Why now? The desire to improve the educational system in America has been sustained long enough that our leaders in education and government are challenging the status quo. While the desire has grown over several decades, the current opportunity is due in part to the decline in the cost of technology and an investment in data collection. These trends are allowing us to store, aggregate, and analyze performance data in ways never before possible.
These advances in data collection and analysis are rapidly changing the way schools approach education. Unfortunately, most schools focus solely on complying with requirements set forth in high-stakes standardized tests and ensuring that all of their students have “minimum proficiencies” in Math and Language Arts. However, we have the ability to use data analysis to go far beyond standardized testing, and to customize or differentiate instruction for our children. In addition to identifying where a particular student needs intervention and support, we will also be able to identify students who are ready for more challenging work in a particular subject area.
The true power of this capability is not to “rank and sort” our children, but to ensure that each of them can maximize their God given potential. We envision a future where children are able to learn at their own individual pace, and move on after mastering a skill or subject. This ensures that each student stays engaged and motivated.
As you might expect, all of this places a tremendous burden on the teacher to manage large amounts of data and make meaningful use of it to maximize the growth of each student. The days of teaching to the “average” student are over. Beginning this year, LCSS invested in a new technology provided by Five Star Education Solutions that will help us collect, aggregate and analyze this data to provide better individualized instruction.
However, to continue to advance our efforts, we need to make investments in our teachers, teacher training, and new technologies. Fortunately, a dedicated group of more than sixty volunteers (supporters and parents of LCSS) just completed a nine-month long effort to develop a three-year strategic plan: Preparing Students for Life. We will be rolling out the strategic plan in the coming weeks and we look forward to your support of our efforts. In summary, the plan will focus on:
- Mission: Incorporating our Christian values across the curriculum, ensuring we reach our full potential.
- Teachers: Improving teacher training and compensation;
- Technology: Adopting and supporting educational technology;
- Academics: Commitment to differentiated instruction techniques and technologies;
- Communications: Improved communications and marketing; and
- Finances: Building a fair financial revenue model that will support the growth of LCSS
As the public and private educational systems across our state and country work to transform over the coming years, we are confident we will see growth in Math and Language Arts skills among our K-12 population.
However, in the Lafayette Catholic Schools, we also know that exceptional academic performance is only one factor that will contribute to the success of our students. We know that our unique Catholic identity will differentiate our graduates and inspire them to fully achieve God’s plan for their lives. Our faith tells us this, and numerous studies continue to show that people driven by a higher purpose than themselves outperform their peers. Our strategic plan renews our commitment to these ideals:
– Education of the whole person.
• Spiritually, intellectually, physically and socially.
– Parents are the Primary Educators
• Catholic values at home, school AND within peer groups.
– Faith Formation
• A focus on relationship with Christ and what God is calling us to do.
– Living the Faith
• Preparing our children to be tomorrow’s servant leaders.
– We Expect More
• To whom much is given . . . much is required.
We look forward to your enthusiastic support of the Lafayette Catholic Schools, and our new strategic plan, as we work to prepare our students for a lifetime of purpose and achievement.
