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Pinellas private school to teach students internationally
By JIM HARRINGTON
| Article published on Thursday, May 25, 2006 |
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CLEARWATER – Some students who attend a private north Pinellas high school will soon get an American education with a twist of Swiss.
Clearwater Central Catholic High School will offer about 10 incoming juniors an International Baccalaureate Diploma when they graduate in 2009.
The Catholic high school off Haines Bayshore Road is the first, and so far only, private secondary school to teach the IB curriculum, but it’s not the only Pinellas school to do so.
St. Petersburg High School and Palm Harbor University High School, both public schools, teach the curriculum which is based on a model developed in 1924, according to the Encyclopedia of Education.
As employees of the League of Nations and their children moved about Europe, they found it difficult to keep their kids prepared for college.
“(One) of the most pressing of these problems was that of providing adequate university preparation for their older students, destined as they were to seek university places in many different countries of the world,” according to the book.
In 1962, a group of teachers and social studies educators developed the IB model, which aims to help students enter international universities, as well as promote “international understanding and world peace.”
Peg Carrington, the school’s IB coordinator said Dulce Roman, the school principal first thought of offering the IB model in the early 2000s, as an additional component to the school’s track of programs.
“It offers an edge in college,” said Carrington, who teaches Spanish at the school, which operates under the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.
“The school offers a spiritual component,” she said, unlike the public schools.
To quality for the program, students must have a 3.0 grade point average in 9th and 10th grades, a teacher’s recommendation and a good attendance and behavior record. Potential IB students must also do a writing sample.
Once accepted a junior can expect a rigorous two years of study which will earn the graduate a diploma worth about a year’s worth of college or about 20 credit hours which can be transferred to the majority of colleges.
“We want to have a well-rounded student,” said Carrington.
To graduate a student must complete a 4,000 word research paper, too.
The IB program focuses on six core subjects, including English, a foreign language, history, math or one of the fine arts.
IB students will work alongside other students in classes such as physical education and theology.
If Van Gogh and Mozart are not a student’s strengths, the high schooler can emphasize one of the other subjects.
Carrington had to submit a 20 page application to the International Baccalaureate Organization in Geneva. The school, which is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, will go through a reaccreditation process every four years.
Students must also complete a creativity, action and service requirement, a way for them to understand life on the outside of the educational institution.
The school now offers five tracks, including the IB one. Those include a track for students with learning differences, as well as honors and advanced placement programs and a track for regular students.
“We know the children and teach them a sense of community,” Carrington said.
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Article published on Thursday, May 25, 2006
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