Dear Parents and Guardians,
Each year, around the time the 8th grade students have their Coop High School Admissions test, we get questions about our math curriculum. I decided to write a letter to explain our entire math program and our focus. I truly believe parents should be educated in what is being taught to their children.
After reading this information, I would also suggest parents go to the "Past Principal" letters on this page and also read the letter on "Curriculum" to get a better understanding of how we develop our entire curriculum for St. John's.
We will start with the Math in the primary grades:
Grades 1 -3: Saxon Math Program -
The Saxon Math Program develops concepts through hands-on activities and mathematical conversations. Students move from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract. It involves daily mixed practices, frequent assessment and opportunities for communication and justification.
Through our yearly curriculum review and development (see Curriculum letter), the teachers and administration determined this was the best program for the primary age child.
Grades 4- 6: Pearson Scott Foreman/Addison Wesley
Not only approved for the NJ state curriculum and standards, this text has won awards for textbook initiatives and differentiated learning strategies.
Grades 7 - 8: McDougal-Littell
The text conforms to the NJ Core Curriculum, and is known for its note taking guide and organization of material as well as resources supporting differentiated instruction, a particularly important skill which prepares the Junior High student to move on to High School Math.
By the time students have reached 8th grade they have the learning tools necessary to tackle new mathematical concepts. We purposely use a variety of texts and strategies, so the children are exposed to different styles which prepare them for the future.
There are a number of public school children who share a classroom with our 8th graders while they take the Coop prep class, and our children have the perception that they are "behind" because they do not know certain math procedures. The impression from the 8th grade students during Coop time is common to many private schools.
There are multiple reasons for the children's impressions:
1) We are on the Catholic High School time line and it is suggested to us, by the math departments of the Catholic High Schools, to teach the beginning groundwork but not push ahead to High School math. We stay with the important groundwork, because the Catholic Schools want to teach the concepts with their own strategies, in their own schools.
The public junior high schools are working with the public high schools curriculum, courses and testing, so the focus is different. As you know our students are very successful in the academically excellent Catholic High Schools. Even though there are differences and the focus is different, our students also succeed in the public high schools. This is a testament to our strategy of teaching students how to learn in a variety of situations.
The Catholic High Schools reputations are such throughout the state that many of the public school children take the test to try and get into them. We will continue to go by the Catholic High School's recommendations and time line.
2) The Coops are across state and archdiocesan lines. The Coop classes attempt to bridge the gap. They are covering material specifically for the Coop not for a specific school district. There will always be material that the students have not covered at the time of the review, because of the differences in schools and curriculum time lines.
An example on the other side is that our students always come out saying we are way ahead in Language Arts and writing - but they are judging only by a small class with a small variety of students, which is not fair to the public schools and their Language Arts programs.
3) The public schools do have more classes and sophisticated tech tools to offer, including more advanced courses, and the public school students who are interested in Catholic Schools, are usually participants in these advanced programs.
We cannot offer more courses because we are a small school community but we do give our students the skills and tools to learn. We focus on teaching our students to work hard and be successful in any future learning situation, while emphasizing a strong moral foundation for their future. A testament to our success is our alumni board which highlights the success of our students in their post graduate endeavors. Our graduates also visit the school on a regular basis to thank us for the education they received.
Here is one example of how we refine our curriculum. Through our internal reviews (see Curriculum letter) we noticed that it would be helpful for our upper grades to move forward earlier in geometry starting in 6th grade. We have already made those changes in our curriculum. Curriculum development is a continual process that, if done correctly, prevents the school from becoming stagnant and helps keep the programs current.
I really hope that this information has been helpful, and I invite anyone to come and meet with me to talk about our new math initiatives, and our continuing, exciting progress towards academic excellence.
