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Catholic Curriculum Standards

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Explanation of the Standards
Introduction
English/Language Arts Grades K-6
English/Language Arts Grades 7-12
History Grades K-6
History Grades 7-12
Scientific Topics Grades K-6
Scientific Topics Grades 7-12
Mathematics Grades K-6
Mathematics Grades 7-12
Appendix A: Educating to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Appendix B: Assessing Non-Cognitive Standards
Appendix C: ELA Resources & Reading List
Appendix D: History Resources
Appendix E: Science Resources
Appendix F: Mathematics Resources
Appendix G: Consultants & Contributors
References
Reference Tables for Standards
Church Documents for School Teachers: Annotated Bibliography
Teacher Formation Readings: Comprehension and Discussion Questions

Explanation of the Catholic Curriculum Standards

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Catholic Education released a document in 2014 to guide Catholic schools in their approach to educational standards. It had been longstanding practice in Catholic education to rely heavily upon state standards for public schools, but this became increasingly controversial when many states shifted to the Common Core State Standards. The Committee advised:

Catholic schools must consider standards that support the mission and purpose of the school as a Catholic institution. Attempts to compartmentalize the religious and the secular in Catholic schools reflect a relativistic perspective by suggesting that faith is merely a private matter and does not have a significant bearing on how reality as a whole should be understood. Such attempts are at odds with the integral approach to education that is a hallmark of Catholic schools. Standards that support an appropriate integration should be encouraged.

Such standards are critical to Catholic education. The Church and the Catholic intellectual tradition it inspired have thought deeply and explicitly about these things for centuries; the challenge is to place them into a contemporary K-12 standards format without losing these deep spiritual and philosophical insights. Standards reflecting the Catholic intellectual tradition might then form the foundation of a school’s measures of success, or they might complement a school’s carefully selected academic standards that are already in use.

The scope and nature of this project entails research and inquiry into two areas: “What does the Church expect of its schools?” and “What sort of academic standards in each discipline might guide a school’s curriculum toward this end?” The Cardinal Newman Society undertook the first inquiry with its Principles of Catholic Identity in Education project. The second inquiry resulted in these Catholic Curriculum Standards.

Research from the first inquiry resulted in the synthesis of key Church teachings into five principles of Catholic identity. They are:

Inspired by Divine Mission,
Models Christian Communion and Identity,
Encounters Christ in Prayer, Scripture, and Sacrament,
Integrally Forms the Human Person, and
Imparts a Christian View for Humanity.

Principles 1, 4, and 5 most directly guide the scope and of the Catholic Curriculum Standards.

The Catholic Curriculum Standards take into account guidance from Church documents which emphasize that Catholic education:

Involves the integral formation of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.
Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God.
Promotes 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.
Encourages a synthesis of faith, life, and culture.
Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.

This framework guides the second part of the inquiry, “What sort of academic standards might serve to guide a school’s curriculum toward this end?”

The initial development of the standards was influenced by multiple sources, including Church documents, scholarly works related to Catholic education and the Catholic intellectual tradition, and books articulating the nature of liberal arts and classical education. The standards also reflect the educational philosophies of several faithful Catholic colleges in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.

A series of meetings, focus groups, and contacts with academic subject area experts helped further refine the scope and nature of each discipline’s Catholic tradition and the complete standards; these experts represent Aquinas College (Nashville), Ave Maria University, Catholic University of America, Christendom College, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Thomas Aquinas College, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, University of St. Thomas (Houston), and others. Cardinal Newman Society authors then structured the standards into conventional standards-based language and format. Further input and review was provided by national standards expert, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, who oversaw the writing of the highly regarded Massachusetts academic standards and was a final validation team member by the developers of the Common Core before resigning in disagreement. Finally, the standards were reviewed by superintendents, teachers, and curriculum experts in three Catholic dioceses for clarity, applicability, and structure.

Each academic discipline’s standards are broadly grouped into two sets focusing on grades K-6 and 7-12, with general, intellectual, and dispositional standards for each academic discipline. The general standards are tied to the five critical elements listed above. Intellectual standards are cognitive standards and are primarily content and performance based. The dispositional standards involve the formation of character, beliefs, attitudes, values, interpersonal skills. Each standard is given a unique identifier for ease of location within the document and identification in teacher lesson plans. The following are examples of standards for English language arts, math, science, and history:

CS	ELA.712(English Language Arts 7-12)	GS3	Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS	H.K6(History K-6)	IS11	Identify the motivating values that have informed particular societies and how they correlate with Catholic teaching.
CS	S.K6(Scientific Topics K-6)	IS8	Explain how science properly limits its focus to “how” things physically exist and is not designed to answer issues of meaning, the value of things, or the mysteries of the human person.
CS	M.K6(Math K-6)	DS2	Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.

In addition to the standards, the document contains a number of appendices to assist implementation. To help orient instructional efforts, the document provides guidance on educating to truth, beauty, and goodness. The appendices also contain best practice information, a recommended reading list for Catholic schools, and a brief discussion on the assessment of dispositional standards.

The Catholic Curriculum Standards are intended primarily as a general resource for Catholic school curriculum developers, superintendents, and others familiar with creating curriculum and standards. However, anyone with an interest in Catholic education may find them useful. Those who interact with the standards are encouraged to select some or all of the standards that they believe might solidify and enhance the Catholic identity of their curriculum and integrate them into their larger educational efforts.

The Standards can be viewed and downloaded from the K-12 section of The Cardinal Newman Society’s website (www.newmansociety.org). Questions and comments can be sent to Denise Donohue (ddonohue@cardinalnewmansociety.org) or Dan Guernsey (dguernsey@cardinalnewmansociety.org).

Introduction

The mission and goals of Catholic education are significantly different from the college and career goals that guide public schools. Because the mission of a school should guide its choice of standards, the unique and broader mission of Catholic education requires additional and foundational standards that include specific Catholic modes of intellectual reasoning as well as accompanying dispositions.

A discussion of standards in use in a Catholic school should therefore begin with a discussion of the mission of Catholic education. There is no shortage of guidance from the Church on this topic. Building on insights from Vatican II’s Gravissimum Educationis (1965), these documents echo the fact that Catholic education has a primarily evangelical mission. It is to foster in students an awareness of the God-given gift of faith and to nurture their development into mature adults who will bear witness to the Mystical Body of Christ; respect the dignity of the human person; lead virtuous, prayerful, apostolic lives; serve the common good; and build the Kingdom of God.¹

Through Catholic education, students encounter God’s transforming love and truth.² With Jesus as its foundation,³ Catholic education integrally forms all aspects of students’ physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development, teaching them responsibility and the right use of freedom and preparing them to fulfill God’s calling in this world so as to attain the eternal kingdom in the next.⁴

To guide students toward this goal, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) created the Curriculum Framework⁵ for high school religion classes. But the mission of Catholic education is not limited to religion classes, nor is it separate from the intellectual formation of the students.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman observed that because of the divine origin and the destiny of all reality:

All branches of knowledge are connected together, because the subject-matter of knowledge is intimately united in itself, as being the acts and the work of the Creator. Hence it is that the Sciences, into which our knowledge may be said to be cast, have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, [and] balance each other.⁶

This is a critical addition to the academic approach common in secular schools. Like these schools, Catholic educators lead students to know and appreciate reality using the best and most appropriate methods for the subject at hand and delve deeply into each specific academic discipline on its own terms, but Catholic education is also specifically and distinctly open to transcendent truths and an objective reality which surpasses and integrates the disciplines.

When illumined by the light of faith, all knowledge becomes living, conscious, and active.⁷ Because students have access to reason, revelation, and the guidance of the Catholic Church, Catholic education is uniquely positioned to offer guidance on issues of values and morality as well as to provide life-giving and definitive answers related to questions of human purpose, human dignity, and human flourishing. These questions arise quite naturally in academic practice and inquiry.

The Catholic educational project, to bring human wisdom into an encounter with divine wisdom,⁸ cultivates in students not only the intellectual but also the creative and aesthetic faculties of the human person. It develops the ability to make correct use of judgment, promotes a sense of values, encourages just attitudes and prudent behavior, introduces a cultural heritage, and prepares students to take on the responsibilities to serve society and the Church.⁹ It prepares students to work for the evangelization of culture and the common good.¹⁰ In the light of faith, Catholic education critically and systematically transmits the civic and religious cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations, especially that which makes a person more human.¹¹ Both educator and student participate in a dialogue with culture and pursue the integration of culture with faith and faith with living.¹²

In Catholic education, there is no separation between learning and formation. The atmosphere is characterized by discovery and awareness that enkindles a love for truth, a desire to know the universe as God’s creation, and an awakening of a critical sense of examination which impels the mind to learn with order and precision.¹³ Catholic education, imbued with the light of faith, instills a sense of responsibility and encourages strength and perseverance in the quest for knowledge.¹⁴ Catholic intellectual efforts and formation are significantly more rich and profound given this broader understanding of reality, access to transcendent truths, support from a cultural heritage, and the efficacy of God’s grace poured forth from the Sacraments and guided by the Holy Spirit. Catholic academic standards must take all this and more into account, and, drawing from guidance in Church documents, should ensure these key components are addressed. Therefore,

Catholic education:

1. Involves the integral formation of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit, in light of his or her ultimate end and the good of society.¹⁵
2. Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity, and end in God.
3. Promotes 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.¹⁶
4. Encourages a synthesis of faith, life, and culture.¹⁷
5. Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.¹⁸

Operational Guidance

This resource guide is not a complete set of standards for any particular subject, but it is designed to complement a broader set of primarily content driven academic standards. Not all of the standards in this guide need be implemented.

There are many other possible articulations of standards that might address the intellectual and dispositional needs of Catholic education.¹⁹ The intent here is to start a conversation and invite further consideration as Catholic educators develop their own standards and curriculum guides based on their unique mission, which extends to the formation of their students in a rich Catholic intellectual heritage.

These standards reflect insights gathered from Church documents on education; books and articles on Catholic education, liberal arts education, and classical education; the educational philosophies of Catholic colleges in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College; and the Cardinal Newman Society’s Principles of Catholic Identity in Education. A list of contributors and consultants is available in the Appendix. Reference tables at the end of the document link most standards with books, articles, or websites for further exploration of the topic.

The standards include the following designations:

GS = General Standards that articulate the above five premises.
IS = Intellectual Standards that articulate cognitive learning standards grouped by content for ease of use.
WS = Writing Standards involve formation of proper and logical thinking.
DS = Dispositional Standards involve the formation of character, beliefs, attitudes, and values, or other non-cognitive standards.

They are grouped into two sets, grades K-6 and 7-12, with general, intellectual, and affective dispositions for most subjects. Users are encouraged to select some or all of the standards that they believe might solidify and enhance the Catholic identity of their curriculum. This guide is intended primarily as a general resource for Catholic school curriculum developers, superintendents, and others familiar with creating standards and curriculum. Additional resources are available on the Cardinal Newman Society’s K-12 Catholic Curriculum Standards website at www.newmansociety.org.

English/Language Arts K-6

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

IN ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS K-6²⁰

Literature and the arts are also, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing man’s place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions.
Gaudium et Spes, 1965, #62

			General Standards
CS	ELA.K6	GS1	Analyze literature that reflects the transmission of a Catholic culture and worldview.
CS	ELA.K6	GS2	Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS	ELA.K6	GS3	Analyze carefully chosen selections to uncover the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.
CS	ELA.K6	GS4	Share how literature can contribute to strengthening one’s moral character.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	ELA.K6	IS1	Demonstrate how literature is used to develop a religious, moral, and social sense.
CS	ELA.K6	IS2	Articulate how spiritual knowledge and enduring truths are represented and communicated through fairy tales, fables, myths, parables, and stories.
CS	ELA.K6	IS3	Recognize Christian and Western symbols and symbolism.
CS	ELA.K6	IS4	Explain how Christian and Western symbols and symbolism communicate the battle between good and evil and make reality visible.
CS	ELA.K6	IS5	Recite poems of substance that inform the human soul and encourage a striving for virtue and goodness.
CS	ELA.K6	IS6	Identify examples of noble characteristics in stories of virtuous heroes and heroines.
CS	ELA.K6	IS7	Identify the causes underlying why people do the things they do.
CS	ELA.K6	IS8	Identify how literature develops the faculty of personal judgment.
CS	ELA.K6	IS9	Analyze how literature assists in the ability to make judgments about what is true and what is false and to make choices based on these judgments.
CS	ELA.K6	IS10	Analyze literature to identify, interpret, and assimilate the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS	ELA.K6	IS11	Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written to help us better understand ourselves and other cultures and times.
CS	ELA.K6	IS12	Use imagination to create dialogue between the readers and the characters in a story.
CS	ELA.K6	IS13	Determine how literature cultivates the human intellectual faculties of contemplation, intuition, and creativity.
CS	ELA.K6	IS14	Analyze the author’s reasoning and discover the author’s intent.
			Writing Standards
CS	ELA.K6	WS1	Use language as a bridge for communication with one’s fellow man for the betterment of all involved.
CS	ELA.K6	WS2	Write in various ways to naturally order thoughts, align them with truth, and accurately express intent, knowledge, and feelings.
CS	ELA.K6	WS3	Use grammar as a means of signifying concepts and the relationship to reason.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	ELA.K6	DS1	Accept and value how literature aids one to live harmoniously with others.
CS	ELA.K6	DS2	Accept and value how literature can assist in interpreting and evaluating all things in a truly Christian spirit.
CS	ELA.K6	DS3	Share how literature cultivates the aesthetic faculties within the human person.
CS	ELA.K6	DS4	Share beautifully told and well-crafted works, especially those with elements of unity, harmony, and radiance of form.
CS	ELA.K6	DS5	Share how literature ignites the creative imagination in healthy ways.
CS	ELA.K6	DS6	Share how literature assists in identifying, interpreting, and assimilating the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS	ELA.K6	DS7	Delight and wonder through the reading of creative, sound, and healthy stories, poems, and plays.
CS	ELA.K6	DS8	Recognize literary characters possessing virtue and begin to exhibit these virtuous behaviors, values, and attitudes.
CS	ELA.K6	DS9	Share how the beauty and cadence of poetry impacts human sensibilities and forms the soul.

English/Language Arts 7-12

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

IN ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS 7-12²¹

Literature and the arts are also, in their own way, of great importance to the life of the Church. They strive to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world. They have much to do with revealing man’s place in history and in the world; with illustrating the miseries and joys, the needs and strengths of man and with foreshadowing a better life for him. Thus they are able to elevate human life, expressed in multifold forms according to various times and regions.
Gaudium et Spes, 1965, #62

			General Standards
CS	ELA.712	GS1	Analyze literature that reflects the transmission of a Catholic culture and worldview.
CS	ELA.712	GS2	Analyze works of fiction and non-fiction to uncover authentic Truth.
CS	ELA.712	GS3	Analyze carefully chosen selections to uncover the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.
CS	ELA.712	GS4	Share how literature can contribute to strengthening one’s moral character.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	ELA.712	IS1	Identify how literature interprets the human condition, human behaviors, and human actions in its redeemed and unredeemed state.
CS	ELA.712	IS2	Describe how the rich spiritual knowledge communicated through fairy tales, fables, myths, parables, and other stories is a reflection on the truth and development of a moral imagination and the mystery, danger, and wonder of human experience.
CS	ELA.712	IS3	Describe the importance of thinking with images informed by classic Christian and Western symbols and archetypes, including their important role in understanding the battle between good and evil and their role in making visible realities that are complex, invisible, and spiritual.
CS	ELA.712	IS4	Explain from a Catholic perspective how literature addresses critical questions related to man, such as: How ought men live in community with each other? What are an individual’s rights, duties, freedoms, and restraints? What are a society’s? What is the relationship between man and God? Between man and the physical world? What is the nature of human dignity and the human spirit? What is love? What is the good life?
CS	ELA.712	IS5	Describe how poets and writers use language to convey truths that are universal and transcendent.
CS	ELA.712	IS6	Analyze critical values presented in literature and the degree to which they are in accord or discord with Catholic norms.
CS	ELA.712	IS7	Use imagination to create dialogue between the reader and fictional characters by entering into the lives of the characters and uncovering deeper meanings, inferences, and relationships between the characters, nature, and God.
CS	ELA.712	IS8	Explain how literature assists in transcending the limited horizon of human reality.
CS	ELA.712	IS9	Evaluate complex literary selections for all that is implied in the concept of “person”²² as defined from a Catholic perspective.
CS	ELA.712	IS10	Analyze how literature helps identify, interpret, and assimilate the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations.
CS	ELA.712	IS11	Summarize how literature can reflect the historical and sociological culture of the time period in which it was written and help better understand ourselves and other cultures and times.
CS	ELA.712	IS12	Demonstrate cultural literacy and familiarity with the great works and authors of the world and in particular the Western canon.
CS	ELA.712	IS13	Explain how the powerful role of poetic knowledge, the moral imagination, connotative language, and artistic creativity explore difficult and unwieldy elements of the human condition, which is not always explainable with technical linguistic analysis or scientific rationalism.
CS	ELA.712	IS14	Analyze the author’s reasoning and discover the author’s intent.
CS	ELA.712	IS15	Describe how the gratuitousness of literary and artistic creation reflects the divine prerogative. Explain the role of man as “maker”—as artist, poet, and creator—and how the use of language to create is reflective of our being made in the image and likeness of God.
			Writing Standards
CS	ELA.712	WS1	Explain how language can be used as a bridge for communion with others for the betterment of all involved.
CS	ELA.712	WS2	Write in various ways to naturally order thoughts to the truth with an accurate expression of intent, knowledge, and feelings.
CS	ELA.712	WS3	Use grammar as a means of signifying concepts and the relationship to reason.
CS	ELA.712	WS4	Demonstrate the use of effective rhetorical skills in the service and pursuit of truth.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	ELA.712	DS1	Share how literature fosters both prudence and sound judgment in the human person.
CS	ELA.712	DS2	Develop empathy, care, and compassion for a character’s crisis or choice in order to transcend oneself, build virtue, and better understand one’s own disposition and humanity.
CS	ELA.712	DS3	Display the virtues and values evident within stories that involve an ideal and take a stand for love, faith, courage, fidelity, truth, beauty, goodness, and all virtues.
CS	ELA.712	DS4	Identify with beautifully told and well-crafted works, especially those with elements of unity, harmony, and radiance of form.
CS	ELA.712	DS5	Share how literature ignites the creative imagination by presenting in rich context amazing lives and situations told by humanity’s best storytellers and most alive intellects.
CS	ELA.712	DS6	Display a sense of the “good” by examining the degree in which characters significantly possess or lack the perfections proper to a) their nature as human persons, b) their proper role in society as understood in their own culture or the world of the text, c) the terms of contemporary culture, and d) the terms of Catholic tradition and moral norms.
CS	ELA.712	DS7	Delight and wonder through the reading of creative, sound, and healthy stories, plays and poems.

History K-6

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS
IN HISTORY K-6²³

Teachers should guide the students’ work in such a way that they will be able to discover a religious dimension in the world of human history. As a preliminary, they should be encouraged to develop a taste for historical truth, and therefore to realize the need to look critically at texts and curricula which, at times, are imposed by a government or distorted by the ideology of the author…they will see the development of civilizations, and learn about progress…When they are ready to appreciate it, students can be invited to reflect on the fact that this human struggle takes place within the divine history of universal salvation. At this moment, the religious dimension of history begins to shine forth in all its luminous grandeur.
The Religious Dimension of a Catholic School, 1988, #58-59

			General Standards
CS	H.K6	GS1	Demonstrate a general understanding of the “story” of humanity from creation to present through a Catholic concept of the world and man.
CS	H.K6	GS2	Demonstrate an understanding about great figures of history by examining their lives for examples of virtue or vice.
CS	H.K6	GS3	Demonstrate an understanding of the cultural inheritance provided by the Church.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	H.K6	IS1	Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension.
CS	H.K6	IS2	Describe how Jesus, as God incarnate, existed in history just like we do.
CS	H.K6	IS3	Describe how reading history is a way to learn about what God does for humanity.
CS	H.K6	IS4	Explain the history of the Catholic Church and its impact in human events.
CS	H.K6	IS5	Exhibit mastery of essential dates, persons, places, and facts relevant to the Western tradition and the Catholic Church.
CS	H.K6	IS6	Explain how the central themes within the stories of important Catholic figures and saints repeat over time.
CS	H.K6	IS7	Explain how beliefs about God, humanity, and material things affect behavior.
CS	H.K6	IS8	Explain the human condition and the role and dignity of man in God’s plan.
CS	H.K6	IS9	Demonstrate how history helps us predict and plan for future events using prudence and wisdom gleaned from recognizing previous patterns of change, knowledge of past events, and a richer, more significant, view of personal experiences.
CS	H.K6	IS10	Explain how historical events involving critical human experiences, especially those dealing with good and evil, help enlarge perspective and understanding of self and others.
CS	H.K6	IS11	Identify the motivating values that have informed particular societies and how they correlate with Catholic teaching.
CS	H.K6	IS12	Examine how history can assist in the acquisition of values and virtues.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	H.K6	DS1	Select and describe beautiful artifacts from different times and cultures
CS	H.K6	DS2	Exhibit an affinity for the common good and shared humanity, not just with those nearby, but also for those who have gone before and those who will come after.
CS	H.K6	DS3	Demonstrate respect and solicitude to individual differences among students in the classroom and school community.
CS	H.K6	DS4	Discriminate between what is positive in the world with what needs to be transformed and what injustices need to be overcome.
CS	H.K6	DS5	Justify the significance and impact of the Catholic Church throughout history.
CS	H.K6	DS6	Develop a habitual vision of greatness.

History 7-12

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS
IN HISTORY 7-12²⁴

Teachers should guide the students’ work in such a way that they will be able to discover a religious dimension in the world of human history. As a preliminary, they should be encouraged to develop a taste for historical truth, and therefore to realize the need to look critically at texts and curricula which, at times, are imposed by a government or distorted by the ideology of the author…they will see the development of civilizations, and learn about progress…When they are ready to appreciate it, students can be invited to reflect on the fact that this human struggle takes place within the divine history of universal salvation. At this moment, the religious dimension of history begins to shine forth in all its luminous grandeur.
The Religious Dimension of a Catholic School, 1988, # 58-59

			General Standards
CS	H.712	GS1	Describe how history begins and ends in God and how history has a religious dimension.
CS	H.712	GS2	Analyze stories of important Catholic figures and saints who through their actions and examples develop or re-awaken that period’s moral sense.
CS	H.712	GS3	Describe the historical impact of the Catholic Church on human events.
CS	H.712	GS4	Explain how religious and moral knowledge are a requisite for understanding human grandeur and the drama of human activity throughout history.
CS	H.712	GS5	Display personal self-worth and dignity as a human being and as part of God’s ultimate plan of creation.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	H.712	IS1	Describe how God, Himself, through the incarnation, has “sacramentalized” time and humanity.
CS	H.712	IS2	Analyze how God has revealed Himself throughout time and history, including the things we know best and can easily verify.
CS	H.712	IS3	Analyze how life experiences and life choices create a personal history with eternal consequences.
CS	H.712	IS4	Evaluate how history is not a mere chronicle of human events, but rather a moral and meta-physical drama having supreme worth in the eyes of God.
CS	H.712	IS5	Analyze cultures to show how they give expression to the transcendental aspects of life, including reflection on the mystery of the world and the mystery of humanity.
CS	H.712	IS6	Develop an historical perspective and intellectual framework to properly situate each academic discipline, not only in its own developmental timeline, but also within the larger story of historical, cultural, and intellectual development.
CS	H.712	IS7	Identify, from the Catholic perspective, the motivating values, philosophies, and theologies that have informed particular societies (e.g., Mexico, Canada, early colonies in the U.S.).
CS	H.712	IS8	Demonstrate the ways men and societies change and/or persist over time to better understand the human condition.
CS	H.712	IS9	Evaluate how societies provide a sense of coherence and meaning to human life, shaping and forming human culture and events.
CS	H.712	IS10	Analyze great figures and events in history using the systematic frameworks of Western philosophical tradition and Catholic moral norms and virtue to better understand both those people and events.
CS	H.712	IS11	Compare the actions of peoples according to their historical and cultural norms to the expectations of current Catholic moral norms and virtues.
CS	H.712	IS12	Demonstrate how historical events and patterns of change help predict and plan for future events.
CS	H.712	IS13	Describe how the moral qualities of a citizenry naturally give rise to the nature of the government and influence societal outcomes and destinies.
CS	H.712	IS14	Relate how the development of a broader viewpoint of history and events affects individual experiences and deepens a sense of being and the world.
CS	H.712	IS15	Analyze the thoughts and deeds of great men and women of the past.
CS	H.712	IS16	Analyze and exhibit mastery of essential dates, persons, places, and facts, relevant to the Western tradition and the Catholic Church.
CS	H.712	IS17	Examine texts for historical truths, recognizing bias or distortion by the author and overcoming a relativistic viewpoint.
CS	H.712	IS18	Analyze historical events, especially those involving critical human experiences of good and evil, so as to enlarge understanding of self and others.
CS	H.712	IS19	Distinguish the basic elements of Christian social ethics within historical events.
CS	H.712	IS20	Evaluate how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making.
CS	H.712	IS21	Evaluate the concept of subsidiarity and its role in Catholic social doctrine.
CS	H.712	IS22	Analyze the concept of solidarity and describe its effect on a local, regional, and global level.
CS	H.712	IS23	Compare the right to own private property with the universal distribution of goods and the distribution of goods in a socialist society.
CS	H.712	IS24	Summarize the case for the dignity of work and the rights of workers.
CS	H.712	IS25	Examine the Church’s position on freedom and man’s right to participate in the building up of society and contributing to the common good.
CS	H.712	IS26	Articulate the tension and distinction between religious freedom and social cohesion.
CS	H.712	IS27	Identify the dangers of relativism present in the notion that one culture cannot critique another, and that truth is simply culturally created.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	H.712	DS1	Select and describe beautiful artifacts from different times and cultures.
CS	H.712	DS2	Exhibit love for the common good and a shared humanity with those present, those who have gone before, and those who will come after.
CS	H.712	DS3	Evaluate the aesthetics (idea of beauty) of different cultures and times to better appreciate the purpose and power of both cultural and transcendent notions of the beautiful.
CS	H.712	DS4	Share Catholic virtues and values (i.e., prudence and wisdom) gleaned from the study of human history to better evaluate personal behaviors, trends of contemporary society, and prevalent social pressures and norms.
CS	H.712	DS5	Justify how history, as a medium, can assist in recognizing and rejecting contemporary cultural values that threaten human dignity and are contrary to the Gospel message.
CS	H.712	DS6	Demonstrate respect and appreciation for the qualities and characteristics of different cultures in order to pursue peace and understanding, knowledge and truth.

Scientific Topics K-6

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

RELATED TO SCIENTIFIC TOPICS K-6²⁵

By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique…Whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity.
Gaudium et Spes, 1965, #36

		General Standards
CS	S.K6	GS1	Exhibit care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God.
CS	S.K6	GS2	Describe the unity of faith and reason with confidence that there exists no contradiction between the God of nature and the God of faith.
CS	S.K6	GS3	Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	S.K6	IS1	Explain what it means to say that God created the world and all matter out of nothing at a certain point in time; how it manifests His wisdom, glory, and purpose; and how He holds everything in existence according to His plan.
CS	S.K6	IS2	Describe the relationships, elements, underlying order, harmony, and meaning in God’s creation.
CS	S.K6	IS3	Explain how creation is an outward sign of God’s love and goodness and, therefore, is “sacramental” in nature.
CS	S.K6	IS4	Give examples of the beauty evident in God’s creation.
CS	S.K6	IS5	Explain the processes of conservation, preservation, overconsumption, and stewardship in relation to caring for that which God has given to sustain and delight us.
CS	S.K6	IS6	Describe God’s relationship with man and nature.
CS	S.K6	IS7	Describe how science and technology should always be at the service of humanity and, ultimately, to God, in harmony with His purposes.
CS	S.K6	IS8	Explain how science properly limits its focus to “how” things physically exist and is not designed to answer issues of meaning, the value of things, or the mysteries of the human person.
CS	S.K6	IS9	Describe how the use of the scientific method to explore and understand nature differs, yet complements, the theological and philosophical questions one asks in order to understand God and His works.
CS	S.K6	IS10	Analyze the false assumption that science can replace faith.
CS	S.K6	IS11	List the basic contributions of significant Catholics to science such as Galileo, Copernicus, Mendel, and others.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	S.K6	DS1	Display a sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe and its beauty.
CS	S.K6	DS2	Share concern and care for the environment as a part of God’s creation.
CS	S.K6	DS3	Accept the premise that nature should not be manipulated simply at man’s will or only viewed as a thing to be used, but that man must cooperate with God’s plan for himself and for nature.
CS	S.K6	DS4	Accept that scientific knowledge is a call to serve and not simply a means to gain power, material prosperity, or success.

Scientific Topics 7-12

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

RELATED TO SCIENTIFIC TOPICS 7-12²⁶

By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws. These man must respect as he recognizes the methods proper to every science and technique…Whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity.
Gaudium et Spes, 1965, #36

		General Standards
CS	S.712	GS1	Exhibit a primacy of care and concern at all stages of life for each human person as an image and likeness of God.
CS	S.712	GS2	Explain and promote the unity of faith and reason with confidence that there exists no contradiction between the God of nature and the God of the faith.
CS	S.712	GS3	Value the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
CS	S.712	GS4	Share how the beauty and goodness of God is reflected in nature and the study of the natural sciences.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	S.712	IS1	Articulate how science properly situates itself within other academic disciplines (e.g., history, theology) for correction and completion in order to recognize the limited material explanation of reality to which it is properly attuned.
CS	S.712	IS2	Demonstrate confidence in human reason and in one’s ability to know the truth about God’s creation and the fundamental intelligibility of the world.
CS	S.712	IS3	Analyze how the pursuit of scientific knowledge, for utilitarian purposes alone or for the misguided manipulation of nature, thwarts the pursuit of authentic Truth and the greater glory of God.
CS	S.712	IS4	Relate how the search for truth, even when it concerns a finite reality of the natural world or of man, is never-ending and always points beyond to something higher than the immediate object of study.
CS	S.712	IS5	Explain the processes of conservation, preservation, overconsumption, and stewardship as it relates to creation and to caring for that which God has given to sustain and delight us.
CS	S.712	IS6	Evaluate the relationship between God, man, and nature, and the proper role in the totality of being and creation.
CS	S.712	IS7	Describe humanity’s natural situation in, and dependence upon, physical reality and how man carries out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation.
CS	S.712	IS8	Evaluate the errors present in the belief system of scientific naturalism or scientism.²⁷ (which includes materialism²⁸ and reductionism²⁹), which posits that scientific exploration and explanation is the only valid source of meaning.
CS	S.712	IS9	Distinguish the difference between the use of the scientific method and the use of theological inquiry to know and understand God’s creation and universal truths.
CS	S.712	IS10	Articulate the limitations of science (the scientific method and constraints of the physical world) to know and understand God and transcendent reality.
CS	S.712	IS11	Identify key Catholic scientists such as Copernicus, Mendel, DaVinci, Bacon, Pasteur, Volta, St. Albert the Great, and others and the witness and evidence they supply against the false claim that Catholicism is not compatible with science.
CS	S.712	IS12	Analyze and articulate the Church’s approach to the theory of evolution.
CS	S.712	IS13	Relate how the human soul is specifically created by God for each human being, does not evolve from lesser matter, and is not inherited from our parents.
CS	S.712	IS14	Explain how understanding the physiological properties of a human being does not address the existence of the transcendent spirit of the human person (see Appendix E).
CS	S.712	IS15	Explain the supernatural design hypothesis in terms of the Borde-Vilenkin-Guth Proof, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, entropy, and anthropic coincidences (fine tuning of initial conditions and universal constants) (see Appendix E).
CS	S.712	IS16	Articulate the details of the Galileo affair to counter the assumption that the Church is anti-science.
CS	S.712	IS17	Demonstrate an understanding of the moral issues involving in vitro fertilization, human cloning, human genetic manipulation, and human experimentation and what the Church teaches regarding work in these areas.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	S.712	DS1	Display a deep sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe.
CS	S.712	DS2	Share how natural phenomena have more than a utilitarian meaning and purpose and exemplify the handiwork of the Creator.
CS	S.712	DS3	Subscribe to the premise that nature should not be manipulated at will, but should be respected for its natural purpose and end as destined by the creator God.
CS	S.712	DS4	Share concern and care for the environment as part of God’s creation.
CS	S.712	DS5	Adhere to the idea of the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of physical reality.

Mathematics K-6

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

IN MATHEMATICS K-6³⁰

The school considers human knowledge as a truth to be discovered. In the measure in which subjects are taught by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to that extent Christian. Discovery and awareness of truth leads man to the discovery of Truth itself. A teacher who is full of Christian wisdom, well prepared in his own subject, does more than convey the sense of what he is teaching to his pupils. Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth.
The Catholic School, 1977, #41

		General Standards
CS	M.K6	GS1	Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful, and accurate questioning, inquiry, and reasoning.
CS	M.K6	GS2	Develop lines of inquiry (as developmentally appropriate) to understand why things are true and why they are false.
CS	M.K6	GS3	Recognize the power of the human mind as both a gift from God and a reflection of Him in whose image and likeness we are made.
CS	M.K6	GS4	Survey the truths about mathematical objects that are interesting in their own right and independent of human opinions.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	M.K6	DS1	Display a sense of wonder about mathematical relationships as well as confidence in mathematical certitude.
CS	M.K6	DS2	Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.
CS	M.K6	DS3	Show interest in the pursuit of understanding for its own sake.
CS	M.K6	DS4	Exhibit joy at solving difficult mathematical problems and operations.
CS	M.K6	DS5	Show interest in how the mental processes evident within the discipline of mathematics (such as order, perseverance, and logical reasoning) help us with the development of the natural virtues (such as self-discipline and fortitude).

Mathematics 7-12

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS

IN MATHEMATICS 7-12³¹

The school considers human knowledge as a truth to be discovered. In the measure in which subjects are taught by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to that extent Christian. Discovery and awareness of truth leads man to the discovery of Truth itself. A teacher who is full of Christian wisdom, well prepared in his own subject, does more than convey the sense of what he is teaching to his pupils. Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth.
The Catholic school, 1977, #41

		General Standards
CS	M.712	GS1	Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful, and accurate questioning, inquiry, and reasoning in the pursuit of transcendent truths.
CS	M.712	GS2	Develop lines of inquiry to understand why things are true and why they are false.
CS	M.712	GS3	Have faith in the glory and dignity of human reason as both a gift from God and a reflection of Him in whose image and likeness we are made.
CS	M.712	GS4	Explain how mathematics in its reflection of the good, true, and beautiful reveals qualities of being and the presence of God.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	M.712	IS1	Explain the nature of rational discourse and argument and the desirability of precision and deductive certainty which mathematics makes possible and is not possible to the same degree in other disciplines.
CS	M.712	IS2	Demonstrate how sound logical arguments and other processes of mathematics are foundational to its discipline.
CS	M.712	IS3	Recognize how mathematical arguments and processes can be extrapolated to other areas of study, including theology and philosophy.
CS	M.712	IS4	Explain how it is possible to mentally abstract and construct mathematical objects from direct observations of reality and how one’s perception of that reality is important to what one is doing (see Appendix F).
CS	M.712	IS5	Recognize personal bias in inquiry and articulate why inquiry should be undertaken in a fair and independent manner.
CS	M.712	IS6	Evaluate the ongoing nature of mathematical inquiry, its inexhaustibility, and its openness to the infinite.
CS	M.712	IS7	Explain man’s limitations of understanding and uncovering all mathematical knowledge.
CS	M.712	IS8	Explain how fundamental questions of values, common sense, and religious and human truths and experiences are beyond the scope of mathematical inquiry and its syllogisms.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	M.712	DS1	Display a sense of wonder about mathematical relationships, especially mathematical certitude which is independent of human opinion.
CS	M.712	DS2	Share with others the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance, and wholeness present in mathematics.
CS	M.712	DS3	Advocate for the pursuit of understanding for its own sake and the intrinsic value or discovery of the true and the beautiful often at the requirement of great sacrifice, discipline, and effort.
CS	M.712	DS4	Exhibit appreciation for the ongoing nature of mathematical inquiry.
CS	M.712	DS5	Exhibit habits of thinking quantitatively and in an orderly manner, especially through immersion in mathematical observations found within creation.
CS	M.712	DS6	Propose how mathematical objects or proofs (such as the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers, the musical scale, and geometric proofs) suggest divine origin.
CS	M.712	DS7	Exhibit appreciation for the process of discovering meanings and truths existing within the solution of the problem and not just arriving at an answer.
CS	M.712	DS8	Exhibit humility at knowing that as a human being man can only grasp a portion of the truths of the universe.
CS	M.712	DS9	Advance an understanding of the ability of the human intellect to know and the desire of the will to want to know more.

Appendix A

Click here for PDF

Educating to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness³²

The world, in all its diversity, is eager to be guided towards the great values of mankind, truth, good and beauty; now more than ever…Teaching means to accompany young people in their search for truth and beauty, for what is right and good.
Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, 2014 ³³

We want our students to maximize their human potential and to both be good and do good in authentic freedom. In order to do this, our students need to be able to know how to wisely and fully apprehend and interrogate all aspects of reality from a solid Christian intellectual tradition. This intellectual tradition involves not just teaching facts and skills, but is also essentially focused on seeking to know the value and nature of things and in appreciating the value of knowledge for its own sake.

One method of assisting students to keep focus on these aspects of Catholic intellectual inquiry is to use the lenses of truth, goodness, and beauty to evaluate a subject under consideration. These three elements are often understood as being among the transcendentals. Transcendentals are the timeless and universal attributes of being.³⁴ They are the properties of all beings. They reflect the divine origin of all things and the unity of all truth and reality in God. These elements are among the deepest realities. They help unite men across time and culture and are often a delight to explore and discuss, because they are substantive to our very nature.

The transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness are closely intertwined. Dubay (1999) observed that, “Truth, goodness, and beauty have their being together. By truth we are put in touch with reality, which we find is good for us and beautiful to behold. In our knowing, loving, and delighting the gift of reality appears to us as ‘something infinitely and inexhaustibly valuable and fascinating.’”³⁵ In seeking to discuss one, the others are naturally and organically brought into the conversation.

The following simple definitions and essential questions are provided as a general framework to help facilitate a discussion on any topic in any subject. The goal is not to generate easy questions for easy answers, but to generate foundational questions for deep inquiry into the value and nature of things, to instill a sense of the intrinsic value of knowledge, and to elicit a sense of wonder.

Beauty

Beauty can help evoke wonder and delight, which are foundations of a life of wisdom and inquiry.³⁶ Beauty involves apprehending unity, harmony, proportion, wholeness, and radiance.³⁷ It often manifests itself in simplicity and purity, especially in math and science.³⁸ Often beauty has a type of pre-rational (striking) force upon the soul, for instance when one witnesses a spectacular sunset or the face of one’s beloved. Beauty can be understood as a type of inner radiance or shine coming from a thing that is well-ordered to its state of being or is true to its nature or form.³⁹

Beauty pleases not only the eye or ear, but also the intellect in a celebration of the integrity of our body and soul. It can be seen as a sign of God’s goodness, benevolence and graciousness, of both His presence and His transcendence in the world.⁴⁰ It can serve as re-enchantment with the cosmos and all reality⁴¹ and assist in moving our students to a rich and deep contemplative beholding of the real.⁴²

Some essential questions related to beauty:

Is “X” beautiful? How so? Why not?
Which of these (i.e., poems, experiments, proofs, theories, people, functions, concepts) is more beautiful and why? Why might others have thought this beautiful?
How does this person/thing attract? Is this person using their God-given gifts to attract in a way that pleases God and draws others closer to God? What can happen when beauty is not used for the glory of God?
What is delightful, wondrous about this person/thing?
How does this shine? Radiate?
How is faithfulness to form or nature powerfully evident here?
What does this reveal about the nature of what is seen?
Where is there unity and wholeness here?
Where is there proportion and harmony here?
How does this reveal God’s graciousness, presence, and transcendence?
What does my response to this reveal about me?
Is this also Good? Is this also True?

Goodness

When we explore issues of goodness with our students, we are fundamentally asking them to consider questions of how well someone or something fulfills its purpose. Goodness is understood as the perfection of being. A thing is good to the degree that it enacts and perfects those powers, activities, and capacities appropriate to its nature and purpose. A good pair of scissors cuts, a good eye has 20/20 vision, and so forth. We have to know a thing’s purpose, nature, or form to engage in an authentic discussion of “The Good.” When we get to questions of what is a good law, a good government, a good father, or a good man, the discussion quickly grows richer, deeper, and more complex.

As Catholic educators, our goal is to help our students to become good persons. Among those qualities we deem good are wisdom, faithfulness, and virtue. Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good.⁴³ We are free to the extent that with the help of others, we have maximized these goods, these proper powers and perfections as man.⁴⁴ Such efforts raise fundamental questions of what it means to be human and our relationships with each other, the created world, and God.

God, through reason and revelation, has not left us blind on these issues, nor has He left us up to our own subjective devices. It is a fundamental responsibility of the Catholic school to teach and pass on this Catholic culture, this Catholic worldview, this cultural patrimony, these insights, and these very fundamental truths about the good and what constitutes the good life.⁴⁵ Particularly, in this and all our efforts as Catholic educators, we build our foundation of the good on Jesus Christ, who is the perfect man, and who fully reveals man to himself.⁴⁶

Some essential questions related to goodness:

What is this thing’s purpose/end? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What is this thing’s nature? What do we know from our senses and reason? From nature and natural law? What do we know from revelation?
What perfections are proper to this thing in light of its purpose?
To what degree does the particular instance we are considering possess or lack these perfections?
What, if anything, would make this better?
What would make this worse?
How well does this work? Is “X” a good “Y”? What makes “X” a good “Y”? (e.g., Is Odysseus a good husband? Is the liver we are diagnosing a good liver? Is the theory of relativity a good theory? Is Picasso a good artist?)
How does this measure up in terms of a Catholic worldview and values?
How does this measure up in terms of Catholic morality and virtue?
How does this measure up to God’s plan or expectations of it as revealed in Christ?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also true?

Truth

A simple definition for truth is the mind being in accord with reality.⁴⁷ We seek always to place our students and ourselves in proper relationship with the truth. Nothing we do can ever be opposed to the truth, that is, opposed to reality which has its being in God. Catholics hold that when our senses are in good condition and functioning properly under normal circumstances, and when our reason is functioning honestly and clearly, we can come to know reality and have the ability to make true judgments about reality. Through study, reflection, experimentation, argument and discussion, we believe that an object under discussion may manifest itself in its various relations, either directly or indirectly, to the mind.⁴⁸

We believe that Man tends by nature toward the truth. Even though due to our fallen nature we may sometimes seek to ignore or obfuscate the truth, we are nonetheless obliged to honor and bear witness to it in its fullness. We are bound to adhere to the truth once we come to know it and direct our whole life in accordance with the demands of truth.⁴⁹ As Catholics, we believe that reason, revelation, and science will never be in ultimate conflict, as the same God created them all.⁵⁰ We oppose scientism which without evidence makes the metaphysical claim that only what can be measured and subject to physical science can be true. We oppose relativism, not only because its central dictum “there is no truth” is self-contradicting, but also because in removing objective truths from any analysis, this also removes the possibility of gauging human progress, destroys the basis for human dignity, and disables the ability to make important moral distinctions such as the desirability of tolerance⁵¹ and wisdom of pursuing truth, beauty, and goodness as opposed to their opposites of error, ugliness, and sin.

Some essential questions related to truth:

Is it true?
Is our mind/concept in accord with reality?
Are we looking at this clearly and with our senses and reason properly attuned?
Is the thinking rational and logical?
Is the information and reasoning clear and precise?
Is the approach fair and balanced?
How does this square with what we know from revelation? If there is a disconnect, where further shall we explore?
On what intellectual, moral, or intuitive principle are we basing this?
Can the knowledge or situation under consideration be integrated with or expanded by the knowledge from another academic discipline?
Now that we know this particular truth about a thing, what other questions does that raise? What more do we want to know?
Is this also beautiful? Is this also good?

Appendix B

Assessing Non-Cognitive Standards

In the Catholic school’s educational project there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom. The various school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered.
The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium,1997, #14

The virtues, values, truths, and wisdom, which are never separated from instruction in Catholic schools, must not be forgotten or minimized because they are not easily measurable. Our efforts at complete human formation often find us situated into matters of the heart and spirit which do not easily lend themselves to traditional quantitative assessment.⁵² We need not worry about this or apologize for it. We must also avoid the common trap of assuming that only that which can be quantifiably assessed should be taught or only that which is quantifiable is assessable. As Catholic educators, we know many of life’s most important things are invisible to the eye and do not lend themselves to the scientist’s tools of measurement. This does not prevent us from teaching the things that matter most.

Values, beliefs, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and virtues have always been taught, for the most part implicitly, in Catholic schools. It is important to be explicit about all that is implicit in our instructional efforts and their nature so that we do not lose touch with them or allow them to be sidelined by a culture of constant assessment. We must plan for the un-planned and never hesitate to grab a teachable moment, even though it deviates from a lesson plan or state standard. Formal lesson plans with objectives stating “Students will internalize aspects of our Catholic cultural heritage” or “Students will value the sacraments as outward signs of God’s inner grace” are not typically required or appropriate. These affective⁵³ dispositions are, for the most part, taught by the example given by others (especially as modeled by the teacher) or developed through classroom discussions and firsthand interactions with materials, problems, and experiences. Growth in such areas is more often “caught than taught,” and rather than planning for them in discreet experiences, the Catholic teacher must be constantly aware of them so as to integrate them naturally whenever possible and without immediate concern for concrete assessment.

This area of highly personal affective behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs touches close to the heart of the individual, and because of this schools have traditionally shied away from placing numerical values on whether students do or do not possess particular affective qualities. While we are seeing more attempts at this type of measurement in public schools, sometimes measurement of these beliefs, values, and attitudes is not absolutely necessary. Sometimes framing the dispositions as an objective for the classroom teacher so as to provide focus and direction is all that is required. Sometimes it is appropriate to assess the group as a whole, either through observation or an anonymous class survey, in an effort to determine progress on developing dispositions such as: do students “realize a deep sense of wonder and delight about the natural universe,” or do students “recognize and value how literature assists them in interpreting and evaluating all things in a truly Christian spirit”?

Three Methods for Assessing Non-Cognitive Dispositions

When contemplating an assessment, one should always ask: “What is the purpose, use, and measure of this assessment?” “Why is this assessment necessary?” “How will this assessment be used?” and “Is this a proper measure for this type of standard?” These types of questions are always necessary for any assessment, but especially assessments where students’ values and beliefs are the center of attention. When focusing on whether a student possesses a certain attitude, belief, or value, we are entering into an area that is highly personal and might change from day to day. While assessing cognition seems slightly removed from the center of the person, assessing beliefs and values cuts to the heart. It is almost like assessing love. “How much do you love me?” would be the assessment question, but isn’t love in-and-of-itself worthy without measure?

While caution needs to be used when seeking to align assessment to non-cognitive dispositions, it is still possible to design assessments for some of the non-cognitive standards using three primary methods: teacher observations, student-teacher interviews, and student self-reports. Because of the nature of assessing a disposition, it is advisable to use multiple measures to gain a fuller insight into a student’s behaviors and beliefs rather than through the use of only one assessment. Gathering information through the use of multiple types of assessments will result in a better understanding of what the student actually believes and, perhaps, why he or she believes it. Taking multiple measures over a longer period of time can also improve the reliability of the measure and help to confirm or disconfirm the student’s beliefs, values, and attitudes.

Non-cognitive dispositions can be assessed daily through interaction, such as brief or concentrated discussions with and between students, casual teacher observations of student traits or behaviors, or as articulated statements of belief made by the student during classroom exercises. These observations can be gathered informally through an anecdotal running record. Teachers might also record more formal notations of student beliefs, values, and attitudes through the development of a more structured rating scale. Either approach relies upon a solid understanding of the disposition in question.

When targeting a specific affective disposition for formal assessment, teachers first need to think deeply about the quality and characteristics evident for that disposition. Working with other teachers to compile a list of both positive and negative behaviors is the first step toward developing a continuum for observation. With this complete, a scale or frequency checklist can be created to provide reliability and guidance when observing students.

For example, a teacher might like to note the developing disposition of how well her students “exhibit a primacy of care and concern for each human person at all stages of life and as images and likenesses of God.” The teacher would first think about what qualities and characteristics are evident in a student who “exhibits a primacy of care and concern for each human person…” and begin to list these characteristics. Consultation with other educational experts about these characteristics helps validate the behaviors or lack thereof. The teacher would next create either a rating scale or frequency checklist as illustrated below using the behaviors as the criteria of measurement.

Rating Scale

Behavior	Never	Rarely	Sometimes	Most of the Time	Almost Always
Helps others in need without being asked
Looks for ways of making life easier for others.

Frequency Checklist

Number of events	Behavior
	Helps others in need without being asked.
	Looks for ways of making life easier for others.

Most Catholic schoolteachers are familiar with the National Catholic Educational Association’s ACRE exam,⁵⁴ the Assessment of Children/Youth Religious Education given to students in 5^th, 8-9^th, and 11-12^th grades annually. This exam assesses students’ knowledge as well as beliefs, attitudes, practices, and perceptions about the Catholic faith. This assessment is an example of using a student questionnaire or survey to uncover developing dispositions of faith and is similar to what can be designed to address dispositions in other content areas. Unfortunately, students might not feel comfortable completing these assessments as accurately and honestly as they could if anonymity is not available. Again, this is where multiple measures of assessment are necessary to confirm a developing disposition.

While it is possible to create assessments of dispositions for individual students, it is recommended that whole class assessment be made through teacher observation and that these types of assessments not be used for grading purposes. Assessments of this nature are best used as formative assessments to aid the classroom teacher in a more focused and integral formation of the student in all content areas.

Appendix C

Appendix D

History Resources

Best Practice Suggestions for History in Catholic Schools, Grades K-6

Use an interdisciplinary approach – History, Literature, Theology.
Emphasize the sociological and cultural process and achievements, including moral values, over a series of disjointed events.
Use historical fiction to complement and elaborate on the stories of history.
Combine selections from historical texts discussing external developments surrounding Christendom with texts that study Christianity itself and its expressions of human thought, life, and institutions throughout the ages.
Consider dividing history into four or six successive time periods based on distinctive movements of culture. For instance: Ancient History – 5000 BC to 400 AD; Medieval/Early Renaissance 400 AD – 1600 AD; Late Renaissance/Early Modern 1600 AD – 1850 AD; Modern Times. Another option: 1. Patristic Christianity, from the first to the beginning of the fourth century; 2. Patristic Christianity, from the fourth to the sixth centuries; 3. The Formation of Western Christendom, from the sixth to the eleventh centuries; 4. Medieval Christendom, from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries; 5. Divided Christendom, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; 6. Secularized Christendom, from the eighteenth century to today.

Best Practice Suggestions for History in Catholic Schools, Grades 7-12

Use an interdisciplinary approach – History, Literature, Theology.
Whenever possible use primary texts (or translations) in historical inquiry.
Whenever possible incorporate Socratic discussions into history.
Emphasize the sociological and cultural process and achievements, including moral values, over a series of disjointed events.

History – Resources

Catholic Textbook Project: From sea to shining sea, All ye lands, Light to the nations Part I & II, Lands of hope and promise. (Teacher manuals and student workbooks).

Massachusetts history and social science curriculum framework: August 2003. Recommended by Dr. Sandra Stotsky.

Weidenkopf, S. (2009). Epic: A journey through Church history. Contains DVDs, CDs, Student Workbook, and Time-line.

Appendix E

Science Resources

Best Practice Suggestions for Science in Catholic Schools

Present scientific concepts from a superordinate (whole view) perspective before breaking them down into subordinate concepts. This approach (whole to part) can manifest itself in the alignment of courses of study (general biology in younger grades to micro-biology in high school) to the organization and presentation of curricular materials (superordinate concepts first then parallel and underlying concepts).
Incorporate nature notebooks for observation to facilitate opportunities of wonder and awe (K-6).
Formation of set groups of teachers at workshops designed to address scientific issues of human and cosmic origin from philosophical and theological perspectives (i.e., religion and science teachers, religion and math teachers, and religion and literature teachers). These groupings are to facilitate dialogue and build an inter-disciplinary culture within the school. This will allow theology teachers to address scientific topics from a theological perspective as they are concurrently being taught in the science classroom.
Avoid interjection of theological doctrine into scientific inquiry in older grades. Consider incorporating a course designed specifically for the discussion of topics of faith and reason.
Supplement all science textbooks with biographies of Catholic scientists, such as Copernicus, Mendel, Bacon, St. Albert the Great, and so forth.
Consider using an apologetic approach based on facts and evidence (7-12) (Magis Center materials).

Science Resources

Baglow, C. (2012). Faith, science, and reason: Theology on the cutting edge. Midwest Theological Forum, Woodridge: IL.

Designed as a senior-level high school theology course to integrate faith and science. Contains twelve chapters with supplementary reading, study guide (vocabulary, study questions, and practical exercises) and endnotes. Beautiful artwork enhances the scientific content on the sleek pages of this textbook yet coffee table-styled volume.

Sample from Christopher Baglow’s book:

“What do we have to believe before we can hope to become scientists? We must believe that the world is in some sense good, so that it is worthy of careful study. We must believe that his order is open to the human mind, for otherwise there would be no point in trying to find it. We must believe that this order is not a necessary order that could be found out by pure thought like the truths of mathematics, but is rather a contingent or dependent order that can only be found by making experiments. …the development of science depends on moral convictions such as the obligation freely to share any knowledge that is gained.” (pp. 19-21)

John Paul II. (June 1988). Letter to Rev. George Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved fromhttp://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne.html

John Paul II. (October 22, 1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: On evolution. Retrieved from http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp961022.htm

Laracy, J. (May-June 2010). Priestly contributions to modern science: The case of Monseignor Georges Lemaitre. Faith Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre

Magis Center. www.magiscenter.org

Pius XII. (August, 1950). Humani Generis. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html

Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God: Contributions of contemporary physics and philosophy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI.

Spitzer, R. (2015). The soul’s upward yearning. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI. Of particular interest might be Chapter 5 on the science behind the transcendent soul and Appendix One on a contemporary view of evidence for an Intelligent Creator.

Spitzer, R. and LeBlanc, C. The reason series. Video series, student workbook and teacher resource manual. This series is designed for high school students (9-12) in either science or religion classes. It is designed with an apologetic approach in mind as recommended by the USCCB’s 2008 Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age, with an alignment to the Framework in the teacher’s manual. The series includes 5 sequential video modules progressing students through the questions of: Can science disprove God? Is there any evidence for a creator in the universe? Is the universe random and meaningless? Does the bible conflict with science? Does the bible conflict with evolution? Student objectives, summarized points, review questions, and quizzes are included for each chapter. Teacher manual has answers to quizzes, but not discussion questions.

Spitzer, R. and Noggle, M. From Nothing to cosmos. (2015). This interactive workbook links text content to online resources through both QR codes and web URLs. Topics include: What science can and cannot do, The Big Bang Theory and the modern universe, The Borde-Vilenkin-Guth proof for a beginning of ANY universe or multiverse, The evidence for a beginning from entropy, Evidence of supernatural design from fine-tuning of universal constants, A response to atheist’s objections (particularly, Richard Dawkins), A metaphysical proof of God, Evidence of a transphysical soul from near death experiences, Evidence of a transcendent soul from our five transcendental desires, and Atheism, the bible, science, and evolution and aliens. Chapter review and summary questions are included for each chapter.

Appendix F

Mathematics Resources

Best Practice Suggestions for Mathematics in Catholic Schools, Grades K-6

Ensure developmental appropriate mathematics instruction in younger grades. Beware of mathematical programs that push abstract operations too quickly into younger minds.
Ensure a positive approach to mathematical inquiry by maximizing student success and confidence in early mathematical experiences and incorporating opportunities for joy, wonder, and excitement in the study of mathematics.

Best Practice Suggestions for Mathematics in Catholic Schools, Grades 7-12

Consider an interdisciplinary, liberal arts approach to mathematics, especially in high school.
Professional development in philosophy, especially philosophers who have greatly impacted the Catholic western tradition.

Abstractions of the Human Mind

What one abstracts from reality is basic but fundamental, though what is constructed out of the abstraction is much more important in the study of mathematics. For example, one can take in at a glance a small number of apples, say 5 or 6, but not as many as 100 or 1,000. Mathematics teaches us how to construct these numbers in our mind from the simpler concepts immediately abstracted from reality.

Mathematics Resources

Ashley, B. The arts of learning and communication: A handbook of the liberal arts. http://www.amazon.com/Arts-Learning-Communication-Handbook-Liberal/dp/1606089315/ref=la_B001HD41Q8_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452700470&sr=1-7

Ashley, B. The way toward wisdom: An interdisciplinary and intercultural introduction to metaphysics. http://www.amazon.com/Way-toward-Wisdom-Interdisciplinary-Intercultural/dp/0268020353/ref=la_B001HD41Q8_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452700831

Appendix G

Consultants and Contributors

Joseph Almeida, Ph.D. – Franciscan University of Steubenville: Chair of Department of Classics, Director of Great Books Honors Program, Director of Legal Studies Program, Professor of Classics and Legal Studies

Dominic Aquila, D. Litt. et Phil. – University of St. Thomas, Tex.: Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs

Christopher Baglow, Ph.D. – Notre Dame Seminary: Director of Masters Program, Professor of Dogmatic Theology

Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. – Providence College: Professor of English

Joseph Pearce – Aquinas College, Tenn.: Director of the Aquinas Center for Faith and Culture, Writer in Residence; St. Austin Review: Editor; Ignatius Critical Editions: Series Editor; Catholic Courses: Executive Director

Chad Pecknold, Ph.D. – Catholic University of America: Associate Professor of Systematic Theology

Andrew Seeley, Ph.D. – Thomas Aquinas College: Tutor; The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: Executive Director

Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J. –Magis Center: President; Gonzaga University: retired President

Sandra Stotsky, Ph.D. – University of Arkansas: Professor Emerita

Ryan Topping, D.Phil. – Thomas More College of Liberal Arts: Fellow

Gregory Townsend, Ph.D. – Christendom College: Vice President of Academic Affairs, Associate Professor Mathematics and Natural Science

Michael Van Hecke, M.Ed. – Catholic Textbook Project: President; The Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: President; St. Augustine Academy: Headmaster

Susan Waldstein, S.T.D. – Ave Maria University: Adjunct Professor of Theology, Research Fellow at Stein Center for Social Research

Christopher Zehnder, M.A.– Catholic Textbook Project: General Editor

Reviewing Dioceses:

Mark Salisbury, Superintendent, Diocese of Marquette, Michigan

Michael Juhas, Superintendent, Diocese of Pensacola, Florida

References

Aristotle, & Ross, W. D. (1981). Aristotle’s metaphysic. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.

Aquinas, T. (1952). Questiones disputatae de veritate: Questions 1-9. Translated by Robert Mulligan, S.J., Henry Regnery Company.

Aquinas, T. (1912). The summa theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas. London, England: Burns Oates & Washbourne.

Baglow, C. (2012). Faith, science, and reason: Theology on the cutting edge. Woodridge, IL: Midwest Theological Forum.

Beckwith, F., & Koukl, G. (1998). Relativism: Feet firmly planted in midair. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Caldecott, S. (2009). Beauty for truth’s sake: The re-enchantment of education. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.

Catechetical Office of the Holy See (1935). Provido sane consilio. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CATTEACH.HTM

Catholic Church (1994). Catechism of the Catholic Church. Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications.

Clayton, D. (2015). The way of beauty: Liturgy, education, and inspiration for family, school, and college. Kettering, OH: Angelico Press.

Congregation for Catholic Education (2015). Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20140407_educare-oggi-e-domani_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education (2013). Educating to intercultural dialogue in Catholic schools: Living in harmony for a civilization of love. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20131028_dialogo-interculturale_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education (2007). Educating together in Catholic schools: A shared mission between consecrated persons and the lay faithful. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20070908_educare-insieme_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education (1998). The religious dimension of education in a Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education (1997). The Catholic school on the threshold of the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_27041998_school2000_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education (1982). Lay Catholics in schools: Witnesses to faith. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19821015_lay-catholics_en.html

Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. (Eds.) (1960). Christian faith and the liberal arts. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.

Dubay, T. (1999). The evidential power of beauty: Science and theology meet. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.

Esolen, A. (2013, November). Common core’s substandard writing standards. Crisis Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/common-cores-substandard-writing-standards

Francis, Pope (2015). Laudato Si. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Halpin, P. (1909). Christian pedagogy or the instruction and moral training of youth. New York, NY: J.F. Wagner.

Hancock, C. (2005). Recovering a Catholic philosophy of elementary education. Mount Pocono, PA: Newman House Press.

Hardon, J. (1980). Modern Catholic dictionary. New York, NY: Image Books.

Hart, D. (2003). The beauty of the infinite: The aesthetics of Christian truth. Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmann’s Publishing.

Hicks, D. (1999). Norms and nobility: A treatise on education. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

John Paul II (1998). Fides et ratio. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html

John Paul II (1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: On evolution, 1996. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP961022.HTM

John Paul II (1993). Veritatis splendor. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.html

John Paul II (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory. Retrieved from https://w2.vatican.va /content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19880601_padre-coyne.html

Jordan, E. (1934). Catholicism in education. New York, NY: Benzinger Brothers.

Kirk, R. (1981). The moral imagination. Literature and Belief, 1, 37-49. Retrieved from http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/the-moral-imagination/

Laracy, J. (2010, January). Priestly contributions to modern science: The case of Monseignor Georges Lemaitre. Retrieved from http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre

Leo XIII (1985). Spectata fides. Retrieved from. http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectata-fides.html

Mannoia, V.J. (2000). Christian liberal arts: An education that goes beyond. Oxford, England: Rowman and Littlefield Co.

Moore, T. (2013). The story-killers: A common-sense case against the Common Core. Self-published.

Newman, J. (1873). The idea of a university: Defined and illustrated. London, England: Pickering.

O’Brien, M. (1998). A landscape with dragons. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.

Pieper, J. (1998). Leisure, the basis of culture. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press.

Piderit, J. and Morey, M. (Eds.) (2012). Teaching the tradition: Catholic themes in academic disciplines. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Pius XI (1929). Divini illius magistri, Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html

Redden, J. & Ryan, F. (1942). A Catholic philosophy of education. Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company.

Saward, J. (1997). The beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty: Art sanctity and the truth of Catholicism. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.

Simmons, T. (2002). Climbing parnassus. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books.

Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Spitzer, R. (2011). Ten universal principles: A brief philosophy of the life issues. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.

Spitzer, R. (2015). The soul’s upward yearning. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press.

Spitzer, R. & LeBlanc, C. (n.d.). The reason series: What science says about God. Garden Grove, CA: Magis Publications.

Spitzer, R. & Noggle, M. (2015). From nothing to cosmos: The workbook+. Garden Grove, CA: Magis Publications.

The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Schools (1997). The Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html

Taylor, J. (1998). Poetic knowledge: The recovery of education. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press.

Topping, R. (2015). Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (n.d.). Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (1972). To teach as Jesus did. Washington, D.C.: USCCB.

Vatican II (1965). Gravissimum educationis: Declaration on Christian education. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

Vatican II (1965). Gaudium et spes: Pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html

Reference Tables for Standards

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH/LANUGAGE ARTS K-6
			General Standards
CS	ELA.K6	GS1	The Catholic School, 37; O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic Themes in academic disciplines. (pp. 126).
CS	ELA.K6	GS2	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS	ELA.K6	GS3	Senior, J. (1983). The restoration of Christian culture. In R. Topping (Ed.), Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education, (pp. 313, 320).
CS	ELA.K6	GS4	The Catholic School, 12.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	ELA.K6	IS1	Gaudium et Spes, 59.
CS	ELA.K6	IS2	O’Brien, M. p.41-42. See also Reed and Redden p.94
CS	ELA.K6	IS3	O’Brien, M. p.41-42
CS	ELA.K6	IS4	O’Brien, M. p. 41-42
CS	ELA.K6	IS7	Moore, T. p. 50.
CS	ELA.K6	IS8	Gaudium et Spes, 59; Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	ELA.K6	IS9	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS	ELA.K6	IS10	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	ELA.K6	IS12	Kirk, R. (1981). The moral imagination. Literature and Belief, Vol. 1, 37–49.
CS	ELA.K6	IS13	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12; Gaudium et Spes, 59.
			Writing Standards
CS	ELA.K6	WS1	Halpin, P.A., p. 83
CS	ELA.K6	WS2	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 49.
CS	ELA.K6	WS3	Thomas Aquinas College http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/course-descriptions#logic-tutorial
			Dispositional Standards
CS	ELA.K6	AD1	Gaudium et Spes, 62; Ave Maria University, https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf p.144
CS	ELA.K6	AD2	Ibid.
CS	ELA.K6	AD3	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	ELA.K6	AD4	Dubay, T. p.12; Franciscan University Steubenville Academic Catalog. http://www.franciscan.edu/undergraduate-catalog/ p.180
CS	ELA.K6	AD5	Hicks, D. p. 35-38
CS	ELA.K6	AD6	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	ELA.K6	AD7	Taylor, J. p.4; Halpin, P.A., & Wagner, J. p.
CS	ELA.K6	AD8	The Catholic School, 36 & 12; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 156-157

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH/LANUGAGE ARTS 7-12
			General Standards
CS	ELA.712	GS1	The Catholic School, 37. See also O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines. p.126.
CS	ELA.712	GS2	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS	ELA.712	GS3	The Catholic School, 12.
CS	ELA.712	GS4	Gaudium et Spes, 62.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	ELA.712	IS1	Moore, T., p. 91. See also Redden and Ryan p. 94-95; University of St. Thomas More http://www.thomasmorecollege.edu/academics/true-enlargement-of-mind/; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 157- 160;
CS	ELA.712	IS2	O’Brien, M. p.41-42. See also Reed and Redden p.94.
CS	ELA.712	IS3	O’Brien, M., p.12-13.
CS	ELA.712	IS4	Ave Maria University, https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf p.144
CS	ELA.712	IS5	O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines.p.112. The
CS	ELA.712	IS7	Kirk, Russell “The Moral imagination.” in Literature and Belief Vol. 1 (1981), 37–49.
CS	ELA.712	IS8	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 51.
CS	ELA.712	IS9	Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 55.
CS	ELA.712	IS10	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	ELA.712	IS12	University of Dallas http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf pp. 146-148, see also John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 3.
CS	ELA.712	IS13	Taylor, J. p.22.
CS	ELA.712	IS15	O’Donnell, A. (2012). Poetry and Catholic themes. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the Tradition. Catholic Themes in Academic Disciplines. p. 112, 125.
			Writing Standards
CS	ELA.712	WS1	Halpin, P.A., p. 83..
CS	ELA.712	WS2	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 49.
CS	ELA.712	WS3	Thomas Aquinas College http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/course-descriptions#logic-tutorial
CS	ELA.712	WS4	Esolen, A. (November, 2013).
			Dispositional Standards
CS	ELA.712	AD1	Moore, T. p. 91. See also Redden and Ryan p. 94-95.
CS	ELA.712	AD2	Hicks, D., p. 35; Simmons, T. p. 145; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 156-157.
CS	ELA.712	AD3	Hicks, D., p. 35; Simmons, T., p. 145.
CS	ELA.712	AD4	Dubay, T., p.12; Franciscan University Steubenville Academic Catalog. p.180 http://www.franciscan.edu/undergraduate-catalog/
CS	ELA.712	AD5	Hicks, D. p. 35-38.
CS	ELA.712	AD6	Redden, J. & Ryan, F., p. 92-95.
CS	ELA.712	AD7	Taylor, J., p.4; Halpin, P.A., and Wagner, J., p. 127.

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY K-6
			General Standards
CS	H.K6	GS1	The Catholic School, 8.
CS	H.K6	GS2	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 181.
CS	H.K6	GS3	Dawson, p. 301
			Intellectual Standards
CS	H.K6	IS1	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W., p. 12; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS	H.K6	IS2	www.magiscenter.com
CS	H.K6	IS3	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 11-12.
CS	H.K6	IS4	Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy https://www.seatofwisdom.ca/academics/departments/history/
CS	H.K6	IS5	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS	H.K6	IS8	Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134.
CS	H.K6	IS9	University of Dallas Academic Bulletin. p. 159 http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf; Simmons, T., p. 20-21.
CS	H.K6	IS10	Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59.
CS	H.K6	IS11	Simmons, T., p. 14; Christendom College Academic Principles. http://www.christendom.edu/academics/education-principles-overview/
CS	H.K6	IS12	The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 14.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	H.K6	AD1	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 8.
CS	H.K6	AD2	Simmons, T., p. 209-210.
CS	H.K6	AD3	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.
CS	H.K6	AD4	Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, 46.

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN HISTORY INSTRUCTION 7-12
			General Standards
CS	H.712	GS1	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 12; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS	H.712	GS2	Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 93.
CS	H.712	GS3	Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy https://www.seatofwisdom.ca/academics/departments/history/
CS	H.712	GS4	Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS	H.712	GS5	Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134. https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf
			Intellectual Standards
CS	H.712	IS1	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 180.
CS	H.712	IS2	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 11- 12.
CS	H.712	IS3	Hancock, C., p. 41; Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 20; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 88.
CS	H.712	IS4	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 180.
CS	H.712	IS5	Educating to Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love, 30.
CS	H.712	IS6	Dawson, C. (2010). Crisis in Western education (2010). In R. Topping’s (Ed.), Renewing the mind: A reader in the philosophy of Catholic education. (p. 301).
CS	H.712	IS7	The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 14.
CS	H.712	IS8	Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 134.
CS	H.712	IS9	Simmons, T., p. 20; Christendom College Academic Principles http://www.christendom.edu/academics/education-principles-overview/
CS	H.712	IS10	Mannoia, V., p. 84; Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p. 181; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58.
CS	H.712	IS12	University of Dallas Academic Bulletin. P. 159 http://udallas.edu/offices/registrar/_documents/bulletin-2014-2015-final-singles.pdf
CS	H.712	IS13	Simmons, T., p. 142.
CS	H.712	IS14	Simmons, T., p. 31.
CS	H.712	IS15	Thomas Aquinas College Why We Study http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study
CS	H.712	IS16	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
CS	H.712	IS17	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 58; Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission, 46.
CS	H.712	IS18	Hicks, D., p.23; The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 59.
CS	H.712	IS20	Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 3.
CS	H.712	IS21-25	USCCB. Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
CS	H.712	IS26	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 51, 108, 89.
CS	H.712	IS27	Beckwirth, F. & Koukl, G. (1998). Relativism: Feet firmly planted in mid-air. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group. How relativism presents a false understanding of cultural diversity and fails to distinguish how some cultures, like individuals, have discovered more knowledge and truth than others.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	H.712	AD1	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 8.
CS	H.712	AD2	Simmons, T., p. 209-210..
CS	H.712	AD3	Ditmanson, H., Hong, H., & Quanbeck, W. p.10..
CS	H.712	AD4	Simmons, T., p. 20-21.
CS	H.712	AD5	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 52.
CS	H.712	AD6	Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 12.

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS Related to Science Topics K-6
			General Standards
CS	S.K6	GS1	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 56, 57.
CS	S.K6	GS2	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54; Baglow, C., p. 66.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	S.K6	IS1	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54; Baglow, C., p. 65
CS	S.K6	IS2	Baglow, C. Chapter 3; See Hodgson, P. Theology and modern physics, pp. 21-24 in Baglow, C. p. 58.
CS	S.K6	IS4	Hodgson, P. Theology and modern physics, pp. 21-24 in Baglow, C., p. 58.
CS	S.K6	IS6	CCC, 337-344; Baglow, Chapter 1.
CS	S.K6	IS7	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 54.
CS	S.K6	IS8	Gaudium et Spes, 57; Baglow, C. p. 8-9.
CS	S.K6	IS9	Baglow, C., p. 8-10.
CS	S.K6	IS10	Gaudium et Spes, 57.
			Dispositional Standards
CS	S.K6	AD1	Wyoming Catholic Academic Vision p. 21. http://www.wyomingcatholiccollege.com/data/files/gallery/AcademicDownloadsFileGallery/WCCVision1.pdf
CS	S.K6	AD2	John Paul II. (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS	S.K6	AD4	John Paul II. (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS Related to Science Topics 7-12
			General Standards
CS	S.712	GS1	The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 56, 57.
CS	S.712	GS2	John Paul II. Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
			Intellectual Standards
CS	S.712	IS1	Baglow, Chapter 5; John Paul II, (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS	S.712	IS2	Ave Maria University Academic Catalog p. 80. https://www.avemaria.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Academic-Catalogue-2014-2015_091020141.pdf
CS	S.712	IS3	Jordan, E., p. 34, 55.
CS	S.712	IS4	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 106.
CS	S.712	IS6	The Catholic School, 56.
CS	S.712	IS7	Pope Francis, Laudato si, 117.
CS	S.712	IS8	Baglow, C., Chapters 1-2; Spitzer, R. The soul’s upward yearning, p.130 & Appendix One; John Paul II, (1988). Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory; John Paul II, (1996). Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences: on Evolution.
CS	S.712	IS9	Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio, 88; Baglow, C., p. 24-26.
CS	S.712	IS10	Ibid.
CS	S.712	IS11	Baglow, C., pp. 68-73; See http://www.faith.org.uk/article/may-june-2010-priestly-contributions-to-modern-sciencethe-case-of-monseignor-georges-lemaitre
CS	S.712	IS12	Putz, O. Evolutionary biology in a Catholic framework, In Piderit, J., & Morey, M. (2012). Teaching the tradition, p. 307 – 329.
CS	S.712	IS15	Spitzer, R., The soul’s upward yearning. Appendix One; Spitzer, R. (2010). New proofs for the existence of God; Spitzer, R. & LeBlanc, C., The Reason Series: What science says about God. Student Workbook, pp.41-51; Spitzer, R. & Noggle, M. From nothing to cosmos: The workbook+, pp. 68-71
			Dispositional Standards
CS	S.712	AD1	Wyoming Catholic Academic Vision p. 21. http://www.wyomingcatholiccollege.com/data/files/gallery/AcademicDownloadsFileGallery/WCCVision1.pdf
CS	S.712	AD2	John Paul II, Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J. Director of the Vatican Observatory.
CS	S.712	AD3	Francis, Pope. Laudato Si, 84-86, 117.
CS	S.712	AD4	USCCB. Seven themes of Catholic social teaching. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
CS	S.712	AD5	Spitzer, R., The soul’s upward yearning. Appendix One, conclusion.

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN MATHEMATICS K-6
			General Standards
CS	M.K6	GS1	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.248).
CS	M.K6	GS3	Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Christendom College http://www.christendom.edu/2014/11/11/christendom-college-launches-mathematics-major/
			Dispositional Standards
CS	M.K6	AD1	Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton, D. Chpt. 5-7. Christendom College, Why mathematics in the liberal arts tradition matters. http://www.christendom.edu/2015/08/20/why-mathematics-in-the-liberal-arts-tradition-matters/
CS	M.K6	AD2	Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton, D. pp. 65-66.
CS	M.K6	AD 3-4	Christendom College, Why mathematics in the liberal arts tradition matters. http://www.christendom.edu/2015/08/20/why-mathematics-in-the-liberal-arts-tradition-matters/

CATHOLIC CURRICULAR STANDARDS AND DISPOSITIONS IN MATHEMATICS 7-12
			General Standards
CS	M.712	GS1	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.248).
CS	M.712	GS3	Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics
CS	M.712	GS4	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.233-234).
			Intellectual Standards
CS	M.712	IS1	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.240).
CS	M.712	IS2	Ave Maria University Academic Catalogue, p. 150.
CS	M.712	IS3	Ibid.
CS	M.712	IS4	Clayton, D. pp.97-98.
CS	M.712	IS5	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.245).
CS	M.712	IS6	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.241); Clayton, D. pp. 168-170.
CS	M.712	IS8	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.242).
			Dispositional Standards
CS	M.712	AD1	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic disciplines (p.241).
CS	M.712	AD2	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic themes in academic sisciplines (p.248).
CS	M.712	AD3	Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics; Clayton D. Chapter 5.
CS	M.712	AD4	Christendom College http://www.christendom.edu/news/2014/11-11-math.php.
CS	M.712	AD5	Schweitzer, P.A., (2012). Mathematics, reality, and God. In J. Piderit, & M. Morey (Eds.), Teaching the tradition. Catholic Themes in academic disciplines (pp.229 – 232). Thomas Aquinas College, Why we study math by Brian Kelly. http://thomasaquinas.edu/a-liberating-education/why-we-study-mathematics
CS	M.712	AD8	Belmont Abbey Academic Catalogue p.157. http://belmontabbey.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BAC-2014-2015-Catalogue_18JUL2014.pdf;

Church Documents for Catholic School Teachers: Annotated Bibliography

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Pope Leo XIII. (1865). Spectata Fides. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectatafides.html

In these days, and in the present condition of the world, when the tender age of childhood is threatened on every side by so many and such various dangers, hardly anything can be imagined more fitting than the union with literary instruction of sound teaching in faith and morals… For it is in and by these schools that the Catholic faith, our greatest and best inheritance, is preserved whole and entire. In these schools the liberty of parents is respected; and, what is most needed, especially in the prevailing license of opinion and of action, it is by these schools that good citizens are brought up for the State… The wisdom of our forefathers, and the very foundations of the State, are ruined by the destructive error of those who would have children brought up without religious education. You see, therefore Venerable Brethren, with what earnest forethought parents must beware of entrusting their children to schools in which they cannot receive religious teaching. (#4)

Pope Pius XI. (1929). Divini illius magistri. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/ hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html

This all-encompassing, seminal encyclical on Catholic education was written by Pope Pius XI. The document elaborates on the mission, focus, circumstances, and final end of Catholic education. He begins by stating, “It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education, as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last end, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end, and that in the present order of Providence, since God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who alone is ‘the way, the truth and the life,’ there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education” (#7). The means of Catholic education includes the permeation of religion throughout all subjects and grades of schooling for “…it is necessary not only that religious instruction be given to the young at certain fixed times, but also that every subject taught, be permeated with Christian piety,” because “if this is wanting, if this sacred atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike, little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence” (#80). He allows no excuse for not properly forming the consciences of young people and states this is well within the Church’s maternal supervision. The document discusses the role of parents and the State to provide education to young people.

The Pope condemns new methods of instruction based on naturalism, stating that man is both body and soul, with a fallen nature that can be elevated by God’s grace. He laments the movement by educational institutions away from the foundations of Christianity, stating a Christocentric anthropology of man and his relationship with God should be the center of the educational enterprise.

The Pope acknowledges the important role of teachers: “Perfect schools are the result not so much of good methods as of good teachers, teachers who are thoroughly prepared and well-grounded in the matter they have to teach; who possess the intellectual and moral qualifications required by their important office; who cherish a pure and holy love for the youths confided to them, because they love Jesus Christ and His Church, of which these are the children of predilection; and who have therefore sincerely at heart the true good of family and country” (#88).

Pope Pius XI. (1935). Provido sane consilio. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CATTEACH.HTM

This short document was issued by the Catechetical Office of the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to address the urgency that Catholic doctrine be taught in all parishes, schools, and colleges and that those teaching the faith be qualified and attend annual catechetical conventions and other meetings to discuss the best methods of catechetical instruction (#34-35). Also, special “Courses of Lectures on Religion [are to] be offered each year to those who teach Christian doctrine in parochial and public schools, in order that they will increase in the quality and depth of their knowledge” (#37).

Pope Paul VI. (1965). Gravissimum educationis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vatii_ decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

A declaration of Catholic education issued from the Second Vatican Council. This foundational document of Catholic education situates parents, by their God-given role, as the “primary and principle educators” of their children (#3) and the family as the “first school of the social virtues” (#3). It proclaims education as an inalienable right for all mankind and insists that the state should not usurp the choice of education available to families (#6). The document states that “a true education aims at the formation of the human person in the pursuit of his ultimate end” (#1). The Church, through her care and concern for her people, enters into the field of education not only to assist primarily in this formation, but also to “pursue cultural goals,” create a community “animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity,” “help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism,” and “order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation” (#8). Teachers, “who aid parents in fulfilling their duties” of education and formation (#5), are recognized as individuals who must “possess special qualities of mind and heart,” because “beautiful indeed and of great importance” is their vocation (#5). Teachers are to be carefully prepared for their apostolate and continually ready to “renew and adapt” (#5). The document attempts to address all the many forms of Catholic education, including Catholic colleges and universities, advocating for coordination and cooperation among them.

In section 8 we read,

But let teachers recognize that the Catholic school depends upon them almost entirely for the accomplishment of its goals and programs. They should therefore be very carefully prepared so that both in secular and religious knowledge they are equipped with suitable qualifications and also with a pedagogical skill that is in keeping with the findings of the contemporary world. Intimately linked in charity to one another and to their students and endowed with an apostolic spirit, may teachers by their life as much as by their instruction bear witness to Christ, the unique Teacher. Let them work as partners with parents and together with them in every phase of education give due consideration to the difference of sex and the proper ends Divine Providence assigns to each sex in the family and in society. Let them do all they can to stimulate their students to act for themselves and even after graduation to continue to assist them with advice, friendship and by establishing special associations imbued with the true spirit of the Church. The work of these teachers, this sacred synod declares, is in the real sense of the word an apostolate most suited to and necessary for our times and at once a true service offered to society. The Council also reminds Catholic parents of the duty of entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible and of supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1972). To teach as Jesus did. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.

This pastoral message was issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (United States) in response to the exhortation of the Second Vatican Council in Gravissimum Educationis. The document begins by stating, “Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church He founded,” and “through education the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to translate this proclamation into action” (#7). “Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God’s help” (#7). Three main themes are proposed for Catholic education: message/doctrine (“integration of religious truth and values with life distinguishes the Catholic school from other schools,” #105); community including fellowship, life in Christ, and evangelization (“Building and living community must be prime, explicit goals of the contemporary Catholic School,” #108); and service including the transformation of society (“The experience of Christian community leads naturally to service,” #28). Scant mention is made about the qualities and characteristics of Catholic school teachers, aside from the very important facts that, “If the threefold purpose of Christian education is to be realized, it must be through their commitment to give instruction to their students, to build community among them, and to serve them” (#144) and the “integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life is brought about in the Catholic school… by the presences of teachers who express an integrated approach to learning and living in their private and professional lives” (#104).

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1976). Teach them. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.

This is a brief follow-up by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (United States) to To Teach as Jesus Did, addressing the present and future state of Catholic education in the United States. Many initiatives are suggested. The document reiterates the themes of Catholic education: “to teach doctrine, to build community, and to serve.” Parent, teacher, administrator, pastor, and community roles in supporting Catholic education are discussed. Especially emphasized is “the new awareness that all members of the faculty, at least by their example, are an integral part of the process of religious education” and a “Teachers’ life style and character are as important as their professional credentials” (p.7). The twofold dimension of Catholic education as enfolding academic instruction with Christian formation is discussed stating, “the integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life” is a responsibility of teachers, because their “daily witness to the meaning of mature faith and Christian living has a profound impact upon the education and formation of their pupils” (p.3).

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1977). The Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html

Published by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, this document provides a deeper reflection of the Catholic school, especially in the areas of the nature and characteristics which lend to a school identifying itself as “Catholic.” The document begins by stating that the “Catholic school forms part of the saving mission of the Church” (#9), “provides a privileged environment for the complete formation of her members, and …also provides a highly important service to mankind” (#16). The school is considered a “centre of human formation,” and certain qualifiers must be in place or the school cannot be considered a Catholic school (25). The school must be a “place of integral formation” and “must begin from the principle that its educational programme is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person” (#28). The Catholic school is also a place where “a systematic and critical assimilation of culture” exists (#26), where faith is integrated with culture and life, and where students are not only given the opportunity to excel academically but to live in a “community whose values are communicated through the interpersonal and sincere relationships of its members” (#32), especially the teachers who “in imitation of Christ, the only Teacher, they reveal the Christian message not only by word but also by every gesture of their behavior” (#43). The document states that the Catholic school must help the student “spell out the meaning of his experiences and their truths” (#27) and states that any school which does not do this “hinders the personal development of its pupils” (#27).

A Catholic school is founded on a Christian vision of life, with Christ as “the foundation of the whole educational enterprise” (#34), since He is “the Perfect Man” (#34). Redeemed by Him, “the Catholic school aims at forming in the Christian those particular virtues which will enable him to live a new life in Christ and help him to play faithfully his part in building up the Kingdom of God” (#36). To ensure this distinctive Christological emphasis, the local bishop has the authority to “watch over the orthodoxy of religious instruction and the observance of Christian morals in the Catholic schools,” but “it is the task of the whole educative community to ensure that a distinctive Christian educational environment is maintained in practice” (#73). Parents and especially teachers have the duty and obligation to ensure this distinctive character, especially “By their witness and their behavior” (#78).

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1982). Lay Catholics in schools: Witnesses to faith. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_ curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19821015_lay-catholics_en.html

This document from the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education begins by stating the importance of all those who work in Catholic schools, “whether as teachers, directors, administrators, or auxiliary staff” (#1). These “will substantially determine whether or not a school realizes its aims and accomplishes it objectives” (#1). With this statement, we see the great importance and impact of even those individuals not directly hired as teachers to the total educational environment experienced by the student on a daily basis. As all people are called to a life of personal holiness, so too are those who work in Catholic schools, since they have a privileged opportunity for giving witness (#33).

The more completely an educator can give concrete witness to the model of the ideal person that is being presented to the students, the more this ideal will be believed and imitated. For it will then be seen as something reasonable and worthy of being lived, something concrete and realizable. It is in this context that the faith witness of the lay teacher becomes especially important. Students should see in their teacher the Christian attitude and behavior that is often so conspicuously absent from the secular atmosphere in which they live. Without this witness, living in such an atmosphere, they may begin to regard Christian behavior as an impossible ideal (#32)

“Lay Catholic teachers should be influenced by a Christian faith vision in the way they teach their course, to the extent that this is consistent with the subject matter” (#49), and should be seekers of the truth, which is found in Truth Himself, Christ. They should be active participants in the school and the surrounding community, so as to act as a conduit of Catholic culture and an evangelizer of the faith. Teachers in Catholic schools possess

professional commitment; support of truth, justice and freedom; openness to the point of view of others, combined with an attitude of service; personal commitment to the students, and fraternal solidarity with everyone; [and] a life that is integrally moral in all its aspects. The lay Catholic who brings all of this to his or her work in a pluralist school⁵⁵ becomes a living mirror, in whom every individual in the educational community will see reflected an image of one inspired by the Gospel (#52).

Part III discusses the many dimensions of necessary formation for Catholic schoolteachers, and Part IV addresses the types and kinds of ecclesial and institutional support needed and available for lay teachers in Catholic schools whose work in education is part of the specific mission of the Church. That work includes

cultivating in student the intellectual, creative, and aesthetic faculties of the human person; to develop in them the ability to make correct use of their judgement, will, and affectivity; to promote in them a sense of values; to encourage just attitudes and prudent behavior; to introduce them to the cultural patrimony handed down from previous generations; to prepare them for professional life, and to encourage the friendly interchange among students of diverse cultures and backgrounds that will lead to mutual understanding (#12).

Canon Law Society of America. (1983). Code of canon law. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P2N.HTM

Book III, Title III, Canons 793-806 are particular to grade schools operating under an ecclesial authority, independent or private schools using a Catholic faith-based curriculum, and parents.

Can. 795. Education must pay regard to the formation of the whole person, so that all may attain their eternal destiny and at the same time promote the common good of society. Children and young persons are therefore to be cared for in such a way that their physical, moral and intellectual talents may develop in a harmonious manner, so that they may attain a greater sense of responsibility and a right use of freedom, and be formed to take an active part in social life.

Can. 803 §2. Instruction and education in a Catholic school must be based on the principles of Catholic doctrine, and the teachers must be outstanding in true doctrine and uprightness of life.

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1988). The religious dimension of education in a Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc _doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html

This is the third of a trilogy of documents issued by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education on Catholic education following the promulgation of Gravissimum Educationis in 1965. (The trilogy began with The Catholic School in 1977 and Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith in 1982.) This document offers general guidelines regarding the educational climate of a Catholic school which includes the building up of a school culture animated by faith. Catholic schools should not be seen as institutions, but as communities and extensions of family life, especially for elementary school students. The document discusses the complementary role of harmonious spiritual and academic formation of the students and again focuses upon the school climate to impress upon the reader that

strong determination is needed to do everything possible to eliminate conditions which threaten the health of the school climate. Some examples of potential problems are these: the educational goals are either not defined or are defined badly; those responsible for the school are not sufficiently trained; concern for academic achievement is excessive; relations between teachers and students are cold and impersonal; teachers are antagonistic toward one another; discipline is imposed from on high without any participation or cooperation from the students; relationships with families are formal or even strained, and families are not involved in helping to determine the educational goals; some within the school community are giving a negative witness; individuals are unwilling to work together for the common good; the school is isolated from the local Church; there is no interest in or concern for the problems of society; religious instruction is ‘routine’ (#104).

Discussion regarding the teaching of religion and the importance of catechesis of those receptive to the Christian message of salvation is presented with suggestions for methodology and to look for opportunities of “pre-evangelization: to the development of a religious sense of life” (#108), the “why,” “what,” and “how” of a culture purports a religious and ethical dimension. Frequent reference to Christ and God, the Father, as well as frequent prayer create a culture and climate that is genuinely Catholic.

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1995). The truth and meaning of human sexuality: Guidelines for education within the family. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_ family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html

This document from the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education was written for families, but it is applicable for educators and administrators overseeing courses on human sexuality in Catholic schools. As collaborators with parents in the education of their children, educators need to affirm the Church’s position that parents are the primary educators of their children. Included in this document are several quotes from Familiaris Consortio, one of which is, “Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church affirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents.” Also, the end of the document is a set of recommendations for all educators working in this area:

Since each child or young person must be able to live his or her own sexuality in conformity with Christian principles, and hence be able to exercise the virtue of chastity, no educator—not even parents—can interfere with this right to chastity (cf. Matthew 18: 4-7) (#118).
It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child and the young person to be adequately informed by their own parents on moral and sexual questions in a way that complies with his or her desire to be chaste and to be formed in chastity. This right is further qualified by a child’s stage of development, his or her capacity to integrate moral truth with sexual information, and by respect for his or her innocence and tranquility (#119).
It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child or young person to withdraw from any form of sexual instruction imparted outside the home. Neither the children nor other members of their family should ever be penalized or discriminated against for this decision (#120).

Congregation for the Clergy. (1997). General directory for catechesis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html

The document from the Congregation for the Clergy describes the relationship between religious instruction and catechesis, both of which are evident in Catholic schools. Paragraphs 73-75 explain the proper characteristics of religious instruction in schools. Religious instruction is to be scholastic in nature

with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines. It must present the Christian message and the Christian event with the same seriousness and the same depth with which other disciplines present their knowledge. It should not be an accessory alongside of these disciplines, but rather it should engage in a necessary inter-disciplinary dialogue. This dialogue should take place above all at that level at which every discipline forms the personality of students. In this way the presentation of the Christian message influences the way in which the origins of the world, the sense of history, the basis of ethical values, the function of religion in culture, the destiny of man and his relationship with nature, are understood. Through inter-disciplinary dialogue religious instruction in schools underpins, activates, develops and completes the educational activity of the school (#73).

Paragraph 259-260 address religious instruction and catechesis within Catholic schools, recalling the emphasis of the Second Vatican Council’s document Gravissimum Educationis on schools as places for evangelization, human formation, and enculturation into the life of Christ.

Congregation for Catholic Education. (1997). The Catholic school on the threshold of the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_27041998_school20 00_ en.html

Written as a “state of the union” for Catholic education at the time before the new millennium, the document from the Congregation for Catholic Education highlights the exiting concerns and challenges of Catholic education, the first and foremost as a crisis of values, especially in the prevalence of moral relativism, subjectivism, and nihilism.⁵⁶ Society has turned away from the Christian faith as a “reference point” and “source of light for an effective and convincing interpretation of existence” (#1). Stressing the importance of the Catholic school as a place for courageous renewal with its evangelizing mission, pastoral care for the family and society, and shared responsibility for the “social and cultural development of the different communities and people to which it belongs” (#5), Catholic schools are called to impart a “solid Christian formation” (#8), to offer technical and scientific skills, and above all to focus on the “development of the whole man” (#9).

The document briefly but succinctly mentions the cultural identity of the Catholic school.

From the nature of the Catholic school also stems one of the most significant elements of its educational project: the synthesis between culture and faith. Indeed, knowledge set in the context of faith becomes wisdom and life vision. The endeavor to interweave reason and faith, which has become the heart of individual subjects, makes for unity, articulation and coordination, bringing forth within what is learned in school a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history. In a Catholic school’s educational project there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom…All of this demands an atmosphere characterized by the search for truth, in which competent, convinced and coherent educators, teachers of learning and of life, may be a reflection, albeit imperfect but still vivid, of the one Teacher. In this perspective, in the Christian educational project all subjects collaborate, each with its own specific content, to the formation of mature personalities. (#14)

Catholic education’s role in service to society and the local community is discussed with the special role of teachers and their role in students development, “for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings” (#19).

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). National directory for catechesis. Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

While not a Catholic school document, per se, the directory for catechesis from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops insists on the role of the Catholic school as a center for evangelization and catechesis, stating “its catechetical program is essential to is distinctly Catholic identity and character” (p.231). It includes an important section on the hiring of the Catholic school principal (Section 9a) as well as the role Catholic schoolteachers play as models and witness of the faith as they act to form students in what it means to live life as a Christian.

All teachers in Catholic schools share in the catechetical ministry. ‘All members of the faculty, at least by their example, are an integral part of the process of religious education… Teachers’ life style and character are as important as their professional credentials’. Their daily witness to the meaning of mature faith and Christian living has a profound effect on the education and formation of their students (p. 233).

This witness is so important, the directory goes on to say, “While some situations might entail compelling reasons for members of another faith tradition to teach in a Catholic school, as much as possible, all teachers in a Catholic school should be practicing Catholics” (p. 233).

Section 61.4b states that religion programs in Catholic schools should be in harmony with the catechetical efforts of local parishes and diocesan catechetical priorities and that Catholic schools should be affordable, accessible, and open to all.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). Renewing our commitment to Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catholic-education/upload/renewing-our-commitment-2005.pdf

This document was developed by the Committee on Education of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to reaffirm commitment to Catholic education and its fourfold purposes of “providing an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm, and thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated” (par. 2). The document reiterates the value of Catholic education, citing some of the previous documents released by the Sacred Congregation of Catholic Education, and discusses the importance of Catholic schools especially for the economically poor and minority students in inner-city environments. The document addresses the changing demographics of the Church in America, citing the increase in the Hispanic/Latino population and the need to find and properly train lay administrators for positions in the Catholic school environment, develop new models for economic sustainability of schools, and continue advocacy of Catholic schools in the public policy arena. It recommends meetings across the country to address “critical issues of Catholic identity, cultural diversity, finances, just wages and benefits, academic quality—especially in the area of religious education—alternative governance models, and the marketing of our Catholic schools.”

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2007). Educating together in Catholic schools: A shared mission between consecrated persons and the lay faithful. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_20070908_educare-insieme_en.html

This document from the Congregation for Catholic Education “considers the pastoral aspects regarding cooperation between lay and consecrated persons within the same educational mission. In it, the choice of the lay faithful to live their educational commitment as ‘a personal vocation in the Church, and not simply as… the exercise of a profession’” (#6). Catholic education is discussed from the perspective of communion, defined as union both with God and neighbor. Aspects of communion are further described, and importance is placed upon the Catholic educator as being a person living in communion, with a spirituality of communion, and living for communion with Christ and with others.

As “a consecrated person is called to testify his or her specific vocation to a life of communion in love so as to be in the scholastic community a sign, a memorial and a prophecy of the values of the Gospel, so too a lay educator is required to exercise ‘a specific mission within the Church by living, in faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school’” (#15).

Sufficient detail is given to the professional and spiritual formation of those working in Catholic schools. All should continually update methodologies and knowledge of culture, psychology, and pedagogical approaches. Catholic educators must possess a “sensitivity with regard to the person to be educated in order to grasp not only the request for growth in knowledge and skills, but also the need for growth in humanity” (#24).

For this reason, Catholic educators need “a ‘formation of the heart’: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others”, so that their educational commitment becomes “a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6)”. In fact, even “care for instruction means loving” (Wis 6:17). It is only in this way that they can make their teaching a school of faith, that is to say, a transmission of the Gospel, as required by the educational project of the Catholic school (#25).

Communion not only includes collaboration among colleagues, but also with parents, the local community, and the entire Church.

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2013). Educating to intercultural dialogue in Catholic schools: Living in harmony for a civilization of love. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_20131028_dialogo-interculturale_en.html

Primarily aimed at parents, teachers, and other personnel in Catholic schools, this document from the Congregation for Catholic Education addresses what it sees as a central challenge of education—the acceptance of various cultural expressions among all peoples and the necessity to overcome prejudices and build harmony among cultures without losing one’s own identity and pedagogical vision. Culture is defined as the “particular expression of human beings, their specific way of being and organizing their presence in the world” (Ch. 1, #1). While dialogue and clarity regarding the understanding of other religions is discussed, it is done so with “faithfulness to one’s own Christian identity” (#16). Catholic schools, as institutions of evangelization and enculturation, are seen as places where this intercultural dialogue should take place. In order for this dialogue to be effective, it must be “set-out from a deep-seated knowledge of the specific identity of the various dialogue partners. From this point of view, diversity ceases to be seen as a problem. Instead, a community characterized by pluralism is seen as a resource, a chance for opening up the whole system to all differences of origin, relationship between men and women, social status and educational history” (#27). Culture is discussed from a theological, anthropological, and pedagogical perspective before focus is placed practical applications of the transmission of culture in Catholic schools. “The contribution that Catholicism can make to education and to intercultural dialogue is in their reference to the centrality of the human person, who has his or her constitutive element in relationships with others. Catholic schools have in Jesus Christ the basis of their anthropological and pedagogical paradigm…” (#57).

Of importance to Catholic educators and administrators are the sections titled, “The curriculum as the expression of the school’s identity” (#64-69) and the sections directed toward the formation and profession of teachers and administrators (#76-86). A Catholic school’s programs “can be harmonized with the school’s original mission” (#65), and their curricula should “place on centre-stage both individuals and their search for meaning. This is the reference value, in view of which the various academic disciplines are important resources… From this perspective, what is taught is not neutral, and neither is the way of teaching it” (#65).

Catholic schools are encouraged to promote a wisdom-based society, to go beyond knowledge and educate people to think, evaluating facts in the light of values… In teaching the various academic disciplines, teachers share and promote a methodological viewpoint in which the various branches of knowledge are dynamically correlated, in a wisdom perspective. The epistemological framework of every branch of knowledge has its own identity, both in content and methodology. However, this framework does not relate merely to ‘internal’ questions, touching upon the correct realization of each discipline. Each discipline is not an island inhabited by a form of knowledge that is distinct and ring-fenced; rather, it is in a dynamic relationship with all other forms of knowledge, each of which expresses something about the human person and touches upon some truth. (#66-67) Moreover, it must be pointed out that teaching the Catholic religion in schools has its own aims, different from those of catechesis. In fact, while catechesis promotes personal adherence to Christ and maturing of the Christian life, school teaching gives the students knowledge about Christianity’s identity and the Christian life. Thus, one aims ‘to enlarge the area of our rationality, to reopen it to the larger questions of the truth and the good, to link theology, philosophy and science between them in full respect for the methods proper to them and for their reciprocal autonomy, but also in the awareness of the intrinsic unity that holds them together.’ (#74)

The formation of Catholic school teachers and administrators is discussed as not simply an initial formation, but an initiation into an on-going, professional learning community of scholars who collaborate with each other and integrate their ideas and faith into the subjects they teach. Their camaraderie goes beyond the classroom to a personal level and their responsibilities as teachers does not end when the final bell rings, for “Good teachers know that their responsibilities do not end outside the classroom or school. They know that their responsibilities are also connected with their local area, and are demonstrated by their understanding for today’s social problems…teachers must be able to provide their students with the cultural tools necessary for giving direction to their lives” (#83).

In its conclusion, the document states Catholic schools are to “avoid both fundamentalism and ideas of relativism where everything is the same. Instead, they are encouraged to progress in harmony with the identity they have received from their Gospel inspiration.”

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2015). Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_ con_ccatheduc_doc_20140407_ educare-oggi-e-domani_en.html

This post-synodal document from the Congregation for Catholic Education focuses on the need for Catholic education to “convey vital values and principles to younger generations” and to “contribute to building the common good” (Introduction). Both the context and approach of teaching in a Catholic school are described. The context is the collaborative, unified learning and teaching environment where care and concern is exhibited between teachers and students; where a wealth of opportunities exist for students to thrive and develop their talents; where the cognitive, affective, social, professional, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the person are all addressed; and where ideas are respected, dialogue is free-flowing, and a rigorous commitment towards truth is found. The approach to teaching and learning engages one in the pursuit of knowledge and research where “Engagement in knowledge and research cannot be separated from a sense of ethics and transcendence: no real science can disregard ethical consequences and no real science drives us away from transcendence. Science and ethics, science and transcendence are not mutually exclusive, but come together for a greater and better understanding of man and the world” (II, #2). The pedagogy of teaching includes the centrality of the learner within a relationship where teachers are trained and prepared to guide and accompany students toward deeper learning and challenging goals.

Challenges of Catholic education are to “make young people realize the beauty of faith in Jesus Christ and of religious freedom in a multireligious universe. In every environment, whether it is favorable or not, Catholic educators will have to be credible witnesses” (III). The educational vision for Catholic education must sit within a “philosophical anthropology that must also be an anthropology of truth, i.e., a social anthropology whereby man is seen in his relations and way of being; an anthropology of recollection and promise; an anthropology that refers to the cosmos and cares about sustainable development; and, even more, an anthropology that refers to God” (III).

Education is not just knowledge, but also experience: it links together knowledge and action; it works to achieve unity amongst different forms of knowledge and pursues consistency. It encompasses the affective and emotional domains, and is also endowed with an ethical dimension: knowing how to do things and what we want to do, daring to change society and the world, and serving the community. Education is based on participation, shared intelligence and intelligence interdependence; dialogue, self-giving, example, cooperation and reciprocity are also equally important elements (III).

Challenges to Catholic schools include an increased hostility toward private, religious education by local and national governments.

The document addresses Catholic higher education and its challenges and then concludes with a quote from Pope Francis to educators (below) and a questionnaire.

Do not be disheartened in the face of the difficulties that the educational challenge presents. Educating is not a profession but an attitude, a way of being; in order to educate it is necessary to step out of ourselves and be among young people, to accompany them in the stages of their growth and to set ourselves beside them; Give them hope and optimism for their journey in the world. Teach them to see the beauty and goodness of creation and of man who always retains the Creator’s hallmark. But above all with your life be witnesses of what you communicate (Conclusion).

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2017). Educating to fraternal humanism: Building a “civilization of love” fifty years after Populorum progressio. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/ rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20170416_educare-umanesimo-solidale_en.html

This Instruction is another follow-up on the 2015 World Congress Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion (29) as well as the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the social encyclical, Populorum progressio. Divided into seven sections, it presents the current state of global affairs as one filled with multiple crises in economic, financial, political, environmental, and social fields. It proposes a “joint development of civic opportunities with an educational plan” (6) to promote cooperation and solidarity in the world instead of marginalization.

Section two provides the document’s thesis that “education should be at the service of a new humanism,” and that education itself needs to be humanized through

…a process in which each person can develop his or her own deep-rooted attitudes and vocation, and thus contribute to his or her vocation within the community. ‘Humanizing education’ means putting the person at the centre of education, in a framework of relationships that make up a living community, which is interdependent and bound to a common destiny. This is fraternal humanism. (8)

Fraternal humanism includes respect for the family as the “first natural society” and a methodology that

does not just provide an educational service, but deals with its results in the overall context of the personal, moral and social abilities of those who participate in the educational process. It does not simply ask the teacher to teach and students to learn, but urges everyone to live, study and act in accordance with the reasons of fraternal humanism. It does not aim to create division and divergence, but rather offers places for meeting and discussion to create valid educational projects. It is an education – at the same time – that is sound and open, that pulls down the walls of exclusivity, promoting the richness and diversity of individual talents and extending the classroom to embrace every corner of social experience in which education can generate solidarity, sharing and communion. (10)

Section three leans heavily on the use of the “grammar of dialogue” (12) to build networks of fraternal humanism which “ha[ve] the weighty responsibility of providing a formation of citizens” (14) who will work with positive ethical values in the public sphere (13). Section four states that “the education to fraternal humanism must start from the certainty of the message of hope contained in the truth of Jesus Christ” (17) and that this is the job of education, to make connections that offer hope to the world. Section five moves toward inclusion of all peoples, not just education for the future and the needs of citizens in that world but establishing a relationship with a community’s past generations. Section six discusses cooperative networks among faculty, schools, universities, research groups, and content areas for the collaboration and sharing of knowledge and services. The last section sums up the “themes and horizons” (31) just explored as a “culture of dialogue, globalizing hope, inclusion and cooperation networks” (31) and encourages everyone to use these tools to engage civic society.

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2019). Male and female he created them: Towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/ rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20190202_maschio-e-femmina_en.pdf

This document is specifically in response to the push of ‘gender ideology,’ which “leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female” (2). It states that discussion of gender should not be separated from a larger discussion of an “education in the call to love” and the presentation of a “clear and convincing” (30) Christian vision of anthropology. The document warns that traditional notions of marriage and the family are abandoned if gender ideology is accepted (14, 21). The document recommends a process of ‘Listening’ to all sides of the issue to find points of agreement and disagreement, ‘Reasoning’ through rational arguments from biology/physiology/medical science, philosophy, psychology, and theology and ‘Proposing’ acceptable ways for Catholic schools to address the issue. It encourages schools to provide solid teaching in Christian anthropology and human sexuality in conjunction with the family (subsidiarity) and with carefully prepared teachers (47) formed in the moral teachings of the Church and human psychological and physical development (46). The document highlights the importance of all those working in Catholic education, not just teachers, in the Christian formation of students.

School managers, teaching staff and personnel all share the responsibility of both guaranteeing delivery of a high-quality service coherent with the Christian principles that lie at the heart of their educational project, as well as interpreting the challenges of their time while giving daily witness of their understanding, objectivity and prudence. (48)

The document’s preferred “path of dialogue, which involves listening, reasoning and proposing” is put forward as a means of addressing the issue of gender theory in order to bring “positive transformation of concerns and misunderstandings” (52). Schools are to provide a “way of accompanying” (56) that is “discrete and confidential, capable of reaching out to those who are experiencing complex and painful situations” (56).

Every school should therefore make sure it is an environment of trust, calmness and openness, particularly where there are cases that require time and careful discernment. It is essential that the right conditions are created to provide a patient and understanding ear, far removed from any unjust discrimination. (56)

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2022). Instruction on the identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/ rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20220125_istruzione-identita-scuola-cattolica_en.html

This Instruction is a follow-up on the 2015 World Congress Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. It addresses the need for a “clearer awareness and consistency of the Catholic identity of the Church’s educational institutions all over the world” (1). It is written as a “concise and practical tool” to “help clarify certain current issues” and to “prevent conflicts and divisions in the critical area of education” (7). The document addresses Catholic identity from four points: the reductive, the formal, the charismatic, and the narrow; The document encourages Catholic schools to be in “the educational sphere the model of a ‘Church which goes forth’, in dialogue with everyone” (68-72). It emphasizes that everyone in a Catholic school is important to the establishment of the school’s Catholic identity. It details safeguards for teachers to know the mission and catholicity of the school prior to employment. It suggests the development of self-assessments and formation programs detailing expectations of those working in Catholic education. A very specific section on the Bishop’s authority over Catholic schools and the recourse to both civil and canon law available to solve conflicts is emphasized as are the processes of dialogue, subsidiarity, graduality, and proportionality when handling these conflicts.

New Catholic Curriculum Standards Put Focus on Faith

October 17, 2016/in Academics Commentary, K12 Curriculum Standards /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

Catholic education experts are hailing The Cardinal Newman Society’s new Catholic Curriculum Standards as a “splendid” and “invaluable” new resource to help Catholic schools focus on their mission.

With the help of leading Catholic scholars like Jesuit Father Robert Spitzer, Anthony Esolen and Joseph Pearce, the Newman Society’s Dr. Denise Donohue and Dr. Dan Guernsey have produced a new tool to help families and teachers regain their focus on what matters most in Catholic education.

Amid growing discontent with the Common Core State Standards, these truly Catholic standards go to the heart of what students should be learning in a faithfully Catholic education from kindergarten through high school.

The standards cover English language arts, math, science and history, and they complement the U.S. bishops’ and diocesan standards for religious instruction. Each academic discipline’s standards are broadly grouped into two grade levels, K-6 and 7-12. They express outcomes according to which learning should be measured, with the goal of leading educators to assign or develop materials and choose subject matter that truly serve the mission of Catholic education.

Praise from Educators

A couple of dioceses are already working with the standards, which have received strong approval.

“Since, in every school, the curriculum carries the mission, these Catholic Curricular Standards are an invaluable contribution to Catholic schools everywhere,” said Fr. John Belmonte, S.J., superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Joliet and a national expert in Catholic school administration.

“Catholic schools have benefited from the standards-based reform movement in education with one notable exception: the absence of rigorous standards rooted and grounded in our Catholic tradition,” said Fr. Belmonte. “Implementation of the Catholic Curricular Standards will provide a renewed sense of mission for our Catholic schools operating within the increasingly secularized world of education today.”

“A splendid achievement,” said Dr. Ryan Topping, author of The Case for Catholic Education and a fellow at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire. “Amidst widespread confusion about the nature and aims of the curriculum, these K-12 standards off educators structured guidance on how to deliver a robust Catholic intellectual formation.”

Dr. Sandra Stotsky, developer of the highly respected Massachusetts Academic Standards, said the Catholic Curriculum Standards “reflect more than the uniqueness of their intellectual tradition. They also provide the academic rigor missing in most public school English language arts curricula.”

For parents and educators seeking more practical assistance, the Catholic Curriculum Standards are accompanied by lists of recommended resources and even suggested literature for Catholic students at different grade levels.

The Cardinal Newman Society developed the standards with adaptability in mind. Educators are invited to amend and fit them into their own standards and curriculum guides to focus on the complete formation of students in the rich, Catholic intellectual heritage. We also anticipate developing practical tools to help educators work toward the standards in their classrooms.

Serving a Need

Today, many parents rightfully ask why Catholic schools often appear similar to public schools. Beyond religion class, the textbooks, reading assignments and even discussions of sensitive topics can seem very secular in many Catholic schools.

Have you ever wondered if there is a Catholic approach to teaching science? If you attended Catholic school decades ago, you’d have no doubt that there is such a thing. But today, many parents and students lack appreciation for what is special about a faithful Catholic education.

On topics like creation, nature, reproduction, behavior, scientific method, environment and technology, does Catholic education have something more important to teach than facts and figures?

What about literature? Good Catholic educators reject the Common Core’s emphasis on technical reading, preferring to instead focus on great literature — the epic tales, classical plays, poetry, biographies, persuasive essays and more that spark wonder, imagination and reasoning in young minds. Such literature prepares them to transform culture and renew it in the light of Christ.

And history! Too long has textbook history been dominated by Protestant distortions and emphases. A true grounding in history couldn’t be more important for young Catholics today: Christianity’s role in Western civilization, the rise of Islam, the glories of the Middle Ages, America’s founding principles and so much more.

The sad truth, however, is that many Catholic schools have looked to public school standards as measures of success in education. The defective Common Core and other government standards are secular and oriented to college and career. If Catholic educators measure success by these standards, they lose sight of their mission to evangelize and form young people in mind, body and spirit.

Renewed Purpose

The Cardinal Newman Society anchored its Catholic Curriculum Standards on principles of Catholic identity in education:

Involves the integral formation of the whole person—body, mind and spirit—in light of the individual’s ultimate end and the good of society.
Seeks to know and understand objective reality, including transcendent Truth, which is knowable by reason and faith and finds its origin, unity and end in God.
Promotes 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.
Encourages a synthesis of faith, life and culture.
Develops a Catholic worldview and enables a deeper incorporation of the student into the heart of the Catholic Church.

These elements of Catholic education are quite different from the philosophy and objectives that drive secular education. As Drs. Guernsey and Donohue explain in their introduction to the standards:

The mission and goals of Catholic education are significantly different from the college and career goals that guide public schools. Because the mission of a school should guide its choice of standards, the unique and broader mission of Catholic education requires additional, and foundational, standards that include specific Catholic modes of intellectual reasoning as well as accompanying dispositions.

While Catholic education has many similarities to secular education, “Catholic education is uniquely positioned to offer guidance on issues of values and morality as well as to provide life-giving and definitive answers related to questions of human purpose, human dignity, and human flourishing.”

Designed for Change

It is our own mission at The Cardinal Newman Society to help restore excitement among educators and Catholic families about the great value of faithful Catholic education. This requires agreement about what makes Catholic learning unique and … well, “Catholic.”

We believe that our new Catholic Curriculum Standards can be pivotal in the renewal of Catholic elementary and secondary education. Diocesan school leaders, independent educators and homeschoolers alike can make use of them — and even modify and improve them — to ensure an emphasis on student formation that is largely missing from modern evaluations of school success.

Of course, ours is not the only effort toward improved Catholic education. Many dioceses have done important work toward refocusing classroom instruction, and our standards rely heavily on the conceptual work of many experts in Catholic education.

But that’s precisely why we believe that our Catholic Curriculum Standards will have such a tremendous impact. We worked with more than a dozen leading Catholic scholars to develop the standards, and we even had the great honor of working with Dr. Stotsky. Several Catholic school leaders also provided valuable input.

The standards were composed using research from Church documents, the educational philosophies of Newman Guide colleges, and many books and articles on Catholic education, liberal arts education and classical education.

The time is ripe for the Catholic Curriculum Standards. Thanks in part to the Newman Society’s steady drumbeat for 23 years, calling for renewed attention to Catholic identity — but even more because of the leadership of Saint Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict in urging reforms, and the quiet work of many bishops and school leaders — we find much eagerness among Catholic families and educators for serious improvement.

St. Agnes School, St. Paul, MN

Catholic Schools Need Catholic Standards

October 17, 2016/in Academics, Blog Commentary, K12 Curriculum Standards Latest /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

The Cardinal Newman Society presents our new Catholic Curriculum Standards to help Catholic educators strengthen their core mission of evangelization and forming young people for God.

The Newman Society has long promoted and defended faithful Catholic education, and increasingly this work is turned toward helping schools study, embrace and implement the Church’s vision for Catholic education. Our new Standards are central to this work.

“We want to help, to propose a path forward that is more appropriate for Catholic schools than the problematic Common Core and other secular options,” says Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 education programs for The Cardinal Newman Society and co-author of the Catholic Curriculum Standards with deputy director Dr. Denise Donohue.

“The Standards point Catholic education in the right direction,” Dr. Donohue says. “We expect and in fact encourage more innovation, continued efforts to delve into the mission of Catholic schools and further develop authentic Catholic standards of education so that Catholic identity thrives.”

With emphasis on literature, science, history and math, the Catholic Curriculum Standards incorporate Catholic insights into these curricular areas and indicate what students should be learning beyond the accumulation of useful skills and knowledge. The standards are grouped into two grade levels, K-6 and 7-12, to help educators assign or develop materials and choose subject matter that serve the unique mission of Catholic education.

For too long, many Catholic schools have relied heavily on secular government standards like the Common Core to measure school success and on similarly focused standardized tests to measure student outcomes. These distract Catholic educators from their core mission, because they ignore key aspects of human formation and often depend on philosophies of education that are contrary to the Catholic faith. Still, Catholic schools have far outperformed public schools because of the genuine concern of their leaders and teachers for students’ personal formation.

Good intentions, sadly, are not enough.

Catholic education’s road to renewal will be paved with genuine Catholic standards, resting on the solid foundation of Catholic teaching and the Church’s vision for Catholic education.

What are standards? Consider the grand promises of the Common Core State Standards: “These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.”

Standards indicate levels of student achievement. They help determine curriculum, testing, and measures of school success. When developed rightly, they are a wonderful tool for educators and have become fundamental to American schooling.

But if standards are fundamental to modern education, then it should be obvious that Catholic schools need Catholic standards. If we measure Catholic school success by standards that do not serve the authentic mission of Catholic education, we fail to attend to Catholic identity — and eventually, our schools simply fail.

But that doesn’t have to be the fate of Catholic education. It cannot be the fate of Catholic education, on which we rely for the reform of Catholic life and American society.

“Even amid growing challenges in today’s society, Catholic schools and homeschool programs that embrace and celebrate the mission of Catholic education continue to thrive across the United States,” write Drs. Donohue and Guernsey in their online letter introducing the Catholic Curriculum Standards. “The Cardinal Newman Society makes this free resource available to all educators, including parents, the primary educators of children, in hopes of continuing this renewal of Catholic education for the benefit of our children, our Church, and the common good they serve.”

$Savior of the World$

Is There Such a Thing as Catholic Math?

October 17, 2016/in Academics, Blog Commentary, K12 Curriculum Standards Latest, PR Register Column /by Patrick Reilly

Is there a Catholic way of learning something?

Math? Science? History?

It’s an intriguing question. We wrestled with the question this past year at The Cardinal Newman Society, while developing proposed Catholic curriculum standards for Catholic education.

It’s easy to understand that Jesus is the Master Teacher. “Rabbi,” His disciples called Him. A Catholic teacher should emulate Christ and should lead young people to Him.

But saying there’s a Catholic approach to mathematics evokes a vision of Jesus writing in the sand at the Sea of Galilee, attempting to teach pre-calculus to a school of fishermen. Oh, if only Catholics did have a divinely simple method of advanced mathematics! It’s not, at least, in my translation of the Bible.

I’ve never heard a historian suggest that Catholics should learn only about their own experience while neglecting other important world events. Salvation history deserves priority in Catholic education. But within the particular academic discipline of history, studying the Nazi Holocaust is arguably as necessary as studying the Exodus.

I’ve also never heard a scientist suggest that the scientific method works better for Catholics, or that the Old Testament is a textbook for scientific knowledge.

So what’s “Catholic education,” then? Is it a secular education on which we sprinkle prayer, catechesis and Christian values?

The promise seems much larger. Certainly there’s not much point of Catholic standards for curricula in math, history, science and English language arts, if the “education” in Catholic schools is not uniquely Catholic.

The truth is, there is indeed something very special in Catholic education about how and what a student learns. That’s in every subject — not just religion. It doesn’t mean rejecting knowledge that is truthful and worthy of a secular education. But Catholic education has priorities that are uniquely suited to human development and to the needs of the soul, and so our expectations for student learning are always and substantially different … and better!

A Catholic education is evangelical; it is one of the Church’s chief means of teaching the faith and bringing people to Christ. We find God in all things, inside and outside religion class.

A Catholic education is formational; it strives not only to teach useful knowledge and skills, but to prepare the whole person — body, mind and soul — for service to man and God. We want our students to be saints.

A Catholic education is empowering; it teaches students the knowledge and ability to think critically about the world and about human culture, so that our graduates can go forth and help transform family, society, business, government and Church in accord with the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we expect students to come away from mathematics with something more than a means of engineering and astronomy. By studying math, we want our students to:

“Demonstrate the mental habits of precise, determined, careful and accurate questioning, inquiry and reasoning.”
“Respond to the beauty, harmony, proportion, radiance and wholeness present in mathematics.”
“Recognize how mathematical arguments and processes can be extrapolated to other areas of study, including theology and philosophy.”
“Propose how mathematical objects or proofs (such as the golden mean, the Fibonacci numbers, the musical scale and geometric proofs) suggest divine origin.”

These are just some of the student outcomes identified by my colleagues, Dr. Dan Guernsey and Dr. Denise Donohue, in developing Catholic curriculum standards. They had help from some of the best minds in the Church, like Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Anthony Esolen, Joseph Pearce and several others.

Such a project, of course, could go on forever and still bear much fruit. But the point is made: there is a uniquely Catholic approach to teaching math and other subjects, because God’s revelation opens up wonderful new ways of looking at the same data and methods. The world is so much more exciting and meaningful, given the gift of faith.

Therefore, science becomes more than the observations obtained by our five senses and “proved” (always uncertainly) by the weight of evidence. Paired with divine revelation, science becomes a means of better knowing God, by the analogy of His creation.

Graduates of Catholic education who study science should be able to, “Demonstrate confidence in human reason and in one’s ability to know the truth about God’s creation and the fundamental intelligibility of the world.” They should, “Relate how the human soul is specifically created by God for each human being, does not evolve from lesser matter, and is not inherited from our parents.”

And at the very least, they should be aware of the great Catholic contributions to science. They should know “Copernicus, Mendel, DaVinci, Bacon, Pasteur, Volta, St. Albert the Great, and others and the witness and evidence they supply against the false claim that Catholicism is not compatible with science.”

Upon learning history, a student from a Catholic school should know “the historical impact of the Catholic Church on human events” and “how Christian social ethics extend to questions of politics, economy, and social institutions and not just personal moral decision-making.”

And every student in Catholic education should have experienced great works of literature! By reading good literature, a student comes to a better understanding of “the proper nature of man, his problems, and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.”

There’s so much more to a Catholic education — indeed as much as completes the perfection of man, which of course is limitless. But unless Catholic families and educators seek answers to the question — What is unique and essential to Catholic education? — we will surely fail to prepare our young people according to the vision of the Church.

After considering all that should be present in Catholic education, the Catholic school or homeschool becomes more exciting and inviting than ever before. If the Church wants a renaissance in Catholic education, faithful Catholic standards are a great starting point.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

St. Agnes School, St. Paul, MN

Let’s Move Beyond the Common Core in Catholic Schools

October 13, 2016/in Academics, Blog Commentary, Common Core Latest, PR Register Column /by Patrick Reilly

By now, it should be apparent that the Common Core State Standards for schools won’t come close to fulfilling the grand promises of its proponents.

Parents, scholars, unions and the media all seem to be painfully aware of the fact — but after the mad rush to implement the standards, create new tests and market new textbooks, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of momentum to change course.

At least, that’s true of the nation’s public schools. But our Catholic schools can and should do much better, with standards that truly reflect their Catholic mission. I get the sense that most Catholics are eager to move above and beyond, and many dioceses are already working on it.

Last December, the Associated Press reported a “backlash” against Common Core in Catholic schools. Families want what’s best for their kids, and so do Catholic school leaders. Now’s the time to unite behind something better.

A major new report on the Common Core might be just the catalyst that we need to finally break away. After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core is published by the reputable Pioneer Institute and the American Principles Project, whose founder Robert George of Princeton University joined more than 130 Catholic scholars in a letter criticizing the Common Core in 2013.

The new report presents a rather dismal picture of Catholic education under the Common Core, but its conclusion is hopeful, suggesting that Catholic schools may have a special opportunity amid the chaos to reassert their superiority. Urging the Church to embrace and celebrate faithful Catholic education, the authors claim, “Now is the time for Catholic schools to press their advantage.”

Nothing could be more welcome to beleaguered Catholics today, after the long slide in Catholic school enrollment and Catholic identity over recent decades. In today’s society, we greatly need strong Catholic schools.

Incompatible and unsuited

The authors of After the Fall know this well. Anthony Esolen is the insightful author and critic from Providence College whose expertise is literature — perhaps the worst casualty of the Common Core. Dan Guernsey is the visionary expert in Catholic education who is launching an outstanding teacher program at Ave Maria University and leads The Cardinal Newman Society’s K-12 education programs. Jane Robbins of the American Principles Project and Kevin Ryan of Boston University have made great contributions to education policy, especially in their criticism of the Common Core.

Together they have provided Catholics “a tremendous service,” according to two of America’s former ambassadors to the Vatican: Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon and former Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn. In their preface to the report, Flynn and Glendon declare the Common Core standards “incompatible with and unsuited for a traditional Catholic education.”

The specific arguments are provided by the authors of After the Fall. They delve into three “insufficiencies” of the Common Core: its “misunderstanding of the nature of character formation due to a corrupting workforce-development view,” its “misunderstanding of the nature of literature due to a lack of understanding about man, creativity, and God,” and its “misunderstanding of the liberal arts due to a lack of understanding about the relationship of man and God to each other and to everything else.”

They could have simply written that the Common Core ignores what is most important to Catholics about God and man. But that’s the point that critics have been saying all along. What makes After the Fall such an important document is that it carefully examines and debunks arguments for the Common Core and then explains the case for faithfully Catholic standards of education, all in great detail. It should convince the most devoted fan of the Common Core.

The intended audience is clearly Catholic school leaders and scholars, but any Catholic will benefit from its outstanding defense of authentic Catholic education.

Toward better standards

After the Fall validates many of the concerns of Common Core critics, but it shouldn’t be used simply for an “I told you so” moment. Instead, as the authors strongly encourage, now is the time to more deeply examine the purpose of Catholic education and embrace educational standards that appropriately drive the curriculum and fulfill the mission of Catholic schools. The prospect is very exciting.

“A benefit of the Common Core to Catholic schools,” according to authors of After the Fall, “is that it has drawn attention to the need for Catholic educators to better articulate exactly what the unique standards and elements of Catholic education might be.”

Next week, The Cardinal Newman Society will be releasing Catholic curriculum standards to help move this process forward. Dioceses and other organizations have made important contributions as well.

After the Fall is what the Education Department of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recommended three years ago, when it warned, “The CCSS [Common Core] should be neither adopted nor rejected without review, study, consultation, discussion and caution.” The office also advised:

Catholic schools must consider standards that support the mission and purpose of the school as a Catholic institution. Attempts to compartmentalize the religious and the secular in Catholic schools reflect a relativistic perspective by suggesting that faith is merely a private matter and does not have a significant bearing on how reality as a whole should be understood. Such attempts are at odds with the integral approach to education that is a hallmark of Catholic schools. Standards that support an appropriate integration should be encouraged.

Well-intentioned Catholic educators have tried to contort Common Core to fit within Catholic schools. But as the After the Fall authors suggest, such efforts ultimately will not be successful, because the design and purpose of the standards makes them impossible.

Focusing standards on the mission of Catholic schools, however, is eminently possible — and necessary. It’s a great time to get it done.

This article first appeared at The National Catholic Register.

Common Core ‘Never Needed’ in Catholic Schools, Says Study’s Lead Author

October 12, 2016/in Academics, Blog Commentary, Common Core Latest /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

Is the great debate over the use of Common Core State Standards in Catholic schools finally resolved? It should be, especially with this week’s publication of After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core, the first thorough academic critique of the standards and their impact on Catholic education.

Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 programs for The Cardinal Newman Society, was the lead author of the report, joined by education experts Dr. Anthony Esolen of Providence College, Jane Robbins of American Principles Project and Dr. Kevin Ryan of Boston University. The study was jointly sponsored by the Boston-based research group Pioneer Institute and the public policy organization American Principles Project.

Since the release of the Common Core in 2010, Catholic families, educators and even some bishops have expressed concern about use of the standards in Catholic schools. The Cardinal Newman Society strongly cautioned school leaders against rushing to adopt the Common Core and launched the Catholic Is Our Core initiative to inform families and educators about the standards’ failings. The essential concern is that the Common Core’s one-size-fits-all secular approach to education and its emphasis on preparing students for college and workforce training are incompatible with the much higher goals and mission of Catholic schools.

In After the Fall, Dr. Guernsey and his fellow scholars confirm the warnings of the Newman Society and many other critics of the Common Core.

In about 50 pages of analysis, the authors debunk key arguments that Catholic school leaders have made when adopting the Common Core in Catholic schools. The report explains how the philosophy behind Common Core simply cannot be reconciled with the mission of Catholic education.

I spoke recently with Dr. Guernsey about the findings in After the Fall and his thoughts about the Common Core’s impact on Catholic education:

What was the conventional wisdom at the time the Common Core was first adopted in Catholic schools, in terms of it being a good idea?

Dr. Guernsey: Conventional wisdom at first seemed to be: Common Core was just business as usual for Catholic schools, seeking to adapt to the latest state standards that had come their way — only this time the scale was national.

Previously, some dioceses had followed their individual state standards closely, in some cases not so closely, and many Catholic educators and parents did not overly concern themselves with their state’s standards. It seemed prudent to some professional educators to get out ahead of the new standards and do them better than the public schools, and thus ensure our competitive advantage.

The problem was that the standards obfuscated our real competitive advantage as Catholic schools: we educate the whole person and have access to full and transcendent views of man, his purpose and his ultimate good.

Also, the early conventional wisdom of some professional educators failed to predict the tremendous negative backlash that accompanied the Common Core and the concerns of parents who were seeking an elite education — that their expensive private school was now just “common” like the public schools they fled.

Overall, and compared to public schools, in what position were Catholic schools academically before Common Core?

Dr. Guernsey: The Common Core was purportedly designed to meet the perceived academic crisis in public schools. But no such crisis existed in Catholic schools.

Catholic schools have been outperforming public schools by double-digit margins for the last 20 years on federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and math tests (often referred to as “the nation’s report card”). Catholic-school college preparation is outstanding, with over 99 percent of students graduating from high school and 84 percent going on to four-year colleges (almost double the public-school rate). Once they get to college, Catholic-school graduates are twice as likely as those from public schools to graduate from college within eight years of high-school graduation (62 percent vs. 31 percent).

These statistics suggest that in adopting the Common Core, Catholic schools were attempting to fix what was not broken. Why Catholic schools should plunge into an untested “solution” for a nonexistent problem has never been satisfactorily explained.

And what effect has Common Core had on Catholic school academics where it’s been implemented?

Dr. Guernsey: There is no specific published data on how Catholic schools’ standardized test scores per se have done post-Common Core. We do know that for all schools, five years into the Common Core experiment, the data is at best mixed. NAEP scores are dropping and below expectations, although causation is not yet clear.

But what we are not hearing is wide-scale applause and admiration for the Common Core. It has not delivered. Public school teacher support for the Common Core has dropped from 76 percent to 40 percent. So the bloom is off the rose.

So Common Core hasn’t led to test scores going through the roof and kids being more prepared for college?

Dr. Guernsey: There is no evidence that the Common Core has led to increased test scores. There is data to suggest that five years into the Common Core, professors report that students are less prepared for college.

Again, it is hard to prove strict causation, but according to the 2016 ACT National Curriculum Survey, while in 2009 and 2012, 26 percent of college instructors reported that their incoming students were well prepared for college-level work, by 2016 that the percentage had dropped to 16 percent. ACT also found that of those college instructors who reported a degree of familiarity with the Common Core, a full 60 percent reported that the Common Core expectations were not “completely” or “a great deal” aligned to what the professors expect of their college student.

What about Catholic educators? How has the adoption of Common Core in Catholic schools impacted their ability to teach and form students?

Dr. Guernsey: Those in the know have always been free to work around the standards as they see fit. Since the standards set minimums, Catholic educators can and should do more. A danger is that those not fully aware of the weaknesses in the standards or those not fully immersed in the Catholic intellectual tradition, might not know what they do not know.

In an effort to help address this potential need, The Cardinal Newman Society has been publishing several helpful resources available on our website. The most recent, being released this month, is a set of Catholic Curriculum Standards which seek to outline specific elements of the Catholic intellectual tradition which schools should include in their efforts to teach math, history, science and literature.

In terms of the mission of Catholic schools and overall student formation, what effect has Common Core had on Catholic schools?

Dr. Guernsey: It’s hard to say what has happened, but my sense is that Catholic educators as a whole are more attuned to figuring out what the specific mission of Catholic education is. The grief many Catholic schools who implemented the Common Core experienced caused them to dig deeper to justify to their customer base why they are different from public schools. This is a great development.

Here, again, The Cardinal Newman Society has developed crucial resources including our forthcoming Principles of Catholic Identity in Education which outlines the Church’s expectations for her schools.

Is it safe to say Common Core was never needed in Catholic schools and should have never been implemented?

Dr. Guernsey: It is safe to say they were never needed. If mission drives standards, then to the degree the Catholic schools’ educational mission is similar to public schools’ (e.g., in teaching basic math skills to second-graders), there can be some sharing of standards, if there is proof of their effectiveness. However, there is no proof the Common Core standards are an improvement over other standards.

Surprisingly, there is little data to suggest that better standards even result in higher test scores. Education is much more complex than that. But even if some still want to try to maintain that the Common Core standards are effective, they are just one set of possible standards among hundreds that are out there, many of which have stronger track records.

That being said, we also have to remember that to the degree that elements of the Catholic mission are broader than the public schools’, different or additional standards are required.

So what should Catholic schools do now?

Dr. Guernsey: As we wrote in the conclusiong of After the Fall:

To the degree that Catholic schools learn to articulate and embrace the Catholic intellectual tradition and their unique salvific mission, they have a pearl of great price. They have the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

A quality religious education is the number one reason Catholic school parents (the customer base) decide to enroll in Catholic schools; a safe environment and quality academics are close behind. Catholic schools have a competitive advantage in that they are free to offer all of these elements in an uncommon way — according to their standards of excellence. They can cater to parents’ natural desire for their child to experience excellence rather than basic common educational norms.

The Common Core helps throw this reality into stark relief. The distinct mission of Catholic schools is clearer and can stand out now more than ever. Now is the time for Catholic schools to press their advantage.

Catholic Schools Should Leave Common Core Behind

October 12, 2016/in Academics, Blog Commentary, Common Core Latest, Statements and Press Releases /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

Nearly three years ago, The Cardinal Newman Society urged Catholic school leaders to exercise caution and refrain from rushing into adoption of the Common Core State Standards. In meetings with bishops and diocesan superintendents, we and other education advocates raised important concerns:

We said the Common Core was developed for secular public schools and fails to address key priorities in Catholic education.
We warned that its utilitarian objectives are contrary to the mission of Catholic education.
We noted that the untested Common Core has nothing to offer Catholic schools that already excel and score high on national tests.

Today our concerns are validated and confirmed by a new, thorough and scholarly critique of the Common Core’s use in Catholic schools. After the Fall: Catholic Education Beyond the Common Core is published by the Pioneer Institute in collaboration with American Principles Project and authored by Dr. Dan Guernsey, director of K-12 education programs for The Cardinal Newman Society, along with the impressive Dr. Anthony Esolen, Jane Robbins and Dr. Kevin Ryan.

After the Fall should finally and forever convince Catholic school leaders to move above and beyond the flawed Common Core standards by embracing truly Catholic standards of excellence in education.

For Catholic schools to thrive and fulfill their mission of forming the whole person — mind, body and soul — they must make the Catholic faith the core of all that they do. Sprinkling Catholicism on top of secular Common Core standards, as After the Fall describes the approach recommended by some Catholic educators, in fact weakens Catholic identity and denies students the formation that is essential to a truly Catholic education.

The fact of the matter is faithful Catholic schools already outperform secular schools and help prepare students not only for college and career, but more importantly for this life and the next. They do well because of their emphasis on Christian formation, which is absent from the Common Core and other government standards.

Because Common Core gets man wrong, it gets education wrong. Catholic insight into human nature and into man’s relationships with his fellow man, nature, and God allows for a more complete exploration of the world and not just all that is in it, but also that which transcends it as well. We are about a more substantial project and need more substantial standards. The Cardinal Newman society will soon be releasing resources to aid the discussion of what those standards might include.

Before the publication of this new scholarly analysis, there was already considerable momentum in Catholic education away from dependence on the Common Core and toward a more faith-centered approach to Catholic education. With After the Fall’s devastating critique proving accurate Catholic concerns about the Common Core, we hope this trend will continue.

It’s time for all Catholic schools to turn the page. Catholic is the core of Catholic education.

For more information about the Common Core click here.

10 Facts Every Catholic Should Know About the Common Core

October 12, 2016/in Academics Common Core, Research and Analysis /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from a 2014 newsletter, which was based upon materials The Cardinal Newman Society provided to U.S. bishops at a November 2013 meeting.

In December 2013, The Cardinal Newman Society issued a statement expressing serious reservations about the rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards in Catholic schools across the country:

The Cardinal Newman Society is concerned that adoption of the Common Core at this time is premature. Worse, it may be a mistake that will be difficult or impossible to undo for years to come.

We do not doubt the good intentions of those who advocate the Common Core in Catholic schools, and we acknowledge their confidence that Catholic schools can maintain a strong Catholic identity even while measuring their quality according to secular standards.

But we do not share this confidence, in light of the sad experience in recent decades of many Catholic colleges, hospitals, and charities that believed they could infuse Catholic identity into the secular standards that they embraced.

The Common Core standards — developed with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and promoted with federal grants from the Obama administration — were adopted rapidly by many states and have quickly become controversial, often in the political arena but also in Catholic circles. We responded to these radical changes in education by launching our Catholic Is Our Core initiative. We have also expanded our programs for K-12 Catholic education. Our added expert staff will promote and defend faithful Catholic education with regard to Catholic school standards, accreditation, teacher orientation, new school startup procedures while we continue our popular Catholic Education Honor Roll.

This has all moved so rapidly, and The Cardinal Newman Society continues to receive questions about the Common Core and Catholic education nearly every day. For your convenience, we have detailed 10 facts that every Catholic should know about the Common Core. In addition, our statement on the Common Core and many other helpful resources are available on our special Common Core website, CatholicIsOurCore.org. We welcome your contributions of additional information and insights that may be valuable to Catholic parents, educators, pastors, and bishops.

1. The Common Core is not mandatory for Catholic schools.

No government has required the Common Core in private schools, and Catholic educators are under no obligation to conform. It is up to each state whether to adopt the standards as their own, and those standards are mandatory only for government schools.

Nevertheless, for decades many Catholic schools have voluntarily conformed their curricula and teaching to secular state standards — now Common Core in most states.

The lack of distinct standards for authentic Catholic education has long been a concern, but it is getting more attention due to the national controversy over the Common Core.

2. The Common Core is not intended for Catholic education.

The Common Core’s stated purpose falls far short of the Holy See’s rich vision for Catholic education: “The standards … are designed to ensure students are prepared for today’s entry-level careers, freshman-level college courses, and workforce training programs.”

While educators and reformers are hotly debating whether the Common Core’s objectives are appropriate for government schools, clearly the objectives were not developed with Catholic education in mind. Catholic education is much greater than college and career preparation.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, former secretary to the Congregation for Catholic Education, explained in a 2005 lecture at The Catholic University of America:

The enduring foundation on which the Church builds her educational philosophy is the conviction that it is a process which forms the whole child, especially with his or her eyes fixed on the vision of God. The specific purpose of a Catholic education is the formation of boys and girls who will be good citizens of this world, enriching society with the leaven of the Gospel, but who will also be citizens of the world to come. Catholic schools have a straightforward goal: to foster the growth of good Catholic human beings who love God and neighbor and thus fulfill their destiny of becoming saints.

3. Catholic schools already outperform public schools.

The Common Core is a response to the failings of government schools. It can’t be assumed that the standards will improve Catholic schools, which for two decades have outperformed public schools on the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests. In 2013, eighth-grade students at Catholic schools had an average score of 286 in reading (as compared to 226 at government schools) and 295 in math (284 at government schools).

Likewise, in 2011, students from “religious schools” far outperformed those at government schools on the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT). They scored 531 in reading (government schools 449), 533 in math (government schools 506) and 528 in writing (government schools 483).

Some have expressed concern that national tests are adjusting to conform to the Common Core. This is true of many common tests like the SAT and the California Achievement Test (CAT). Others, like the ACT college readiness test and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, will remain stable for at least several years. Regardless, students with a strong Catholic education should continue to perform well on Common Core-adjusted tests.

Meanwhile, Catholic educators can and should develop national tests that measure success according to authentic Catholic education standards. Testing companies will be eager to serve more than 2 million Catholic school students plus homeschoolers, and quality colleges will continue to be eager to recruit graduates with a traditional Catholic education.

4. Catholic schools already prepare students for college and career.

Even if the Common Core truly helps prepare students for college and career, Catholic education has no apparent need of such help. According to the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), Catholic high schools already have a 99 percent graduation rate, as opposed to 73 percent in government schools. Most Catholic school graduates attend four-year colleges (85 percent), as opposed to fewer than half (44 percent) of government school graduates.

It is primarily two-year community colleges and government universities that have expressed enthusiasm for the Common Core standards, which aim for entry-level job skills. An authentic Catholic education prepares students for success in life as well as vocation, and the typical graduate is well-prepared for a college-level liberal arts education.

5. The Common Core is rushed, untested and experimental.

The Common Core was developed quietly by a few bureaucrats using Gates Foundation funds and then “sold” to the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to avoid public scrutiny and accountability. It became popular to educators and then legislators as the Obama administration dangled a promise of federal grants, causing many states to adopt Common Core standards even before they were completed. Catholic educators and bishops were warned that “it is important to get on board” with the untested standards.

The Common Core standards have never been tested, and there is no evidence that they will achieve their objectives of college and career readiness. Indeed, although standards influence how educational success is measured, even the “best” state standards — as ranked by the respected Thomas B. Fordham Institute — have no discernible impact on student outcomes.

Instead, the Common Core’s English language and “new math” standards were developed by little-known “experts” with no solid research basis, despite misleading claims. For instance, the push for reading more “informational texts” — such as manuals and scientific articles — relies upon distortions of NAEP data. The 2006 federal Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found that higher NAEP scores for literacy in fact correlate to more reading of novels and less frequent reading of information.

6. The Common Core is (ultimately) about textbooks and curriculum.

The Common Core’s proponents note that standards are not the same as curricula, textbooks or teaching, and so adopting the Common Core does not — in itself — control what happens in the classroom. But it’s disingenuous to ignore the huge impact that standards can have on students. Textbook publishers and testing companies are already conforming to the Common Core, and the standards do prompt changes in curricula and teaching.

The Gates Foundation has committed more than $10.5 million in grants to develop Common Core-compliant curricula. In May 2014, the Foundation also granted $10 million to the New Ventures Fund to help implement Common Core with “lesson plan content, webinars, online platforms for sharing instruction plans, and networking events.”

Textbook publishers look to make millions of dollars with new products that conform to the Common Core, and many such texts are already in Catholic schools. Not surprisingly, publishers are among the leading supporters of the Common Core.

7. The Common Core may hinder students’ education and formation.

Hardly the least concern, critics have noted several ways in which the Common Core could do real harm to education. The standards demand greater emphasis on reading informational texts, with a corresponding decrease in great literature. Some recommended (not required) texts are morally problematic. The “new math” techniques ignore traditional and successful math programs. Math standards are lowered: pre-algebra or algebra is no longer the eighth-grade norm, nor pre-calculus or calculus for 12th grade. Some of the expectations are simply not age-appropriate.

The emphasis on skills and career preparation ignores other aspects of student formation that are key to Catholic education. Proponents argue that the Common Core can be supplemented with Catholic instruction, so weak standards do no harm. But if the success of schools and students is measured by the Common Core standards, the natural inclination is to reduce attention to Catholic identity and student formation. It is the same path taken by now-secularized Catholic colleges.

8. The Common Core violates the principle of subsidiarity.

National standards tend to confine educators to a particular vision for education, which stifles innovation and threatens the independence and unique mission of Catholic schools. In April of 2014, the U.S. bishops’ office for Catholic education issued a statement acknowledging their concerns about the Common Core:

In the Church, the principle of subsidiarity directs that human events are best handled at the lowest possible level, closest to the individuals affected by the decisions being made. … This principle provides a great strength for Catholic schools as it gives the local diocesan and school community the ability to make decisions at the school level related to guidelines and curriculum. It also allows for adjustments and adaptations to be made by teachers and administrators for the children under their care.

Subsidiarity also applies to the parents’ role as first educators of their children, a fact taught clearly in the Holy See’s teaching on Catholic education. Parents have been largely absent from decisions regarding the Common Core. Our Catholic Is Our Core initiative seeks to bring parents into the conversation so their concerns are heard.

9. The Common Core may endanger religious freedom for Catholic educators.

State and federal involvement in Common Core could lead to religious liberty violations. Catholic schools’ protection from threats like the HHS mandate depends on showing consistent Catholic identity, because First Amendment protections often depend on demonstrating a bona fide religious character. The Common Core may diminish a school’s Catholic identity by “crowding out” important elements of authentic Catholic formation, emphasizing skills and practicality over vocation, and failing to teach reasoning from a foundation of truth.

10. Our “common core” is our Catholic faith.

Catholic education didn’t become successful by striving for secular standards; its success begins with its Catholic mission. Traditional classroom methods and pedagogy in Catholic schools developed precisely because of the desire to form students morally, spiritually, intellectually and socially. “Reforms” that are not rooted in the Catholic faith are unlikely to bear good fruit.

Many educators see the danger. In a Cardinal Newman Society survey of Catholic high school principals, only 26 percent told us they prefer to adopt the Common Core as it is, without significant changes to protect Catholic identity. Among principals of our Catholic High School Honor Roll schools, 32 percent would reject the Common Core entirely, while 40 percent want the Church to pause and take more time to study the standards.

Our purpose, then, for our Catholic Is Our Core initiative remains “to provide those concerned about faithful Catholic education with solid information, analysis and arguments to more fully understand the potential impact of the Common Core on Catholic education and to advise caution about the Common Core until it can be further studied and evaluated.” It is our hope that the Common Core proves to be the catalyst that leads to more helpful standards and reforms, resulting in even stronger Catholic education.

Statement Regarding Common Core

March 8, 2016/in Academics Commentary, Common Core Statements and Press Releases /by Cardinal Newman Society Staff

December 20, 2013 – In recent decades, Church leaders, together with Catholic families, have come to better appreciate that Catholic identity is essential to Catholic schools’ mission, teaching methods, curriculum, and appeal. It is because of their Catholic identity that schools are most attentive to the needs of students and their families. “These Catholic schools afford the fullest and best opportunity to realize the fourfold purpose of Christian education, namely to provide an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm, and thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated” (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium, 2005).

Although Catholic schools in the United States—which have served students and the Church in an exemplary way for more than a century—have avoided many of the pedagogical and curricular trends in public schools, some Catholic educators have recently advocated for Catholic schools to adopt or adapt the untested and increasingly controversial Common Core State Standards Initiative.

We have grave concerns. This school reform effort is nothing short of a revolution in how education is provided, relying on a technocratic, top-down approach to setting national standards that, despite claims to the contrary, will drive curricula, teaching texts, and the content of standardized tests. At its heart, the Common Core is a woefully inadequate set of standards in that it limits the understanding of education to a utilitarian “readiness for work” mentality.

Well-intentioned proponents of adopting the Common Core in Catholic schools have argued that Catholic identity can be “infused” into the Core. This approach misses the point that authentic Catholic identity is not something that can be added to education built around thoroughly secular standards, but that our faith must be the center of—and fundamental to—everything that a Catholic school does.

The Common Core revolution in American education was launched behind closed doors and rushed to implementation in public schools with the promise of tax dollars as an inducement—even though all the Standards have not yet been completed, and those that have been released are controversial among many expert educators and parents. Catholic educators need not rush to follow this potentially dangerous path.

There is an ongoing, healthy debate about whether the Common Core is appropriate in public schools, and even more so in Catholic schools. Let it run its course. The Cardinal Newman Society—together with the countless Catholic parents, principals and pastors we have heard from—is concerned that we will be locked into the Common Core before it has been thoroughly and rigorously evaluated.

Most troubling in the public debate about whether Catholic schools should adopt the Common Core is that parents, whom the Church recognizes are the primary educators of their children, have been largely absent from it. They lack sufficient information to make judgments about the Common Core. And yet, as the Church has clearly taught, parents deserve a strong voice in deciding whether to embrace this “fundamental shift” in Catholic education, as the Common Core has been described by one leading Catholic advocate.

The Cardinal Newman Society is concerned that adoption of the Common Core at this time is premature. Worse, it may be a mistake that will be difficult or impossible to undo for years to come. We do not doubt the good intentions of those who advocate the Common Core in Catholic schools, and we acknowledge their confidence that Catholic schools can maintain a strong Catholic identity even while measuring their quality according to secular standards. But we do not share this confidence, in light of the sad experience in recent decades of many Catholic colleges, hospitals, and charities that believed they could infuse Catholic identity into the secular standards that they embraced.

We seek to help inform the dialogue about the Common Core with our new project and website, Catholic Is Our Core (www.CatholicIsOurCore.org), while expanding the conversation to include parents, educators and principals who have largely been absent from the debate. The Cardinal Newman Society’s mission is to promote and defend faithful Catholic education. We are working closely with key Catholic education experts and others to provide analysis of the Core and its potential impact on Catholic schools. We seek to provide those concerned about faithful Catholic education with solid information, analysis and arguments to more fully understand the potential impact of the Common Core on Catholic education and to advise caution about the Common Core until it can be further studied and evaluated.

NAEP Scores Suggest Some Concerns for Catholic Schools

December 20, 2015/in Academics Common Core, Research and Analysis /by Dr. Denise Donohue Ed.D.

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Summary

While Catholic school scores continue to dominate public school scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), it is the internal trends of these scores that tell an interesting story. Grade 8 Catholic school math scores have seen a decline since 2009 after an almost decade trend of gains. Fourth grade math scores showed a steady decline in the differential between public and Catholic school scores from 2000 to 2013 with a rebound, finally, in 2015. NAEP is “the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do in various subject areas”. It serves as a common metric for states and stays essentially the same from year to year.

Introduction

On October 30, the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) published an article stating in its lead paragraph that “Catholic school scores continue to trend higher than public school scores overall by up to 20 percentage points.” Highlighting the fact that Catholic schools “marry rigorous academics, faith formation and Catholic identity,” the article details the major comparisons between 4^th and 8^th grade math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

That’s great news. But while Catholic schools might still be outpacing the public schools in overall average NAEP scores, fluctuations and the continued decline in 8^th grade math scores since 2009 warrant further study, especially in terms of the effects of the Common Core standards in many Catholic schools and instructional shifts required to implement the standards.

Scores for public school 8^th grade students in both reading and mathematics showed a decrease this year, but so did Catholic school NAEP scores. In both 8^th grade math and reading, Catholic student scores dipped by 2 points. On the other hand, 4^th grade reading scores increased by 2 points and 4^th grade math by one point.

8^th Grade Math and Reading Scores Decline

Looking closely at the average math scores for 8^th grade Catholic school students (see Table 1) reveals a decrease in the average score for Catholic students since 2009. Catholic schools had enjoyed a run of an average 2 additional points per year, but in 2011 we saw a slide of 2 points that held steady in 2013 then declined again in 2015. With the NAEP acting as the steady barometer of U.S. student abilities, not having been significantly changed since the early 1990s, we need to ask what’s happening in Catholic schools to cause the lower test scores.

Catholic school NAEP scores for 8^th grade mathematics have outdistanced public school scores by an average 12-point spread since 1996, but when one examines the Catholic scores closely, the average increase per test drops from 2.4 (1996–2009) to -1.3 (2011–2015). Calculating the trend for the full administration of the tests,¹ Catholic schools saw a 1.11 per-test increase from 1996–2015. Yet we have a 2-point drop in 2015.

The 2015 reading score for 8^th grade Catholic school students has also declined. While it still represents a 20-point advantage above public school scores, this internal decline is worth noting, because it is out of the expected trend for 2015. The average point increase from 1998 to 2013 was .06 points, so one would not expect a 2-point reduction.

Table 1: 2015 NAEP (2013) – 8^th Grade

Sources:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx?app=NDE&p=2-MAT-2-20153%2c20133%2c20113%2c20093%2c20073%2c20053%2c20033%2c20003%2c20002%2c19963%2c19962%2c19922%2c19902-MRPCM-SCHTYPE-NT-MN_MN-Y_J-0-0-5
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx?app=NDE&p=2-RED-2-20153%2c20133%2c20113%2c20093%2c20073%2c20053%2c20033%2c20023%2c20003%2c20002%2c19983%2c19982%2c19942%2c19922-RRPCM-SCHTYPE-NT-MN_MN-Y_J-0-0-5

4^th Grade Math and Reading Score Trends

The difference in scores between 4^th grade Catholic school and public school students (Table 2) remains substantial in reading, with Catholic scores averaging 16 points higher than scores for public school students. The Catholic reading score increased a promising 2 points after some stagnation since 2009.

What is interesting is this year’s reversal of a trend showing a steady decline in the difference between Catholic and public school student 4^th grade math scores since 2000. In 2015 the differential increased 2 points, after decreasing in every assessment from 2003 to 2013. The Catholic school average score increased one point this year.

Table 2: 2015 NAEP (2013) – 4^th Grade

Sources:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx?app=NDE&p=1-MAT-2-20153%2c20133%2c20113%2c20093%2c20073%2c20053%2c20033%2c20003%2c20002%2c19963%2c19962%2c19922%2c19902-MRPCM-SCHTYPE-NT-MN_MN-Y_J-0-0-5
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx?app=NDE&p=1-RED-2-20153%2c20133%2c20113%2c20093%2c20073%2c20053%2c20033%2c20023%2c20003%2c20002%2c19983%2c19982%2c19942%2c19922-RRPCM-SCHTYPE-NT-MN_MN-Y_J-0-0-5

Changes to 8^th Grade Math

One factor to consider with regard to math scores is the traditional pace in Catholic schools to move students toward Algebra I in 8^th grade. Catholic school data is not available when drilling down to compare scores of students who took Algebra I versus a basic math course in 8^th grade, but it is possible to review the trends of public versus private schools as a whole, of which Catholic schools are a part.

With data available for 2007 to 2013,² one can see that private school scores outdistance public schools in both 8^th grade math and Algebra I (Tables 3 and 4). It is also evident that students who took Algebra I as 8^th graders scored better on the NAEP than students who took 8^th grade math, especially since NAEP Algebra questions comprise almost a third (29 percent) of the math test.³ With some progressions toward delaying Algebra 1 until high school, Catholic schools would be wise not to follow this delayed progression, should these NAEP scores and entrance to STEM colleges be a concern.

Table 3: Average Scale Scores for mathematics,
Grade 8 by percent enrolled in 8^th-grade mathematics

Source: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx
Note: Private school data was not reported for 2015 and no separate Catholic school data is available.

Table 4: Average Scale Scores for mathematics,
Grade 8 by percent enrolled in Algebra I (1 year course)

Source: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx

Note: Private school data was not reported for 2015, and no separate Catholic school data is available.

Effects of Common Core

Has anything changed in Catholic schools to bring about these trends? Certainly, the implementation of Common Core math and English language standards by more than 100 dioceses is the largest single change, but instructional shifts intended to implement the standards should also be reviewed along with other possible factors.

Some Catholic school systems may be using these instructional shifts — such as cognitively guided math instruction, close reading, and the shift between information and fictional texts as recommended by the publisher — and not the standards themselves.

Catholic school systems that participated in NAEP testing (not all Catholic school systems participate) might review the changes they have made since 2009 in both math and reading to begin to pinpoint areas for further inquiry. By doing this review, a great service would be provided to the other diocesan systems.

States such as Maryland and cities like New York are themselves taking on this internal review task since, according to the data, “Not a single state had an increase in 8^th grade math scores,” and, “Twenty-two states had declines in 8^th grade math.”⁴

Some have suggested that the drop in NAEP math scores has to do with the misalignment of the NAEP with the Common Core Standards, but a recently released report (Oct. 2015) commissioned by the NAEP Validity Studies Panel, Study of the Alignment of the 2015 NAEP Mathematics items at Grades 4 and 8 to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), touts that the NAEP mathematics framework was developed to account for all the major curricula across the country (p. iii) and that the alignment in 8^th grade math is “strong” and 4^th grade is “reasonable.” Nevertheless, the report also suggests that perhaps now is the time for a major review of the framework in light of the Common Core Standards.

Standards and Testing

Catholic school educators cannot rest on their laurels and assume they will always outscore public schools, especially if they slavishly follow public school patterns and standards. Parents in Catholic schools expect outstanding scores. This is not unreasonable, since students who come from supportive, involved, and tuition-paying families are expected to score higher on standardized tests. The academic setting lends to higher scores and demands higher standards.

Catholic schools should ensure that their standards have been created and specifically tailored to not only demand excellence, but also to promote deep, creative, and precise thinking as well as developing within students a sense of wonder about mathematical relationships and critical, convergent thinking in literature. A re-evaluation, especially of the 8^th grade math curriculum, along with the instructional approaches advocated by publishers and others, is recommended and long overdue.

Standardized tests should also be chosen to align with the instructional approaches and content standards used in Catholic schools. Working with private assessment companies is extremely important now to ensure a valid assessment of student learning, as well as longitudinal data to evaluate student academic growth and compare against NAEP results.

Tag Archive for: K12

Posts

Table of Contents

Explanation of the Catholic Curriculum Standards

Introduction

English/Language Arts K-6

English/Language Arts 7-12

History K-6

History 7-12

Scientific Topics K-6

Scientific Topics 7-12

Mathematics K-6

Mathematics 7-12

Appendix A

Educating to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness32

Beauty

Goodness

Truth

Appendix B

Assessing Non-Cognitive Standards

Three Methods for Assessing Non-Cognitive Dispositions

Appendix C

Recommended Reading List for Catholic Schools in the United States

Appendix D

History Resources

Appendix E

Science Resources

Appendix F

Mathematics Resources

Appendix G

References

Reference Tables for Standards

Church Documents for Catholic School Teachers: Annotated Bibliography

Pope Leo XIII. (1865). Spectata Fides. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_27111885_spectatafides.html

Pope Pius XI. (1929). Divini illius magistri. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/ hf_p-xi_enc_31121929_divini-illius-magistri.html

Pope Pius XI. (1935). Provido sane consilio. Retrieved from https://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CATTEACH.HTM

Pope Paul VI. (1965). Gravissimum educationis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vatii_ decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1972). To teach as Jesus did. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (1976). Teach them. Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1977). The Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_19770319_catholic-school_en.html

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1982). Lay Catholics in schools: Witnesses to faith. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_ curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_19821015_lay-catholics_en.html

Canon Law Society of America. (1983). Code of canon law. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P2N.HTM

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1988). The religious dimension of education in a Catholic school. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc _doc_19880407_catholic-school_en.html

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1995). The truth and meaning of human sexuality: Guidelines for education within the family. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_ family_doc_08121995_human-sexuality_en.html

Congregation for the Clergy. (1997). General directory for catechesis. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education. (1997). The Catholic school on the threshold of the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_27041998_school20 00_ en.html

National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). National directory for catechesis. Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). Renewing our commitment to Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the third millennium. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catholic-education/upload/renewing-our-commitment-2005.pdf

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2007). Educating together in Catholic schools: A shared mission between consecrated persons and the lay faithful. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_20070908_educare-insieme_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2013). Educating to intercultural dialogue in Catholic schools: Living in harmony for a civilization of love. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ ccatheduc_doc_20131028_dialogo-interculturale_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2015). Educating today and tomorrow: A renewing passion. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_ con_ccatheduc_doc_20140407_ educare-oggi-e-domani_en.html

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2019). Male and female he created them: Towards a path of dialogue on the question of gender theory in education. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/ rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20190202_maschio-e-femmina_en.pdf

Congregation for Catholic Education. (2022). Instruction on the identity of the Catholic school for a culture of dialogue. Retrieved from https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/ rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20220125_istruzione-identita-scuola-cattolica_en.html

Educating to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness³²