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Educators Tout IB's Links to Common Core

Jayden Davies, from left, Gaby Porcaro, Makenna Sammons, and Marlena Grant work on a 4th grade Floods PowerPoint presentation during a science unit at Kate Sessions Elementary School in San Diego, Calif.

—Sandy Huffaker for Education Week

Program units used as bridge to standards

By Sarah D. Sparks

As districts nationwide scramble to translate the Common Core State Standards into concrete curricula and lesson plans, Principal Sue DeVicariis of Kate Sessions Elementary School in San Diego considers herself ahead of the game.

Her school is one of 342 nationwide to follow the Primary Years Program of the Swiss-based International Baccalaureate organization. Earlier this school year, Ms. DeVicariis and teachers met with colleagues across grades throughout the district to use IB inquiry-style units to create mathematics and English/language arts common-core curriculum units for San Diego.

“It’s the exact same intent, and in some cases the same wording as well,” said David Weber, an IB math teacher at the Preuss School-University of California San Diego, in La Jolla. “I would say IB has been well ahead of the common core in [math] in particular … One of the funniest and most interesting [differences] is that the IB objectives call for our students to actually enjoy math, which is starkly absent...