Academics

St. Joan of Arc School is an award winning, fully accredited school located in Lisle, IL. It was founded in 1927 as a Benedictine Parish School.

Saint Joan of Arc School offers students the opportunity to learn about math, science, reading and language arts, social studies, technology, music, art, and athletics while learning about and living out the teachings of Jesus Christ. In addition to our core teaching, we also provide opportunities for our students to participate in various service projects, extracurricular activities, and volunteer within the wider parish community.

In the fall of 2024, the Diocese of Joliet adopted i-Ready as one of the standardized assessment tools used to measure student growth. The rigor and accomplishments of our academic program at SJA is demonstrated in consistent achievement on standardized assessments. We received the National Blue Ribbon Award for the third time in 2023 for academic excellence based on standardized test scores.

A Faith Based Education

Saint Joan of Arc School places an emphasis on religious education. Daily religion classes instill an understanding and appreciation for Catholic belief and practice. All students participate in classes and religious events. Prayer is a part of the daily routine and is infused in all that we do at Saint Joan of Arc. A variety of prayer experiences are offered for students during each liturgical season throughout the school year.

The inclusion of weekly Mass, Benediction on Fridays, and special liturgies for holy days and celebrations provides a rich religious experience for the students. Each week students attend Mass (Wednesdays – 8:15am) and Benediction on Friday afternoons. Parents are encouraged to join the students and staff for Masses and prayer services.

STREAM (Science, Religion, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math)

In seeking to engage students at all levels in active, relevant learning and prepare students for an ever changing global community, St. Joan of Arc Catholic School implemented a STREAM curriculum. STREAM is the intentional integration of the disciplines of Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, and Math in order to assist students in the development of communications skills, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.

STREAM sets the stage for student problem solving and includes hands-on exploration, demonstration, and experimentation. It moves from teacher-centered instruction to inquiry-based learning. Integrating the Arts into the curriculum. STREAM allows schools to build on their traditional liberal arts foundation, bringing a variety of visual, classical, and performing arts.

This problem solving approach prepares students for real-world challenges by fostering critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. The integration of Arts into the STREAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) curriculum enhances the educational experience by providing students with a well-rounded and holistic approach to learning.

WIN Program

WIN, what I need, is a program aimed at addressing students' academic needs through assessment, data analysis, and targeted interventions.

The process involves assessing all students three times a year, analyzing the data to identify areas where students may need extra support or advancement in reading or math, and implementing interventions to address those needs. The ongoing progress monitoring ensures that the interventions are effective in promoting student growth. This approach seeks to create a more customized and effective educational experience for students.

Thinking Maps

St. Joan of Arc Catholic School is thrilled to announce the addition of “Thinking Maps” for the 2024-2025 School Year. Thinking Maps is a whole-school, brain-based approach to teaching and learning designed to build foundational critical thinking, problem-solving, comprehension, and communication skills necessary for academic success. The Maps provide a shared visual “language for learning” for our entire school. This will allow students to build upon their skills year after year and carry these traits to the next grade and beyond.

Thinking Maps will make thinking skills visible and concrete. This will assist students who need support with executive functioning. Executive functioning processes are essential for managing and regulating other cognitive activities.

This includes:

1. Planning and Organization: The ability to set goals, create plans, and organize tasks to achieve those goals.
2. Working Memory: The capacity to hold and manipulate information in your mind over short periods.
3. Inhibitory Control: The ability to control impulses, resist distractions, and delay gratification.
4. Cognitive Flexibility: The skill to adapt to new situations, switch between tasks, and think about multiple concepts simultaneously.
5. Self-Monitoring: The capacity to assess and regulate one's own performance and behavior.

These skills are crucial for effective problem-solving, decision-making, and goal-directed behavior.

Traditional learning with the vision to create better thinkers for the future.

K-5 Reading Curriculum

K–5 Reading Curriculum: At St. Joan of Arc, we continually evaluate and refine our curriculum to ensure our instruction reflects the latest educational research and best practices. Following a thorough review of our current practices, we identified an opportunity to strengthen our ELA program through the implementation of a comprehensive curriculum that creates a unified learning experience and supports student growth across grades K–5. This new curriculum builds on the strong foundation already in place while enhancing instruction with evidence-based practices that support every learner.

This fall, students in kindergarten through fifth grade will begin using Amplify CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) as their new English Language Arts curriculum Amplify CKLA is a nationally recognized literacy curriculum built on the Science of Reading—the most comprehensive body of research on how children learn to read. This evidence-based program provides explicit instruction in phonics, vocabulary, language comprehension, reading fluency, and writing while building the background knowledge students need to become strong, confident readers.

What This Means for Our Students…

With Amplify CKLA, students will benefit from:

• Research-based reading instruction that builds strong foundational literacy skills from K through 5.
• Daily writing instruction integrated with reading to strengthen communication, comprehension, and critical thinking.
• Knowledge-rich, high-quality literature that builds vocabulary, background knowledge, and a lifelong love of reading.

AND our students will continue to receive explicit phonics instruction that helps students develop the skills needed to become fluent, independent readers as they have been.

Our students will continue to benefit from:

• Personalized learning that includes targeted intervention through our WIN program to ensure every student receives the support or enrichment they need.
• Ongoing assessments with iReady and other benchmark tools that allow teachers to monitor progress and provide individualized instruction throughout the year.

At St. Joan of Arc, academic excellence is one of our highest priorities. Adopting Amplify CKLA reflects our continued commitment to investing in innovative, evidence-based instructional practices that help every child grow as a reader, writer, thinker, and lifelong learner. As we move forward, we will continue to integrate Thinking Maps throughout our classrooms and invest in ongoing professional development to keep our teachers equipped with the most current, research-based strategies to help every student grow and succeed.