The International Baccalaureate's Bilingual Diploma: Global trends, pathways, and predictors of attainment

This study explored global patterns and pathways in the award of International Baccalaureate (113)'s Bilingual Diploma (BD) and examined the relationship between several variables and the award of the BD. The sample comprised students from 139 countries, who earned the IB Diploma between 2007 and 2012. The most common combination of languages studied in pursuit of the BD was English-Spanish. Results of logistic regression analysis revealed that the model significantly predicted whether a student earned a BD and explained an impressive 62% of variance. All seven predictors were significant, while student native language had the most powerful effect: the odds of earning the BD were 17.7 times higher for non-native English speaking students, compared with native English speaking students. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.