Can someone please explain this to me?
It’s discussed in many, many places. But, briefly:
- IB is an approach to learning and a comprehensive educational curriculum that was developed privately around 1968 to originally accommodate the children diplomats, and formalized into a private organization based in Switzerland which standardizes and guards the integrity of the overall approach. It is implemented worldwide at many levels, in many schools, and is becoming something of a common standard across countries with widely different educational systems. Though it is available in thousands of schools worldwide, in the U.S. it is available in only a small fraction of schools compared to those which offer AP courses.
- It includes elementary, middle and high school curricula, all of which share some common elements in terms of encouraging independent thought and conceptual understanding, interdisciplinary relationships and connections, and international elements. There is a list of characteristics of the student who tends to do well with the IB approach. Students who don't do as well with a highly structured approach may not be the best fits for this curriculum.
- At the high school level, courses are offered as 2 year extended sequences junior and senior year, with examinations scored 1-7 in each subject. Subjects may be offered at "standard" or "high level", depending on the amount of time devoted to the subject and the level of material covered. There is some rough correlation to AP level, though that varies from subject to subject, and there is more of an emphasis on conceptual understanding and less on amassing a huge amount of information. Unlike AP exams, you can't take an IB exam without having formally studied the subject (though some courses are available for purchase online if you are in an approved IB program).
- Though individual IB courses can be taken ad hoc, there is also a formal IB diploma program. This involves taking 6 2-year IB courses across 6 subject area blocks (language arts, 2nd language, social science, natural science, mathematics, and an art or elective 6th subject), plus 2 core courses that tie things together and relate the curriculum to a broader context ("theory of knowledge" and "creativity, action and service"). 3 or 4 of these 6 tracks have to be taken at the higher level. Finally, there is a required 10,000 word Extended Essay. No IB school offers the entire range of IB courses at both standard and high levels, so the available course offerings at any location are generally a subset of what is available. As mentioned above, online IB courses may be a way to augment this, if the school approves.
- The overall program has a coherent structure and emphasis which encourages conceptual understanding, intellectual rigor, interdisciplinary relationships, and research and writing. It certainly satisfies the "most rigorous" criteria for almost any program, and is comparable to AP in that regard. Some schools like the IB because of the writing skills, time management, and intellectual rigor which it develops. On the other hand, some criticize it as relatively inflexible (especially the full IB diploma program) compared to picking and choosing AP classes and/or individual IB classes on an ad hoc basis, and have also accused the program of including too much busywork.
I’ve probably left some salient features out, which others can correct, but I think that’s the gist of it.