With the introduction of a new school year at Clinton, comes the introduction of a new IB programme for middle school and 9th and 10th grade students. Clinton was already an IB school, offering the IB Diploma Programme for 11th and 12th grade students to take, and, this year, Clinton extended the IB to middle grades after approval to participate in a part of the The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP).
Over the past few years, students in 10th grade have also participated in creating a Personal Project, which is a part of the MYP curriculum. But now with the official MYP certification, many things will be changing for 9th and 10th grade students.
So what does this mean for returning and new Clintonians that are now going to be in the MYP? Well, according to the official International Baccalaureate website, the MYP is a five year programme created with the needs of middle year students in an IB or international school. It strives to lay down the foundation for “intercultural understanding, communication and holistic learning.”
The grading system at Clinton for students in these affected grades is also changing, now operating on a scale of 1-8 for an IB grade which will then be translated into a local grade, from 1-100%, unlike in past years when teachers have just used local grading. Students will also be graded in different criterias like Knowing and Understanding, Organizing and Developing, and Application and Communication in an MYP based rubric. Now, work will be split up into three categories; learning experiences, similar to Hawk Habits, worth 10% of an overall grade, formatives, smaller, lower stake work, worth 30% of an overall grade and summatives, worth around 60% of an overall grade.
Along with the introduction of new grading systems, some old ones are saying goodbye. Hawk Habits, a beloved part of the Clinton grading system and a way to get extra grade points for completion in homework or organization, is going away to make room for the new MYP system. But not to worry, a similar MYP component to Hawk Habits, Learning Experiences, is being added to the grading system, so it seems some things will stay similar. Clinton will also be continuing the Personal Project, an external assessment that is an official part of the MYP.
Although components of MYP were fused into 9th and 10th grade curriculum last year, such as the Personal Project, which is fairly new to Clinton and was started as a pilot program a couple years ago for 10th graders, this is the first year Clinton will officially be offering the MYP and forced to confer to standards, such as grading criteria and assessments.
There are many mixed feelings among students about navigating this new curriculum. Alice Wilding, a 10th grader at Clinton says, “I think that it’s definitely a big change from last year because I feel like there is less variety in what is being graded. It will definitely be a huge adjustment.” With this new change, Clinton will also now be a full IB school for all grades. “I am excited because I feel like it will prepare me more for the IB in 11th and 12th grade.” says Wilding.
With this new change, there is a lot of unknown ahead regarding how Clinton will change but it’s definitely exciting. The Toddle gradebook for most MYP students will go live on October 6th, which will give a more clear view on what is to come next for 9th and 10th graders.
