The child development program is being added to the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC) as a career focused option to expand the available courses for students interested in both IB and the family sciences class.

IBCC allows students to take IB classes and receive a certificate a�� rather than a full IB Diploma a�� while taking a career-related course for multiple years. Child development is the latest addition after Project Lead the Way (PLTW).

“It gives students an advantage when going to college,” child development teacher Julie James said. “They get that IBCC certificate so it helps colleges know that the program they did here was an important program.”

The child development program spans four years and allows students to work with three and four-year-old children while learning about how children physically and psychologically grow. In their fourth year of the course, students participate in an internship that can be at a feeder elementary or middle school, a preschool or even a high school for those looking to work with older students.

Students who take IBCC instead of the full IB Diploma Program still need to complete between two and four IB subjects, one higher level and one standard level; one must be a foreign language. This, in combination with the career-related class, community service, Approaches to Learning class and a reflective project, provides the students with the qualifications to get their certificate and complete the program.

The smaller number of required classes allows students interested in both the IB program and child development courses to have a functioning schedule.

“It allows kids to do some IB and complete a career pathway and I think for some kids it’s a really good fit,” IB coordinator Laurie Ainsworth said.

Senior Alison Holler was in the child development program for several years before leaving due to a full schedule, needing to fulfill IB requirements and a general art credit requirement.

“I definitely would have done [IBCC with child development],” Holler said. “I think it’s really good that they’re incorporating this. It’s less stressful but it also concentrates more on what you want to do towards your future.”

Those who take child development as a career focus in the IBCC do have one culminating project that others in child development do not. This is the reflective project, where the student must write a paper or create a presentation about an ethical issue associated with child development and child care.