St. Frederick High named the first International Baccalaureate World School in North Louisiana

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - St. Frederick High School is now the first International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in North Louisiana. The program focuses on expanding education past standardized testing with methods that are more inquiry-based and student-led.

“Instead of opening a textbook that could possibly be outdated, we look at like real-world sources and apply that to the classroom,” said St. Frederick freshman Paras Odudu.

“Science and design, our physical projects like we make bridges, we built rockets last year in design science. In design we did Python, so we do a lot of hands-on stuff rather than just taking tests,” said St. Frederick freshman Osey Anumele.

Faculty members at St. Frederick say they are honored to give their students this opportunity.

“There was not a school like this in the area and this goal was ready to move forward and embrace something like this. I think this brings different challenges, and definitely better preparation for the future for all students,” said St. Frederick Principal Dr. Carynn Wiggins.

“And we’re super excited that we got to bring this it was a dream and now it’s a reality.”

“One of the, one of the benefits is the skill set that they-they learned just critical and creative thinking. They learned how to become collaborators,” said St. Frederick IB coordinator Adam Ryland.

“As the students mentioned, they learned how to become communicators, both orally and on paper.”

The IB program strays away from traditional methods of learning and that may be a struggle for other students.

“It depends on what kind of student you are whether or not it’s more challenging, if you do better with tests, then it might be a little bit more challenging for you but it should also help you learn better and like be better in the real world,” said St. Frederick freshman Traylor Nagem.

“You gotta learn how to collaborate with other people, which is like getting up and doing stuff with other people and not doing stuff on your own,” said St. Frederick freshman Archer Ashbrook.

For more information about St. Frederick High School or International Baccalaureate, visit their website.

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