Are there any immediate plans to alter academic programming?
Efforts are being launched to create an elementary literacy continuum which will include the creation and adoption of common assessments across all Siena Catholic Schools. Additional initiatives for the 2019/20 school year include the creation of a Gifted and Talented Program, additional movement toward the Archdiocesan adoption of Standards-Based Learning and Assessment, and the initial stages of a system-wide review of elementary Math curriculum.
What is Siena's class size policy?
Grade Level/Optimal Number of Children in Class/Maximum Number of Children in Class
3K: 18/20
4K: 20/22
5K – Gr. 2: 22/24
Gr. 3 – Gr. 5: 24/26
Gr. 6 – Gr. 8: 26/30
Gr. 9 – Gr. 12: 28/32
How will curriculum and changes to academic programming be developed?
What is standards-based grading?
Standards-based grading allows students to be more aware of what they are expected to learn and their progress through their grade level standards. It provides parents with a more detailed outline of their student’s growth and achievement. We believe that clear communication between school and home throughout the course of the year is vital to our students’ success.
Standards-based grading is based on the principle that grades should convey how well students have achieved standards. In other words, grades are not about what students earn; they are about what students learn. A traditional grading system reduces everything that a student does to a single letter grade, at the end of a grading term, making the grade neither timely nor actionable.
Additional information can be found here.