West School

East School
West School
East School

Academic Design

An academically rigorous school with a focus on international international language immersion and diversity.

Language Immersion

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Baltimore International Academy East (BIA East) is a replication school of the original BIA (now identified as BIA East), which was Baltimore City’s first international language immersion school. In contrast to most other existing international schools, BIA East is a public school that is available to all of Baltimore City’s students. Beyond the international emphasis, the philosophy of the BIA East is to use innovative (in Baltimore) yet proven teaching and learning methods to improve student learning and to expand school choice for students in the City of Baltimore.

International Baccalaureate

Baltimore International Academy East (BIA East) is a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme / Middle Years Programmes and pursuing authorization as an IB World School.

IB World Schools share a common philosophy—a commitment to improve the teaching and learning of a diverse and inclusive community of students by delivering challenging, high quality programmes of international education that share a powerful vision.

Only schools authorized by the International Baccalaureate can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit https://www.ibo.org/

We believe that all students can succeed in learning, and that Baltimore’s children deserve a learning experience that is the equal of the best schools, nationally and internationally; hence, our pursuit of the IB World School authorization.

This will continue until the current elementary students reach middle school; at that point, they will continue to be fully immersed in their target languages in all subjects, except resources (art, music, PE, computers)

Curriculum

Theoretically, the curriculum in language immersion programs is the same as the state and district curriculum. As such, Baltimore International Academy follows the same curriculum as other Baltimore City Schools which in turn is aligned to the Maryland State Curriculum. The difference, however, is in the delivery of the curriculum. At BIA East, students study mathematics, science, social studies ,

Full Immersion (all core subjects taught through immersion) programs are most effective when they start at school entry (in pre-school, kindergarten or grade 1). Beyond the early grades, the gap in knowledge of the immersion language is too great for students to be able to integrate into the program if they have no comparable knowledge of the language. Thus, only students in the Elementary levels are in full immersion classes. Middle School Grades are currently in Partial Immersion, having only 2 subjects taught through Spanish Immersion, and the rest are taught in English.

Academic Standards

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The Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC) and Common Core standards define what students would know and be able to perform at each grade level in reading/language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. Baltimore International Academy East conforms to and is working hard to exceed all requirements of the Common Core Standards. Information on these requirements are found in Appendix 3.

International Baccalaureate

Baltimore International Academy East welcomes its families and community into the school and supports families in their efforts to be involved in their children’s education. There are unlimited opportunities for parents to serve as volunteers in classrooms, with clubs or sports teams, in the PTO, as classroom representatives/parent coordinators, on committees, or other activities. In May of each year, BIA East conducts a family satisfaction survey, the data from which will be used to modify, enhance or support programs.

Students at the BIA East wear uniforms. This is for not only the usual reasons that school uniforms are supported but also to identify the different language strands within the school and to promote a sense of school pride and community. BIA East’s uniform policy is in accordance with Baltimore City Public School System’s policy on the student dress code.

This will continue until the current elementary students reach middle school; at that point, they will continue to be fully immersed in their target languages in all subjects, except resources (art, music, PE, computers)

BIA East has high expectations for student behavior and participation in the life of the school community.  Service learning is incorporated into the educational program at every grade level in order to help students develop skills needed to become caring, involved citizens. BIA East has a discipline policy that is compatible with the policies of the Baltimore City Public School System. This policy is in writing and is distributed to all families and students to sign and return, to affirm that they were informed of the policies. All disciplinary actions are compatible with IEP requirements. The discipline policy is part of a complete parent handbook.

Assessment / Measuring Student Progress

Assessment is the heart of teaching and learning. Our assessments are used to inform students, teachers, parents and guardians about where a student is succeeding and about what needs strengthening. On-going assessments serve as a feedback system to guide teachers in planning lessons and in individualizing instruction. In our classrooms, assessments are (a) timely (given while learning is in progress), (b) focused on the current learning tasks, and (c) specific about improvement needs.

We administer the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) in grades 3-8, as required. The MCAP results from the first year are  used as our baselines from which to judge the performance and progress of the school. We compare the current year’s scores with scores from preceding years to show the academic progress of the school, including information regarding each of the required subgroups. We also conduct a longitudinal examination of academic achievement for students individually, so that we can establish rates of academic improvement for each student while attending BIA East. We compare the rates of academic improvement of students in BIA East against results for students in both the City of Baltimore and in the State of Maryland.

Additional Assessments:

Classroom assessments may include standard-based unit tests, class observations, quizzes, demonstrations, portfolios, work products, essays, and oral language proficiency.

Independently run national tests:

BIA East encourages all of its students to participate in various national language tests, such as the American Association of Teachers of French national French exam, “Le Grand Concours.” The performance of BIA East students as a group is compared to those of other state and national schools’ students who participated in the same tests.

Report Cards are issued four times each year. Opportunities for parent conferences are scheduled for each quarter, and may be arranged at other times should the need arise. As a part of these conferences, standardized test results are released to parents and discussed.

News And Announcement

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