Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on the state's curriculum standards called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). As an accredited parochial school in Texas, these standards serve as a guideline for objectives to be covered within specific subjects and grades. Our school must teach all of these objectives, and specified guidelines determine each student's mastery. We are able to extend or exceed these standards when it seems appropriate. We do not take the STAAR test, but a nationally standardized test called the MAP Assessments, in first through eighth grades.
Our religion curriculum is guided by the Diocese of Austin Religious Education Guidelines, which specify grade-level objectives in religion. A Diocesan-approved curriculum, Empowering God's Children, is integrated into kindergarten through sixth grades, and a chaste living curriculum is integrated in the upper elementary through middle school religion classes.
Teachers use the TEKS to guide them in their overall planning and determine the proper sequencing and type of instruction for each objective. Student assessment for each objective is used to determine each student's mastery and is what is reflected through the school's grading system. Teachers use textbooks and other instructional materials to support the mastery of curriculum objectives. For more detailed information about the curriculum for each of the subject areas, see the right panel under curriculum.
For a brief overview of grade-level curricula, see below.