International Baccalaureate program seen as an aid for students

Published: 2006-04-24

ATLANTA (CNS) -- The International Baccalaureate curriculum may be the next tool to help students get an academic leg up, according to Catholic educators who have added the curriculum to their course offerings. The number of International Baccalaureate programs in U.S. schools is small -- and the numbers are even smaller for Catholic schools -- but the educators believe the course offerings better prepare their students for college. "There's a lot of reading and a lot of writing," particularly in the program's "World Literature" course work, said Beverly McAuliffe, principal of the all-girl Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville, the state's only Catholic school that participates in International Baccalaureate, commonly abbreviated as IB. But the writing isn't confined to English and literature classes. "My daughter went through it and she said, 'Mom, why do I have to write a paper on statistics?'" McAuliffe said during an April 21 round table on the program during the April 18-21 National Catholic Educational Association convention in Atlanta.

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