B1+Narrative

B1 Narrativetoc

Narrative Introduction
Below you will find Draft 1.0 of the narrative that was created by the WCEA-WASC Core Team, temporarily formatted in this Wiki. All comments and edits should be included at the **bottom of the document** below the narrative. In order to allow for continuity of the document and clarity of revisions, all focus group members should write bulleted notes below the narrative.

Category B: What Students Learn

To what extent... Does the school provide a challenging, comprehensive and relevant curriculum for each student that fulfills the school’s philosophy and mission, strengthens Catholic identity, and results in student achievement of the expected schoolwide learning results through successful completion of any course of study offered?


 * __Focus Group Findings__

**Challenging, Comprehensive, and Relevant Curriculum:**
Inspired by Blessed Fr. Basil Moreau’s philosophy of education, Moreau Catholic holds itself accountable to the words of the Founder of Holy Cross education (1849):


 * “We can state in a word the kind of teaching we wish to impart: we do not want our students to be ignorant of anything they should know.”
 * “We shall always place education side-by-side with instruction, and the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.”
 * “While we prepare useful citizens for society, we shall likewise do our utmost to prepare citizens for eternal life.”

These statements express the hallmarks of a Holy Cross education, which continually strives to be, according to the definition of its founder, challenging, comprehensive, and relevant. As a college preparatory high school, Moreau Catholic offers across all departments a diversity of courses and UC eligible electives that reflect the school’s ESLRs, address statewide standards, and are increasingly aligned with 21st Century Learning Skills. Except for theology and physical education, every department offers honors courses, and most departments offer advanced placement with a schoolwide total of 14 AP courses.

Within each department, teachers collaborate regularly in order to articulate a meaningful and carefully scaffolded program of study. Vertical and horizontal teams (instructors of sequential courses and instructors of same-grade courses, respectively) meet as often as needed during department meetings and at those faculty meetings designed for the purpose of articulation. Department time is also reserved for teachers to post, review, and analyze their online curriculum maps and to discuss the degrees and types of rigor that develop across their curriculum.

To support these reflective discussions, the assistant principal of instruction collates and distributes a variety of data to each department chair. One source is the semester grade spread sheets of each teacher, of each department, of each grade level, and also of the entire school, so that every department can analyze the implications of these statistics in relation to their instructional strategies and the effects of those strategies on student learning. These discussions often lead to collaboration among same-grade teachers within each department in order to share and develop effective ways to scaffold lessons, build skills, and create more effective formative and summative assessments.

**Mission, Philosophy, and Catholic Identity:** A wide variety of elective courses address students’ interests and allow for more concentrated and topic-specific study within the disciplines. Each fall, a number of departments submit new course proposals to academic council for approval. Each proposed course must address and affirm the ESLRs and the Mission of the school. Either the teacher who designed the course or the department chair presents the content, the rationale, and the purpose of the proposed course and then answers all questions posed by members of the council. Those courses that are approved by academic council are then submitted to the Mission Integration Committee, where they are ratified according to their alignment with Mission criteria and the Holy Cross hallmarks.

Courses such as Robotics, Green Engineering, Peace and Conflict Studies, Gaming Analysis and Design, Chinese, Movement for Athletes, Digital Photography, and Senior Seminar, to name only a few, all grew out of a keen interest in those subjects among teachers, students, and/or administrators, and they speak to the intellectual curiosity as well as to the diversity of interests of the school community. From discussions initiated at academic council meetings, department chairs continue with their department members the consideration of new course offerings, as either an addition to the current selection of courses or as a replacement for an outdated course.

In order to develop professional practice and the instruction of their courses, many teachers pursue outside course work, summer training sessions, and workshops to enhance their knowledge of content and to build their repertoire of instructional strategies. The purpose of each request for school-sponsored professional development opportunity must be explicitly related to the ESLRs and to the Mission of the school.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Student Achievement:** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Increasingly, students engage in 21st century learning processes that require them to plan and set goals, innovate, create, self- and peer-assess, revise, and then redo (rethink, rewrite, rebuild, as the case may be). In many courses students also teach each other the given skills during the process of their work and then share and assess their results in formal and informal classroom presentations.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Through full access to computer technology, students are often involved in authentic hands-on work in their classrooms through such activities as researching, collaborating, problem-solving, blogging, filming, editing, communicating, and writing. However, evidence of the degree to which student learning has improved through the use of technology tools remains inconsistent. The library staff and the IT team offer one-on-one or small group training in various programs and operations, and they serve as excellent sources of support and assistance for all teachers of all levels of technological expertise.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cocurricular offerings enable students to learn and participate in various forms of leadership, social responsibility, cultural diversity, health and well-being, and environmentalism. All cocurricular clubs and activities are predicated on the ESLRs and express the Mission of the school. Through participation in such dedicated leadership groups as cocurricular clubs, student government, Link Crew, Campus Ministry, performing arts, and athletics, students cultivate a variety of social, personal, and physical skills while they are also encouraged to reflect on the spiritual dimension of their experiences.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The topic of academic rigor within the schoolwide curriculum continues to necessitate discussion and definition among the disciplines as the school works to move closer to a learning-centered model wherein student- (and teacher-) inquiry and discovery drive the learning process. When asked about the specifics regarding their experience with academics, 99% of parent respondents and 95% of student respondents expressed a sense of challenge with appropriate support in their courses, but Student Course Rating Questionnaires and grade distribution data indicate room for improvement in the consistency and level of challenge. The process of Essential Mapping, begun this year, will assist each department in establishing its criteria for rigor by identifying the critical concepts and skill sets within its discipline. || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">__Evidence__


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">MCHS Foundational Document


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course Information Catalog
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Online Curriculum Maps


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department Meeting Minutes


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Semester Grade Distribution data sheets
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Faculty Meeting work sessions
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department Status Reports


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New Course Proposal form


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course Information Catalog


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Professional Development budget
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Professional Development Request form
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Online Teacher Features: MCHS webpage
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Middle East Summit Simulation
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Robot Programming projects
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">English students’ blog roll
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lib Guides
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student iMovies
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Explorer school newspaper
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classroom Observation reports
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Classroom Wikis


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cocurricular Clubs and Rosters
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Club Constitutions
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Club Applications
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hallmarks of Holy Cross


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Academic Council minutes
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department minutes


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student / Parent Survey ||

**Focus Group Comments**
Please insert any comments or edits to the narrative in this space. These comments will be integrated into future versions of the narrative.

__General Suggestions:__
 * Add headings to organize the narrative into readable chunks **Done.** **~cjs**
 * Survey information closer to the beginning of the narrative? Can we use the narrative to address the survey findings? ** The narrative drives the position of the evidence, and the narrative is organized according to the sequencing of the "To what extent" question. The positioning of any given piece of evidence, therefore, is not read as a priority according to its placement. ~cjs **
 * Any other applicable survey data? ** This is yours to determine. Let me know ASAP what you decide. **

__Specific Comments:__
 * Question about digital photo not being a part of the Art department

10/11 -- COMMENTS
 * consider the placement of the last paragraph under the "Mission..." heading. It might need a better transition or a different placement
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">consider revising the following sentence "Through full access to computer technology, students are often involved in authentic hands-on work in their classrooms through such activities as researching, collaborating, problem-solving, blogging, filming, editing, communicating, and writing." Some members seem confused by the multiple use of "through".