IB MYP and Special Education Students

As the South Orange-Maplewood School District begins to implement the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP), we believe it is imperative that the interests of special education children be part of the conversation.

The philosophy of the IB MYP is consistent with, and will be a continuation of, the School District’s current emphasis on inclusion of special education students within the education framework for all students.   IB MYP sees diversity as a strength:

 "The IB supports the premise that schools should be organized in such a way that student diversity of all kinds can be included as a resource, seeing individual differences not as problems to be fixed, but as opportunities for enriched learning.."

(Special educational needs within the International Baccalaureate programmes) 

The IB MYP sets the goal of including the majority of special education students in the main program:

"With the right skills training, strategies and support, the majority of students with special educational needs can be successfully included in mainstream education."

(ibid.)

However, although the philosophy of IB MYP meshes with the current direction of our schools, the IB organization places the responsibility for implementation squarely on the school district.  Article 5.4 of the Rules for IB World Schools: Middle Years Program states that:

"It is the school’s responsibility to determine whether it can enroll a student with special needs into the MYP. Schools must ensure that legal guardians and students themselves are aware of the special arrangements for assessment made by the IB Organization for students with special needs. A school must not make special arrangements for assessment without the IB Organization’s prior approval."

Accordingly, it is up to the School District to make sure that we will be able to offer IB MYP to special education students and then inform the IB Organization of what arrangements are being made.

It is the school’s responsibility to determine whether it can enroll a student with special needs into the MYP. Schools must ensure that legal guardians and students themselves are aware of the special arrangements for assessment made by the IB Organization for students with special needs. A school must not make special arrangements for assessment without the IB Organization’s prior approval.

At this point, answers about who will be doing the documentation for IB compliance have not been given. 

The foreign language requirement of the IB MYP stands out as another unanswered question regarding IB adoption in our schools.  Currently, the School District does not include any foreign language instruction for students in 6^th grade.  Moreover, some students do not take a foreign language at all in South Orange-Maplewood.  In our platform, we advocate bringing daily language instruction back to 6^th grade.   In addition, we believe that in order to properly implement the IB MYP as a holistic program, we will have to find a way, where possible, to include more special education students into foreign language classes in the middle school.

 A major principle of IB’s Middle Years Programme is the personal project – “a significant body of work (that need not be a conventional research paper) produced over an extended period in the final year of the programme.”  The School District proposes that individual projects be done by “students exceeding rigorous standards.”   We believe that all students should have the opportunity and encouragement to complete a personal project for IB MYP, including special education students.  Our School District will need to think carefully and creatively about how a student with special needs will be appropriately guided and challenged through the process of completing a long-term project. 

Another area of concern is that the IB organization regulates what kinds of accommodations students are allowed in assessment.  While we haven’t been able to locate a document covering the MYP, the IB guidelines on the diploma program – which our School District is not adopting – are very specific as to what types of accommodations are permitted for special education students.  For example, there are accommodations now offered by the School District that may require authorization by the IB organization.  “For written examinations, additional time is normally restricted to 15 minutes for each hour of the examination.”  We believe that the School District must clarify what assessment accommodations are permitted by IB for special education students.  Additionally, the School District must negotiate a method by which we can efficiently pre-approve special assessment needs that does not put too much resource strain on administrators and teachers.

Finally, the success of IB MYP with special education students is going to rest with teachers.  As such, consideration needs to be given to specific professional development related to meeting needs of special education students in the areas of inclusion, differentiation and implementing the IB guiding principles in practice.  IB documentation states that “[t]eachers new to IB programmes may require factual and procedural knowledge when teaching [special education] students, such as:

 • information about factors that affect a student’s learning, particularly with regard to inquiry-based learning

• how best to respond to the student’s needs

• how to differentiate and match teaching approaches to the student need, as indicated in the school’s [special education] policy

• knowledge of technology that has assisted in alleviating and removing barriers to learning.”

IB MYP also has specific training directed toward this purpose, and if elected, we will ensure that this training is properly funded.  We will also require that, as part of our 2012-13 rollout of IB MYP, the School District develop a special education policy specific to IB MYP as part of a “review of… MYP’s implications for our special education practices and Section 504 Accommodation plans.”

In sum, the IB MYP holds promise for increasing rigor in our middle schools for all students, including special education students.  Moreover, the program’s philosophy of inclusion is consistent with the current direction of our district.  But implementation of the IB special education provisions, as well as the accompanying curricular changes, will require substantial work, and our schools will bear a burden of implementation.  We will have to think carefully and creatively about how to make sure that special education students are fully able to take advantage of the IB MYP.  As we move forward, we will have to support teachers and dedicate proper resources to ensuring that the promise of IB MYP extends to all students.

            -- Madhu Pai, Wayne Eastman, and Jeff Bennett --