Cleveland High School announced today that International Baccalaureate (IB) in-person exams will not take place for CHS students this spring. Exams are typically held in the month of May. 

This news follows an announcement last week from the IB that there will be two pathways — an exam route or a non-exam route — for the May 2021 examination session in their Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme. 

Due to regional Covid-19 conditions that hinder equitable testing opportunities for all IB juniors and seniors at Cleveland, CHS will follow the non-exam route. 

CHS students pursuing IB credit will receive an IB grade (1-7) based on Internal Assessments (IA) and teacher-predicted grades in their IB courses. This is similar to what CHS IB students and families experienced last year. 

The IB states that during grade awarding, grade boundaries will reflect the difficulties in teaching and learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. IB examination guidelines released last week are a response to January surveys sent to many IB schools that determined the predicted capability of schools to hold in-person exams during the 2020-21 school year. Approximately 71% of IB schools indicated they had the ability to administer in-person exams. 

“Our goal is to provide the best academic experience possible for our students while supporting their mental, emotional, and physical health,” said Cleveland’s IB Coordinator Jennifer Wiandt in an email to IB families today.

Processes are underway to ensure the dual route system will function well. The IB will recommend generous guidelines for teachers as they make their grade predictions. Every IA will be sent to IB examiners to be graded. IAs are normally graded by a teacher before a sample is sent to an IB examiner to determine if the teacher’s grading is on par with IB standards.

The IB states that results from the dual route model followed in November 2020 were treated by colleges with equal validity. The IB is confident this same scenario will apply to the May 2021 dual exam route. 

In her email, Wiandt stated, “Our teachers have been working with this assessment model as a potential outcome throughout our year of [Comprehensive Distance Learning], and we feel confident that our students will perform well in the IB’s non-examination route.”