As the Village of Oak Creek’s Big Park Community School begins the two- to three-year process of becoming an International Baccalaureate School, teachers, staff and administrators are faced with a task: Defining what an IB school is, exactly.
“It is hard to define IB as a succinct thing.” Big Park Principal and School Counselor Deborah Jones said. “IB is whole a system of education that helps train educators to use best practices in instructional delivery. It pulls together teaching practices, character education …. state standards and curricular models that have been found to be most effective in engaging student interest and active learning.”
According to Jones, the emphasis of IB instruction is on large concepts, as opposed to isolated facts. Encouraging students to ask questions that provoke deeper thinking, IB instruction hopes to bolster communication and collaborative learning.
“Younger students will study concepts and ideas that are closer to home,” Jones added. “As students grow, they will learn more about the world around them. Study of a foreign language is part of the program. Helping students to apply their learning and take action based upon their studies is another component.”
According to Amy Romero, who acts as the IB coordinator of Cottonwood’s Mountain View Preparatory — the Verde Valley’s only fully-certified IB school — students in IB programs are spurred to take responsibility for their own learning. Furthermore, they are challenged to think about the local and global picture, placing their education into a larger context.
“They are encouraged to take action within their communities, local and global, as a result of their inquiries,” Romero said. “Students and teachers take time daily to reflect on learning and individual progress toward IB Attitude and Learner Profile goals. Students at an IB school are expected to participate in a foreign language class, arts and personal, social, and physical education.”
“A traditional school doesn’t always clearly develop and articulate the curriculum across all grade levels and throughout all subjects,” Jones said. “A traditional school and individual teachers may not agree on best practices and work together to implement these. A traditional school may not use common vocabulary and practices throughout the school. A traditional school may not always seek to increase the level of engagement and critical thinking skills developed in each unit.”
An IB school, Jones added, offers a level of support to teachers, students and families that is not always available to other schools.
“IB encourages sharing among other IB schools and ongoing learning opportunities for students and staff members,” Jones explained. “MVP was kind enough to share their journey to becoming an IB school and some of the how-to’s with us …. There is a level of energy and enthusiasm in an IB school, like MVP, that you don’t always see elsewhere.”
The additional work to become credentialed is substantial, Jones admitted, but ultimately she expressed a hope to provide a more marketable school for new families, as well as already established families.
“The IB program is expensive,” Jones added. “The increased number of students enrolling in the program hopefully offsets some of the costs. The benefits in student achievement far outweigh the costs. Quality programming is expensive.”
