What is the point of IB evaluation?

Introduction

School quality is ensured and improved through the IB evaluation process. Through the evaluation process, schools identify what works well and what needs further development to improve teaching and learning. The evaluation is also a collaborative process that seeks input from stakeholders, including educators, learners and parents. A process of preparing for IB evaluations is currently underway at my school. The purpose of this blog post is to share how we introduced the 2020 IB programme standards and practices and the evaluation process to teachers.

What are the differences between 2014 and 2020 programme standards and practices?

The 2014 Programme Standards and Practices (PSP) are the requirements for implementing any IB programme. The standards outline what schools must establish to implement the programmes and what they must demonstrate in order to maintain authorization. These are achieved by implementing the practices and meeting the programme-specific requirements outlined within each standard.

The 2020 PSP framework assists schools in describing and designing their development journeys and provides guidance on presenting evidence for authorization and evaluation. It is the purpose of the IB 2020 PSP to help schools design learning environments that are most suitable for their communities and celebrate diversity in the most appropriate way according to their unique context. However, In order for schools to remain or obtain authorization, they must meet certain requirements and specifications for their programmes.

The following information is extracted from the 2014 Programme Standards and Practices (published in 2014, updated in 2016) and the 2020 Programme Standards and Practices (published in 2018, updated in 2022). 

What is the value of the IB self-study?

In the 2020 PSP framework, four elements are emphasized: purpose, culture, environment, and learning. Each element is interdependent and represents a school’s ecosystem. It also gives schools the opportunity to examine the relationship between the IB philosophy and their school’s unique context, as well as to delve deeper into how the school’s policies, aspirations, learning space design, pedagogical goals and so on align with the IB mission and values. It is important to consider this when involving teachers in the evaluation process. There is no longer a focus on creating documents or collecting evidence to satisfy IB requirements. In the context of our school, a meaningful conversation would revolve around what we are already doing well and what we can do to enhance teaching and learning according to the IB PSP framework.

How do we engage teachers in exploring programmes standards and practices?

Introducing programmes standards and practices to teachers can be a daunting task. There are several ways in which this can be accomplished, but the most important factor to consider is not to overwhelm teachers with too much information. During the first meeting, it is essential to create a shared purpose for the evaluation, and the most important part is to guide teachers to reflect on and celebrate what they have already been doing that demonstrate the standards and practices. Our goal is for teachers to walk away from this meeting feeling confident about the IB evaluation and not feeling overburdened. Additionally, they are able to familiarize themselves with IB standards and practices and align their teaching practices with those standards and practices.

What protocol did we use to achieve our goal?

In this article, “Shared Purpose Made Easy”, I was inspired and shared it with my leadership team. Our curriculum pedagogical leadership team experienced the process and revised it accordingly. We called this the “What’s the Point?” protocol, and it’s most likely something teachers might be thinking of. The purpose of this protocol was to have teachers think about what the IB evaluation is and how it relates to their everyday work. Using this protocol, teachers first shared a personal purpose through an object and gradually moved onto work-related examples and their purposes. The workload of a teacher in a large school is always heavy, and everyone is not necessarily familiar with everyone else. In most cases, getting together is not easy, and it will be a missed opportunity if we don’t connect briefly. By sharing a personal object and purpose, teachers are able to share something about themselves.

Next, teachers selected a work-related example and write down the purpose. For example, it may be an activity they do in the advisory period, it may be a policy they’re working on, it might be a collaboration planning meeting, etc. After they take turns sharing the purpose in the group, they then read the standards and practices and identify which standard and practice their example best aligns to. They Write the reference number/s on their post-it.

How do we make connections with the 2020 Programme standards and practices?

We allocate time for teachers to connect and extend their thinking about the 2020 Programme standards and practices.

Conclusion

As a leadership team, we have intentionally introduced our teachers to the IB evaluation process and have taken the time to recognize the great things that teachers have been doing with students. The meeting takes many hours of discussion and planning. I hope that this blog post will be helpful to schools that are preparing for their evaluations as well.

By the way, before the meeting, we did a check-in activity called “I’m In!”. The check-in activity also helps create an atmosphere conducive to adult learning.