The International Baccalaureate® (IB) is a nonprofit educational foundation. Their mission is as follows:

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.

Founded in 1968, they currently work with 3,295 schools in 141 countries to offer three levels of programmes:

• The Primary Years Programme (PYP) for pupils aged 3 to 12 focuses on the development of the whole child in the classroom and in the world outside.
• The Middle Years Programme (MYP) for students aged 11 to 16 provides a framework of academic challenge and life skills through embracing and transcending traditional school subjects.
• The Diploma Programme for students aged 16 to 19 is a demanding two-year curriculum that meets the needs of highly motivated students, and leads to a diploma that is recognized by leading universities around the world.

To learn more about the International Baccalaureate, visit their website or click here to access a copy of What Is An IB Education?

Jeff Thompson Research Award Applications Due Soon

The International Baccalaureate (IB) provides practitioners with small awards to conduct research related to IB programmes.  Preference will be given to research in the following areas:

·         Enhancement of IB programmes

·         Contribution to studies in international education

·         Impact of programme implementation on school improvement

·         Impact of IB programme study on academic success, acquisition of international mindedness, or the attributes of the Learner Profile

·         Contribution to the development of the local school and practitioner practice

Individual awards of up to $5,000 are available.  Successful applicants will also have the registration fee for on Annual Regional Conference waived so they can present their work to the IB community in their region.  Applicants must be employed in an IB World School. 

The next round of applications are due March 31, 2013.  Click here for more information or to obtain an application.

IB Exam Fees for Low-Income Students

Wisconsin public school districts are responsible by law to pay AP and IB exam fees for students that qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. This requirement is found in Wis. Stat. sec. 120.12(22). The full text follows:

Wis. Stat. sec. 120.12(22) Advanced Placement Examinations. Using federal, state, local, or private funds, pay the costs of advanced placement examinations taken by pupils enrolled in the school district who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in the federal school lunch program under 42 USC 1758.