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How is the IB Diploma Program Unique at RHS?

A group of graduates in academic regalia, including caps and gowns, standing in front of a gray corrugated metal wall.
The image displays the text "Rifle High School" along with the tagline "An International Baccalaureate World School" against a plain gray background.

 

The International Baccalaureate allows flexibility in how its programs are implemented, recognizing that every school and community is unique. At Rifle High School, we value rigorous academics and believe that learning extends far beyond the classroom.
 
That belief led us to launch our "IB Excursions" initiative in 2024 in an attempt to seek learning opportunities with community partners outside the RHS walls. In addition, the demanding workload of the IBDP inspired us in 2020 to create our "Two-Year Core" initiative, a structured system of support that helps students thrive throughout their Diploma journey. Finally, we recognized that RHS serves a vibrant bilingual community, so we began offering the Bilingual IB Diploma with our 2027 cohort.
 
Our unique program features are intentionally designed with student well-being and the IB's holistic approach in mind, strengthening students' academic skills, building their self-management capabilities, and supporting their growth well beyond the walls of RHS. Read more about our program features below.


Take A Look At Our Adventures!

 

IB Excursions

Launched in 2024, IB Excursions brings Western Colorado directly into the Diploma Program. Students learn beyond the classroom through visits to museums, historic sites, environmental fieldwork locations, and community organizations. Suggested by Dr. Gray and pioneered by Mr. Bomba in his Sports, Exercise, and Health Science class, these experiences deepen inquiry, allow students opportunities to engage classroom learning in practical settings, and make local connections to global contexts.

A group of medical professionals, dressed in surgical attire, are gathered around a patient on an operating table, engaged in what appears to be a medical procedure.

SEHS students examine cadaver knees at the world-renowned
Steadman Clinic in Vail.

A group of medical professionals in surgical attire are gathered around a patient on an operating table, intently focused on the procedure at hand.

SEHS students examine cadaver knees at the world-renowned
Steadman Clinic in Vail.

A group of people lying on the ground in a radial pattern, with their arms raised, against a vibrant yellow and green background.
The Museum of Illusions (Denver) visit allowed students to experience different elements of visual perspective.
A group of people, both adults and children, standing together on a platform with a cityscape visible in the background.
Visual Arts students visit the Denver Art Museum for a specialized IB Visual Arts workshop and pose atop the museum.
The image depicts a group of people standing in a museum-like setting, examining various exhibits and displays on the walls and in the foreground.

Visual Arts students visit the Denver Art Museum for a specialized IB Visual Arts workshop.

Two-Year Core: Structured, Purpose-Built Support Across Both IB Years

In 2020, RHS launched the Two-Year Core to create a comprehensive and structured support system for all IB Diploma candidates. Many students find the workload of the IBDP challenging, and rather than expecting them to figure it out, the school leadership intentionally built the Core components Theory of Knowledge (ToK), the Extended Essay (EE), and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) into a single class that spans the full two years of the programme.

This design allows students to learn essential self-management skills in an advisory-like setting through guided study hall periods, executive function coaching, CAS mentoring, and research-skill workshops. It also provides dedicated time for university and scholarship applications with support from the RHS counseling department. Throughout the Two-Year Core, students practice IB's Approaches to Learning (thinking, research, communication, collaboration, and self-management), developing the habits and confidence needed to thrive in a rigorous academic program at RHS and beyond.

The Bilingual IB Diploma

Rifle High School serves a bilingual community, and one of the key components of the IB Diploma is developing biliteracy as a critical element of building communication skills. To that end, Rifle High School began offering IB's Spanish A Language and Literature course for the 2027 class, which allows students who successfully complete it as part of their IB Diploma to earn the Bilingual IB Diploma. This enables heritage Spanish speakers and emerging bilingual students with extensive Spanish training to demonstrate that they can complete academic work in Spanish and English.

We also discovered that successful completion of this course allows students to seek a very special credential on their Rifle High School diploma: The Colorado Seal of Biliteracy

Together, these credentials signal to employers, universities, and scholarship committees that a student can communicate effectively, think critically, and perform academic tasks across two languages, an increasingly valuable skill in today's world.

Colorado Seal of Biliteracy