Curriculum Standards

Curriculum standards express the skills and content students are expected to demonstrate within courses and across grade levels. These standards provide normative targets for student performance. When a student has successfully completed a course or grade level, he or she will have demonstrated competence in the knowledge, skills, or attitudes required of that course or grade level.

Curriculum standards are the base from which schools and teachers identify specific learning objectives for students’ coursework. Shortened versions of the curriculum standards are used on diocesan report cards, which show individual student growth toward proficiency of course content. School leaders also use curriculum standards as they determine the textbooks and resources necessary for courses; this process of purchasing curriculum resources is determined at the school level.

No. The diocesan curriculum standards guide schools toward the expectation of course work and content. The diocese does not determine the textbooks or resources used in each school. Those decisions are made at the individual school level; however, when possible, schools cooperate to take advantage of consortium or volume pricing.

Standardized assessments are one tool used in our Catholic schools to monitor academic progress. These are one data point among many. We recognize that students learn at unique rates. We strive to find the just-right learning pace and path for each student, and meet that student where s/he is academically. We know that a standardized assessment is simply a snapshot of that student’s understanding on that date.

Our schools use the following standardized assessments in order to monitor student learning. Standardized assessments are:

Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA): Measure of Academic Progress (MAP)

College Board: Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT), Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

National Catholic Education Association: Information for Growth: Assessment of Children/Youth Religious Education (IFG:ACRE)

The NCEA ACRE assessment is administered in fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade to provide parents and educators standardized data on students’ knowledge of the Catholic faith. The NWEA MAP assessments are administered in elementary and middle school grades to provide qualitative achievement and growth data for parents and teachers. The SAT suite of assessments is administered in preparation of students’ postsecondary school success. Other assessments are selected and offered by individual schools for specific purposes and specific students (e.g. DIBELS, College Board AP assessments, ACT). Educators in our schools use these various data points to drive instruction based on a student’s specific needs.

No. As Catholic schools we are not required to give M-STEP, and we choose not to for several reasons. Firstly, preparation and administration of an additional assessment would cause a loss of instructional time. Secondly, results would be returned months later, by which time the students have left that teacher’s classroom, and there would be no opportunity to make instructional adjustments in a timely fashion for that student. 

Instead of using the M-STEP, our schools use assessments that are intended to help teachers make decisions regarding their students’ learning. Results help teachers group students, identify areas of strength and weakness, and set learning goals. Assessment data is examined at the classroom, school, diocesan, and national levels to determine and ensure that our students excel academically.

No, we do not publish each school’s results. We do publish aggregated diocesan-level assessment data. School principals welcome you to visit the school and inquire about student assessment data.

No. The Common Core State Standards have not been adopted or adapted for use in our schools. Our diocesan curriculum standards pull from best practices from a variety of sources, none of which are Common Core. Hundreds of diocesan teachers and administrators worked tirelessly to produce the content and wording of the curriculum standards. They were then reviewed by local experts in theology, including diocesan priests and Aquinas College professors. This combination of experts ensures that the curriculum is rooted in our Catholic faith, is interculturally appropriate for our diocese, and provides educational best practices to inspire excellence in Catholic education.