The DP is a two-year program designed specifically for 11th & 12th graders who desire a more rigorous course of study. It is not for all students. The objectives of the program are to: provide an internationally accepted qualification for entry into higher education; promote international understanding; educate the whole person emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth; develop inquiry and thinking skills, and the capacity to reflect upon and evaluate actions critically.

The DP curriculum includes six subject groups and three core elements: Theory of Knowledge, an extended essay and CAS (creativity, action and service).

These traditional subjects (listed around the outside of the diagram) provide a broad and balanced education for DP students. At least three, but not more than four, of the six subjects are taken at a higher lever (HL), and the others at a standard level (SL). HL and SL courses represent 240 and 150 teaching hours respectively. (As a frame of reference, current C-PP AP and Regents courses require 129 hours.) This arrangement offers students the ability to explore some subjects in depth and some more broadly. In addition, four years of a foreign language is encouraged so that students become fluent and thoroughly knowledgeable in that language.

A required interdisciplinary course, the DP’s Theory of Knowledge (TOK) is intended to stimulate critical reflection upon knowledge and experience gained inside and outside the classroom. Composed almost entirely of questions, the TOK course prompts students’ awareness of themselves as thinkers, encouraging them to become more acquainted with the complexity of knowledge and to recognize the need to act responsibly in an increasingly global society.