Houston Independent School District leaders on Thursday announced Yates High School’s new status as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, becoming the district’s fifth high school campus to receive official authorization to offer the Diploma Programme.

Yates will begin offering the IB Diploma Programme to juniors and seniors at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. The IB Diploma Programme is for students ages 16 to 19 and is currently offered at Bellaire, Chávez, Heights, and Lamar high schools.

Yates is one of nine HISD schools supported by the district as part of Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan’s initiative to expand the number of IB campuses in geographically diverse areas across the city.

“Yates’ IB authorization reflects our ongoing commitment to excellence for all students,” Lathan said. “We are determined to close student achievement gaps by providing a rigorous, meaningful, and integrated curriculum that will provide global opportunities for students.”

Founded in 1968, IB is a nonprofit international educational foundation that offers challenging educational programs for students ages 3 to 19 to help develop their intellectual, personal, emotional, and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.

Achieving IB authorization is a demanding and lengthy process during which schools must align their curriculum to IB standards and train all their teachers in the IB philosophy. The IB diploma, which reflects a rigorous education, allows students to enter Texas public universities with 24 credit hours if they score four or higher on their IB exams.

With the inclusion of the Diploma Programme at Yates, HISD currently offers 28 IB Programmes across the district. Fifteen additional campuses are seeking IB Programme status, including Foster Elementary and Cullen Middle schools. Once authorized, Foster, Cullen, and Yates will create the first continuous IB feeder pattern for this school community.

Yates is currently accepting students via International Baccalaureate choice program transfers. Applications are due February 29 and are available online at ChooseHISD.com, and in paper form at school campuses or at HISD’s Office of School Choice located at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, 4400 West 18th St., 77092.