Curriculum

St. Joseph School incorporates the Course of Study developed and approved by the Division of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. These goals were written in the pursuit of excellence. Excellence is achieved when an individual develops his/her unique talents to their fullest potential.

Academic Subjects	Special Subjects
Religion	Art
Language Arts	Music
Math	Physical Education
Science	Computer
Social Studies	Library
Spanish (grades 4-8)

Our Catholic faith is the focal point of our education process, and it permeates all curriculum areas.
St. Joseph Students excel in our challenging academic environment. They consistently score higher than average in both Archdiocesan and national testing.
All classrooms, the library media center, and the PC lab are Internet connected through Comcast.
Reading specialist, math tutor, speech therapist, and counselor are available on a limited basis.
Teacher Assistants are employed in grades K-5
SJS employs a full time registered nurse.
SJS teachers are state certified. 70% have masters degrees or equivalency.
Math enrichment classes in grades 6-8
All 7th grade students take Pre-Algebra
8th grade offers both Algebra and Pre-Algebra determined by the student's skills
Strong Language Arts program which incorporates phonics, literature, grammar, spelling, writing, vocabulary development and directed reading lessons.
Required summer reading and follow up activities in grades 4 through 8.

Standardized Testing Results

Last April, students in grades 3 to 7 took the Stanford 10 Achievement Test. For more than a week, students were tested in Reading, Language, Math, Science, Social Studies and Listening Skills. Students took the test individually and their scores were normed against national scores for all students.

As a school we scored well above the national averages at all grade levels tested. Compared here are all Catholic Schools, The Archdiocese of Baltimore Schools (AOB), and St. Joseph School National Percentile Rank averages for combined skills in Total Reading and Total Math below. You can see that our children perform higher than the other groups and, more significantly, our scores improved as the children moved through the grades. Coupled with this and also significant is the fact that our children are consistently achieving scores in Reading and Math above their anticipated score based on their average ability. This seems to indicate that our children are working to take in and retain knowledge and skills at a rate that is higher than would be expected base on their abilities (as a class).

	*NPR All Catholic Schools**	*NPR in AOB**	*NPR St. Joseph Fullerton**
Grade 3
Reading	60	63	63
Math	54	58	57
Grade 4
Reading	57	72	68
Math	59	68	69
Grade 5
Reading	65	72	77
Math	64	68	78
Grade 6
Reading	65	71	78
Math	60	68	78
Grade 7
Reading	51	72	78
Math	62	74	77
Grade 8
Reading	54	73	75
Math	58	71	72

*National Percentile Rank for all students taking this test.

(The Archdiocese of Baltimore does not rank the schools nor do they compare the schools in any way. Each school’s aggregate scores are given to that school only.)