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St. Peter
Celestine |
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The Middle States Association of Colleges
and Schools was established in 1887 and quickly became part of the
standardization movement that defined and clarified the roles and
relationships of schools and colleges of the late nineteenth century and
throughout the twentieth century. In 1979, the Middle States Association
formed the Commission on Elementary Schools to begin accrediting elementary
schools. In 1994 the Diocese of Accredited Middles States schools are
required to file a report every three years to detail progress and to plan for
the future. Our latest report was
filed and accepted in Fall 2004. We
have received the following acclamations from
the
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools – Commission on Elementary
Schools: The dedicated administration and faculty
of Saint Peter Celestine School provide a solid, Christian education rich in
Catholic tradition and values. They strive to effectively educate their
student population to become responsible, discerning citizens. They
create a learning environment that nurtures the unique developmental aspects
of each child enhancing their intellectual, spiritual, and social growth.
The administration and faculty consistently affords students the
opportunity to realize their maximum potential, as mirrored in an inventive
curriculum inclusive of a Middle School Exploratory Program designed to
encourage creative thinking and teachers who utilize myriad strategies to
accommodate divergent learning styles. In our latest report we identified the goals that we have accomplished in the last six years and presented goals for the next three years: Our Achieved Goals¨ Adjusted daily schedule to provide time for integration of new curriculum areas. ¨ Strengthened the school-wide curriculum in all areas to incorporate more critical thinking skills and problem solving. ¨ Inserviced faculty on integrating curriculum areas and incorporating critical thinking skills. ¨ Provided parent programs on curriculum changes. ¨ Lengthened the school day by 20 minutes. ¨ Transformed our junior high program into a middle school with multi-grade advisories and exploratory classes, which provide a diversified and developmentally responsive program for students. ¨ Adjusted our preschool program to better meet the needs of today’s families. ¨ Expanded the kindergarten program to full-day. ¨ Reduced class size in kindergarten, first grade and second grade to better meet the needs of our young learners. ¨ Strengthened our early childhood program, which provides a developmentally appropriate curriculum that supports multiple intelligences and a variety of learning styles. ¨ Further strengthened our early childhood program by training teachers in multi-sensory phonemic awareness program. ¨ Strengthened our intermediate team program by partially departmentalizing the curriculum. ¨ Strengthened our art curriculum by hiring an art teacher for grades K-8. ¨ Provided the opportunity for students of all grade levels to participate in liturgy more frequently by taking one class a week to daily mass in addition to our regular school liturgies. ¨
Implemented a distance learning experience through ePals, which
linked our fourth graders with a class in ¨ Upgraded our Internet access to DSL line to accommodate increased classroom and faculty usage. ¨ Built a stronger student communications network which includes the following: o A morning broadcast by students over closed-circuit TV, o An exploratory class where students create a video magazine, o An exploratory class where students create video presentations to be aired on the morning broadcast. Our Future Goals
¨ To continue to integrate technology into our curriculum in the following ways: · To institute computerized grading with GradeQuick, · To incorporate Alpha Smart Dana word processors into classroom use in grades 5-8, · To incorporate Alpha Smart Neo word processors into classroom use in grades 1-4, · To move into wireless technology. ¨ To develop a stronger world language curriculum, which will include hiring a teacher to introduce world languages into, grades K-8. ¨ To raise students’ consciousness in the area of social justice by expanding outreach opportunities for all grade levels. ¨
To invite the larger parish community to work with us to build a
labyrinth prayer path as an extension of our See the fully Middle States Website here |