The vexed question of how and why some pedagogical practices persist and others do not lies at the heart of sustaining changes that enhance teaching quality. Understanding the role that leadership practices can play in this process is crucial: schools play decisive roles in allocating life chances for young people. This paper draws on findings…

One of the most important questions facing Catholic schools today is how can these schools meet the needs of today's and tomorrow's culture and become a living faith community. Evidence suggests that Catholic high schools have a common mission of academic excellence, faith development, and a sense of community; academic, co-curricular, and…

In this study, parents' reasons for school choice were explored at four inner-city school sites by means of a questionnaire distributed to parents by their children. The sample for this study consisted of the parents of over 2,300 students who attend the four schools studied. All are inner-city Catholic high schools located in four different…

This study assesses community-sponsored Jewish supplementary high schools, and its implications were analyzed and applied to proposed closings and mergers among Catholic schools in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Data were gathered via administration of a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, an examination of published articles and reports and…

Catholic educators want students to do their best academically and become good Catholics. Challenges that make this goal difficult to accomplish include a changing environment within the Catholic school: staffs that were almost entirely composed of priests or religious are now almost entirely lay, and the tension between the school as an…

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.)…

This study compares community service programs in nine Catholic high schools in Louisville (Kentucky). Information was gathered from a survey and follow-up interviews, and findings are organized into a chart essay. The following findings are included: (1) the schools represent a variety of governance and religious affiliation patterns; (2) all but…

Among the most notable aspects of the educational reform movement are the efforts by government, corporate, and philanthropic leaders to establish academic standards. This paper addresses two questions: (1) Why is it important for the Catholic high schools of America to set standards and improve assessments? and (2) What types of standards and…

This study explored teachers' reasons for teaching in Catholic secondary schools and examined why they stayed in Catholic secondary schools. Data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with four teachers representing different ethnicities, religions, and genders indicated that respondents considered the environment in Catholic schools to be…

This study investigated the value preferences of lay women and men who taught in Roman Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Miami. Questionnaires were sent to a stratified random sample of 353 full-time secondary school teachers, and a total of 168 lay respondents returned usable forms. Respondents were asked to complete a brief…

In addition to acting as good day-to-day administrators, principals of Catholic high schools should be leaders in the area of ideals, expressing and putting into action perceptions that remain below the level of consciousness of others. They may choose that their schools emphasize more important values, perhaps at the expense of traditional school…

This paper examines the increased activity in Vermont among proponents of educational vouchers for religious schools. It focuses on the "Chittenden" case, in which parents sued for tuition support to pay for their children's education at a local Roman Catholic high school. The report describes how the Roman Catholic Church and various…

This paper reports the results of a qualitative study investigating the dynamic operation of students' multiple motivational goals among the senior year cohort of a Catholic secondary boys school in Sydney, Australia. The study found that the relative salience of students' multiple goals, as well as the changing state of their ongoing academic…

Over the past 20 years independent lines of research in the fields of classroom environment and student attitudes to Christianity have been conducted. A study brought these two fields together by investigating the relationship between student perceptions of religious classroom environment and their attitudes toward Christianity. A personal form of…

The speech/debate team at St. Mary's High School in Stockton, California, begins each competition with a prayer and does not emphasize winning trophies. Nevertheless, they consistently qualify their students at the yearly state championships. According to their coach, this is because the school has supportive and encouraging administrators and…