School Philosophy
St. Croix Country Day School is committed to providing quality instruction that recognizes
the individual strengths and needs of each child to develop motivated, disciplined
and inquiring students. To obtain this objective, we offer a balanced program
of academics, physical education, expressive arts, technology and extracurricular
and community service opportunities. Learning is lead by a stable and experienced
faculty that will utilize updated teaching aids, technology and continuing education
in a variety of instructional approaches that represent their desire for life
long learning. |
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The school seeks to attract families who will benefit from the opportunity to appreciate
and respect individual differences in the multicultural community which we share.
We encourage active parent involvement to support and enrich school programs.
Although academics are a focus of our program, we also strive to develop each student's
social, emotional and physical well-being. We believe that self-esteem and self-confidence
are enhanced when standards are high but obtainable, and when students are called
upon to take pride in their work and strive for excellence. Communication and
a shared responsibility among parents, students and teachers form the foundation
for each child's optimum growth and ability to successfully function in the world
upon graduation from St. Croix Country Day School.
The school is committed to an ongoing process of strategic planning and carefully
orchestrated intellectual, social and physical change so that it may remain current,
vibrant and responsive to the needs of the community it serves.
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Mission Statment
St. Croix Country Day School is an independent, multicultural, college preparatory educational community set on a 34-acre tropical campus. The school is a spirited collaboration among dedicated educators, involved parents, concerned community leaders and inquisitive young people. It is dedicated to providing students with an enriched and challenging education, encouraging them to love learning, grow as individuals and be prepared for a productive and responsible future. |
Accreditation
St. Croix Country Day School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the primary accreditation association for both private and public schools in a region that includes the eastern United States and the Caribbean. We follow the
Accreditation for Growth protocol because AFG focuses on increasing the performance of students. Using strategic planning as a vehicle for school improvement and growth in student performance, the AFG process requires the school to establish objectives for
improving student performance based on a vision of a preferred future for the school. Therefore, AFG is a future oriented and visionary process. In addition, the AFG protocol provides for continuous review of programs and services and of the results of student performance.
In this era of accountability, student performance is and should be the essential focus of educators. In the AFG process, the following five questions guide the school’s inquiry.
Question #1: What should students know, and how should they be able to use what they know? What content, process skills, and work habits should be priorities?
Question #2: How well should students perform and what does excellent
performance look like?
Question #3: How will we assess and evaluate student performance?
Question #4: How well do students currently perform? What is the actual quality of their work?
Question #5: What will we do to improve student performance? |
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Here at Country Day, we have used the Accreditation for Growth protocol since 1999 to help us to recognize areas of concern, develop strategies for improving our programs, and measuring our success. During these years we have established many initiatives and have been successful in making significant improvements in the following areas:
1. Language Arts: The language arts goal was one of our original objectives. The goal was for 85% of students to score a minimum of 18 on the ACT English subsection. In 2006, 97% of the students scored achieved that goal.
2. Health and PE: This initiative was to improve health and health awareness of
our students. The initial objective was to have students in grades 4-12 demonstrate their improved physical fitness, as measured by at least 35% of them
attaining a score of average or above average on the President’s Council National and Presidential Fitness Test. We added additional courses for students, including health, pilates, weight training and advanced fitness. We achieved our goal.
3. Mathematics: Our objective was to have 90% of our graduating seniors attain a
score of 19 or better on the mathematics section of the ACT Assessment Test.
This has been achieved.
More recently we established additional initiatives that are works in progress. These
include the following:
1. Foreign Language Instruction;
2. Writing and Information Literacy;
3. Public Speaking;
4. Life Skills.
In our next community update I will give you a more detailed description of the
objectives of the above-mentioned initiatives and keep you posted on how well we are
doing.
We appreciate your support.
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