{"id":202677,"date":"2026-04-19T17:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202677\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:34:09","slug":"why-some-nyc-schools-are-embracing-international-baccalaureate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/202677\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Some NYC Schools Are Embracing International Baccalaureate"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published in Chalkbeat.<\/a><\/p>\n

A few years back, a groundswell of Brooklyn parents in District 13 wanted to ditch gifted and talented classes, concerned about sorting and segregating children starting in kindergarten.<\/p>\n

Then-Superintendent Kamar Samuels, now chancellor of New York City schools, wanted to find an alternative that offered rigorous academics for all students in a school rather than a select few. He settled on the International Baccalaureate, or IB, program<\/a> and encouraged schools in District 13, which spans from Brooklyn Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant, to pursue the yearslong authorization process, using a grant to support the shift.<\/p>\n

The IB approach embraces inquiry-based, transdisciplinary learning that allows students to go deep into a specific topic across classes, connecting global issues to their own experiences. Educators are trained to facilitate these connections and foster ways for students to become independent thinkers and leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means something for a teacher to be an IB teacher. It means you\u2019ve gone through a process,\u201d Samuels said in 2021<\/a>, when introducing the initiative, \u201cand you\u2019re really pushing the envelope as you think about all your students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district now has five elementary schools and two middle schools in the program, representing New York City\u2019s first IB \u201cpathway\u201d designed to serve children from 3-K through eighth grade. (The district also hopes that students continue on to the handful of public IB high schools in the city, including those in neighboring districts.)<\/p>\n

The IB model might soon gain in popularity as schools grapple with the state\u2019s graduation requirement overhaul, as the Portrait of a Graduate framework replaces Regents exams for diplomas starting in the 2027-28 school year. The approach closely aligns with the state\u2019s six key qualities<\/a> students must demonstrate (such as being creative innovators, effective communicators, and global citizens). And as schools await the state\u2019s guidance on how to assess students under the new framework, IB schools already have a well-developed system of project-based assessments.<\/p>\n

The schools also boast strong post-secondary outcomes: 71% of IB students in the U.S. enrolled in college compared to the average of 56%, the IB Schools and Colleges Association found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a recent Monday at P.S. 56, in Clinton Hill, second graders hummed as they worked on a project for a unit on self-expression. The kids were creating shapes to use for fabric construction, incorporating math, writing, and social-emotional learning as they jotted down the way the colors they used made them feel.<\/p>\n

In a fifth grade room down the hall, students \u2014 also doing a unit on self-expression \u2014 tackled a poem about technology, as they discussed the effect technology is having on education. Another fifth grade class read a poem about bullying, and students were asked to write their own poem about a problem they wanted to change.<\/p>\n

Jayda, a fifth grader, wrote about concerns with the increase in immigration enforcement across the nation. She recently participated in an anti-ICE protest that Lucy, another fifth grader, organized. They and their peers talked about how they struggled with writing when they were younger but have since blossomed as writers, especially as they\u2019ve been able to work on more creative writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s my passion,\u201d fifth grader Noah said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine life without it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracey Scronic, the instruction lead and coordinator for District 13\u2019s IB schools, sees the shift to the IB model as an \u201cequity tool\u201d to ensure all of a school\u2019s students are exposed to enrichment. She said it \u201cde-prioritizes traditional testing\u2019s emphasis on regurgitation of information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaning on IB to tackle enrollment declines<\/p>\n

The IB program at P.S. 56 has helped prop up enrollment, its principal, Eric Grande, said.<\/p>\n

Just before Grande became principal of P.S. 56 a decade ago, the Clinton Hill elementary school tried to bolster enrollment, then hovering below 200 students, by adding a gifted and talented program. Grande added a \u201cworld language\u201d program, focusing on Spanish, hoping that would attract more families. But the school didn\u2019t feel cohesive.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we had a relatively small school, there was almost like schools within the school,\u201d Grande said. \u201cYou had your world language Spanish program, your gifted and talented program, you had your special education classes and your gen ed classes, and it just started to feel a little bit off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students within the school, which is more racially diverse than most New York City elementary schools, were not integrated within the different programs, he said. (Last year, about 36% of its students were Black, 36% were white, 17% were Latino, and 1% were Asian American; roughly 47% of children came from low-income families.)<\/p>\n

Grande began looking for a model to bring everyone \u2014 and all of their different programs \u2014 together, appeasing families who wanted a foreign language and those who wanted a project-based approach to teaching. IB offered the \u201cperfect synergy of all things that we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school is now in its second year as an authorized IB school following three years as a candidate school. Enrollment has increased, with about 230 students last year.<\/p>\n

And while Grande said his school has never been too focused on test prep, he was proud to see a shift in state test scores since his teachers transitioned to the IB framework, from about 35% proficiency on reading in 2019, the year before the pandemic, to more than 60% last year.<\/p>\n

The move to IB can be challenging<\/p>\n

The buy-in from teachers on IB takes some time, said Scronic. They needed training to shift practices and must do more in-depth planning around the new units. They also needed to figure out how to meld the IB framework with the mandated literacy curriculum for their district, EL Education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit more cognitively intense for the teachers,\u201d Scronic said. But after a while, she said teachers feel like they\u2019re being respected again for their craft and facilitating connections between the curriculum and students\u2019 own lives. \u201cI feel like the passion that a brand-new teacher brings to the profession then kind of gets squashed sometimes, IB has brought that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becoming an authorized IB school is not easy. Schools have to pay the Switzerland-based nonprofit that oversees the IB program about $9,000 a year to start the training and candidacy process. It\u2019s about $10,000 each year once a school is authorized to support the implementation and maintenance of IB programs, according to the organization\u2019s website<\/a>. District 13 used a grant to cover the costs for the initial training for the schools, though the schools have had to foot the bill for new teachers.<\/p>\n

Though Scronic leads District 13\u2019s IB initiative, she\u2019s started holding monthly Zoom meetings for about 40 IB elementary and middle schools in the city, a grassroots effort to provide support and create a community to share best practices and resources.<\/p>\n

Samuels continued to promote IB schools when he left his Brooklyn district to become superintendent of Manhattan\u2019s District 3. He encouraged schools in Harlem to adopt the IB model as a way to tackle declining enrollment in a part of the district facing heavy competition from charter schools. (District 3 used a grant to cover the costs as well.)<\/p>\n

But Samuels acknowledged the challenges in pursuing IB authorization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe in a lot of the work of IB, but it really takes a big investment,\u201d he recently told K-12 Dive.<\/a> \u201cIt takes principals being onboard. It takes teachers being onboard and willing to go and get a lot of background and content knowledge, and to be able to personalize for young people and the kids in your school.\u201d<\/p>\n

A middle school IB program helps students find their \u2018voice\u2019<\/p>\n

Sanai Gary, an eighth grader at Bedford-Stuyvesant\u2019s Restoration Academy \u2014 which is in its first full year as an authorized IB school after its yearslong candidacy \u2014 said the IB approach has helped her deepen her learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how the topics transmit over to other classes. I feel like it helps me learn better,\u201d said Sanai. \u201cIt gives me more time to focus on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, she and her peers became clean water advocates after diving into a unit on global sustainability.<\/p>\n

It started after they read a novel in English class, \u201cA Long Walk to Water<\/a>,\u201d about the struggle in South Sudan for clean water. In their Individuals and Societies class (akin to social studies), a student brought up questions about the water crisis that started in 2014 in Flint, Michigan<\/a>, that got the students wondering about the water quality in their own school. So, in science class, they tested their school\u2019s water fountains and created makeshift filtration devices.<\/p>\n

Concerned about the color and clarity of their school\u2019s water, back in English class, the students mounted a letter-writing campaign to city officials demanding changes.<\/p>\n

Restoration Academy has struggled with enrollment and has long served marginalized students. The middle school currently has roughly 80 middle schoolers; about 80% are Black and Latino, and more than 90% are from low-income families. Pre-pandemic, about 20% of its students were considered proficient in reading. Since transitioning to IB, the scores have improved, rising to about 30% last year.<\/p>\n

But more importantly, Principal Adele Simon said, students are increasingly linking what\u2019s happening around the world to their own lives and finding their voices to advocate for change based on what they\u2019re learning in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the connection between what they\u2019re reading,\u201d Simon said, \u201cand not just reading it for the purpose of reading it, but reading it for the purpose of, \u2018Okay, what am I going to do with this? \u2026 Who\u2019s in power and who is not in power? And how can I make sure that the people in power represent me and my community?\u201d<\/p>\n

Their school is getting new water fountains with filtration devices this spring.<\/p>\n

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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