLA.
In addition to the six subjects
selected, the Diploma candidate must also engage in a unique course known as Theory of
Knowledge. The Theory of Knowledge course is the key element in the educational philosophy
of the IB, a point of fusion and reflection that distinguishes the IB from other
pre-university curricula and assessment programs. It is an interdisciplinary course that
leads the student to review and challenge the student's knowledge in each of the subject
areas. Students will meet for a total of 150 hours over two years. The requirements for
the course will include various essay topics to be graded both internally and externally.
The culmination of the course is an externally assessed paper focusing on a student’s
synthesis of the problems in the study of knowledge.
The high standards implicit in
the IB examinations assume high levels of achievement or preparation at the freshman and
sophomore years. IB students follow essentially the same program of studies that other
West Morris Regional students pursue. The IB candidate, however, must select those courses
that have been approved as part of a specially designed curriculum to meet International
Baccalaureate criteria. Diploma candidates must select three of these subjects to be
studied at the Higher level (HL) and three subjects to be studied at the Standard level
(SL). By arranging the work in this fashion, students are able to study some subjects
in-depth (HL), i.e., extensively over a two year period before sitting for examinations,
and some in breadth (SL), exploring a range of topics within a subject (SL is
approximately equivalent to a one-year AP program). Diploma candidates take their
examinations in each of the six areas listed below:
- Language A (the student's native language)
- Language B (a modern foreign language)
- Individuals in Society (History, Psychology, Economics)
- Experimental Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science)
- Mathematics
- Electives from one of the following options:
- Art, Music, Computing Studies
- a third modern language, a second subject from Experimental Sciences or Individuals in
Society
To be eligible for the award of the Diploma all candidates must:
- complete one subject from each of the above groups,
- complete at least three and not more than four of the six subjects at Higher level and
the other subjects at Standard level,
- submit an Extended Essay (4,000 words) in one of the subjects of the IB curriculum,
- follow a course in the Theory of Knowledge.
- engage in activities that complete the Creativity, Action and Service (CAS) requirement.
The student who does not satisfy the requirements of the Diploma
program is awarded a Certificate for the examinations completed.
As a result of the extra demands
placed on diploma candidates (tests in six subjects, composition of the extended essay,
completion of the CAS requirement), the Theory of Knowledge course shall be included as a
seventh graded course in determining class rank. The Theory of Knowledge course will be
offered as 1.0 credit of Honors weight, rather than the 5.0 or 6.0 credits of other
courses used to determine class rank. |
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