Episode Details

Superintendent:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It's one of the most prestigious academic achievement programs available for high school students. And it's coming back to Jordan School District. We're talking about the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program, which will be located at West Jordan High School. On this episode of the Supercast, find out if your teen is a good candidate for IB and what the program can do for students determined to have a successful future during and after high school. Let's start by finding out what IB is all about with Chandler Bishop and Natalie Nielsen. I'm very excited that we have this program coming back to Jordan School District. And I'm just going to ask Chandler to tell us right out of the shoot. What is International Baccalaureate?

Chandler:
Well, thank you for having me. The International Baccalaureate Program is a diploma program. So it's a diploma that you get in addition to your high school diploma that is both nationally and internationally recognized. It's an extremely rigorous academic program that takes place over two years. So your entire junior year and entire senior year, you'll be part of the program. And in addition to the classes that you take, which are very similar to AP classes, although they take place over the two year period, you also have the core of the IB program, which includes an extended essay that you research on your own. Over the course of about a year and a half, you have the CAS Program, which involves what we might think of as extracurricular activities, as well as a service component. You will put together a service project and the Theory of Knowledge class, which you don't get college credit for if you take individually, but if you want the diploma, you have to take the Theory of Knowledge class, and it's sort of the secret sauce of IB. It's the class that ties all of the other components of IB together. And it's a class where you look at what is knowledge, how does knowledge relate to me? And how do I understand knowledge in all the other classes that I'm taking? And that's sort of a brief overview of the International Baccalaureate Program.

Superintendent:
In other words, a very rigorous academic program, but a well-rounded program that prepares students for all kinds of opportunities after they've completed that diploma.

Chandler:
Yes, absolutely. It's actually the program that best prepares students for life in college. So, just a statistic here for you, diploma students have a higher graduation rate of 80% at a four year college. Compare that to the national average of 40%. So a student coming out of the IB program is graduating college at almost twice the rate of the average college student. And it's because the preparation is so rigorous in their high school that they have no trouble transitioning to college.

Superintendent:
Natalie, tell us about your perspective on what does the International Baccalaureate Program bring to West Jordan High School and anyone who wishes to participate, because it's a districtwide program.

Natalie:
Well, I think the neatest part with the IB program is the emphasis on global mindedness. So, it's reaching out into the community and West Jordan is a very diverse school, so we always have embraced diversity here. And we have an amazing staff that really pushes students out