Preparing for IB Evaluation or Authorisation
Deciding to become an IB school is a big decision - not least because it involves a huge amount of work, organisation and collaboration. I have been through the process from both sides: as a representative of IB and as a school leader. I frequently lead the official IB workshops for school heads and programme coordinators going through the authorisation process, have visited schools on behalf of the IB to verify their readiness to become authorised, and have experienced the journey as a head.
Once you are authorised, you then agree to undertake evaluation by IB every 5 years, for every programme you offer. I frequently lead heads and coordinators through the official IB workshops surrounding this evaluation journey: Planning for Programme Evaluation; Role of the Coordinator; and Leading the Learning. As an evaluator for IB, I frequently review schools' documentation on behalf of IB and visit schools to undertake their evaluation visit, writing the reports that schools receive.
I have worked with hundreds of schools, heads and coordinators to help them understand the process and how to best organise and prepare for the different stages. I notice a few common obstacles:
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Continuum schools struggling to achieve coherence across programmes - particularly across primary and secondary.
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Schools with national education models and an IB programme 'bolted on' struggling to cover the demands or cultural norms of both systems.
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International schools with a particular flavour - e.g. British schools overseas - moving from one system (e.g. IGCSE) into IB DP often encountering friction points.
School leaders are often very conscientious, but usually struggle to know where to start in translating their expertise from one system into the IB ecosystem. My support therefore focuses on four things:
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Identify where you are already doing great IB-aligned things. The IB does not own the monopoly on great teaching and learning: where are your existing strengths and how does that translate into 'IB speak'?
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Identify where the gaps in your school's collective knowledge is: Many national systems don't have an expectation on certain areas that IB does (e.g. on intentional interdisciplinary connection-making being visible in planning and execution).
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Integrate the direction of travel into my advice: IB education is constantly evolving, and my involvement in the 16+ review, curriculum design and development at IB, and role as a research contributor to IB processes helps me to see the bigger picture. There is no point in me advising you to invest staff energy and political capital into areas that won't be there in a couple of years; rather it's more useful to you to have strategic insight into where you are in relation to where the IB is going next. Your development should be intelligent, not purely reactive.
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Concrete next steps: what's the logical order of tangible actions the leadership team can make in order to authentically improve the fidelity of the programme, and thus the quality of learning, in the school?
One strand of my consultancy is therefore to work with schools looking for an outside pair of eyes in their development as an IB school. Whether this is to help you prepare for an upcoming authorisation or evaluation process, or to go in depth on a particular development project to improve learning and teaching in between evaluations, I offer a bespoke service of support, advice, and objectivity.
"Mock" Evaluation Visits
Partnering with schools, I undertake a whole evaluation process beginning with reviewing all relevant documents and policies, feeding back on strengths and areas needing development. Then, following some video calls to learn more about your school and context, I spend a few days in your school, meeting students, teachers, parents, governors and leaders, observing lessons and immersing myself into daily life. These discussions, observations and documents inform a thorough report of the state of your school, aligned fully with the IB Programme Standards & Practices, with concrete advice given on tangible actions to take next, in an order that makes logical sense. Usually, site visits take 4 days - longer than an official IB visit - in order to truly 'get under the hood' of your provision.
Document Review
If a lighter touch is needed - perhaps budget won't stretch to an onsite visit, timing isn't compatible, or you are confident of most aspects of your learning, purpose and environment within the Programme Standards & Practices - I can undertake a document-only review of your school and programme. Similar in scope to the IB's preliminary review (the first stage of the official evaluation) or the reading of the initial application for authorisation, my review of your documents will focus on how well you meet the IB requirements. However, going beyond this, I also feedback on the extent to which you develop above the minimum expectations. I will look for coherence, clarity and indicators of potentially notable practice. Likewise, if documents indicate that a visiting team may want to dig deeper, that practices are inconsistent or raise further questions, I will include suggestions for next steps in my report.
Designing Programme Development Plans (PDP)
One of the most common pitfalls I see in schools - either through my role as an IB evaluator or through my private consultations - is a rushing, or misunderstanding, of the role of the PDP. IB expect schools to be always engaged in school improvement initiatives. These should take the form of action-research projects, be targeted and well defined, intentional, and always focused on improving the student experience in some way. Some schools call these initiatives 'School Improvement Plans', some call them 'School Development Plans' and there are other names too. The IB evaluation process calls it a Programme Development Plan or PDP for short. I partner with school leaders all over the world to coach them towards planning real, authentic, impactful change in a specific aspect of learning, teaching, assessment, culture or environment. I demystify the PDP planning template, and work side by side with leaders over time - usually several months - to ensure that the PDP submitted to IB is a record of intentional practice as it unfolded, not a form that was filled out after it was all over. More importantly, your PDP process then becomes authentic professional and systems learning in your school, with genuine reflection that empowers you to shape your own improvements rather than trying to satisfy a largely absent external master via an evaluation framework that only pops its head up once every 5 years.
Policy Review
The culture at your school is multi-faceted. The IB highlight 5 cultural domains that are particularly important in striving to fulfil the mission of an IB school. They say that these 5 cultures are best manifested through 5 adjacent policies, and so these 5 policies are mandatory for you to submit at evaluation or authorisation time. In my resources section, you will find free handbooks that offer general guidance in constructing or reviewing each of these policies, but I often work with schools to guide their own policy review committees through the audit, development and communication of updated policy. One crucial part of policy review is to benchmark your practices against two external sources: IB 'must haves'; and 'norms' for international schools in your region and across the globe. But in the busy lives of school leaders, often fighting fires and trying to keep the plates spinning, it can be difficult to keep that perspective on what other schools are doing and whether your long-established practices (or even the new ideas) are the best way of doing things. This is why most schools I partner with for policy review rely on my understanding of how lots of schools around the world do things differently to one another, and therefore which practices may be best suited to your context. My knowledge of the IB's 'must haves' is also crucial here. Reviewing school policies on behalf of the IB, as well as leading authentic collaborative policy review in my own schools, I know how important it is to have policies that genuinely reflect what happens on the ground: they must both shape and reflect the practice, and never become disconnected from school life.
