YES Prep North Central is all about preparing kids to succeed in college, and when it comes to academic work, that means one thing: rigor. At North Central, this drive is not to be confused with traditional drill-and-kill. Educators at this International Baccalaureate-certified school believe in the power of project learning to make lessons relevant and to build critical-thinking skills. So they weave opportunities for collaborative, creative work into their lessons, always providing detailed rubrics so students know just what kind of high-quality work they're expected to produce.