Five years ago, Catholic High was proud to be one of the first schools in the Diocese of Lafayette to incorporate iParadigm’s TurnItIn.com plagiarism prevention program into our high school curriculum.

Currently, over 8,500 high schools and colleges in 109 countries subscribe to TurnItIn, which states on its Web site that it anticipates to have processed over 100 million student papers before the end of 2009. TurnItIn works by comparing a submitted paper with over 12 billion pages of Web content plus more than 80,000 subscription based journals and periodicals. To use, our high school teachers simply create their virtual class submission sites and assignments. Students enroll in their classes and submit their papers online. A report of text that matches another paper or Web site is provided for the teacher.

Catholic High’s reasons for using TurnItIn go beyond the goal of preventing the temptation of copy and paste plagiarism. Online submission of papers is fast becoming the norm in college classes, and our students will be comfortable with this virtual skill. In addition, TurnItIn provides students with excellent online tutorials and handouts to assist them with their researching and writing in all subjects. Since students submit their work online, TurnItIn creates an easy to access virtual portfolio of work for the course. A student can also begin work on a paper at school, log on to the site at home, download the draft, and revise and resubmit the revision.

My favorite feature of TurnItIn is its online discussion board or forum. Teachers can create discussion topics for each class to discuss asynchronously at home, very much like a college online class might do. I find that students who live in this texting world tend to participate in written discussion very well. Plus, the quiet, shy student who never speaks up in class has an equal voice with his classmates in a virtual environment.

During the past five years, Catholic High has been instrumental in assisting other area schools as they get on the TurnItin bandwagon. In March, technology director Erin Henry and I took our experience with TurnItIn on the road. We presented a session at the national ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) conference in Orlando. Our topic dealt with teaching students responsible research skills, and we focused on Catholic High’s use of TurnItIn.

As with most good things on the Internet, there is a cost. TurnItIn is not a free service. Subscription fees are based on the number of students in our high school classes. Support from the Catholic High Parents’ Club makes it possible for us to help our students become confident, self-directed, twenty-first century learners.

Eugenie Segura
Curriculum Director

As the lazy days of summer have officially begun, thoughts of school are far from everyone’s mind. However, we hope that students are spending some of their lazy days with a good book! According to research, students who do not read during the summer can experience up to a three month learning gap as compared to their peers who do read.

The Catholic High English department has an assigned summer reading program for students entering grades 6 through 12. Titles for summer reading are posted on the school Web site and were selected for their thematic connection to each course. Summer reading is an integral part and foundation of in-school literature studies in the fall. Beyond the required titles, students are encouraged to select and read other books based on their interests. When school begins again, teachers would love to hear about the great books their students have discovered!

Speaking of teachers, this year, teachers as well have their own assigned summer reading! Faculty and staff are enjoying Malcolm Gladwell’s New York Times bestseller Outliers. We are even discussing the book and its implications to education on our own online discussion board.

William Shakespeare claims, “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” I am sure that no student, teacher, or even parent would care to disagree with him about that! All too soon summer is gone, and the new school year begins. But until then, have a great summer, and enjoy the lazy days of reading!

This past spring, Catholic High received SACS/CASI (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/Council on Accreditation and School Improvement) accreditation renewal. For a school to earn and maintain a five-year term accreditation, it must adhere to the AdvancED Standards for Quality Schools and follow a detailed accreditation process, which involves a commitment to ongoing self-assessment and improvement. Accreditation is not a week or month-long event. It is a continuous process of change and accessing those changes.

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Looming in the shadows, waiting to make its appearance, is an ominous creature that many students loathe: the report card! When the first quarter amazingly comes to a close on October 10th, report card grades will be on everyone’s mind. However, beyond the quizzes, tests, assignments, and project scores that combine to define a student’s quarterly grade, other assessments are also used at Catholic High to indicate achievement in learning.

On Wednesday, October 15, Catholic High will hold its high school testing day. PLAN, an ACT readiness test, will be administered to all 9th and 10th graders. The PSAT/NMSQT assessment will be administered to all 11th graders as a Pre-SAT test and as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Also on that day, seniors will take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), serving as a multi-aptitude test. Throughout the year, juniors and seniors select from test dates in October, December, February, April, and June to schedule the ACT.

Catholic High teachers, department heads, and administrators use these standardized test score results to identify students’ needs, to assist with placement of students in courses, and to steer curriculum development and instructional planning. Parents and students can study these scores to gain insight into student aptitude and career possibilities, to identify areas for improvement, and to note individual scholastic growth over time.

For more information on any of these high school tests, please visit the Web sites described here.

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The school year is now in full swing, and despite the heat, hurricane, and homework, everyone is settling into learning. Even teachers are learning as they continue their education through various professional development opportunities.

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