Carson Junior High, part of the Mesa Public Schools system, is currently an IB Middle Years Program (MYP) Authorized school . The International Baccalaureate (IB) program helps prepare students for life in the 21st century and is designed to help students become life-long learners who understand how to navigate successfully through an ever-changing and increasingly interrelated world.

The MYP consists of eight subject groups, integrated through six global contexts, which provide a framework for learning within and across the subjects. Students are required to study English, Spanish, Humanities, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, Physical Education, and Technology.  In the tenth grade year of the program, students also engage in a personal project, which allows them to demonstrate the understandings and skills they have developed throughout the entire MYP program.

Carson Junior High offers students in grades 7th and 8th grade the Middle Years Program of the IB continuum.  We are partnered with Westwood High School in Mesa, which offers the remaining years of the Middle Years Program to our students, as well as an opportunity to continue their IB experience through participation in Westwood's authorized IB Diploma Program.

Global Contexts are common interactive themes embedded in the subject groups, but they are not subject disciplines in their own right. They are common to all disciplines and require all teachers to teach their subject content in a way that encourages students to become increasingly aware of the connections between their learning and the real world around them. Contexts have broad applications that offer the possibility of new perspectives, additional information, counter-examples, and refinements of understanding. Contexts also help to create productive discussion within and outside of the classroom, often identifying inquiries that are meaningful and relevant to students.

Global contexts provide a common language for learning, identifying specific settings, events or circumstances that provide more concrete perspectives for inquiry, and they offer common points of entry for an ongoing exploration of what it means to be internationally-minded. Furthermore, they help students to appreciate the interrelated connections between the seven different subject groups. They act as a "lens" for students to view the content through, helping them to transfer their learning from one subject group to the next and promoting a deeper understand of knowledge.