IB Program

The International Baccalaureate Organization’s Diploma Program was created in 1968. It is a demanding pre-university course of study that leads to examinations and it is designed for highly motivated High School juniors and seniors.

Scotts Valley High School began offering the IB Certificate programs for the first time to students in the class of 2003.The first full IB Diplomas were granted in 2004.

The IB has become a signature program for SVHS, attracting students from throughout the Central Coast of California as well as from international locations such as Australia, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

The program has earned a reputation for rigorous assessment, giving IB diploma holders access to the world’s leading universities. Scotts Valley High School's IB candidates have gone on to study at Stanford, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cal Tech, the Universities of California, and our United States military academies along with many other prestigious universities.

The Diploma Program’s grading system is criterion-referenced, which means that each student’s performance is measured against well-defined levels of achievement. These are consistent from one examination session to the next and are applied equally to all schools.

Students at SVHS can choose a program for their last two years of High School that best serves their needs. Some students will want to try some two-year IB Certificate courses. Others may choose, based on their needs and abilities, to try the full IB Diploma. For further information and a more detailed description of the program, please utilize the web-links found in the right-hand navigation bar.

Visit the IB’s public web site here: www.ibo.org,