The 10 Traits of a Strong DP Coordinator Are One Who Has

The 10 traits of a strong DP coordinator are one who has

1.  an understanding that the primary duty is advocating for students.

2.  expertise in change management.

3.  a detailed understanding of the Learner Profile booklet, Standards and Practices, Principles into Practice, and Basis for Practice.

4.  a good knowledge of IBO regulations and procedures.

5.  established credibility with building-level and district-level leadership to ensure that a budget is administered so all IBO fees are paid and trainings are arranged, excellent teachers are recruited and retained and that proper infrastructure allows for the creation of a school schedule that makes IB courses possible and also supports the core of the hexagon.

6.  skill communicating information to all members of school community to ensure that the whole school embraces the mission statement and learner profile.

7.  deep understanding of course selection choices available.

8.  the ability to collaborate with the counseling services department to advise course selection, university admissions and to build a database of exam results, higher education experience and contact information.

9.  a clear sense of how to lead teachers to a full understanding of programme as a whole.

10.  comfort and trust delegating to designated coordinators of CAS and the Extended Essay, as well as community-building events.

The 10 General duties of the coordinator include:

1.  maintaining regular communication with all stakeholders.

2.  detecting programme weaknesses and establishing plans to fix immediately.

3.  visiting local schools, preparing promotional materials, hosting informational meetings and advising prospective students and parents.

4.  establishing a programme ethos by asking the question of all stakeholders: Do we want to use IB or do we want to be IB?

5.  collaborating on everything to ensure buy-in and that the best ideas come to the forefront.

6.  writing, continuously updating and digitally posting introductory and procedural handbooks for students, teachers and parents as well as policies for Assessment, Honesty, Language and Special Educational Needs

7.  ensuring that examinations, internal assessments, Extended Essays, CAS and TOK are administered in appropriate fashion.

8.  enforcing a policy that no one other than the coordinator contact IBO unless authorized by coordinator to do so.

9.  saving students, teachers, and parents from themselves by limiting the number of teams they are on in terms of supporting the programme (This will prevent the most motivated to help from burning themselves out in the early years of the programme).

10.  recognizing that the demands of a DP coordinator are proportional to number of DP candidates, faculty and staff, and subjects offered, so this task list may grow as the programme grows.

In addition to the roles above, of greatest importance is the recognition that the role of coordinator is to serve the needs of the following groups:

Students

·  celebrating students by pitching their achievements in classrooms, CAS and Extended Essay to as story ideas for local media outlets and publishing extracts of Extended Essays in dedicated online space to honor past DP students and prepare future ones

·  conducting college-preparedness activities such as mock-interviews

·  creating ways to ensure that their homework is restricted to a three-hour per night maximum

·  gathering their unique insights through exit surveys

·  providing information, guidance and administrative support

Teachers

·  facilitating meaningful collaboration, such as course outline reviews, classroom walkthroughs, and gallery crawls of Internal Assessments and best practices

·  helping them do the additional work that DP requires such as handling as many administrative functions as possible, offering to cover their classes once per semester for grading or other release time to prevent them from suffering overload

·  visiting classrooms regularly to honor their work, harvest best practices, assess gaps in implementation and gauge teacher strengths, creating champions that will lead the DP team of teachers in professional development.

·  appearing regularly on the faculty meeting schedule and meeting with individual teachers, students, and other community stakeholders to ensure buy-in to presence of DP on campus even by teachers who are not teaching DP classes

·  providing information, guidance and administrative support

·  communicating changes to curriculum and assessment

·  ensuring all DP teachers are trained to facilitate mentorships for CAS, Extended Essay and college counseling

·  encourage DP teachers to become IB examiners, strengthening their content knowledge in the process

·  creating a mechanism for them to train the coordinator in the particularities of their content area so their work is honored and their subject is supported

Parents

plying them with regular information such as:

·  bimonthly emails with Frequently Answered Questions

·  formal meetings to discuss programme specifics

·  informal meetings such as Coffees with Coordinators (events that target distinct programme elements and give parents strategies to support their students’ pursuits toward them)

·  regular updates to the coordinator’s webpage, including parent space to post their needs and concerns

Administrators

·  collaboratively setting the agenda for weekly meetings with the head of school

·  seeking assistance to acquire local business partners to fund, for example, additions to the science labs or a guest lecture series

·  reading “Developing a Successful Programme” with the entire school leadership team to ensure that the programme is supported school-wide

·  apprising administrators of any potentially controversial elements of the programme, such as book choices

·  arranging for up to three members of administration to have IBIS access

Non-coordination duties (not to exceed a total of 30 percent of the coordinator’s time) will include:

·  teaching no more than two sections of TOK or no more than one section of any IB group subject

·  administrational duties to serve the needs of the traditional school

The duties of the coordinator are to be commensurate with the size of the student cohort, number of courses offered and number of teachers in the Diploma Programme. So these non-coordination duties may change as the programme evolves and grows.