500 - Curriculum
The Value Sought – Whole persons knowledgably live Gospel values and Catholic Traditions.
501.00 Faith Formation programs will teach the specific grade level requirements defined in the current diocesan Faith Formation Curriculum as found on the Department of Faith Formation website:
https://www.eriercd.org/religiouseducation/recurriculum.html
501.10 All texts used in grade K through five must be listed on the USCCB approval document: Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series. The current list can be found on the USCCB website:
https://www.usccb.org/resources/current-conformity-list
Textbooks must meet the following criteria: 1) the entire series must have both an Imprimatur and a Nihil Obstat 2) the series must have been found in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church by the USCCB Subcommittee on the Catechism, 3) one series must be used for all grades K-five, 4) the school and Faith Formation program within a parish are encouraged to use the same religion text series but are not required to do so 5) it is also encouraged that “consumable” student texts be used as designed.
501.20 All parishes will use the diocesan program for grades six through 12, found on the web page: https://www.eriercd.org/faithformation/ffprocess.html. The program used for grades six through eight is Edge, and grade nine is Purpose, both run through Life Teen, a “Eucharist-centered movement within the Roman Catholic Church, Life Teen leads teenagers and their families into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.”
Grades ten through 12 programs are administered through the parish or regionally if possible and include Small Groups for grade ten, Spiritual Mentoring for grade 11, and Made for Mission for grade 12. Information on these is available at the webpage noted above.
510.00 Student assessment is an important element which helps to determine that program goals are actually being accomplished. Written assessment of student progress is to be communicated with parents.
510.10 If a Faith Formation program chooses to use report cards or other written reports of student progress, it will be clearly communicated to the parent(s) on the report that it measures a student’s progress in knowledge about the faith and is not a measurement of their progress in the spiritual life