International Baccalaureate Program

International Baccalaureate Program (IB)

The International Baccalaureate (IB) programme, created in 1968, is a very rigorous series of academic programs for students world wide.

IB encourages students to: ask challenging questions, learn how to learn, develop a strong sense of their own identity and culture, and develop the ability to communicate with and understand people from other countries and cultures.

Desert Mountain High School now offers a fully authorized IB Middle Years Programme. Ninth and tenth grade students may apply to participants in this highly acclaimed internationally recognized academic program.

The IB MYP exposes students to six of eight subject areas, developing skills, and creating experiences so that students will learn to see knowledge as an interrelated whole. The instruction reflects and is responsive to the different perspectives of all students and should guide them in forming their own international outlook.

The IB MYP framework seeks to shift the emphasis from teacher-led instruction to student-led learning wherever possible.

A focus on higher-order thinking skills gives students opportunities to develop a growing awareness of themselves and others as they explore real-world issues (International Baccalaureate). The Middle Years Programme aims to help all students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and responsibility in their community.

Desert Mountain High School also offers the IB Diploma Programme, which has specific aims and assessment objectives, the distinctive aims of the program as a whole are to: provide an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education, promote international understanding, educate the whole person, emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth and develop inquiry and thinking skills, and the capacity to reflect upon and to evaluate actions critically. In order to be accredited by the IBO, schools go through an intensive application process and are reviewed every five years to make sure they are applying the IB standards. IB currently has authorized about 1300 schools in 100 different countries. Desert Mountain has been an IB DP authorized school by the IBO since 1999. The rigorous nature of the program is widely recognized by many selective and highly selective colleges and universities.

DMHS IB Diploma Program Application 2024-2025

CAS Presentation- November 1, 2023

DMHS IB Diploma Program Classes Offered

DMHS IB Diploma Program Testing Statistics

Three Core Components of the Diploma Program

Click here for the SUSD IB Homepage for more general program information