Mich. diocese chooses liberal arts over Common Core

Diocese of Marquette focuses on Catholic tradition in schools

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Catholic schools in the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan, will not be adopting the standards developed for the public school system, says the diocesan bishop.

"After much consideration, the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Marquette will not adapt or adopt the Common Core State Standards which were developed for the public school system," said Bishop John Doerfler. "We acknowledge that there is a base of adequate secular material in the Common Core State Standards that faith-based schools could reference as part of their educational programming." 

"While we respectfully understand that other private and Catholic schools may discern to adapt or adopt the standards for these and other reasons, we do not believe that such actions would benefit the mission, Catholic identity or academic excellence of our schools."

The Marquette Diocese is instead implementing a classical curriculum, formed by Catholic tradition.

"The decision to adopt a Catholic liberal arts model of education is the fruit of much careful study by the Department of Education, now the Department of Evangelization and Education of our diocese," Bishop Doerfler said in an email to Catholic World Report. "The outcome of this study is a curriculum foundations document that is tailored to the needs of our diocese and proposes the adoption of a Catholic liberal arts curriculum for our diocesan schools."

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