Aug. 16, 2019
Completes IB continuum for grades K-12 on city’s South Side
San Antonio ISD today announced that Burbank High School has earned a second designation from the International Baccalaureate organization. This new designation authorizes the school to offer the Middle Years Programme for grades 9 and 10. As the District’s first IB World School and the oldest in Bexar County, Burbank already has been providing the Diploma Programme for grades 11 and 12 for more than 20 years.
Burbank’s newest designation completes the first IB continuum of learning on the South Side of San Antonio. Schools that feed into Burbank – Briscoe Elementary and Harris Middle School – also are IB World Schools offering the Primary Years Programme in the elementary grades and the Middle Years Programme in grades 6-8 at the middle school level.
“I am very proud of this accomplishment that was made possible by the commitment our staff, students, and parents made to provide our students a learning environment that is unique,” said Burbank High School Principal Miguel Elizondo. “The Middle Years Programme embodies best practices and research-based teaching and learning experiences that benefit all learners.”
The IB World School distinction is acclaimed worldwide because the IB programme’s active and engaging framework prepares students for college, and primes them to excel as lifelong learners in our global society. Graduates of Burbank’s IB programme have been accepted to Yale University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and the University of Rochester.
“An IB education means more than academic success,” said Dr. Courtney Gober, assistant superintendent for International Baccalaureate Schools in SAISD. “The IB Programme instills the characteristics that will help ensure student success in all of their goals. Students are nurtured to become thinkers and inquirers, as they also grow into principled, reflective and caring individuals.”
SAISD boasts five IB World Schools and four IB Candidate Schools, and is the only school district in the county to offer an IB education at the elementary, middle and high school levels. It offers the full IB continuum – Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes – in two SAISD high school feeder patterns.
In addition to the three IB World Schools within the Burbank feeder, there is another K-12 pathway in the Jefferson High School feeder pattern, which includes IB World Schools Jefferson High School and Woodlawn Academy.
Four other SAISD schools in the Jefferson feeder are in their candidacy phases: elementary schools Huppertz and Woodlawn Hills, as well as Fenwick Academy and Longfellow Middle School. While candidate schools are still in the process of becoming IB World Schools, they offer a full IB framework.
SAISD hosts the largest number of IB and IB-candidate schools throughout Bexar County – totaling nine IB campuses, which serve approximately 5,750 students.