Principal's Goals for 2011-2012
Sister Mary Paul McCaughey , the Archdiocese of Chicago Superintendent of schools, has suggested three areas of focus for school this year.
Goal 1: To support and enrich the teaching of religion at all grade levels.
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We will continue to encourage students to make life-long commitments to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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The majority of the teachers are already certified as Catechist by the Office of Catholic Schools. Those teachers who have not completed the certification process will add at least one of the courses required to complete their certification.
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We will devote professional development time to providing an approved in-service that will help certified teacher/catechists to meet the requirements for recertification.
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We will continue to provide weekly Liturgies of the Word which will prepare students for the Sunday lectionary readings.
Goal 2: To improve Terra Nova scores in reading (Grade 3) and Math (Grade 7)
- We will continue to compile individual student longitudinal data from the Terra Nova testing to better differentiate learning to meet student needs.
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We will use one of the initial in-service Faculty Days to examine the Terra Nova data, along with individual longitudinal data, to identify areas of difficulty both in the curriculum and individual students.
- We will implement a system of universal screening in reading for all students in Grades K-4 using the EasyCBM materials from the University of Oregon at Eugene. The data will help us to identify struggling readings and tailor additional resource help for those students.
- We will implement the Read Naturally program for struggling readers in Grades 1-4. The program focuses on increasing fluency through modeling and repeated reading by the student.
- We will use the Math sections of the Easy CBM universal screening process for all students in Grades 3, 5, and 7. The data will help us to identify students who require additional support in mathematics.
- We will continue to sponsor students from St. Xavier University, Chicago, in completing their required clinical experiences. These university students work with St. Germaine students our SKYROOM (Successful Kids, Yes).
Goal 3: To stabilize, then grow enrollment.
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We will explore with the School Board, ways to publicize the school, using resources from the Office of Catholic Schools. A speaker from the Office of Catholic Schools will be invited to present ideas at the January meeting.
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We will explore ways to update the school website, adding photos/video of current events. Students in our seventh and eighth grade will form a Yearbook Committee to help teachers maintain current photos on their grade level page of the website.
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We will continue to submit articles/photos to local media to highlight our school’s achievement.
