Welcome to the 2024-25 school year and our first NKC IB newsletter of the year. We began this newsletter two years ago in an effort to keep families updated on all things IB! We will continue to use it to help you gain a better understanding of IB classes, IB instructional practices, upcoming IB events, general IB program news, and other pertinent IB information. At the end of each newsletter will also be an opportunity for you to share with us anything you'd like to have included in upcoming newsletters. Also, we encourage you to follow the #IBNKC hashtag on Twitter/"X" for lots of IB happenings.

We are also excited to welcome 124 juniors to the IB program. They join the 59 current seniors who will complete the program this year. One of last year's program goals was to improve our recruitment and retention efforts. With a total of 183 students, we are thrilled to say that about 21% of students in the junior and senior class are involved in the IB program. We are confident that these students are well on their way to being very successful human beings!

While our Honors/Pre-IB courses are designed to prepare students for entry into the IB Program, the transition to Grade 11 for IB students can still be a big one for students and families alike. To help you and your student better understand the IB Program and the expectations, we are offering a meeting for all families of Grade 11 students on Tuesday Sept. 10:

• 12:00-12:30pm - Online meeting via Teams. Here is the link to join on 9/10.
• 6:00-7:00pm - In-person meeting at North Kansas City HS (Auditorium)

The meetings will each cover the same information, including overviews of both programs, course loads, exam structure and scoring, academic integrity policies, important dates, etc. For those not able to attend, please know the online meeting will be recorded and shared with everyone after the meeting.

This year, we will use the newsletter to introduce you to much of the IB staff. In this first newsletter, we would like you to meet our new IB Career-related Program Coordinator and our new IB Head of School. After 11 years as the IBCP Coordinator, Dr. Lower retired at the end of the 2023-24 school year. We were so fortunate to bring on Dr. Martha DeVries as our new IBCP Coordinator. In previous roles at Northtown, Dr. DeVries has served as the IB Program Counselor and the School of Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Counselor, as well as the IBDP Counselor, as recently as last year. Dr. DeVries brings nearly 20 years of experience working with IB students, even including 3 years in an IB School in Hong Kong! In addition to serving as the IBCP Coordinator this year, Dr. DeVries is also co-teaching the Intro to Teaching course with Mr. Phil Miller and coordinating the Service Learning of all IBCP students. We are so excited to have Dr. DeVries on board in a new leadership role!

We are also thrilled to welcome Dr. Kari Harrison to the NKC IB Program this year. Dr. Harrison, who also serves as the assistant principal over the School of Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship, has assumed the role of IB Head of School, taking over for Dr. Khalandi, who is now a district leader in the Platte County School District. We are fortunate to have Dr. Harrison, who comes to us from Lee's Summit High School, which also has an IB Program. Her experience and new ideas will take our program to the next level.

The International Baccalaureate was established in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968. It emerged as a solution to the problem of varying curricula the children of diplomats were facing as they moved from country to country and school to school. The IB created schools that offered a consistent and rigorous curriculum, as well as aligned assessments, that prepared students for university admission and success. The IB offers a number of programs; but, in North Kansas City Schools, we are home to the IB Diploma Program (IBDP) and the IB Career-related Program (IBCP). The IB Diploma Program began at NKCHS in the 2002-2003 school year, with the first graduating class in 2004. Ten years later, we began offering the Career-related Program with the first class graduating in 2016. To date, we've had 726 students experience the IB Diploma Program and 167 students complete the IB Career-related program, as well as many other students successfully complete IB coursework.

Today, the International Baccalaureate is known across the world for its inquiry-based curriculum and instruction that prepares global learners for the demands of an ever-changing society. We are so fortunate that our district, the only one "north of the river" in the Kansas City metro area, supports these programs and fully funds the assessment fees and transportation needs of students. The 2-3 minute videos below outline a bit more about each program.

Each IB Program has a "core" that is in addition to the diploma program or career-related studies courses a student takes. The components of the core are at the heart of each program and are designed to enhance a student's acedemic and personal expereience. Below, you can see each core component and the NKCHS faculty member who supports your student in their core work.

One of our favorite days of the year took place yesterday! All IB Juniors came together for our annual IB Retreat. During our time together, we dug into what it means to be an IB student, how to handle the demands of an IB student, and just got to know each other a bit better. Some of our wise IB Seniors also joined us for a panel to answer the burning questions our Juniors had!

This year, our after school tutoring has been revised a bit. It will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:50-4:30pm in M107/M109. Below is a document that outlines the details and provides a QR to sign up to tutor.

Serving as a tutor in the Success Center would be a great way to meet CAS (DP) or Service Learning (CP) requirements. It can also count toward your A+ and/or community service hours! Our AVID students will provide a training on strategies you can use with students while tutoring.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ms. Klein (PAH Counselor).

As a part of their studies in Biology, Chemistry, Sports, Exercise & Health Science, or Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS), every IB student participates in a Collaborative Project.

Students will work with peers in other science courses to come up with a research question that will guide their Group 4 Project. Students will meet with the Group 4 teachers to learn more about this project on Tuesday, September 10, during MTSS. From there, they will determine a research question that will guide the studies they will perform at Line Creek on Friday, September 27. The final presentation is due on Friday, November 8.

This project will include students in ESS SL, SEHS SL, Biology SL, Biology HL 1, Chemistry HL, or Chemistry HL 1, as well as any senior in an HL 2 science course who did not attend last year.

Please remember that you have access to "all things IB" in our International Baccalaureate Canvas course. As a parent observer, you also have access to all of your student's classes, as well as this course. We keep meeting presentations, important dates, exam information, course syllabi, program policies, and so much more in this course. Please take a moment to take a look.

As a program, we regularly visit our program's policies to revise and update them to ensure they are current and relevant. These policies are housed in the International Baccalaureate Canvas course; however, we also wanted to share them in this newsletter for easier access.

• Academic Integrity Policy
• Admissions Policy
• Assessment Policy
• Inclusion Policy
• Language Policy

Do you have topics you'd like to see covered or questions you'd like to have answered in an upcoming edition of the "IB Happenings" newsletter? If so, please take a moment to share those with us here: https://forms.gle/3gJM6DLqJTj5NAXf8

Email: cymantha.beason@nkcschools.org
Website: https://bit.ly/NKCSIB
Location: 620 East 23rd Avenue, North Kansas City, MO, USA
Phone: 816.321.6508