Progress Report: Becoming the Only Public Schools in the Austin Area to Offer the International Baccalaureate for All

Starting as early as pre-k at Wayside Schools, students learn to think inquisitively, build positive character traits, and understand the connections between people, places, and things around the world through the district’s International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula framework. The IB is comprised of four world-class programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-Related Programme (CP).

IB Authorization Trivia

One of the biggest features of Wayside Schools is that it is becoming the only public school district in the Austin area to offer an IB education to all students, at all grade levels. In order to do this, all of Wayside’s campuses must become fully authorized, which can take 3-4 years to achieve. Once the district becomes fully authorized for one of each of the IB Programmes, it can claim that it offers the full IB continuum.

Current IB Statuses at Wayside Schools

The current IB statuses of our schools are as follows: Wayside REAL Learning Academy (REAL), which serves grades PK3-5, is a fully authorized IB World School offering the PYP while Wayside: Sci-Tech Preparatory (STP), which serves grades 6-12, is a fully authorized IB World School offering the MYP. Wayside: STP is undergoing its authorization visits for the DP and CP this month. Once authorized, Wayside Schools will offer the full continuum of IB Programmes in its district.

However, in order to claim that Wayside Schools officially offers the IB for All, there are still two other campuses that must be authorized. At Wayside: Altamira Academy, which serves grades PK3-3, it has been an exciting start to the school year because they were able to apply for IB authorization after being a candidate school for only one year. Wayside: Eden Park Academy, which serves grades PK3-6, is still in the candidacy phase and is well on its way to applying for authorization.

The IB authorization process is very rigorous, which makes the district proud of all the hard work our faculty and staff at each campus put into adhering to the high-quality educational standards that are required.