The International Baccalaureate® (I.B.) is a nonprofit educational foundation, motivated by its mission, focused on the student.

The International Baccalaureate Mission:
To develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

I.B. programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
 
Through I.B. Portland Jewish Academy is offered a curricular framework. I.B. doesn’t tell us WHAT to teach but encourages a method of teaching that embraces the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and in the world outside.

At different levels, the I.B. framework focuses on how children learn and change through their developmental years.

For instance, our elementary school students will experience I.B. slightly differently than our middle school students. The thrust of the program in the elementary years is to help students to acquire a holistic understanding of six main themes:

1. Who we are
2. Where we are in place and time
3. How we express ourselves
4. How the world works
5. How we organize ourselves
6. Sharing the planet

These six themes are represented in lessons that encourage knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and ACTION. Students will understand that there are certain facts, understand how those facts came to be, develop skills to arrive at their understanding in a way that works for them, realize and respect that someone else may have thought about it differently, and then learn how their skills and knowledge can lead to action, both historically and currently.

As our students approach and enter middle school, the I.B. framework shifts to accommodate the learning styles of older students, providing them with discipline, skills, and more challenging standards all the while maintaining creativity and flexibility.

We believe this model complements our curriculum quite well and our faculty has been intimately involved in the process of bringing I.B. to the school. Their excitement for working within the I.B. framework brings an unparalleled passion for teaching to the classroom which undoubtedly benefits our students.

© 2008 IBO.  International Baccalaureate is a registered trademark of the International Baccalaureate Organization.