Professional Development
Excellence Initiative
The Excellence Initiative was established in response to the existing difference between assessed skills of grade school graduates and the expectations for skill in content areas of Catholic high schools.
This initiative serves to address the degree to which curriculum standards, as required by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, are being met. It familiarizes Catholic school educators with a model for aligning curriculum, instruction and assessment. The model, known as curriculum mapping, provides the means to chronicle what is being taught and how it is being taught. With greater alignment between archdiocesan curricular content as students move from grade schools to high schools, overall achievement will likely improve.
The Excellence Initiative has been quite successful, with 332 teachers in 19 Dayton-area Catholic schools utilizing the curriculum mapping model.
Reading Mentoring Program
Faculty members at the University of Dayton, supported by the Center for Catholic Education, created the Reading Mentoring Program in 2006. This program collaborates with both campuses of Mary Queen of Peace School, an urban Catholic school in Dayton. We launched the program to support the professional development of the teachers at Mary Queen of Peace after it opened in 2006 as the result of the closing of five urban Catholic elementary schools in Dayton.
Among the benefits of this effective reading mentoring program are monthly in-service training sessions for teachers, one-on-one tutoring, placement of student teachers, classroom modeling of reading comprehension strategies for teachers, ongoing faculty support and partial support for attendance at the NCTE annual conferences.
Currently, 21 teachers and student teachers from both Mary Queen of Peace campuses have volunteered to participate.
The program was expanded in the summer of 2009 to include other schools in the Catholic Education Collaborative, established to advance and enhance Catholic education in the Dayton Deanery.
St. Remy Initiative
The St. Remy Initiative is a partnership between the University of Dayton’s Center for Catholic Education, the Catholic School Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Catholic Education Collaborative.
Implemented in 2007, this initiative is designed to broaden participants’ understanding of Catholic education and their roles as Catholic educators. With an ongoing theme of spiritual formation, the initiative provides Catholic school principals and teachers with an opportunity to strengthen their knowledge and skills in the spiritual, academic and managerial dimensions of their ministry.
With funding provided by a generous donation from a local foundation, 15 Dayton-area Catholic schools participate in the St. Remy Initiative. Teams of three people from each school are invited to participate: the principal, an aspiring principal and a teacher leader. Each team develops a schoolwide project concerning an instructional topic with a focus on spiritual, educational or managerial leadership.
The St. Remy Initiative has created a spirit of collaboration within schools and among schools. St. Remy provides the foundation upon which additional effective professional development programs are built.
