International Baccalaureate

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Through the partnership with Texas Council for International Studies (TCIS), Las Palmas Leadership School for Girls and Roy Cisneros Leadership School for Boys are Candidate Schools* for the PYP & 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 Edgewood believes is important for our students.

*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP), or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org

Through the implementation of International Baccalaureate® (IB) program, these campuses - along with the Texas Council for International Studies - will promote their mission to develop internationally minded students who are caring, respectful, and mindful of intercultural interactions and differences. It is because of this that our students will be responsible, inquisitive, honest, and open-minded as they work hard to improve academically and personally.

Benefits of International Baccalaureate (IB)

The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These 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. (Source: International Baccalaureate®)

IB Educational Plan and School Design

We will provide access to an International Baccalaureate® (IB) education for all Las Palmas and Roy Cisneros students through the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and eventually the Middle Years Programme (MYP). PYP and MYP will be used as the framework to advance student achievements as measured by STAAR. Bringing the PYP and MYP, will provide a continuum of IB programs as students begin their education, translating to a strong foundation and preparation for high school.  


As school wide programs, IB provides educational breadth and depth of learning. Through the PYP, all faculty will receive IB professional development enabling them to write planners to focus instruction through the six transdisciplinary themes of:

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

Students will compile a portfolio from grade 1 through grade 5. Each student’s portfolio contains the summative assessment and student selected work samples for each of the six transdisciplinary units at each of the grades. We will foster the interdisciplinary learning that is a tenant of the IB program by creating systems to facilitate planning and creation of each student’s portfolio. IB requires PYP to be a school-wide program and requires all student groups (Special Education, GT, ELL) have access. IB collaboration enables teachers in professional learning communities to analyze data and adjust/differentiate instruction if needed.

IB School Culture

Service is a core component of International Baccalaureate® (IB). All students will be encouraged to demonstrate their learning through both service and action within the community. Service opportunities are developed by the students as their learning causes them to act. Service learning is a key and integral part of the IB. All Primary Years Programme (PYP) students in grade 5 complete an independent unit of inquiry and teach the unit at Exhibition.

Exhibition teaches students to collaborate and enables them to make a positive difference in their community. Service learning continues into the Middle Years Programme (MYP) where all students in grade 8 will complete a Community Project. This Community Project teaches students to collaborate and enables them to make a positive difference in their community.


The IB Learner Profile

All International Baccalaureate® (IB) schools encourage students, parents, and staff members to be mindful of the IB Learner Profile. This profile names ten different attributes, which the school believes all learners should demonstrate:

Caring, thinkers, risk-takers, open-minded, balanced, inquirers, knowledgeable, communicators, principled, and reflective.

IB schools encourage these attributes through purposeful teaching, learning and student self-reflection. It is the goal of all IB schools that students, parents, and staff members be continually reflective of these ten attributes and constantly look to better themselves through their work. Primary Years Programme (PYP) teachers will use the Learner Profile traits with students to have them explore their own passions and traits. Expansion of the IB will bring the Learner Profiles into the culture of the school and provides social-emotional learning framework.

Educator Professional Development
International Baccalaureate® (IB) professional development incorporates world-wide instructional best practices. Specials teachers will be included in each grade’s planning to connect learning across all disciplines. Teachers will be trained in the IB Approaches to Teaching and enhance their instruction to be based on inquiry, focused on conceptual understanding, developed in local and global contexts, focused on effective teamwork and collaboration, differentiated to meet the needs of all learners, and informed by assessment (formative and summative).

Pedagogical skills learned will change instruction across the school in all courses including courses that serve students with IEPs and English language learners. Another benefit will be greater vertical alignment. The schools will ensure students fully develop their skills throughout elementary school as the teachers collaborate and share from grade to grade in vertical and horizontal teams. TCIS will provide professional development days to support vertical alignment.