Baccalaureate program challenges middle schoolers at St. Francis of Assisi School

When middle schoolers choose to attend St. Francis of Assisi School in Northeast Baltimore, they’re also choosing to enroll in a ­cutting-edge International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program.

All students enter the program in sixth grade, with everyone taking International Baccalaureate courses. Over three years, the students build up to working on a community project in eighth grade.

After completing the first three years of the five-year program at St. Francis, students then have the opportunity to complete the International Baccalaureate at various high schools including Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn and Mercy High School in Baltimore.

“The courses we offer as an International Baccalaureate school vary slightly from your typical middle school,” said Catherine Thibault, IB program coordinator at St. Francis. “We follow the coursework of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, teach all of the same standards, but we offer a design course which is part of the International Baccalaureate requirements. International Baccalaureate is really a framework and a mindset that helps to guide the teachers in planning their units and courses of study.”

The program provides students a holistic approach to learning while helping them shape their future. All classes teach an interdisciplinary unit every year, which means that students can see the connection between math and language arts or social studies and design.

IB is a niche program. At the start of last year, there were 1,859 International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program schools in 127 different countries. Within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the program is offered only at St. Francis and there are only 39 such schools in Maryland.

St. Francis first became an MYP school in 2015 under the direction of Mary Carol Lidinisky. At the time, it was looking for ways to set its middle school apart and boost the overall program.

After doing research, school leaders landed on the IBMYP because of its focus on instilling a love of learning and a connection to something bigger than simply memorizing information to pass a class, according to Thibault.

One of the primary benefits of the program is its emphasis on academic rigor, which prepares students for the challenges of higher education and beyond, she said. A broad range of subjects includes design, science, art history, English, language arts, world history, drama, music, Spanish and religion.

“Since we first became accredited as an International Baccalaureate school we have had more than 250 students complete the program,” Thibault said.

Elena Sentementes, a 13-year-old eighth-grade student at St. Francis, said the program is interactive and challenging.

“There are big differences in how we learn each time we encounter a new topic or theme,” she said, “which helps keep us engaged as students. This approach allows students to get creative each time because we test our minds in different ways. It’s not easy, but I feel like it challenges me to think in new ways.”

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