Overview

DCPS International Baccalaureate (IB) school network provides a pathway to an internationally recognized diploma. For more than 35 years, the IB Program has developed a network of more than 3,700 schools in 145 countries. DCPS IB schools develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

Student Experience

The International Baccalaureate includes the following three programs:

Primary Years Programme (ages 3-12)

The PYP is an transdisciplinary, inquiry-based approach to instruction for students in the early grades. Students explore six questions across traditional academic subjects:

• Who we are?
• Where are we in time and place?
• How do we express ourselves?
• How does the world work?
• How do we organize ourselves?
• How do we share the planet?

Through a Program of Inquiry (POI) based on these themes, students engage with broad concepts across traditional disciplines, developing important skills and knowledge through research. In fifth grade, students complete an exhibition that reflects an area of interest using an inquiry-based process.

Shepherd Elementary School, Turner Elementary School and Thomson Elementary School are authorized PYP IB World Schools.

Middle Years Programme (ages 11-16)

Using global contexts, MYP students develop an understanding of the following themes throughout their coursework:

• Identities and relationships
• Personal and cultural identity
• Orientations in space and time
• Scientific and technical innovation
• Fairness and development
• Globalization and sustainability

These global themes provide students with an opportunity to engage in research; and the application of critical thinking skills. Students who complete the three-year MYP are prepared for challenging course work in high school. The MYP programme has two culminating experiences in eighth and eleventh grade. In eighth grade students will complete a community project that provides students the opportunity to collaborate service learning. In tenth grade, students will complete a personal project that explores an area of personal interest over an extended period. 

Deal Middle School and Eliot-Hine Middle School are authorized MYP IB World Schools.

Diploma Programme (ages 16-19)

The IB Diploma is a rigorous and demanding two-year pre-university program for highly motivated students in grades 11 and 12. To earn an IB diploma, students must complete the following:

• Courses and IB examinations in six academic subjects;
• Theory of Knowledge course, investigating learning and knowing across the traditional disciplines;
• 150 hours of a Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS) project;
• Original research and an extended essay of 4,000 words.

Students who successfully complete this program are awarded an internationally recognized IB Diploma in conjunction with their local school diploma.

Benjamin Banneker High School and Eastern Senior High School are IB World Schools that offer the IB Diploma Programme.

Contact Information

Bianca Duphey, Director, Academic Innovations
Kirsten Hagen, Manager, Global Studies
Caroline Faircloth, Specialist, Global Studies