Portland Jewish Academy is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and is proud of our partnership with them in strengthening our local Jewish community as well as the global community.
International Baccalaureate® at PJA
Locally dedicated.
Culturally focused.
Globally aware.
These words describe PJA and its students. This year, PJA has taken its commitment to a broad-based, international education one step further by adopting the International Baccalaureate (IB) curricular framework. The IB philosophy, like PJA’s, emphasizes students as inquirers and explorers, both in the classroom and the world.
On a global level, the goal of the International Baccalaureate Organization is to create a more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. On a personal level, it encourages students to become active, passionate lifelong learners.
The thrust of the program in the lower school years is to help students acquire a holistic understanding of six themes. These themes play out in lessons that encourage knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and action. The themes are:
Who we are
Where we are in place and time
How we express ourselves
How the world works
How we organize ourselves
Sharing the planet
In middle school, the International Baccalaureate framework shifts to accommodate young teens’ intellectual development, providing them with discipline, skills, and more challenging standards while maintaining creativity and flexibility.
With its emphasis on cross-cultural learning and understanding, and focus on international languages, the International Baccalaureate program adds a truly global perspective to our already rigorous academic program. And the huge benefit to PJA students is how prepared they will be for the academic demands of the prestigious High School level of IB learning found in a few local Portland area High Schools. Onward and upward with IB!
Portland Jewish Academy (PJA) is a candidate school* for the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the Middle Years Programme (MYP). This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy-a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that PJA believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB organization can offer any of its three academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), or the Diploma Programme. Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org.
International Baccalaureate is a registered trademark of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). For more information about the International Baccalaureate Organization, please click here.
DID YOU KNOW?
TAG, You're It!
In PJA Grades 5 through 8, 53% of our students have test scores that qualify them for the Johns Hopkins University Talent Search for gifted and talented students.
Numbers Don't Lie
In PJA's Class of 2009, 61% of our students scored above the 95th percentile in mathematics.
Pomp and Circumstance
In Spring of 2009, over 7% of Portland Public School valedictorians were PJA graduates! 25% of the PJA Class of 2005!
