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The Catholic New World
Genesis renews Catholic schools



By Kerry Lester
Contributor

For Chicago Catholic schools, a fourth “R” has been added to reading, writing and ’rithmetic: renewal.

Genesis: A New Beginning for Catholic Schools, a plan for enhancing Catholic identity, academic excellence and vitality, will be in full swing this fall at all 257 archdiocesan schools in Cook and Lake counties.

The plan was unveiled last November by schools superintendent Nicholas Wolsonovich, who outlined new directions and goals to modify school governance, improve instruction, strengthen curriculum, increase professional development for faculty and administrators and help educators to better network with peers in other schools.

Genesis will implement newly developed curricula in language arts, fine arts and social studies in 2006 and 2007. New mathematics, science and health curricula were introduced in 2005.

Part of the health curriculum introduced last year educates students about AIDS. The age- and developmentally appropriate lessons were written in conjunction with the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities.

“Because it is sensitive to what Jesus taught, teaching how to reach out to people in need, [the AIDS curriculum] is now a model for various dioceses across the country,” said Marty Frauenheim, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in the Office of Catholic Schools (OCS).

OCS used “a backwards design model to look at curriculum,” she said. Curriulum designers asked three questions: 1) What are students intended to learn? 2) What serves as evidence of student learning? 3) How will I prepare students to show this evidence?

Now, she said, “the learning process is much more student-centered than teacher-centered.”

Curricula were built on state and national standards and have uniform learning goals for each grade level, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. “Schools across the archdiocese are incredibly diverse,” Frauenheim said. “However, curriculum is a floor, not a ceiling—we have realistic expectations of what students need to be able to know and do on certain levels.”

“This is the first year I haven’t had to buy my teachers lesson plan books,” said Lucine Mastalerz, principal of St. Ferdinand School on the Northwest Side. “Everything can be found online.”

Subject sheets, printed out from the computer, are analyzed as the school year progresses. “My teachers love it—they’re better able to visualize what needs to be changed or switched around this way,” she said.

St. Therese Chinese Catholic School in Chinatown also had major success with the program. Grades K-8 have seen a 12 percent gain in test scores over the past year, and enrollment is up 11 percent. “We’re constantly checking and rechecking results to reach our goals,” said principal Phyllis Cavallone. “We’re getting a lot accomplished.”

St. Therese has taken a leading role working with a consortium of four other area schools, including St. Helen, St. John de la Salle, Epiphany and St. Ethelreda, to implement the program. “Everybody’s talking and on the same page,” she said. “Our teachers still have the same freedoms, but from working at similar paces, there is a great evenness.”

Receiving a sizeable Chicago community trust grant from the Big Shoulders Fund, the schools will “be able to learn all sorts of new technologies now,” she said.
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