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OGDEN — Ogden School District has become the first in the state to offer an educational curriculum centered on developing critical thinking that extends from kindergarten through 12th grade, the International Baccalaureate program.
"It's really considered the gold standard of education," said Ryan Edel, the International Baccalaureate specialist for the district. "The objective is really to prepare our students to live in our modern world and be successful."
Ogden High School has had an International Baccalaureate program since 2012, and it was implemented last year at Liberty Elementary and Mount Ogden Junior High School. That makes the system the first in Utah to offer "a full K-12 International Baccalaureate continuum," the district said in a press release, and school officials gathered Tuesday to mark the occasion.
"You will be so prepared when you get out of high school for the world ahead of you, and I am so excited for you," Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson said at the event. "You're going to do great, and even more importantly, you're going to be great."
Very broadly, the International Baccalaureate, or IB, system focuses on developing critical thinking rather than memorization of facts. Schools that offer IB programs must prepare their teachers and adjust their offerings, and the process took three years for Liberty Elementary and Mount Ogden Junior High, according to Edel.
"IB programs challenge both students and educators to become the best versions of themselves through inquiry, service and reflection as lifelong learners," he said. International Baccalaureate offerings "encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people with their differences can also be right."
Sammy Bosshardt, the mother of three students in International Baccalaureate programs at Ogden schools, said the educational framework encourages students to ask questions rather than focus on learning just facts and figures. "It inspires them to think critically and connect their learning to real life, which prepares them to be a generation of creative and collaborative problem-solvers," she said.
Several students in the International Baccalaureate program also addressed the gathering, held at Liberty Elementary before a crowd that also included Ogden High School International Baccalaureate students.
Through the program "we have a chance to become not just great students, but amazing thinkers, leaders and helpers in our community," said Vanessa Zotea, a Mount Ogden Junior High ninth-grader. "We develop skills that help us throughout our lives, whether we're solving problems, making decisions or even dreaming up new ideas for the future."
All students at Liberty Elementary and Mount Ogden Junior High School participate in the International Baccalaureate program. At Ogden High School, students decide whether to follow the curriculum.
