With a focus on multicultur al awareness and 21st century skills, Santa Clarita V alley International Charter School has been named an International Baccalaureate candidacy school, officials announced this week. SCV International is the first Santa Clarita V alley school to earn the status, which applies to gr ades six through 10, said Amber Golden R askin, SCV International’ s executive director of business dev elopment and oper ations. The school is adding a grade a year, and will add gr ades 11 and 12 in the next two y ears. “I think it lends prestige to our curriculum, ” Raskin said of the distinction. The title w as given by the International Baccalaureate, a worldwide nonprofit educational foundation that pro vides standards for how students can mak e the connections between academic subjects and ev eryday life. Schools must apply and be accepted before they can offer the progr am, which varies by grade level. Outside of the SCV, nearly 30 California schools, r anging from San Diego to San Mateo , offer the I.B . Middle Years program. SCV International is a K 12 charter school launched in 2008, and focused on project based learning, giving students academic flexibilit y and handson programs to learn. School leaders will spend the next couple of y ears refining the charter school’ s curriculum so it reflects the principles of the I.B . program, Raskin said. Teachers will also undergo I.B . training and administr ators will attend workshops. The school hopes that in the next two y ears, its first gr aduating high school class will have the I.B. diploma designation, R askin said. SCV International already incorpor ates many aspects of the I.B . program, including a focus on arts, music, technology and 21st century skills. “We set it up from the beginning for this, ” she said. For instance, the school will offer an inter active class about games for eighth through 11/8/2016 2/2 10thgraders during the 201112 school y ear. The yearlong course will ha ve kids apply math skills b y designing games that will be tested and pla yed by their classmates. SCV International will also focus on teaching kids service learning and contributing to the local and global communit y through handson projects and progr ams. “It’s just really preparing them for college, ” Raskin said. “It ’s really getting them to think for themselv es.” As in other I.B . programs, SCV International relies less on standardiz ed tests and more on essa ys, interactive classes and individual learning to assess students. “It’s less about passing the test and more about creating human beings that contribute,” she said.
