The Trinity Difference
As an independent Catholic school, Trinity is not obligated to adopt the Common Core Standards. At Trinity we have always emphasized creativity, critical and analytical thinking, inquiry, comprehension skills, the writing process, problem solving and the scientific method with a Catholic worldview to guide our students to life-long learning, academic success and therefore, to college and career readiness. Integral to a Catholic education is Catholic identity with an emphasis on growth in virtues necessary to know, love, and serve the Lord, to mature into a responsible, flourishing adult, and to contribute as a citizen to the process of responsible democratic self-government.
Trinity has always based its curriculum on national standards and best practices, thereby offering a curriculum that utilizes the best in traditional content and strategies as well as the newest pedagogy which combine to give our students what they need for life.
Faithful to the promotion of academic excellence, Trinity will continue to offer a robust curriculum based on national standards and best practices while delivering the content utilizing differentiated strategies that facilitate learning in all students. We will take what is best and reject what is not.
The Common Core Standards
The Common Core Standards were initiated by the joint efforts of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. The standards address problems that Catholic Schools typically do not have. The Common Core Standards were designed to identify the most essential skills and knowledge students need. In an effort to prepare all students for college and twenty-first century skills, this common set of standards replaces a disparity of state standards.
The Common Core Standards are not a curriculum. They do not dictate our curriculum, instructional methodologies, or materials used. What the Common Core Standards do is give measurable goals and outcomes for what students should know and be able to do at the end of a grade or course of study. The strengths of the Common Core Standards are: present high expectations, are globally competitive, contain uniform content and depth of subject matter, emphasize critical thinking and attempt to bridge the gaps. Some concerns about Common Core are: governmental control, adopted too early, not tested.