Jonathan Nakamoto, Erin Murphy and Shannon Nemer McCullough – WestEd
This study examined the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and its relation to school climate in California public schools. Researchers explored whether school climate outcomes, as assessed by the California Healthy Kids Survey, change after schools have been authorized as IB World Schools offering the MYP. The study involved student-level data from grades 7 and 9 from 43 MYP and 673 non-MYP schools, spanning the school years 2003–2004 through to 2019–2020. Findings revealed no changes on the eight school climate outcomes at the study schools after they had been authorized to offer the MYP, suggesting that the MYP did not have a measurable impact on the school climate of these schools. Though findings from this study did not identify improvements in school climate associated with schools’ MYP implementation, another MYP sample or an alternative research design could result in a different pattern of findings. Because the MYP was not developed as a school climate intervention, the IB may need to shift attention toward specific school climate indicators if it intends to see noticeable improvements that result from introducing the programme.
