Colorful curriculum workshop advances improvements

By Stephanie Brown
JACKSON – On September 26-27 educators from across the diocese gathered in Jackson to continue their work to revise and enhance the diocesan Catholic Schools curriculum Standards. This process, which started last spring, involves an in-depth study and comparison of the standards diocesan schools are currently using to a variety of other state and national standards. Teachers worked across subjects and grade-levels to ensure the expectations for every student are vertically aligned, meaning that they have the tools and skills they need as they move from one grade to the next.

Megan Leake of St, Anthony, Anne Lovelace, of Southaven Sacred Heart and Deb Proctor of Jackson St. Richard revise content standards for Language Arts and Reading in grades Pre-K through eighth.

In addition to finalizing a rigorous and vertically-aligned academic curriculum, teachers also spent time making connections between the academic content and the Catholic faith. This will not only provide the schools with a road map for academic excellence, but will also provide concrete opportunities to reinforce Church teachings, dive further into Scripture and expose students to several Catholic innovators and well-respected thinkers in various realms of academics.
The curriculum revision process is still ongoing with the intent to roll out a completed set of standards for each subject for the 2019-2020 academic year.

JACKSON – April Moore of Columbus Annunciation School and Vickie Moorehead of Madison St. Anthony School compare and rearrange content standards for Elementary Science in grades Pre-K through eighth. (Photos by Stephanie Brown)

(Stephanie Brown is the coordinator for school improvement for the Catholic schools.)