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Are
they successful?
The
easiest way for me to answer this question of whether or not
Catholic schools are successful is simply to suggest that you
first:
Look
at your own experience— if you graduated from a Catholic
school.
My mother went to a Catholic elementary school but
did not go to high school. My father went to Catholic
elementary school and Catholic high school but did not
graduate from high school. Their four sons graduated from
Catholic elementary and secondary schools, held executive
positions and two of them have earned doctorates. Catholic
schools took a largely immigrant population of the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, and brought that population
into the mainstream of American life so that today it is one
of the best educated and most successful groups in the United
States.
Look
at today’s parents.
Parents know how successful Catholic
schools are. In 1997, the parents of over 23,000 children in
the schools run by New York City signed their children up for
a lottery in which only 2,000 of these children would be able
to attend Catholic schools. Similar situations occurred in
Washington, Cleveland, Milwaukee and other cities. The
non-Catholic population in Catholic schools is over 13%.
Parents most often indicate that the primary reasons for
sending their children to Catholic schools are the schools’
record of academic excellence, emphasis on values and
supportive environment.
Look
at research. Research studies demonstrate the
effectiveness of Catholic schools and the superior performance
of Catholic school students over students in state-controlled
schools. The results of the 1996 National Assessment of
Educational Progress Tests (most recent available) show that
students in Catholic schools, who make up over 60% of the
students in independent schools, outperform students in
government-controlled schools in all areas. Some would claim
that we cannot place too much emphasis on these scores because
not all the rigors of educational research were followed. Yet
the overwhelming higher achievement of Catholic school
students in every subject, at every grade level and in every
test-year cannot be ignored. |
