By Hannan Mohammed
Most high school students in America have heard of either the Advanced Placement program or the International Baccalaureate program, and many students take classes in these programs as a way to either earn college credit or to be better prepared for college with rigorous courses. However, many students also wonder what makes these programs different from, or similar to, one another.
There are two main differences between these two programs, which are their goals and what they emphasize: Advanced Placement emphasizes college-level courses to prepare students for success in higher education, while International Baccalaureate emphasizes global citizenship and a well-rounded education to prepare students for life beyond college.
But how do these two main differences show up? The differing emphases these two programs have reflects in how/where they were created, and the classes/curriculum.
Origins
While both the AP and IB programs originated in the same time period of the 1950s-60s, they were created in different countries and for different reasons as well.
In the 1950s, after the end of World War II, there was a gap between high school graduation and college graduation in the U.S.; the Ford Foundation created the Fund for the Advancement of Education, conducting two studies that found that high schools and colleges should work together to let high-achieving students work at a higher level. A pilot program was launched in 1952, and the College Board started administrating the Advanced Placement program in 1955.
From the 1970s through the 1990s, the College Board continued to expand its reach across America, including making efforts to include low-income students and using Pre-AP initiatives to prepare middle school students to take AP courses and exams in high school.
These efforts to reach more students and give them more access to higher-level classes that can prepare them for success in college and higher education reflects the AP program’s goal of closing the gap between high school graduation and college graduation by preparing students with college-level work.
The IB program, on the other hand, originated in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962, with English and French as the official languages. Originally, the first IB exams were taken in 1970; students from 12 schools in 10 countries took exams in the IB Diploma Programme, the first curriculum of the program.
Over the course of the 70s, new requirements were added, such as the Extended Essay in 1974, and IB conferences were held in The Hague, Geneva, and London, where 32 countries were represented. As the IB program continued to expand across the world, more curriculums were added: the Middle Years Programme in 1994 for students ages 11-16, the Primary Years Programme in 1997 for students ages 3-12, and the Career-related Programme in 2012 for students ages 16-19.
Each of these programmes are meant to give students a well-rounded education from a young age, prioritizing a global perspective with world languages and drawing attention to how students interact with the world in different ways, which reflects the IB’s goal of global citizenship.
Curriculum
The second way that the major difference between the AP and IB programs is shown is the structure of the curriculum and requirements to pass.
To start, the AP program offers about 40 different courses in basic subjects such as the arts, math and computer science, English, history and social sciences. However, these classes are more in-depth with specific focuses. For example, taking an AP History and Social Sciences course could mean taking a class that focuses on African-American studies, psychology, human geography, or even macroeconomics, depending on what a high school might offer. This is one way the AP program’s goal of college-level education is reflected; through highly-focused classes that are similar to courses you might take in college.
In the May of each year, AP exams are administered to students to show their mastery of what they learned. For most classes, this includes multiple choice questions and free-response questions. Most exams take around 3 hours. Then, students are given a score of 1-5.
The scores on the exams are important, since this can determine whether a student can earn college credit for the class; most colleges require a minimum score of 3-4 before awarding credit.
The IB program has a different structure; for students going into IB high schools in America, 9th and 10th graders are required to participate in the Middle Years Programme, which is meant to prepare them for either the Diploma Programme or the Career-related Programme. Most 10th graders are required to complete the Personal Project, which gives them a chance to explore their own interests and develop research skills.
After 10th grade, students can either go into the Diploma Programme (taking and testing in 6 IB classes), the Career-related Programme (the same requirements as the DP with the CP core and career-related studies), or to take regular high school classes and test in a few IB classes.
The IB DP courses can either be standard level (SL) or higher level (HL), and while they’re more broad compared to AP courses, they reflect the program’s emphasis on global citizenship by offering a more well-rounded education. In addition, DP students also have to complete a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class, an Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS). These extra requirements are meant to give students a chance to take their learning beyond the classroom and apply it to themselves or others, which reflects the program’s goal of helping students to succeed beyond higher education.
The IB exams are often taken in the spring of each year, which consists of internal assessments (fieldwork, laboratory work, investigations), which come from the classroom, and external assessments (essays, structured questions) which come from the IB program itself. These exams can take most of the day, and are scored from 1-7. These scores, along with completing TOK, the Extended Essay, and CAS, count towards completing the DP or the CP. Some colleges accept IB exam scores, but they are not as widely accepted as AP scores.
This curriculum structure reflects the IB’s goal of being well-rounded by giving students a broad range of subjects and it reflects the goal of success beyond higher education by giving them a chance to apply their education to themselves and the world.
Conclusion
The Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs share some similarities as programs that help high school students be more prepared and successful in higher education. However, their different goals of college preparation vs. preparation for global citizenship are reflected in their origins (AP starting in the US and IB originating internationally) and their curriculums of focused, in-depth classes (AP) and broad classes that can be applied beyond school (IB).
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For more information about either of these programs, please feel free to visit their websites here:
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