CAS:  Creativity, Action, Service                                                   Booker T. Washington High School

Creativity, action, service (CAS) is at the heart of the Diploma Program.  It is one of the three essential elements in every student’s Diploma Program experience.  It involves students in a range of activities alongside their academic studies throughout the Diploma Program.  Each candidate must meet the CAS requirement in addition to the other mandatory components for the award of the diploma. A student's records along with the school and self-evaluations must clearly demonstrate quality, balanced content, and commitment for a student to meet the CAS requirement. 

The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows.

 Creativity:  arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.

 Action:  physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the Diploma Program.

 Service:  an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student.  The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected. 

 CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning.  At the same time, it provides an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the rest of the Diploma Program.  A good CAS program should be both challenging and enjoyable, a personal journey of self-discovery.  Each individual student has a different starting point and therefore different goals and needs.   

 In order for an activity to be considered CAS-worthy, it must include ALL FOUR of these criteria: 

• real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes
• personal challenge – tasks must extend the student and be achievable in scope
• thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress, reporting
• reflection on outcomes and personal learning

All proposed CAS activities need to meet these four criteria.  It is also essential that they do not replicate other parts of the student’s Diploma Program work.  Students may find that courses they take outside their Diploma Program courses will address some of the learner outcomes and CAS criteria.  However, just taking a course does not satisfy the CAS criteria.  Just like any other CAS activity, a student must provide proper documentation and show how the class fits CAS. 

Concurrency of learning is important at the Diploma Program.  Therefore, CAS activities should continue on a regular basis for as long as possible throughout the program, and certainly for at least 18 months.

CAS is not formally assessed, but students must document their activities and provide evidence that they have achieved eight key learning outcomes. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES:  As a result of their CAS experiences as a whole, including their reflections, there should be evidence that students have:

·         increase your awareness of your strengths and areas for growth

You are an individual with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others.  You can make choices about how to move forward.

·         undertaken new challenges

A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one.  Identify new challenges that you would like to take on.  Reflect on these challenges from creative, active and service perspectives.

·         planned and initiated activities

Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student-led activities.

·         worked collaboratively with others

Collaboration can be shown in many activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten.  At least one project must involve collaboration and integrate at least two of creativity, action and service and be of significant duration.

·         shown perseverance and commitment on your activities

A student needs to attend regularly and accept a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities.

·         engaged with issues of global importance

You are required to act on at least one issue of global significance.  This activity may be an international project, but there are many global issues that can be acted on locally or nationally (for example, environmental concerns).

 ·         considered the ethical implications of your actions

Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity.  Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisors.

·         developed new skills

As with new challenges, new skills may by shown in activities that the students has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area.

All eight outcomes must be present for a student to complete the CAS requirement.  Some may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there is some evidence for every outcome. 

The guideline for the minimum amount of CAS activity is approximately 150 hours in total, with a reasonable balance between creativity, action, and service.  “Hour counting”, however, is not encouraged.

The following activities are not approved CAS activities:

·         Any class, activity or project which is already part of the student’s IB Diploma Program

·         Any activity for which the student receives personal financial reward

·         Doing simple, tedious, repetitive work that does not vary (such as shelving library books)

·         A passive pursuit such as visiting a museum, watching a movie, or observing a sports event

·         All forms of duty and chores within the family

·         Religious devotion and any activity that can be interpreted as proselytizing or advocating a particular religious position (note: community service sponsored by a religious organization is permitted.

·         Any activity in which there is no leader or responsible adult on site to evaluate and confirm student performance.  Parents must not evaluate CAS or sign off on any CAS activities. 

CAS after 2010