INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
Program Description: The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is a challenging course of studies implemented by Spotsylvania County Public Schools for highly motivated 11th and 12th grade students seeking to develop their college readiness and experiencing more academic diversity. The program fosters critical thinking, development into lifelong learners, and connections to the students’ communities and the world-at-large. By successfully completing an IB program in an authorized IB World School, students earn both an International Baccalaureate Diploma and a Virginia Advanced Studies Diploma. The program requires that the student successfully complete the following IB courses: English, a World Language, History, Science, Mathematics, and an IB elective. Students must take three or up to four subjects at the “Higher Level (HL)” and two or three at what is called the “Standard Level (SL).”
In each of the six IB courses, the student must complete required internal assessments and sit for an external examination. Those external examinations are written and scored by the IB organization, measuring student performance according to established international standards for excellence. In addition to the course work and satisfactory performance on all assessments, students must also take the IB core classes of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Extended Essay (3,000-4,000 words), and complete an appropriate amount of experiences in Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) in order to be eligible to earn the IB Diploma.
Beginning in the Fall of 2020, students are able to choose to complete an IB Certificate program in lieu of the Diploma Program, which allows them to participate in specific IB courses that they have an interest in. In order to earn the IB Certificate, students must successfully complete the course requirements and earn a passing grade on the IB exam. They do not have to complete the TOK/EE/CAS requirement.