In 1950, the Sisters of Mercy opened Mercy Junior College in Tarrytown, New York for younger members of their order. In 1961, with financial assistance from the Rockefeller family, they relaunched it as a private 4-year institution for women at a new complex in Dobbs Ferry. From 1911 onward, however, the Rockefellers had a complex relationship…

Jewish schools educated more than 151,000 students in New York State in 2013, the last year a careful count was done. And taxpayers have a stake in how well the yeshivas are doing their jobs. The Jewish schools absorb more than $100 million a year in city government funds for things such as textbooks, special education, security, and…

In this essay we use the framework of ideas, interests, and institutions (Heclo, 1994) to analyze the opportunities and challenges that confront Latino families and Catholic schools as they work to increase Latino enrollment. There are many ideas as to what to do to increase Latino enrollment. It is also apparent that it is in the interests of…

For many American Catholic universities, mission and identity are shaped by the charism and charismatic traditions of the founding religious congregations. But the use of this language raises several questions in the face of changing dynamics in higher education, the church, and society. Is the language of Lasallian, Vincentian, Dominican, or…

This article presents bystander intervention education as a best-practice approach to sexual violence prevention in college settings. It draws out a connection between mission-specific resources that can be used to advance the prevention agenda, while examining how bystander intervention education can deepen community engagement in collegiate…

This article reveals how St. John's University implemented mission-focused programs to advance its unique Catholic perspective, that of the Vincentian tradition to serve the poor and remedy social inequities. Heeding the 1986 call of Pope John Paul II to Vincentian institutions, all levels of the university from incoming freshmen to the board of…

In the summers of 2007 and 2008 St. John's University's faculty arrived in Rome and spent two weeks working together at the university's campus in the Prati section of Rome as participants in a program that was half faculty writing retreat and half writing across the curriculum faculty development workshop. The focus of the St. John's University…

This article presents how the division of student affairs at Siena College developed a framework for communicating its Franciscan and Catholic identity to job candidates and current staff. The recruitment for mission process described in this article has a dual purpose. The first is to educate and provide development opportunities for existing…

The role of the Skalel family and their founding of Whitby School in 1958 were the spark that started the Montessori movement in the United States. Ann Skalel was impressed with the Montessori method, having seen it in practice in Ireland, that she wanted to start such a school in Greenwich, CT for her grandchildren. Tragically, Skalel and her…

This article outlines the significant legal decisions regarding collective bargaining in Catholic schools, identifies the governance structures employed in Catholic schools and the methods of translating these governance structures into documents required by civil law, and concludes with the citation of two recent court decisions that demonstrate…

Seamus Hodgkinson was raised in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles," a time of religious unrest and violence. Thousands of lives were lost as hatred between Catholic and Protestant groups escalated into intense battles. In 1957, Hodgkinson left Northern Ireland to accept a teaching position at the newly formed Doane Stuart School in…

Across the country, more Catholic schools are closing, as support for parochial schools in impoverished communities dwindles. Dr. Vernon C. Polite, Dean of the School of Education at the time he was selected to present at AERA (Dr. Polite joined the School of Education at Eastern Michigan University as its Dean during the summer of 2005.)…

Outlook is the monthly newsletter for the Council for American Private Education (CAPE). Each issue contains information relating to private education such as: new legislation and regulations, the most recent research, court rulings, national trends, federal initiatives, private school news briefs, and more. This issue contains the following…

The challenges of keeping Catholic schools open in working-class neighborhoods were brought home last February 2005, when the Archdiocese of Chicago announced it would close 23 elementary schools and merge or consolidate four others in June 2005. Two weeks earlier, the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York City decided to close 26 elementary schools in…

This bulletin is the report of the Second Commission on Life Adjustment Education for Youth. It consists of an account of the activities of the Commission carried on during its 3-year (1950-53) tenure (Chapter One), descriptions of related activities carried on in the different States and dioceses (Chapter Two), and an analysis of secondary…