Michael Thier, Erin Fukuda, Stephanie Knight, Julie Sykes and Kristine Chadwick—Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC)
The International Baccalaureate (IB) has authorized more than 1,300 schools in about 145 countries to offer its Middle Years Programme (MYP) to learners aged 11 to 16. One of the MYP’s unique features is its focus on second-language acquisition, which the MYP codifies in its Language Acquisition Guide (MYP Guide). This study examined the alignment and coherence of the MYP Guide, and involved five phases: a literature review, a within-document analysis, a cross-document analysis, a progression analysis and a discrepancy analysis. Examining literature review findings alongside results from within- and cross-document analyses, researchers determined that the IB could consider attending to specificity and exemplification in some areas, but not universally across the MYP Guide. The researchers also recommended that the IB begin conversations about the scope and purpose of change before making any decisions about what in the MYP Guide requires revision, how to approach that revision and to what extent revision is advisable.
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