Ron Costello, the assistant director of schools for curriculum and assessment, said the archdiocese is looking at the scores to determine what factors may have played a role in low student achievement. But he's not making excuses. The private schools may not be panaceas to a public school education, but many parents turn to a Catholic education because they think it provides a better foundation, according to national education experts. The lackluster test scores don't appear to have shaken the confidence of parents who are taking the parochial path to education. Franklin, whose son took the 3rd-grade test last fall, isn't troubled that her child scored below an IPS school whose district is marked by low achievement.
Catholic schools can tap into the same winning formula.
Nearly all of the third-graders who took the state test passed. Attention to basic skills. A phonics-based approach to vocabulary and reading. Making students put paper to pen to develop writing skills, school officials say. What many public schools are going back to, we've never left.