Virginia School Turns to QualityCore^® for Validation

Nearly 100 percent of Bishop Ireton High School’s graduates go to college. So why did this Catholic, college-preparatory school in Alexandria, Virginia, need QualityCore?

“There was no deficiency driving us,” said Principal Tim Hamer. “We simply wanted a source that guaranteed that the educational excellence of our program would be more systematic.”

As an independent school, Bishop Ireton is part of a system that doesn’t offer a curriculum. It’s not required to meet Virginia’s Standards of Learning, which are expectations for student learning and achievement. About two years ago, teachers and school leaders created a standards-based curriculum, and then sought the best way to assess, validate, and benchmark the rigor and relevance of the standards.

“We wondered if they were rigorous enough and whether they linked to some research basis for identifying what it takes to succeed in college,” said Hamer.

Their search led to QualityCore, which the school is piloting this year with two courses— US History and Algebra I. Administrators expect to eventually implement all of the QualityCore subjects.

Teachers recently finished a half-day session of QualityCore professional development. They learned how to access QualityCore online materials, apply best practices by using the Educator Resources, and build assessments with the QualityCore formative item pools.

“For our teachers, QualityCore solves problems. They now know how to assess the standards to make sure they are still rigorous and relevant, and how to articulate them to students in ways that have been tested and shown to work,” he said. “They still have the freedom to teach how they want, but they can also now draw from a rich array of resources to ensure they are teaching with rigor and relevance.”