Guidance for Selecting and Implementing the Standards

This implementation guide seeks to assist in the incorporation of some or all of the Catholic Curriculum Standards into a school’s existing set of standards. 

Standards

Standards are statements indicating what students should know (content), do (skill)[1], and/or be like (disposition).[2]They are broad statements that do not prescribe instructional methodology, but do guide curriculum decision-making, as well as the creation of classroom and standardized assessments. 

Catholic Curriculum Standards

The Catholic Curriculum Standardscan complement standards currently used in schools or serve as a starting point for the development of standards in English language arts, history, science, and mathematics. They are not designed to serve as a complete set of academic standards. The standards, as presented, are a set of exit levelstandards for grades 6 and 12. 

Those reviewing the standards might initially note the five key components upon which the general standards are fully situated and upon which the other standards relate. These key components are:

1.    Integrally form the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.[3]

2.    Know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God.[4]

3.    Promote human virtues and the dignity of the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God and modeled on the person of Jesus Christ.[5]

4.    Encourage a synthesis of faith, life, and culture.[6]

5.    Develop a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.[7]

Some diocesan curriculum standards or frameworks might already be built around a set of similar components, in which case comparing components used for the school’s framework to these presented here to more fully ground the program (if necessary) will be the first step.  

Once this Catholic framework is in place, curriculum coordinators or committees should review each academic discipline’s set of existing standards. Due to the significant scope of such an effort, this work may need to be divided by academic discipline. For instance, if a school is scheduled to review its mathematics curriculum in the coming year, then beginning with the Catholic Curriculum Standardsin mathematics would be the first step.[8]Schools might choose to introduce standards in only one academic discipline at a time or choose several well-understood standards in each subject area.

Committees may need to be broken into sub-groups based on each academic discipline with one team member for each grade level or academic discipline (e.g., English language arts team members from grades 1- 6 or science, history, math teachers from grades 7-12). 

The review process should begin by reading the quote from the Church documents in the section header. This will help orient the reviewer to that discipline according to Church guidance.  Next, the reviewer should read the general, intellectual and dispositional standards to get an overall sense of the content and performance requirements for the discipline. 

For those seeking more guidance in a particular academic discipline reference tables are located at the back of the document with citations for review. Additional resources for each academic discipline are available in the Appendices.

After the content or required performance of the standard is understood, the targeted level of cognitive complexity should be identified by analyzing the verb used in the standard. This will provide an indication of the grade level where this standard most appropriately fits. 

The K-6 and 7-12 standards assume that most students are able to attain each standard by either 6^thor 12^thgrade respectively. Curriculum designers are free to move a standard to a grade level where, in their experience, most students can attain that standard. Schools that graduate students at 8^thgrade might not be able to incorporate all of the 7-12 Catholic Curriculum Standards. Similarly, K-12 schools might prefer to move some of the standards from K-6 to the 7^thor 8^thgrade. 

Grade level teachers can then use the appropriately placed standards to generate educational learning objectives and learning targets. Teachers are encouraged to use creativity and innovation as these are nascent standards unique to Catholic education. Some of the standards may benefit from the creation of developmental learning progressions in order to more fully attain their demands. Guidance on the creation of such learning progressions is available on The Cardinal Newman Society’s website at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org. 

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[1]McMillan, J. (2014). Classroom assessment: Principles and practice for effective standards-based instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

[2]Marzano, R. (1996). Eight questions about implementing standards-based education. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 5(6). Retrieved on October 5, 2016 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.?v=5&n=6

[3]The Catholic School, 36, 47, 49;Gravissimum Educationis, 1, par.1; USCCB.Seven themes of Catholic social teaching.

[4]The Catholic school, #41.

[5]The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 52, 56;The Catholic School, 55.

[6]The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School,52; The Catholic School,#37.

[7]The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 71, 74-77;The Catholic School, 50.

[8]Notice there is not a set of Intellectual standards for mathematics. Intellectual standards have been included in the General Standards for this content area. Primarily dispositional standards have been added to this academic discipline.