Our academic curriculum here at Alice Birney Elementary, an International Studies Magnet School, is approved by the San Diego Unified School District's Board of Education, based on California state curriculum frameworks and California state standards. In addition to the state and district-mandated curricular areas, our school is developing a written curriculum within the curricular framework based on the International Baccalaureate Organisation's Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) guidelines (for more information on the program visit http://www.ibo.org/). Through structured inquiry, our mandated standards and skills for each grade level are organized under the framework of six transdisciplinary themes which guide teachers and students as they design curricular units for exploration and study. Students explore the mandated subject areas of language; social studies; math, science and technology; the arts; and personal, social and physical education. These subject areas are integrated using six themes, often in ways that transcend conventional subject boundaries. "In the process," as the School's Guide to the Primary Years Programme states, "[the students] develop an understanding of important concepts, acquire essential skills and knowledge, develop particular attitudes and learn to take socially responsible action."
The curriculum model offered by the IB PYP combines the most up-to-date methods for teaching and assessing students with the most well-researched guidelines for what students should learn. The transdisciplinary nature of our curricular framework allows us to organize our curriculum throughout the entire elementary school experience in a way that every year children build their understanding of the six themes:
- Who we are
- Where we are in place and time
- How we express ourselves
- How the world works
- How we organize ourselves
- Sharing the planet
Through this curricular framework, we organize the mandated standards in each subject area at each grade level, into a Program of Inquiry 
.
In addition to the organization of the mandated curriculum, we also provide for the teaching of Spanish, the additional language other than English, our language of instruction, in order to support the international perspective of our school.
To become more familiar with the district-adopted curriculum, please choose a subject area below to learn more:
School and district policies require homework and outside reading on a regular basis. Each teacher has a homework policy for his/her classroom that meets these requirements. Your child will bring home a copy of the policy for his or her classroom during the first few weeks of school.