Congratulations, Paso Verde School!
Puma Principal Tonja Jarrell received the exciting news today that Paso Verde has been accepted into the pipeline for becoming an International Baccalaureate World School offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP). Officially, Paso Verde is now an IB candidate school and has two years to fulfill requirements for full authorization.
IB is a world-renowned academic program that emphasizes the following 10 “Learner Profiles”: IB strives to make students Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-Minded, Caring, Risk-Takers, Balanced and Reflective. Paso Verde hopes to join NUSD’s existing K-12 continuum of IB schools.
Principal Jarrell is ecstatic about IB’s notification of candidacy because her staff began training last summer to become an IB school and was training again today when IB’s letter was received. PYP describes itself as a program that “challenges students to think for themselves and take responsibility for learning as they explore local and global issues and opportunities in real-life contexts.”
Three of NUSD’s schools currently are IB World Schools: The PYP program is offered at H. Allen Hight Elementary School, the Middle Years Programme (MYP) at Natomas Middle School and at Inderkum High for grades 9 and 10, and the Diploma Programme at Inderkum for grades 11 and 12.
Paso Verde will serve students in Transitional Kindergarten through 6th grades this year. The school plans to expand to 8th grade in coming years.
The IB Organization requires schools advertising themselves as candidate schools to include the following informational text:
Paso Verde School is a candidate school* for the PYP. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. IB World Schools share a common philosophy – a commitment to high-quality, challenging, international education – that we believe 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 Program (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org
