Verification Visit
The IB will arrange a visit to the school once it has received the Application for authorization.
The visiting team normally consists of two or three trained IB educators who will visit for two days. The aim of the visit is to collect evidence, through an examination of documentation and interviews with all appropriate people, to verify that the school is ready to offer the IB Programme. The visit will also identify school practices that go beyond the requirements for authorization as well as practices which require further development.
Details of the verification visit can be found on pages 21-23 of the Guide to school authorization (2022).
This page provides a brief overview of the practicalities of arranging the visit.
Key document
Guide to school authorisation (2022) is a very useful document in planning for the visit, particularly “Appendix 3: Requirements for authorization” and “Appendix 4: Sample verification visit agendas”.
Organizing the visit
School responsibilities | IB responsibilities |
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Agenda for visit
The agenda will consist of formal interviews with key stakeholders of the school community, a tour of the school (primarily to verify facilities and resources - e.g. library provision, science laboratory provision etc.), and observation of classes if appropriate. The IB Coordinator is the key point of contact with the visiting IB team.
The IB visiting team will use the 2014 IB standards and practices as their criteria for assessing the school’s readiness for implementation. The interviews will be used to collect evidence against each of the standards and practices.
At the end of the visit there will be an exit interview with members of the school administration. This meeting is led by the IB Team Leader. This meeting is an opportunity for the visiting team to orally report their findings and check facts. They will not provide any judgment as to whether the school will be authorized or not since this decision has not yet been taken and will be taken at IB headquarters, and ultimately by the IB Director General. However, they will report on which standards and practices they feel deserve commendation and recommendation and also indicate if they think there are matters to be addressed. These findings will be moderated by IB headquarters once they have received the report from the visiting team and the judgments as to commendations, recommendations and matters to be addressed will be finalized then.
(Image source: A Book Agenda Table - Free photo on Pixabay)
Team members: The verification visit team is made up of a team leader and a team member. The IB visit team leader is the point of contact between the school and the IB when planning and conducting the visit. Before the visit itself both the team leader and team member will review, analyze and evaluate evidence submitted by the school in preparation for the verification visit.
IB ecosystem: Throughout the authorisation process members of the IB work as a team. For example, the visiting team uses the advice and guidance provided by the application for authorization (AFA) reader and consultant to prepare for their work with the school and when providing feedback to the school.
Framework: The 2014 IB standards and practices form the framework for the visit. The school needs to ensure that it meets all the requirements (and these are detailed in Appendix 3 of the Guide to authorisation). Criteria unpack the various elements of each requirement or programme specification; each criterion refers to a single element of the requirement or specification. All criteria must be met for the school to meet a requirement or programme specification. The IB verification visit team uses criteria to provide feedback to schools.
Approach: The visiting team do not only focus on whether the school has met the requirements for authorization but also provide the developmental support for their ongoing improvement efforts after authorization in school unique context. Therefore, the visiting team will both look to confirm that the school has met the requirements for authorization while also making observations of ways in which the school has effectively formed and developed their IB programme during candidacy and areas where the school might wish to focus their ongoing improvement efforts after authorization. Feedback provided by the verification visit team should support the school in planning for ongoing development.
Decisions:
- If observations confirm that all criteria have been met for the requirement or programme specification the visiting team will have an opportunity to offer commendations / recommendations. These can help the school when they come to write an ongoing development plan.
- If the visiting teams’ observations during the visit confirm that any of the criteria have not been met for the requirement or programme specification the school will receive a matter to be addressed (MTBA). The wording of each MTBA is taken directly from the related requirement or programme specification. If a school is given a MTBA the visiting team will indicate what action (or actions) you must take to resolve the matter to be addressed. When an MTBA is indicated it is followed by a list of "School actions needed to resolve the MTBA" spelling out what the school is required to do along with a comment, that can further clarify, starting with "specifically the school should...."
As one IB team member wrote:
“There is a great opportunity for collaboration between the reader, consultant, verification visit team and IB staff. The verification visit team is not doing the authorization alone but as an organic piece of the whole developmental jigsaw - with more targeted and effective support from the rest of the team. Having notes from readers and consultants will help the visiting team to pay closer attention to certain areas in the school’s practices during the visit. The consultant would perhaps have much to offer a school in terms of meeting criteria given the 20 hours of consultation time they spend with the school and that these hours are spread over a wide window of time.”
Activity 1: Where to find the evidence?
- Put yourself in the position of members of the visiting IB verification team.
- Use the requirements for authorisation found in Appendix 3 of the Guide to school authorization.
- Consider where in the school you would look for evidence that all of the requirements are in place - it could be documentation, school website, tour of campus, interviews, classroom observation.
Activity 2: Preparing for the interviews
Put yourself in the position of members of the visiting IB verification team. Plan the interviews you are going to have with the various stakeholder groups to find evidence against each of the standards and practices. Make a list of questions you would ask.