THE IB ADVANTAGE: WHY THE CONTINUUM MATTERS

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August 25, 2026

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

At Notre Dame Prep, International Baccalaureate is more than an advanced academic option. It is a connected educational philosophy that can shape a student’s journey from PreK through 12th grade.

For families comparing schools, academic programs can look remarkably similar on paper. Schools offer honors and AP courses, STEM and language programs, research and experiential learning, while emphasizing critical thinking, collaboration, leadership and college and career preparation.

That is where Notre Dame Preparatory School has an academic distinction that is easy to underestimate, particularly for families who know the International Baccalaureate name but may not fully appreciate the significance of having the full IB continuum in one PreK-12 school.

At Notre Dame Prep, the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP) and Diploma Program (DP) are not isolated offerings.

The PYP serves students from PreK through Grade 5, the MYP encompasses Grades 6 through 10, and the DP is available to students in Grades 11 and 12. Every NDP student from PreK through Grade 10 experiences an IB education as part of the regular curriculum; students then choose whether to continue into the Diploma Program or pursue another upper-school pathway.

That distinction matters because the academic habits IB seeks to develop do not suddenly appear in 11th grade. They are built over time.

A student can begin at Notre Dame Prep developing curiosity and inquiry, progress through the middle years learning to connect ideas and evaluate evidence, and eventually enter the Diploma Program prepared for independent research, sustained writing, reflection and intellectual risk-taking.

The advantage, then, is not simply that NDP offers a prestigious international program. It is that students have the opportunity to grow up academically inside one.

A program that changes the way students learn

The easiest way to misunderstand IB is to think of it as simply a more difficult curriculum.

It certainly is rigorous, but rigor alone does not define the program. A student can encounter exceptionally challenging material in an honors or AP course. A school can offer a large menu of advanced classes without fundamentally changing the way students approach learning.

IB takes a broader view.

Notre Dame Prep’s own explanation of the program puts the distinction particularly well. Katherine Thomas, NDP’s IB-MYP coordinator, said, “The focus of the IB program is not on the specific content being taught, but how students are taught to use the information they learn.” She describes the approach as holistic, designed to leave students with not only knowledge but “the skills and mindsets that are required.”

That is a fundamental difference.

The goal is not simply to know something, but to investigate it, question it, connect it to something else, evaluate evidence and apply it to an unfamiliar situation.

Thomas also sees a natural connection between IB and the school’s Catholic and Marist identity. “The MYP has been a natural fit both for our Marist-based school and for our mission,” she said, noting that the program’s Approaches to Learning skills and Learner Profile attributes connect directly to NDP’s mission to form “Christian people, upright citizens and academic scholars.”

That alignment is central to understanding why IB works particularly well at Notre Dame Prep. It does not sit beside the school’s mission as an unrelated academic credential. It provides a framework through which the school’s academic, moral and global objectives can reinforce one another.

A vision that began with the future

That connection was part of the reason NDP embraced IB in the first place.

In a 2009 interview published in NDP’s IRISH magazine shortly after the school received MYP authorization, founder and then-school head Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m., described the goal in distinctly long-term terms.

“That’s why we went with the IB curriculum,” he said. “We are not preparing kids to live in our world — we are preparing kids to live in their world, 20 or 30 years from now, when they are prosperous and productive people.”

He continued: “When they are CEOs and leaders, we want them to be good CEOs and leaders and we want them to live in the world and not get swallowed up by it. Ultimately, we want to continue to provide to our kids the education they need to be successful in this world and in the next.”

The objective was not simply a more difficult high school curriculum, but an educational experience capable of preparing students for a future the school could not fully predict.

The advantage begins in the earliest years

One of the most consequential aspects of NDP’s IB model is also one that prospective families can easily overlook: the continuum begins long before high school.

The Primary Years Program is designed for young children at precisely the stage when curiosity, questioning and exploration come naturally. Rather than treating learning as the accumulation of isolated facts, the PYP uses inquiry and transdisciplinary learning to help students make connections among subjects and understand ideas in broader contexts.

A young student who is encouraged to ask a question, investigate it, explain what was discovered and reflect on the process is beginning to practice a form of learning that will look very different by high school but is built on the same foundation.

Recent IB research reinforces the importance of examining the continuum from the beginning rather than focusing exclusively on the DP. A 2026 analysis by the Australian Council for Educational Research compared PYP and MYP students with students in other accredited international schools using International Schools’ Assessment data. The study found significant performance advantages for IB students across multiple grade levels and subject areas, including reading, mathematics, scientific literacy and writing.

The findings should not be reduced to a claim that an IB label automatically produces higher test scores. The more useful conclusion is that there is measurable evidence behind an educational approach that emphasizes inquiry, conceptual understanding and the application of knowledge.

At Notre Dame Prep, those habits have somewhere to go next.

The middle years turn habits into intellectual skills

That next stage is the Middle Years Program.

NDP’s MYP encompasses Grades 6 through 10, and this is another important distinction: every student participates. The MYP is not an honors track or a special class reserved for a subset of students. It is the framework through which the curriculum is taught. NDP describes it as the “how,” rather than the “what,” of the curriculum.

Lucas Anderson, now an alum (2022), who continued from the MYP into the Diploma Program, described the progression as a student: “The Middle Years Program (MYP) was rigorous and challenging,” he said, “and it prepared me for the course work of the DP.”

That progression is intentional.

And because the MYP is embedded across Grades 6-10, those skills are developed across disciplines rather than confined to a single advanced class.

External research provides substantial support for this aspect of the program. An international multisite study conducted by the University of Oxford examined Grade 9 and 10 students in the MYP and students following national curricula in Australia, England and Norway. Researchers found that MYP students demonstrated higher levels of critical-thinking skills than their non-MYP counterparts, with the quantitative findings supporting the conclusion that the MYP contributes to critical-thinking development through evidence-based, student-centered approaches to teaching and assessment.

That is significant because critical thinking is not a subject. It is a transferable academic skill.

In other words, the continuity itself matters.

Learning to direct the learning

One of the clearest examples of that philosophy at NDP is the MYP Personal Project.

At Notre Dame Prep, sophomores may elect to undertake the Personal Project as a one-semester course. The project requires students to establish their own goals, manage an extended inquiry, conduct research, reflect on their process and ultimately present what they have produced. NDP shifted the project to an elective format in 2020 as part of an effort to preserve its rigor while better managing student workloads.

Megan Rochon, NDP’s librarian who also serves as IB-MYP Personal Project coordinator for the school, sees the experience as a particularly tangible expression of the MYP philosophy.

“The Personal Project is a one-semester, independent project course that sophomores can elect to take,” she said. “It’s part of the IB Middle Years Program and each year the students end the project by presenting their projects to freshmen who will have the same opportunities next year.”

The projects themselves demonstrate why the experience is different from a conventional assignment. Recent NDP students have investigated automotive engineering and built a remote-control car, researched the safe use of AI in health care, created a website about ACL injuries among female athletes, explored disappearing bogs and organized community service projects.

The IB’s own research into the Personal Project reinforces its role in the continuum. A 2023 study involving 66,698 students found that Personal Project scores were a meaningful predictor of later Diploma Program examination and extended essay scores. Researchers also found that students described the experience as a “passion project” and said it could help bridge the MYP and DP and prepare students for the extended essay.

The Diploma Program builds on that foundation

By Grades 11 and 12, the IB Diploma Program brings the philosophy to its most demanding level.

The DP is a rigorous two-year course of study requiring both breadth and depth, along with three core components: Theory of Knowledge, the extended essay and Creativity, Activity, Service. Students pursuing the full diploma must manage demanding subject coursework while conducting independent research, examining the nature and limits of knowledge and maintaining meaningful commitments beyond the classroom.

The requirements combine skills that are often taught separately: research, writing, evidence evaluation, project management, communication, reflection and independent thinking.

External research again provides useful perspective. An Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment study of DP students in Australia, England and Norway found that IB students demonstrated significantly higher levels of critical thinking than their non-IB peers. The advantage remained after researchers used matched samples and increased over the course of the DP. Students and teachers specifically identified Theory of Knowledge, the extended essay and DP subjects as contributors to critical-thinking development.

It is a sustained exercise in intellectual independence.

Theory of Knowledge: learning to question knowledge itself

Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in Theory of Knowledge, or TOK.

Kyle Lilek, the NDP English teacher who took over teaching TOK from Fr. Leon Olszamowski in 2014, describes it as a course that has evolved with the changing world. Its central questions include “How do we know?” and “What counts as evidence?” The revised course puts greater emphasis on the knower, technology and real-world connections, including the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

For students, that can be both challenging and rewarding.

Ryan Wells, an NDP graduate from the Class of 2024, said, “Each of my IB courses was challenging in its own way, as they push you to look at information in ways that you haven’t before.”

He singles out TOK in particular: “It is philosophical and confusing yet completely satisfying. I liked the challenge it gave me to think differently and not only in an analytical context.”

That kind of thinking has become particularly relevant in an age of artificial intelligence and instantaneous information.

Lilek’s position is direct: “AI is a tool like any other piece of technology and cannot replace human ingenuity, creativity and thought.” At NDP, students use TOK’s framework of scope, perspectives, methods and tools and ethics to consider what AI can do, how its outputs are produced, whose perspectives are represented and what responsibilities accompany its use.

Students who have practiced asking what counts as evidence, whose perspective is represented and how a claim is justified are developing habits that apply to scientific research, historical analysis, journalism, public discourse and everyday decision-making.

The real-world advantage

The IB’s value is sometimes discussed primarily in terms of college admission. That is understandable, but it is an incomplete argument.

Katrina Sagert, NDP’s IB-DP coordinator, has articulated the broader purpose more directly: “One of the many challenges of teaching is that we’re supposed to be preparing students for the future and yet we don’t know what that future is going to be like.”

Her answer is the philosophy behind the continuum: “IB, on the other hand, focuses on the real world, transferring what is learned in the classroom to that real world, no matter what it may look like.”

That is why the MYP matters even for students who ultimately choose not to pursue the full Diploma Program.

By 11th grade, students have already spent years practicing research, communication, reflection, interdisciplinary thinking and independent inquiry.

Those skills have value regardless of the student’s eventual academic pathway.

What happens when NDP students get to college

The most compelling evidence of any college-preparatory program ultimately comes from what happens after graduation.

Arianna Reid, an NDP graduate from the Class of 2023 now studying environmental science and management at Michigan State University, describes the advantage in remarkably practical terms.

“As a college sophomore at MSU, my IB knowledge helps me every day in class,” she said. In an introductory economics course, she found herself already familiar with concepts because of IB economics and was able to “focus my time and energy on learning new things because I already have such a strong foundation from IB.”

Her conclusion is concise: “IB taught me how to learn, not just what to know. My IB education at NDP definitely has been more than worthwhile.”

That may be the simplest description of the continuum’s purpose.

The objective is not to make students permanently dependent on a particular curriculum. It is to equip them to keep learning when the curriculum changes.

Research involving Canadian universities provides another useful perspective, particularly for families in Michigan who may consider both U.S. and Canadian postsecondary institutions. A study of IB Diploma graduates at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia found that, compared with students holding traditional high school diplomas, DP graduates earned significantly higher university grades, were less likely to drop out and were generally more likely to graduate on time. At both universities, DP graduates were also more likely to enroll in science and engineering programs.

But the findings are consistent with the fundamental premise behind the program: students who have spent years practicing independent learning, critical thinking, research and communication may be better prepared for the demands of higher education.

The career connection is real, too

The same skills become apparent when NDP graduates move into professional life.

Demi Outman, NDP Class of 2013, works as an engineer at Boeing. She identifies two high school experiences as foundational to her college, career and personal development: “The IB program and the robotics team.”

She says the IB History, English and Theory of Knowledge courses “especially pushed me to think critically,” which she describes as essential in STEM fields because engineers must analyze problems and available solutions carefully.

She also points to something that is sometimes overlooked in discussions about STEM education: communication.

“It’s often assumed that in STEM careers, the soft skills aren’t as important as technical knowledge,” Outman said. “But if you cannot communicate well, you will never be able to effectively utilize that technical knowledge.”

She credits her IB experience with forcing her to become more comfortable with “the arts of writing, speaking and even painting my thoughts and feelings.”

Modern careers increasingly require people who can move between disciplines, communicate with different audiences, evaluate complex information and collaborate to solve unfamiliar problems.

The IB approach is designed around those capacities.

Global thinking and Catholic identity can reinforce each other

The word “international” can sometimes create a false impression that IB is primarily about geography or that a globally oriented curriculum somehow competes with a school’s Catholic identity.

At Notre Dame Prep, the two are intentionally connected.

The IB Learner Profile includes caring as one of its central attributes. The IB defines the caring learner as someone who shows “empathy, compassion and respect,” with a commitment to service and to making a positive difference in the lives of others and the world around them. NDP has highlighted research from the University of Nottingham examining how caring is developed across the PYP, MYP and DP and emphasizing the importance of school cultures built around an ethic of care.

That language fits naturally with Notre Dame Prep’s Catholic and Marist tradition.

The global dimension of IB is not simply about knowing more about other countries. It is about learning to understand perspective, engage respectfully with difference, evaluate assumptions and recognize one’s responsibilities within a larger community.

That is entirely compatible with a mission centered on forming Christian people, upright citizens and academic scholars.

Olszamowski’s vision makes the connection explicit. He wanted NDP graduates to become successful leaders who would not be “swallowed up” by the world but would be capable of living productively and responsibly within it.

As NDP Head of School Andrew Guest noted in a 2025 interview, “Our IB students consistently show a level of commitment that is inspiring. The way they approach every year, every class — with grit, integrity and passion — is a testament to their character and to the kind of scholars and citizens of the world we aim to form at NDP.”

Why the continuum is more significant than any individual program

There are many excellent academic programs available to students in Southeast Michigan.

AP can provide exceptional subject-specific rigor. Honors courses can challenge capable students. STEM programs can develop technical skills. Dual-enrollment opportunities can expose students to college coursework. Independent research and extracurricular activities can add important dimensions to a student’s education.

Notre Dame Prep offers those kinds of opportunities as well.

The IB continuum adds something different: coherence.

The PYP establishes inquiry and conceptual understanding.

The MYP develops those habits through increasingly sophisticated coursework, interdisciplinary connections, research, reflection and critical thinking.

The DP places those skills under the pressure of advanced academic work, independent research and sustained intellectual responsibility.

The sequence matters.

A student entering the DP after years in the MYP is not encountering an entirely unfamiliar academic language. The student has already experienced the Approaches to Learning, the Learner Profile, inquiry, reflection, interdisciplinary thinking and research.

As Lucas Anderson put it, the MYP set him up for success in the Diploma Program.

It is an advantage even when students choose another path

The continuum also should not be understood as requiring every NDP student to pursue the full Diploma Program.

The IB framework is part of the education every NDP student receives through Grade 10. Prior to Grade 11, students can choose whether to continue into the DP or follow another appropriate upper-school path.

That flexibility is important.

A student who spends five years in the MYP and ultimately chooses AP courses has still developed the critical-thinking, research, communication and reflection skills embedded in the MYP. A student who chooses the full DP can build directly on them.

The continuum therefore expands academic choice rather than eliminating it.

Students are not required to become identical learners. They are given a common foundation from which they can pursue different levels and forms of academic challenge.

The case for IB at Notre Dame Prep does not depend on claiming that every IB student will outperform every non-IB student.

That would be neither realistic nor supported by serious research.

The stronger argument is that the IB framework gives NDP an unusually coherent way to develop the intellectual habits that matter across subjects and across stages of development.

Oxford researchers found higher critical-thinking skills among MYP students than their non-MYP counterparts in an international comparison.

A separate Oxford study found significantly higher critical-thinking skills among DP students, with the advantage increasing during the program.

Research on the MYP Personal Project involving nearly 67,000 students found meaningful associations between project performance and subsequent DP examination and extended essay performance.

Research on MYP students’ later pathways has found positive relationships with advanced coursework and postsecondary outcomes.

And Canadian university research has found stronger grades, persistence and timely graduation among IB Diploma graduates compared with students holding traditional high school diplomas.

None of these findings should be interpreted as proof that IB alone causes every positive outcome. Educational research is more complicated than that.

Taken together, however, they provide meaningful external validation for the basic premise that NDP educators have been describing for years: an education built around inquiry, critical thinking, independent research, reflection and application can prepare students for increasingly complex academic and professional environments.

Ultimately, the value of a curriculum should be visible in the graduate.

The IB Learner Profile describes students who are knowledgeable and curious, thoughtful and reflective, principled and open-minded, capable of independent thinking and prepared to communicate and collaborate.

Notre Dame Prep adds its own Catholic and Marist formation, asking students to place those intellectual gifts within a larger moral and spiritual framework.

It is a student who can approach an unfamiliar problem without immediately looking for a formula. A student who can evaluate evidence, recognize perspective, communicate an argument and revise a conclusion when the evidence demands it. A student who can work independently while contributing to a community and who understands that intellectual ability carries responsibilities beyond the classroom.

That student is better prepared for college.

That student is better prepared for a career.

And, perhaps most importantly, that student is better prepared for a world that will continue changing long after graduation.

“It is not one course, one examination or one diploma,” added Olszamowski. “It is the accumulated effect of years spent learning to inquire, analyze, communicate, reflect, collaborate and apply knowledge responsibly.”

The question families should be asking

When families compare schools, it is reasonable to ask how many AP courses are offered, how many honors courses are available, where graduates attend college and what extracurricular opportunities exist.

Those questions matter.

But curriculum should also be evaluated as a system.

How does a school teach students to think? How does it develop those skills over time? Does the approach change dramatically from one division to another, or does it build deliberately from one stage to the next?

At Notre Dame Prep, the answer is unusually clear.

The PYP begins the process.

The MYP develops it.

The DP takes it further.

And because all three programs exist within the same PreK-12 school, a student can experience that progression over the course of 14 years.

That is the academic distinction.

Alum Arianna Reid’s observation captures the difference better than any statistic: ”IB taught me how to learn, not just what to know.” 

That is ultimately what makes the IB continuum at Notre Dame Prep different.

It does not simply ask students to know more.

It asks them to become better learners, more capable thinkers and more thoughtful participants in the world around them.

And for a school whose mission is to form Christian people, upright citizens and academic scholars, that is not an ancillary feature of such an education.

It is the point.

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.