School of Distinction Award

St. Michael Catholic School - Livonia, Michigan

SCHOOL OF DISTINCTION AWARD

St. Michael School was recently bestowed the prestigious “School of Distinction” award by the Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools (MANS).

The “School of Distinction” honor was created by MANS to recognize exemplary non-public schools in Michigan that exceed standards through accreditation process. St. Michael is the first elementary school in the Southeast Michigan School of Distinctions Award area to receive this honor.

St. Michael is an elementary school composed of over 800 students in grades K-8, with approximately 525 Parish families. The school has been accredited since 1992 and decided to pursue the school of distinction award in 2006. The school had demonstrated effective school improvement via the accreditation process and was committed to the challenge of selecting goals that would positively impact student learning.

St. Michael faculty and staff presented their goals to the Regional Council in February. Based on the success of the implementation of the goals, the MANS organization awarded St. Michael’s the designation of School of Distinction for 2008.

Sr. M. Carolyn Ratkowski, Principal of St. Michael School, feels it is the dedication and commitment of her talented and tireless staff as well as an incredibly supportive Parent Group who made the process possible. She is extremely proud of their work stating, “Our staff has spent countless hours researching, planning, and instituting goals that would focus on our core mission of meeting the needs of our learners to become leading contributors to society.”

Sr. Carolyn asked her School Improvement Team to focus on goals that would align with the school mission statement. The school of distinction award was bestowed based upon the following initiatives:

SODA GOALS

To strengthen instruction school-wide by implementing curriculum mapping of Math and Language Arts aligned to standards. This will quickly identify areas of redundancy and weakness in curriculum.
To create Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to seek and share ideas, then act upon what is learned. The PLCs would provide supportive and shared leadership opportunities for collective creativity to assist their focus on curriculum mapping.
PLC Target of Technology insures faculty, staff and students are adequately prepared to utilize technology in the 21st century. Combined with mapping, teachers will increase integration of technology in the classroom to enhance student achievement.

St. Michael’s has far surpassed these original goals. All staff members are currently mapping and look forward to sharing maps in the 2008-09 school year. This will insure vertical alignment of essential skills and concepts as a student progresses in grade level.

An explosion of technology and implementation occurred via these goals. Lucy Boyer, Educational Technology Coordinator for St. Michaels, developed an state approved Technology Plan and stimulated use of technology in the classroom. Her vision to “get it, learn it, use it” became the mantra of the year. In August of 2007, Edline, a web-hosting tool for on-line communication needs for teachers, parents, and students was purchased and implemented. This tool raised the level and quality of parental involvement, transforming the St. Michael School community. Access to on-line grades, teacher web sites, educational links, and communications were immediate and evidenced by 92% parental involvement in the first three months of implementation. This extended to the parish community, special clubs, like scouts, and the athletics community of the parish. Through technology, St. Michael has linked their community.

“The work is impressive!” said Barbara Stork, MANS accreditation director, “St. Michael is truly doing a great deal of work to achieve the established goals.” The MANS organization encompasses 500 schools in the state and is comprised of Catholic schools, Christian schools International and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod schools.