ANSWER:

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) is a Grades 6–10 framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers. Costs vary from year-to-year based on the number of staff members requiring professional development and the IB fees charged. 

The average cost of the programme is $188,499.  In addition, the cost includes $150,717 for 1.4 FTE teacher positions and related employee benefits, $27,732 for substitutes to provide class coverage while teachers are attending IB training, and $10,050 for annual fees.

MCPS schools that offer the IB Middle Years Programme include the following:  Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School; Roberto W. Clemente Middle School; Francis Scott Key Middle School; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School; Richard Montgomery High School; Montgomery Village Middle School; Neelsville Middle School; Newport Mill Middle School; Silver Creek Middle School; Silver Spring International Middle School; Springbrook High School; Julius West Middle School; Watkins Mill High School; and Westland Middle School. 

Two high schools do not have an IB MYP articulating to them.  They are John F. Kennedy High School and Rockville High School. 

Roberto W. Clemente and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. middle schools, direct feeder schools to Seneca Valley High School, are MYP schools.   Seneca Valley High School currently only is offering the IB Diploma Programme for Grades 11–12.

In order to become an IB World School offering an IB programme, schools must demonstrate that certain practices and programme requirements are in place and that implementation is in progress. IB will share with each school a report that structured according to the programme standards and practices.  This report describes the outcome of the process of verification and evaluation that the school has gone through.  It is based on the evidence provided by the school to demonstrate that it meets the IB requirements.

The report includes the following:

The full list of practices that must be in place, indicating those which were found to be in place (identified with YES) and those which were found not to be in place (identified with NO).

• For practices that were found not to be in place, the following will be identified:  associated finding(s), matter(s) that the school needs to address, and the evidence to be provided by the school.
• Matters to be addressed are areas within a school’s practices that, if not addressed immediately, will jeopardize the integrity of the programme and thus the school’s entitlement to be considered or remain an IB World School.
• Practices that were found to be in place or in progress, as required, which have an associated commendation or recommendation, will show related finding(s).
• Commendations relate to school practices that are beyond the requirements for authorization and will benefit the implementation of the programme.
• Recommendations provide guidance for the school on further developing the programme, and it is expected that the school incorporates these into its action plan in order to respond to them at the time of evaluation.

Once authorized, each IB World School is evaluated every five years to ensure that the standards and practices of its IB programme(s) are being maintained.  As part of the process, the school engages in a self-study that is a key element in the school’s continual improvement. 

Have we evaluated the programs for effectiveness?  

MCPS partnered with the International Baccalaureate for a research study to examine a comparison of MYP and non-MYP students’ participation and performance in high school. This study examined the impact of participation in the IB Middle Years Programme on high school course enrollment and achievement.  At the time of the research, MCPS IB spanned 22 authorized
IB programmes, including one Primary Years Programme (PYP), seven Middle Years Programmes, eight Diploma Programmes (DP), and two IB Career-related Programmes (CP).  Four of the high schools offering the DP also offered the MYP for students in grades 9 and 10.  
All PYPs and MYPs in the district employed a whole-school model.

This study focused on the relationship between previous enrollment in the MYP and the following high school outcomes:

• Participation and performance on Advanced Placement (AP) and DP exams
• Performance on SAT or ACT college admission tests
• Course-taking and exam performance in the DP

The MYP, an educational programme for students aged 11 to 16, provides a framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers (IB 2015).  The programme is intended to promote the education of the whole person, emphasizing the importance of a broad and balanced education.  The aim is to teach not only content knowledge but also to help students develop a genuine understanding of the underlying principles in and across disciplines.

This study compared the outcomes of high school students who had attended a MYP school with those of students who had attended a non-MYP school within MCPS.  Different samples were used to address the research questions.

• The first two research questions examined AP and DP exam participation and performance
  as well as the SAT and ACT performance of former MYP and non-MYP students. The groups were drawn from an earlier study sample (Wade 2011) and were matched on demographic characteristics, such as gender, race and ethnicity, and income level. Analyses compared outcomes for students who attended a MYP middle school in grade 8 during
  the 2009–2010 school year (N = 885) and students who attended a demographically similar non-MYP middle school in grade  8 during the same school year (N = 885).
• The third research question examined IB course taking and enrollment in the DP. Analyses compared outcomes of two groups of students, MYP and non-MYP, from three high schools. The high schools were selected for the study because they met two criteria:  first, they offered the DP; second, they enrolled students from both MYP and non-MYP middle schools.

Analytic groups were made up of 266 students who formerly attended an MYP school and 266 students who formerly attended a non-MYP school. The two groups of students were identified using propensity scores to match them based on demographic characteristics.

Findings

Impact of previous MYP enrollment on participation and performance on AP and DP exams results show that students previously enrolled in the MYP were 34 percent more likely to take at least one AP or DP exam in high school.  Moreover, MYP enrollment significantly increased the likelihood of achieving at least one “college-ready” score on a college preparatory exam (by 39 percent). Further analysis was conducted with the sample of students who took at least one college preparatory exam (AP or DP).  Results show that among these students, former MYP students took significantly more AP or DP exams and also earned more college-ready scores on these exams than their non-MYP peers.  The effect size results indicate that among AP or DP test-takers, the students who had previously attended an MYP school took on average one more exam than the non-MYP students.

Impact of previous MYP enrollment on performance on SAT or ACT tests previous enrollment in the MYP did not appear to be related to taking the SAT or ACT; similar percentages of MYP students and non-MYP students took the SAT or ACT.  Enrollment in the MYP also was not related to meeting the district target of 1,650 for the SAT or 24 for the ACT.  Lastly, scores on the SAT were not significantly different for former MYP and non-MYP students.  MYP students took on average a similar number of DP courses compared to former non-MYP students. Further analysis was performed with the sample of students who took at least one DP exam. Within this sample, previously enrolled MYP students earned more scores of 4 or higher compared with their non-MYP counterparts.  On average, students who previously were enrolled in the MYP earned one more score of 4 or higher than did non-MYP students.

Conclusions

Previous research has reported that students view the rigor of the MYP as a benefit of the programme (Wade and Wolanin 2013), and that MYP participation prepares students for the DP by providing them with an understanding of criterion-based assessment and by developing their organizational and inquiry skills (Walker, Bryant and Lee 2014).  The results from this study show that previous enrollment in the MYP increases students’ likelihood of participation in college preparatory coursework and achievement of college-ready scores on AP/DP exams.  Furthermore, MYP enrollment contributes in particular to achievement of more college-ready scores (4 or higher) on DP exams. The findings, however, show no significant contribution to participation and performance on college admission tests (SAT/ACT).

References

International Baccalaureate Organization. 2015. Middle Years Programme. Retrieved 1 February 2015, from http://ibo.org/en/programmes/middle-yearsprogramme/. Wade, J. 2011.

Student performance and student engagement in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme in Montgomery County Public Schools. Unpublished report dated March 2011. Rockville, MD. Wade, J and Wolanin, N. 2013.

Global mindedness and perceptions of middle school experiences among students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme in Montgomery County Public Schools. Unpublished report dated January 2013. Rockville, MD. Walker, A., Bryant, D., and Lee, M. 2014.

The International Baccalaureate continuum: Student, teacher and school outcomes. Report prepared for the IB.

MYP − DP Continuum and into Post-Secondary Study

MCPS currently is wrapping up a 2016˗2017 IB study to be published June 2019.  The study aims to investigate the academic pathways of the IB students across the MYP−DP continuum and into postsecondary education, with the purpose of documenting and identifying patterns in the students’ academic progressions based on data collected longitudinally in the district.

Research questions may include but are not limited to the following:

1. What are the demographic, academic, and non-academic characteristics of the MYP students who continue to DP, compared with those of MYP students who do not continue to DP?
2. Are there any differences in these characteristics by MYP−DP implementation format
   (i.e. MYP offered in Grades 9 and 10 within the same school with DP versus DP offered in Grades 11 and 12 without MYP in Grades 9 and 10)?
3. Which demographic, academic, and non-academic characteristics of the MYP students predict enrollment in the DP?
4. Which MYP student variables predict success in high school, in general, (for students who do not continue to DP), and in the DP (for students who continue)?
5. What does the academic performance of the MYP students who continue in the DP look like in high school? How does this compare with the academic performance of MYP students who do not continue in the DP?
6. What do the non-academic outcomes of MYP students who continue to DP look like in high school? How does this compare with the non-academic outcomes of MYP students who do not continue to the DP?
7. What do the postsecondary trajectories of MYP students who continue in the DP look like? How does this compare with the postsecondary trajectories of the MYP students who do not continue in the DP?  Do DP students with an MYP background (a) enroll in college
   (b) persist in college for 2 years and (c) graduate at higher rates than DP students without an MYP background?