Richard Montgomery High School

 Middle Years Program

This diagram represents the curriculum model of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP). The five areas of interaction connect the development of the individual (at the centre) with the educational experience in all subject groups (at the outer points of the octagon). These interactive areas are common to all disciplines with each subject developing general and specific aspects of the areas. In this way, the subject groups are also linked by the Areas of Interaction, demonstrating the interdisciplinary potential of the MYP. The five Areas of Interaction have no clear boundaries, but merge to form a context for learning that contributes to the student’s experience of the curriculum.     

Based on the international success of the IB Diploma Programme, the International Baccalaureate Organization established the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in 1992. While the Middle Years Programme serves as an excellent preparation for the IB Program, the two programs are separate and independent.

The MYP is a five year academic program for academically able and motivated students aged 11 - 16 years.  Like the IB Diploma Programme, the MYP is academically rigorous and promotes intercultural understanding and interdisciplinary study. However, the MYP offers schools the flexibility to follow locally established curricula, while transcending those curricula by infusing and supplementing them with five perspectives known as the Areas of Interaction.

The Areas of Interaction distinguish the MYP from either the IB Diploma Programme or a more traditional course of study and can best be understood as themes which are repeatedly woven throughout the academic subjects. They include: Approaches to Learning; Environment; Homo faber ("man-the-maker"); Health & Social Education, and Community & Service. As a result of the interweaving of these five perspectives throughout the traditional academic subjects, students come to see the complex interrelationships between subjects that have traditionally been taught in isolation.

The MYP at Julius West Middle School (JWMS) and Richard Montgomery High School (RMHS) was the first of its kind to be authorized in the state of Maryland (June 2003). Our program begins as an inclusive model at JWMS and all JWMS students are automatically enrolled. However, the final two years of the MYP (grades 9 and 10), which occur at RMHS, remain open to all students who live in our attendance area, with a change in the program delivery model. 

All high school MYP classes are taught at an honors level. In addition students commit themselves to an independent research project known as the Personal Project and a specific community service requirement (15 hours each in Grades 9 and 10).