International Baccalaureate at Birchwood Elementary

After reopening in the fall, the staff at Birchwood Elementary school intends to pursue the authorization of Birchwood as an International Baccalaureate World School. Rob McElroy, an Executive Administrator on Special Assignment for the district, said that Birchwood will most likely begin the process but submitting a letter of intent to the organization in the fall. Matthew Whitten, the new Birchwood principal, expressed his interest in the program by saying “exploring International Baccalaureate is something that I really value and as a parent would want for my kid.”

            According to McElroy, “The International Baccalaureate Organization is a non-profit organization supporting a worldwide network of schools that make application to deliver one of their programs.” The organization offers a Primary Years Program, a Middle Years Program, and a Diploma program, which can also be supplemented with a Career-related Certificate.

            Birchwood, as an elementary school, will be looking to implement the Primary Years Program, which is for children ages 3 to 12. Before working at the district office, McElroy was the principal at Wade King Elementary, which was the first elementary school in Washington State to offer the Primary Years Program.

Since then, Northern Heights Elementary, also in the Bellingham School District, has become an authorized International Baccalaureate school with the same program, making them the only two elementary schools in the state. According to McElroy, two more elementary schools in the district, Alderwood and Carl Cozier, have been accepted as candidate schools by the organization.

According to McElroy, the authorization process starts with a school doing a feasibility study to learn more about the program and how it will fit into the school. Then a letter of intent must be submitted to the International Baccalaureate Organization. To become a candidate school, the staff must begin to implement some elements of the program, then fill out what the organization calls Application A, to show their commitment to the program and demonstrate what elements have already been put in place.

In order to fill out Application B, the candidate school must more thoroughly incorporate the elements of their selected program. International Baccalaureate will then send a consultant to assess the progress and give further recommendations. This process continues for one to two years until the staff feels they are ready for authorization.

After submission of Application B, a team from the organization will visit for a couple of days to observe classes and talk to the community and administration. The team will then send a recommendation back to the organization about whether a school should be authorized, and the International Baccalaureate Organization will make the final decision. McElroy said that from the feasibility study to authorization, the whole process usually takes two to three years.

Part of the implementation process is making sure the school has alignment with the International Baccalaureate vision, and “their vision is really developing whole kids who will make contributions a better and more peaceful world, so it’s a rigorous curriculum,” said McElroy.

The curriculum, according Whitten, is “really about developing a program of inquiry” Every grade has different curriculum, so “basically each grade level has different units of inquiry, focused on different themes,” added Whitten.

Carolyn Hinshaw, one of the new teachers that will be joining the Birchwood staff, said that “students get a chance to do high leave questioning and thinking. They explore their world in a multi-discipline, non-art, integrated way.” McElroy explained that this trans disciplinary curriculum is organized into investigating important central ideas instead of subjects, such as writing, math, reading and science, investigated individually.

The International Baccalaureate program emphasizes student action, “so teachers at IB schools support kids in taking action based on their new learning,” said McElroy. Another important aspect of the program is character development, which is demonstrated through a learner profile.

A learner profile is a set of ten attributes that exemplify an “internationally minded individual,” according to McElroy. Some of these attributes include open-minded, risk-taker, and being principled.

“They’re really attributes about people who are world changers, people who make contributions to a better more peaceful world,” McElroy added. “So they’re not attributes of CEOs or presidents of the United States.”

Yet another element of the program is the second language portion of the program. Students at International Baccalaureate schools are required to be taught a second language, “whether it’s teaching a class or whether the school is doing some form of language immersion,” said McElroy. The purpose of this portion is not just to gain an additional skill, “but it’s also helping kids understand a culture that’s significantly different than their own,” said McElroy. “That’s part of the international mindedness we’re trying to develop in kids.”

McElroy has seen first-hand from being the principal of an International Baccalaureate school the effect this program has on students. “They’re more inquiring, they’re curious, they’re feeling confident about their ability to ask questions and do research, so they’ve got better research and communication skills,” said McElroy. The students know longer wonder what the point of learning a subject is or how they’re ever going to use it in life “because they see really relevance with what they’re learning,” said McElroy.

The direction of this program is to prepare children for the world they will inherit. “Most of our problems that we need to problem solve around transcend borders,” said McElroy. “They’ve got to be world citizens too.”

Some of the problems, according to McElroy, that the children of today will inherit are sharing the planet, environmental issues, and how to problem solve around technology, among other issues. So children participating in this program will be “exploring a central idea and asking their questions about that central idea in a formal, structured way, finding out, presenting their findings, and then taking action,” explained McElroy.

The Birchwood staff has already begun the process to becoming an International Baccalaureate school. While they have to be a fully operational school in order to send a letter of intent, Whitten has confirmed that the staff that has been hired has already engaged in training for the style of teaching the program requires.

Most of the cost that comes with the program comes from the hiring of the correct staff. Since the school is reopening it is a process of reallocation staff, and making sure they acquire a world language teacher to teach the second language portion. They must also be prepared to support a part-time International Baccalaureate coordinator when the time comes for the evaluation of the implementation of the program.

Once the school is authorized, there will be an annual fee of $8 thousand, which pays for International Baccalaureate consultants and an online curriculum center. McElroy said that a small portion will be paid at the district level, but that the largest cost for the school will be the staffing portion.