In July, 2012, our faculty began to take a leadership role in developing our curriculum around the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted as an unprecedented national set of education standards, to provide all students access to a high-quality education that would prepare them for college and future careers. Our initial participation in St. John’s University’s Curriculum Leadership Program facilitated our development of rigorous instructional unit plans of study in both English Language Arts and Math. Since that time, our faculty has continued in this program and translated these common core grade-specific standards into daily teaching practices.  In a school wide effort, we have continuously focused our attention on redesigning our instruction so that our students are engaged in more cognitively challenging tasks and are actively involved in gaining the mastery and proficiency of the skills required to prepare them for competitive postsecondary education and the global arena. Our teachers’ desire to advance their own learning, as evidenced by our involvement in Catapult’s Literacy Coaching Program, has had an invaluable effect on our students’ achievements. Our goal is to teach so that our curriculum supports our students’ strengths and helps them develop to their highest potentials.  As education researcher, Maxine Greene, reminds us, “Our children are poised to reach towards what is not yet, towards a growing that cannot be predetermined or prescribed.”

We at St. Francis of Assisi School believe that we must create a learning environment in which every child can succeed and fulfill his or her potential. We want our students to have true intellectual grit, defined by Angela Lee Duckworth (Harvard Education, Vol. 29) as qualities like diligence, hard work, sustained effort, and the ability to focus on a goal without getting discouraged by setbacks.  Our goals are to convince our students that they can succeed and then guide them to success.