Lincoln is one of two International Baccalaureate (IB) high schools in Portland Public Schools (PPS), and has the largest program in the state of Oregon, offering over 30 different IB courses out of the total 57 courses in the IB program. 

In the past, Lincoln has offered IB courses such as IB Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS), IB Computer Science and IB Higher Level (HL) Mathematical Applications, which are no longer offered.

Lincoln IB coordinator and Theory of Knowledge teacher Kim Bliss says several factors contribute to which IB courses are offered at each school. 

“The strategy for [offering an IB course] is, number one, having a teacher that expresses interest and is capable of teaching the course,” said Bliss. “Step two is having enough students. Step three is going to departments and talking about what it would mean to add an elective […] and getting agreement from that group that we want to add another course.”

This combination of factors means that the IB classes offered at one IB school may not be offered at another.

Isabel Blindert is a junior at Cleveland High School, the only other IB school in PPS, and is enrolled in IB German at Lincoln because Cleveland doesn’t offer the course.

“I was drawn to German when forecasting for my freshman year for the primary reason that my entire father’s side of the family are fluent speakers with most living in Germany,” said Blindert. “The process of getting enrolled in this class at Lincoln was pretty easy, as originally I did not plan on making the trip to Lincoln. […] I decided to go to my counselor and got switched to Lincoln by just having a conversation with her.”

Bliss expresses his hopes for future IB courses offered at Lincoln.

“There hasn’t been a lot of discussion [about adding new courses],” said Bliss. “I am hopeful that we can maybe offer ESS again. I am hopeful that we can add Sports Health and Exercise Science if we can find a teacher who is interested in that.”