Posted on 08/14/2018 12:05:11 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
New research from the Loyola Marymount University School of Education (SOE) shows that inner-city Los Angeles students attending Catholic schools graduate high school at a much higher rate than their peers in comparable public and charter schools.
100 percent of these students, who came from families living at or below the poverty line, graduated high school.
96 percent were accepted into either two- or four-year colleges.
Key factors in achieving not only high academic excellence but also character formation boiled down to school climate, personal relationship and tuition assistance, according to interviews with the tracked students. One alumnus spoke of a “very home-like feeling … more of a caring for you, so, therefore, I can’t disappoint these people who have faith in me.”
Students and their parents praised the emphasis at Catholic schools on establishing caring, supportive and personal relationships among teachers and staff with themselves. One student called his classmates “like brothers to me,” adding, “I feel like I can talk to any of them.”
Not surprisingly, tuition assistance was also a crucial factor for the students and their families. One CEF tuition assistance recipient pointed out how the grants affected his motivation.
“People really believe in me and think I can do something,” said the student. “So it’s not just for myself but always for others, too. Work hard because people believe in you, and just make them proud.”
“This study makes a compelling case for including Catholic schools — a proven model with a long track record of success, particularly for our society’s most marginalized and vulnerable members — in the national conversation on education reform,” said Shane P. Martin, dean and professor for the LMU School of Education and a co-author of the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at straphaella.org ...
Separate the boys and girls. Uniforms. Let them go home on weekends only. I’m sure they’ll be happier when Monday comes around.
The spiritual formation is a big part of it too. If your school has the ritual of weekly Mass and daily prayers those aspects are going to sink into good habits of mind. Public schools lack that.
Less likely to be shot at by a mass shooter from* a public school I meant. The Catholic school students are statistically safer during school hours.
Parkland, for example, was at one point voted safest city in Florida. I’m sure Newtown and other such places had similar reputations. It’s an interesting phenomenon to be sure.
Proof that it’s school admins that are fail, rather than the students being unteachable, in inner city schools?
I certainly agree with this study. Check out the 60 Minutes segment on St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, which aired on CBS around the same time that the posted article was published.
Discipline, higher standards, and norms of social conformity. Its not rocket surgery.
Public schools really are lowest common denominator,
Newt Gingrich stated this 20 some years ago.
While the differing nature of the Catholic schools from the godless public schools is surely one factor, an even more strong thing is the fact that the parents who send their children to these schools generally care much more about their kids and generally do a much better job raising these kids before they even step foot in a school.
#1 factor in student success is parental involvement. The kids that escaped the LA schools are the ones with parents that cared enough to get them out. That raises success rate of the private school and removes the students who were most likely to go to college from the public schools, further driving down their %.
The private schools don't have to deal with the bottom 20% or so of intentional non learners that the public school does. This will also distort the numbers.
All that being said, I'd be moving heaven and earth to get my kid out of there.
How much money was wasted on that study?
When John Cardinal O’Connor was accused of taking only “good” into the Catholic school system and leaving the hard cases to the public schools he immediately rejoined: “Send them to me”. NYC somehow failed to take him up on the offer.
I make a distinction between Catholic schools and secular private schools. Catholic schools incorporate religious faith and spiritual ethos. They are not merely private.
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