The IB, together with its schools and other partners in education, always strives towards access and inclusiveness for students of all abilities and backgrounds. This has been particularly evident in 2018.
Uplift Education—a network of public charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas in the United States of America, is a sterling example of this. Founded in 1996, Uplift—with its mission to close the achievement gap between students regardless of their ethnic or socio-economic background—now serves nearly 20.000 students in 37 schools. Many ‘Uplift’ schools offer the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme, and Uplift is now one of the top five IB school districts in the United States of America. The 33 IB programmes offered at Uplift schools are essential to their success.
“Uplift Education’s mission is to serve high-needs communities in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Research shows that the International Baccalaureate continuum provides a holistic, global approach to learning that prepares scholars academically and emotionally to reach their highest potential in college and beyond. For that reason, we have taken the journey to bring IB for All to our growing network of 37 public charter schools.”—Yasmin Bhatia, Chief Executive Officer Uplift Education
Another example of access and inclusiveness is the implementation of the IB’s programmes in Nova Scotia, Canada. The province has been supportive of the IB diploma for a long time—paying all IB fees for all 13 public IB World Schools across the province and, by doing so, giving over 50% of high school students access to an IB World School. For the last two years, Nova Scotia has also provided online learning to supplement the classroom experience—specifically in math and music. This has allowed small schools to diversify their IB offerings, serve more students and keep their programmes going.
