Answers:
None, unless your family moves around the world a lot. The IB program was started to meet the needs of kids whose families moved a lot. An IB diploma simply says that the child receiving one in the US received the exact same education (standards) as an IB student in Spain, or anywhere else in the word. It was started as an undergraduate level program and (with an adgressive marketing program) it has slowly spread down to the high school, then jr high, and now primary grades. It is a private for-profit organization that puts together the programs for a high fee for testing, teacher training and certification, and school certification/approval. It is fairly expensive for schools to offer as compared to the AP program.
This route may offer slight advantages for course offerings (like Chinese languages classes at the jr. high level). Mostly, the teacher trainings encourage teachers to use the most innovate methods to date. However, until high school, teachers still determine their own lesson plans and are limited by their own school's funds as to whether or not the school can afford to impliment the new innovative techniques. At high school there is a rigerous set of standards that don't completely coincide with the AP standards makeing it VERY difficult to teach to both the AP & IB in one course (which is what most school have to do because of limited funding).
And when all is said and done, the AP scores play a much more influential role than the IB diploma when colleges are looking over admission applications.
If you have an option, choose AP over IB over regular education. But don't go out of your way or try to force a child into the IB program, it's not worth it.
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