A candidate is a student who is in the IB diploma program; they are candidates for the IB diploma until their exam results are finalized, usually after graduation.

Creativity, Activity, Service. This is the major “out of class” requirement for the IB students. Essentially, students in grades 11 and 12 are required to complete a senior long term project with at least 150 hours of documented activities in the areas of creativity, activity, and service and meet 8 learning outcomes. An oral presentation is the culminating activity for their CAS requirements. For more details about CAS, see the IB Student Handbook (Coming Soon).

"Candidate" is the old term used for students taking only individual IB courses; the new term is “Diploma Program Course Students.” Students who do not achieve the full Diploma may still test in their course and receive scores to earn a certificate verifying their scores in each subject. If a Course Candidate scores a score of 4 or better in an HL course, they may likely receive college credit depending on the university.

"Coordinator" is the title of the person who oversees the day to day operations of the IB program, arranges schedules and examinations, advises students and communicates the IB philosophy to students, faculty, and parents.

Students taking six IB subjects are pursuing the IB Diploma, sometimes called the “full Diploma.” The subjects include Language A (English), Language B (Second Language), Individuals and Societies, Mathematics, The Sciences, and The Arts. Students must also complete requirements in TOK, EE, and CAS.

Diploma Programme is the final 2 years of high school for an IB student pursuing the full diploma.

The DP Core includes Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS), and Extended Essay (EE).

The External Assessment (EA) is the culminating assessment for each course taken in the form of an exam in May of the year they complete the course, senior year for most courses.

Extended Essay. During the two years of the IB Diploma Programme, students write an original essay including research of up to 4000 words on a topic of their choice with supervision from an IB teacher who mentors them in the research for the essay.

Group 1: Language A studies Language and Literature in the student's primary language (English for a majority of our students).

Group 2: Language B focuses on language acquisition.

Group 3: Individuals and Societies is traditionally known as Social Studies.

Definition coming soon...

The Group 4 Project is an interdisciplinary science and computer group project designed and presented by the students with the supervision of their science teacher.

Definition coming soon...

Definition coming soon...

Higher Level/Standard Level. Diploma students take a combination of 6 IB courses: 3 Higher Level (HL) and 3 Standard Level (SL) courses. Higher Level courses are always two-year courses culminating in May of the senior year and entail at least 270 hours of instructional time.

IA - Internal Assessment. These refer to various assignments in each subject that are conducted during the course, assigned and evaluated by the teacher, and then a sample set is sent off to a moderator to validate or modify the marks assigned by the classroom teachers. In history, for example, the IA is a research project on a topic of the student’s choice; in science, the IA is the documented record of the student’s independent lab work.

IB - International Baccalaureate, a shorthand for the International Baccalaureate Organization which authorized schools around the world to offer the IB Diploma Program, as well as the IB Middle Years Program, the IB Primary Years Program, and the IB Career-Related Certificate. At present, Coconino High School offers only the IB Diploma Program.

Mock Exams are taken by students in March/April of their senior year in preparation for their IB Exams in May.

The process by which IB validates or moderates the marks on the internal assessments that are scored by the classroom teacher. We send the moderators samples of scored work on each IA and those marks are then moderated up or down to arrive at final marks/grades for that component.

MYP - Middle Years Programme is the IB programme available to 6th through 10th-grade students. Currently Sinagua Middle School is in Candidacy to become an IB MYP school and will offer that programme from 6th through 8th grades. Coconino does not have any plans at this point to offer the Middle Years Programme to 9th and 10th grades.

Papers (1, 2, 3) are IB examination papers. Each subject takes at least 2 and sometimes 3 papers as part of the IB exam for that subject. Almost all of these are essay questions (sciences have one multiple choice paper out of 3 papers total in science).

Predicted grades: IB teachers submit predicted scores for each student in their classes. The predicted score is submitted to IB but is NOT factored into a student’s actual, final score. Predicted scores are used to gauge the classroom teacher’s standards against those of IB examiners and moderators. Teachers arrive at the predicted scores (1-7) based on the students’ overall classroom performance, quality of their IAs and professional judgment of the student’s ability in the subject.

PYP - Primary Years Programme is the IB's programme for Kindergarten through 5th grade. Currently, Puente de Hozho is a PYP candidate school.

Scores: Sometimes referred to as grades or marks, the scores for each IB subject range from 1 – 7, with 7 being the highest. The IB scores for a subject is achieved by a combination of the student’s performance on both internal assessment (IA) and external assessment, usually called exams, which students take in May at the end of the course. A passing score in a subject is a 4, which represents “satisfactory” work. Students generally need to achieve a minimum overall score of 24 (6 subjects x 4) to earn the IB Diploma although there are several exceptions and conditions (students must compete CAS, if a student scores a 2 in an HL subject then he/she must make a 28 overall to earn the diploma)

Higher Level/Standard Level. Diploma students take a combination of 6 IB courses: 3 Higher Level (HL) and 3 Standard Level (SL) courses. Higher Level courses are always two-year courses culminating in May of the senior year and entail at least 270 hours of instructional time.

TOK - Theory of Knowledge. This is the “capstone” course of the IB program. While each class touches on aspects of TOK, the course pulls all of that knowledge together in a weekly seminar. Students complete a TOK presentation and TOK essay as part of the course.