Catholic schools pivoted – and grew – during COVID

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

A panel of four Catholic education leaders touted the resiliency and flexibility of Catholic schools in the United States during and after COVID at the National Catholic Educational Association Convention (NCEA) April 21 in New Orleans.

“We have a great story to tell right now,” said Lincoln Snyder, president and CEO of the NCEA, mentioning how well Catholic schools performed during the pandemic and the increase in enrollment from 1.62 to 1.69 million students – the first gain in 24 years.

“Harnessing the power of that storytelling is going to be a great opportunity for us going forward,” Snyder said. “We are very different from other school systems.”

Moderating the panel, “The State of Catholic Education,” Jill Annable, senior vice president of programs for the NCEA, asked four pertinent questions about the state of Catholic education today.
In-person learning preferred

New families came to Catholic schools because they wanted in-person learning, but stayed because they have fallen in love with the community and saw how well-served their children were by Catholic education, Snyder said. Federal scholarship programs also benefited families who maybe couldn’t afford tuition before.

Snyder said the NCEA connects schools with resources to face the challenges of demographic population shifts and teachers having to accelerate classroom learning to compensate for deficits left by the pandemic as they strive for continued excellence. The NCEA also is strategizing to strengthen the Catholic teacher pipeline to replace retired teachers.

 “The good news is that it is all achievable,” Snyder said.

Maureen Dowling, director of the Office of Nonpublic Schools for the U.S. Department of Education for the past 22 years, cited data revealing that more than 90% of private schools were onsite for learning in the 2020-21 year, higher than their public school counterparts.

“I like to (say) that you have pivot potency,” Dowling said. “That is a success story that I hope you will tell loudly and clearly. And, it wasn’t just post-COVID. I know some of you in this audience were there after Hurricane Katrina. It was the Catholic schools that invited students to come and get educated regardless of what schools they had been in.”

Evangelizing tool

Mary Pat Donoghue, executive director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said Catholic schools “remain the most constant, evangelical tool available to the church.”

Bishops see Catholic education as a top priority, while realizing it has changed since the pandemic, she said. Bishops are looking at “hybrid, online approaches to serve the underserved and to increase our capacity to welcome children who have special and distinct learning needs.”

Forming teachers to best lead children and Catholic identity also are priorities.

“There are growing signs everywhere that the Holy Spirit is driving teacher formation as a priority for Catholic education,” Dowling said. Even “the Supreme Court has recognized Catholic teachers as ministers. This demands that we are treating and forming our teachers that way.”

Through the American Federation for Children, Bruce Hermie said Catholic schools rose, on several fronts, to the challenge of teaching during and after the pandemic.

Catholic schools did this by “not only serving diverse learners but by looking at ways of diversifying both instruction and school structure in order to offer the opportunities that parents want,” he said.

 “Catholic schools are uniquely positioned to continue to have success in coming years,” Hermie said. “Last year, 21 states either introduced or expanded school-choice programs nationwide, creating an additional 165,000 scholarships with almost $9 million in scholarship funding. Parents want the opportunities to be in our Catholic schools.”


Did pandemic change schools?
Asked how the pandemic changed schools, Dowling drew laughs when she answered that they were “more sanitized.” She said increased collaboration with local, state and federal leaders and the utilization of federal programs to help students also served them well.

“I’ve seen an enhanced intentionality on how a (Catholic) school district can expend federal funds within a timely manner,” she said.

Donoghue called Catholic schools “the jewels in the American Catholic Church’s crown.”

During COVID, she witnessed Catholic school leaders and teachers making decisions quickly at the local level. This allowed many Catholic schools to reopen overnight in her area compared to the three to four weeks it took for public schools. She said how teachers love and connect to students – using Christ as the organizing principle in all disciplines – also made a difference.
 
“You demonstrated what we believe about the distinct nature of Catholic education: you see it as essential,” Donoghue said. “Before we fully understood the risks, many of you were back on campus bringing your children further along in their understanding and their relationship with Jesus.”

Hermie said the pandemic forced Catholic schools to be more flexible in how they educate. Administrators offered online formation events to engage teachers and students.

“We learned a lot of new tools and ways to engage our families, and some of those things are here to stay,” he said. Refining those practices, while sticking to core Catholic principles and practices, will appeal to more students and parents.

Hermie sees the strong cohesion in Catholic schools developed during the pandemic as vitally important – considering the recent influx of non-Catholic or non-observant Catholics students.

“That is an opportunity for us as a church to evangelize and catechize (to bring children to Jesus Christ), but we do have to be intentional about that,” he said. “We’ve got momentum now. What do I have to do to keep things going? We are looking to sustain it.”

Obstacles or opportunities
When Annable asked about stumbling blocks since the pandemic, panelists discussed societal trends. Donaghue said as recently as the 1950s-60s, there were 5 million students in Catholic schools, but now the Catholic Church is no longer part of the prevailing culture.

“(We are) among the first to live in a world that once knew and understood the truth of Christ and has rejected it in some ways,” Donoghue said.
 
She said Catholic education can read the signs of the times and respond to current needs and conditions of families and nurture a Christian imagination in students.

“Souls are at stake,” Donoghue said.

Hermie addressed enrollment increases since the pandemic and asked school leaders to question why parents chose Catholic schools and why they are staying as things normalize. The key is remaining curious to engage students of all learning abilities. This will dispel the misconception that Catholic schools don’t educate students with diverse educational needs.

“Catholic school opportunities in STEM, STEAM and STREAM have grown over the past 10 years,” Hermie said. “These things will make parents want to choose Catholic schools.”

Snyder conveyed the importance of identifying and hiring teachers who are passionate about Catholic principles to replenish the pipeline of teachers needed to replace those who are now retiring.

“Mission is caught; it is not taught. It is something you cannot teach an employee,” Snyder said.

Future opportunities
School-choice scholarships are important to sustain Catholic schools, all the panelists said. They stressed the importance of keeping the Catholic voice in the decision-making process and showing how Catholic schools teach with wonder, love and joy while reaching out to the most vulnerable and those with learning differences.

Hermie said school leaders can prove to state legislators that school choice works through qualitative and quantitative data.

“We have to develop a growth mindset to provide the Catholic education that children need and parents want for them,” Hermie emphasized.

Snyder said parents will commit to education if they see value in it.

“When we make the case that a Catholic education is the single-best investment that a family can make for their child or in someone else’s child, we will tap resources that will sustain us to go forward,” Snyder said.

When asked what Catholic schools will look like in the next decade, Snyder thinks growth will materialize but in a changing environment. He said it will take an intentional investment and a missionary approach to be where Catholics are.

Dowling also suggested creating a welcoming school like one she witnessed in Bethesda, Maryland, where students and parents were greeted every morning by name by eighth graders standing outside.

“Those students come and feel ‘I am known, I am valued, I am loved,’” she said. “Never underestimate the power of the community that you are seeking to create. It is more powerful than any technology or artificial intelligence.”

Donoghue sees Catholic schools fully engaged in the apostolic mission of the church in the next 10 years.

“An apostolically engaged system needs to be more nimble,” she said.

“We may be partnering with families that home-school or have more hybrid students, maybe find ways for families who are geographically distanced to participate in our schools.”

Hermie cited the growth of school choice over the past decade to project the future. Catholic schools have an edge to capture those new students by continually seeking better ways to serve what families need.

“Ten years ago, there were 240,000 students nationwide using school-choice scholarships,” Hermie said. “This year, there’s over 600,000. Ten years ago, 13 states had school choice programs; today, it’s 31 plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Opportunities are going to continue to come to your school to minimize or eliminate the tuition barrier. Through diverse models of schools, we will meet people where they are, as we always have in our Catholic Church. That will become critical to sustaining the vitality of our Catholic schools long-term.”
 
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