A new study (shared by Alexander Russo on Twitter) has found that taking just one International Baccalaureate can have a powerful impact on a student’s future.
Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Monthly article about the research:
You can read The Washington Monthly story here, and see the a summary of the study here.
Of course, the research comes from the IB program itself, so an independent review probably would seem warranted.
The results make sense to me – we (led by Katherine Bell, the head of our IB program) work very hard at getting lots of non-Diploma-candidates into all our IB classes. My Theory of Knowledge classes are composed of anywhere from one-third to one-half of students not in the Diploma program.
Does your school’s experience reflect the study’s results?
I think this probably has something to do with the “teacher expectancy effect”. That’s what I would conclude. Not about IB itself but the way teachers approach the learner and their expectations thereof …