Holy Cross Catholic School is fully accredited by the State of Kansas and the North Central Association: Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement.

The State of Kansas awards accreditation based a school’s performance and its ability to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) on the Kansas Assessments in reading and math. In addition to making AYP, we have also been awarded the 2007 Standard of Excellence in Reading, Math and Writing.

We choose to be part of the NCA School Improvement Process and through this process received their accreditation. This process involves working through a five year cycle of self analysis, goal setting and improvement efforts.

Our current cycle began in the 2005-2006 school year. During that year, we collected data, created a school profile, and selected goals. During the 2006-2007 school year, we created a School Improvement Plan and selected interventions and activities designed to help us reach our goals. We also began staff development and implementation of those goals. As we move toward our fifth year (2009-2010), we will continue to implement our strategies and monitor data to determine their effectiveness. Once our current cycle is complete, we will embark on a new cycle of improvement.

Summary of Current School Improvement Plan:

Goals: Students will improve their reading comprehension skills across the curriculum.
Students will improve their problem solving skills across the curriculum.

Interventions:

Reading Goal:
Content Enhancement Routines: Based on over 17 years of educational research, Content Enhancement is an approach to planning instruction for teaching content to diverse groups of students. Our staff has been trained to use the following two routines. Additional training will take place during which the staff will learn more routines.

FRAME: The FRAME is a graphic organizer used by the teacher to help students think and talk about the key topic and the information related to the key topic. The teacher completes a draft of the FRAME before class, but only through an interactive process involving the students and the teacher can a final copy be constructed.

• Focus on the topic
• Reveal the main ideas
• Analyze details
• Make a "So What?" Statement
• Extend understanding

LINC: The Vocabulary LINCing Routine is designed to facilitate student use of auditory memory and visual memory to learn and remember the meaning of complex terms.

• List the parts of the definition
• Identify a reminding work
• Note a LINCing story
• Create a LINCing picture

Problem Solving Goal:
Accelerated Math is a web-based computer program that creates paper assignments tailored to each student's needs. The program assists the teacher by producing and scoring assignments over skills and concepts that the teacher has chosen for each child. It provides the students with regular practice and the teacher with ongoing feedback. This allows the teacher to provide students with extra instruction when needed and advance students when skills have been mastered.

The program is used as a supplement to our regular math curriculum and instruction. Students in grades 1 - 8 use Accelerated Math.

The Problem Solver is an approach to teaching problem solving in all curriculum areas. The children are instructed in the steps to solving a problem and in specific strategies to use. The teachers assist the students with analyzing the problem and choosing the most appropriate strategy.