St. Jerome Academy's Resource Program makes classical education accessible to all students, especially those with learning differences. We provide individualized instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics through personalized tutoring or in-class support. Four Resource Teachers collaborate with faculty, parents, and the Student Assistance Team to oversee student progress.
Our Resource Program actively collaborates with students and parents to develop a Catholic Accommodation Plan that documents in-class accommodations and, when necessary, creates an Individual Catholic Education Plan to outline broader accommodations, modifications, intervention services, annual goals, and short-term measurable objectives. We reevaluate plans every semester based on feedback from classroom and specialist teachers.
The school actively supports students who need extra help with reading and spelling by offering the Orton-Gillingham Program for one to five 50-minute sessions per week, along with Great Leaps for building reading fluency and Learning Ally for text-to-speech with a human voice, enabling students to develop the necessary skills to become successful readers.
To help resource students feel more comfortable and perform better on tests, teachers actively implement practices such as allowing extra time, providing assistance with directions, modifying tests to accept alternative response formats, offering small group testing, and permitting the use of dictionaries and scribes, while also considering selective answering on standardized tests when possible.
Teachers actively support resource students' learning by adjusting homework assignments, providing written directions, using assistive technologies, offering organizational aids, and modifying classroom practices such as reducing board copying, allowing extra time for responses, and providing alternative language options.
To create an effective learning environment for resource students, teachers actively use clear warnings before consequences, allow standing while working, develop nonverbal cues for staying on task, increase legitimate movement opportunities, create specialized behavior plans for self-monitoring, provide specified items to hold for hyperactivity, and utilize behavioral checklists or timers.
Preferential seating, such as placing students at the front of the room near the teacher or a peer helper, and uniform adaptations, like providing tailored desks and seating for sensory and writing needs, are strategies teachers implement to create an inclusive, comfortable classroom environment that minimizes distractions and supports learning progress.
St. Jerome Academy's Student Assistance Team actively supports students who struggle to benefit from general education by collaboratively designing tailored interventions that focus on individual strengths within the general education setting. The team aims to resolve problems without special education referral through weekly meetings that include homeroom teachers when their students are discussed.
Saint Margaret of Castello was a 13th-century Italian Dominican Tertiary, born blind, hunchbacked, lame, and very small in stature. Her noble parents were horrified at her physical disabilities and kept her hidden away in a cell-like room attached to a chapel for years. Despite this, Margaret learned prayers and grew in her Catholic faith, eventually convincing her parents to allow her to make her First Communion. They then abandoned her at age 15, leaving her at a church in the town of Castello.
The townspeople came to love Margaret for her cheerful, prayerful nature and acts of charity. She made peace between warring families, nursed the sick, and helped the poor despite having almost nothing herself.
Towards the end of her short life, she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, working humbly as a lay sister. She is the patron saint of the disabled, homeless, those viewed as repulsive, and society's cast-offs. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2021. Her feast day is April 13.
The St. Margaret of Castello Parents Group, which supports the St. Jerome Academy Resource Program, is named for her.