Perhaps Kathleen Cepelka effectively summed up a half-day conference Wednesday on the future of Catholic kindergarten through twelfth grade schools simply by describing the state of the schools in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Cepelka, the superintendent of schools in the archdiocese, told the full-house audience in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall about the strengths of schools in Milwaukee, about positive developments in enrollment, and about the many praiseworthy people and organizations involved in making the schools as good as they are.<\/p>\n
But, she said, the quality of some of the schools isn\u2019t what it needs to be and there are weak levels of achievement among students in some schools.\u00a0 \u201cWe are not satisfied,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That mix — loyalty and pride in Catholic schools with an understanding of the pressing need to improve —\u00a0 was voiced frequently during the conference, \u201cThe Future of Catholic K-12 Education: National and Milwaukee Perspectives,\u201d sponsored by Marquette Law School and the Marquette College of Education.\u00a0 Maybe \u201cwe are not satisfied\u201d could have been the slogan for the event. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The conference offered expert insights on national trends involving Catholic schools.<\/p>\n
In the opening session, Margaret F. Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett, both Notre Dame Law School professors, described what they found in researching their 2014 book, \u201cLost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools\u2019 Importance in Urban America.\u201d<\/p>\n
They told moderator Mike Gousha, Marquette Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, that the closing of Catholic schools in urban areas correlates with a decline in the \u201csocial capital\u201d of the surrounding neighborhoods. The data they crunched, focused largely on Chicago, controlled for a range of other aspects of neighborhoods and found negative impact on neighborhoods that matched specifically with Catholic school closings. Similar results were found in Philadelphia, although not in Los Angeles, the two said, adding that Los Angeles has some of the lowest social capital on a neighborhood basis of any place in the country.<\/p>\n
One aspect of what Brinig and Garnett found in studying school closings was that if a parish priest and others involved in a parish fought to keep a school open, they often succeeded. That led the authors to encourage Catholic school communities to advocate strongly for their future.<\/p>\n
The law professors also said that the broader social good accomplished by having Catholic schools in urban neighborhoods was an argument for public funding, such as school vouchers, to support continuation of those schools.<\/p>\n
In a second session, two nationally prominent school reform advocates argued provocatively for major changes in the way Catholic schools operate.<\/p>\n
Kathleen Porter-Magee was recently named superintendent and chief academic officer for the Partnership for Inner-City Education in New York, which means she is overseeing an effort to raise substantially the academic success in six Catholic schools in Harlem and the Bronx.<\/p>\n
Porter-Magee said she was aiming to establish among the adults involved in the schools a clear, shared vision of \u201cwhat excellence looks like.\u201d She said the schools have a lot of teachers who have high potential but who have gotten little meaningful feedback or coaching on improving their work. A lot of Catholic school teachers have raw talent, are good at maintaining order, structure and so on, she said. \u201cDeveloping the talent we have is the first thing to focus on,\u201d she said. Improving the talent pipeline for future teachers is also important. And she is implementing large changes in how reading and other subjects are taught.<\/p>\n
Andy Smarick is a partner in a Washington-based education non-profit, Bellwether Education Partners, and is a senior policy fellow with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The state of Catholic education has been a focus of much of his research and advocacy.<\/p>\n
On one hand, Smarick pointed to concerning trends of decline in Catholic schools nationwide. But on the other hand, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve never been more excited than I am now\u201d about the potential for good things happening. In his view, the good things involve a lot of change in how Catholic schools are overseen and operated.<\/p>\n
Smarick said Catholic leaders have a choice: \u201cKeep doing the things we\u2019ve been doing that have led to our slow demise consistently for half a century. Or open your minds and do thing differently. We\u2019re starting to see on the horizon sunlight for the very first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said some church leaders are too resistant to change. \u201cIt was time for the milkman to go away. It was time for trains to get replaced by airplanes. Progress sometimes is progress,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that means breaking eggs sometimes to make omelets. So I\u2019m bullish about the possibility of young entrepreneurs and related laity in these systems saying we have to try things differently, and that means replacing yesterday\u2019s Catholic schools with a new breed of Catholic schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smarick offered three areas that need to change: \u201dStraight up transparency and accountability\u201d that makes very clear how a school is doing when it comes to outcomes for students; an understanding of the changing landscape of educational options for parents so that Catholic schools are ones more parents choose for their children; and unleashing more \u201centrepreneurialism\u201d among those who want to run or work in Catholic schools.<\/p>\n
Smarick and Porter-Magee both said that many talented young Catholic educators are going to work in charter schools rather than Catholic schools because their freedom to pursue fresh ways to get better results was much greater. Smarick said he was encouraged by what is unfolding in cities around the country where an \u201canalog\u201d to charter schools is arising for Catholic education.<\/p>\n
The third session of the conference focused on Milwaukee, with Superintendent Cepelka being joined by Laura Gutierrez, vice president of academic affairs for the 2,000-student St. Anthony School on Milwaukee\u2019s south side, and the Very Rev. Tim Kitzke, a member of the pastoral team for several parishes in Milwaukee and a leader of Catholic East Elementary School.<\/p>\n
Cepelka said enrollment in Catholic schools in the Milwaukee area was defying national trends. But without publicly-funded vouchers, she said, schools would be in \u201ca very different place . . . a scary and probably a purely-survival mode.\u201d \u00a0She said that 27 urban grade schools in the archdiocese offer some bright spots, but, overall, \u201cour deepest concern\u201d is the quality of the schools.<\/p>\n
Gutierrez described the parents and students of St. Anthony, close to 100% of them Hispanic, and said they are looking for faith formation and safety as well as a good education.<\/p>\n
Kitzke said that 15 years ago, he would not have sent a hypothetical child of his own to Catholic East because the school was offering \u201ca bad product.\u201d But the school has made major strides to improve and now he would send that hypothetical child to the school. Schools such as Catholic East, he said, need to do more to change their culture to focus on children and their needs.<\/p>\n
Cepelka said Catholic schools need to pay attention to every inch of a child\u2019s path. \u2018We have a ways to go in that regard,\u201d she said. As for administration of the Catholic schools overall, she said, \u201cWe need a new way of doing business\u201d that assists schools more effectively.<\/p>\n
At the end of the event, Law School Dean Joseph D. Kearney announced that the Marquette Law School Poll will undertake a project to shed light on opinion among Catholics in several parts of the country on Catholic education. He said the poll results would be presented at a future event that would further the Law School\u2019s interest in issues involving Catholic education.<\/p>\n