preliminary review

The preliminary review is the fidelity of implementation component of the evaluation process and it is submitted 4 months before the evaluation visit.

The school reviews (and updates, when necessary) the information about the school and the required documents about the school and the programme(s) by the set date, at least two months and a half before the submission of the self-study questionnaire.

The school can start its self-assessment process while it conducts the preliminary review.

During the preliminary review, the school confirms that:

required items have been reviewed and updated (see “Appendix 1” in the Guide to programme evaluation for the list of items)
school and programme information provided to the IB has been reviewed and updated.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION

The preliminary review focuses on checking whether the school follows and meets IB rules, requirements and programme specifications.

The expectations which must be evidenced in each of the required documents are described in relation to the corresponding rule, requirement or specification.

The complete list of required documentation is included in appendix 1 in the Guide to programme evaluation. This appendix is crucial to be able to understand and meet the expectations in relation to necessary documentation. The school must check whether the existing documents meet the corresponding expectations and identify those which need modification.

It is important to read the sections called "For all programmes" and "Programme documents" carefully to achieve a full understanding of the expectations for each document.

The expectations column does not always refer to specific programme requirements. In these cases, the expectations referred to apply across programmes.

The school should not submit the self-study questionnaire together with the preliminary review documents. The self-study questionnaire is submitted at a later date. It is not necessary either to submit evidence other than the documentation which is required.

Appendix 1: Documentation for preliminary review

DOCUMENTATION TEMPLATES FOR PRELIMINARY REVIEW

Certain documents require a specific format. There is a template in the Programme Resource Centre for each of the following documents:

School and programme profile
Professional development information
Programme budget
Statement of acceptance

These templates can be found here.

REPORT ON THE PRELIMINARY REVIEW

During the preliminary review, the IB reviews the submitted documentation about the school and its programme(s) and elaborates a report which is made available to the school between three to five weeks after the submission deadline of the preliminary review documentation.

The school will receive an email informing that the preliminary review report is available for download from IB Concierge. The report will either:

confirm that the information and documentation submitted meets the IB requirements. In this case, no further action is necessary and the preliminary review stage is considered to be finalized.
provides comments which require a new submission of documents which are either missing or incomplete. These comments thus indicate matters to be addressed. If these comments imply only minor revisions, then the school must submit the revised document(s) within three weeks.

In some cases, because of the magnitude and scope of the necessary revisions, it will not be possible for the school to submit the revised documents within three weeks. The school must then complete the action plan template which is provided by the IB indicating the steps the school has planned to take in order to meet the requirements which have not yet been met. The action plan must identify the objectives the school sets to meet the corresponding requirements and describe in detail the specific actions that will be taken to achieve them. Both the objectives and the actions must be clear and realistic, and should aim at addressing the requirements which have not been met within twelve months.

The IBWS action plan template can be found here.

The action plan must be submitted within three weeks after the preliminary review report has been made available to the school.

The action plan is therefore not part of the preliminary review documentation which must be submitted initially. It is only necessary to submit an action plan if the IB, in its preliminary review report, indicates that there are preliminary matters to be addressed and if the school cannot possibly address these matters within three weeks.

The action plan template, however, can still be useful to schools as a checklist, in their preparation for the evaluation process, in order to make sure that all requirements and specifications are met. If in this analysis the school considers that any of these has not been met, then it should complete the action plan with actions which make reference to the Programme standards and practices and which aim to fulfil the corresponding requirement and specification.

Preliminary matters to be addressed will be communicated to schools in the preliminary review report. These matters will need to be addressed before the evaluation visit, if there is one, or before the deadline for submission of the self-study questionnaire and the programme development plan, if there is no evaluation visit. This is meant to prevent matters to be addressed from dominating the conversations during the evaluation visit. It will be expected that these matters will have been addressed before the evaluation visit so that meetings can therefore revolve around programme development.

If preliminary matters that need to be addressed have not been satisfactorily dealt with before the evaluation visit, then these will appear in the final evaluation report and a new deadline will be set for schools to address them.

PREPARING FOR THE PRELIMINARY REVIEW

There is a professional development resource which focuses on how to prepare for the preliminary review. The resource explains what is expected during the preliminary review and how to make sure the submitted documentation meets IB expectations. The resource can be found here.

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