There are also equivalents for Scottish Highers, the International Baccalaureate, BTECs and Cambridge pre-Us.
More public schools, such as Montgomery County magnet school Richard Montgomery High, have started offering International Baccalaureate Diploma programs.
Over the same period an 18-percentage point gap opened up between pass rates in A-levels and the International Baccalaureate.
Like all the students there, the prince sat the International Baccalaureate, which involves a mix of academic and vocational work.
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It would also mean the A-level system adopting features of the International Baccalaureate preferred by a number of independent schools.
The International Baccalaureate program is not a high school Advanced Placement (AP).
For schools offering an International Baccalaureate Diploma, go to www.ibo.org.
The latest reports in The Times suggest that pupils would have to write a 5, 000-word extended essay, adding an element that is an important part of the International Baccalaureate (IB).
It is even now suggested that Mr Blair's enthusiasm for the International Baccalaureate - with its greater breadth and an already in-built extended essay, just as Tomlinson proposed - reflects his own pro-Tomlinson thinking.
In an age of perpetual pedagogical experimentation, an emphasis on social relevance rather than enduring truths, and a fear of holding students to the highest standards, the International Baccalaureate program is a throwback .
There are a lot of people who think that some kind of international baccalaureate would be a good idea and we will be publishing proposals on the whole 14-19 curriculum again in the new year.
But I don't think we should close our minds to the benefits of some possible wider exam system along the lines of the baccalaureate in France or the international baccalaureate or the ... in Germany, whatever it might be.
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