COLLABORATION OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER AND A PUBLIC SCHOOL

COLLABORATION OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER AND A PUBLIC SCHOOL

CHARTERING AUTHORITY

___________________________________

By

JOSEPH D. HOLLOWELL

___________________________________

A DISSERTATION IN PRACTICE

Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of Creighton University in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in

Interdisciplinary Leadership

_________________________________

Omaha, NE

(April 18, 2016)

Copyright 2016, Joseph D. Hollowell

This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no part of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

iii

Abstract

In 2005, after a six-year period of discussion and discernment, the Institute of the

Brothers of the Christian Schools collaborated with the Chicago Public Schools to

establish two charter schools known as the Catalyst Schools. Collaboration of religious

organizations and local charter granting authorities for the establishment of charter

schools is a new phenomenon. Recent research finds the Catalyst Schools succeeding at

this collaboration because of the “faith-inspired” nature of the schools founded by two

members of the Lasallian Christian Brothers. This qualitative case study investigated the

collaboration and discernment among leaders of CPS and the Christian Brothers that

allowed this successful partnership to be established. The aim of the study was to develop

a series of evidence-based recommendations that can be used by similar organizations as

a guide for establishing similar faith-inspired charter schools. Collection of data was

accomplished through interviewing leaders, gathering documents, participating in

shadowing experiences, and multiple observations. The pivotal moment of the

discernment was provided by the former Superior General of the Christian Brothers who

documented the world-wide commitment of the order to work with a variety of

governmental agencies to educate poor children. Subsequently, the Christian Brothers

developed a faculty formation regimen unique among charter schools that inspires the

work of the Catalyst Schools to be carried on in a way that is consistent with the charisms

of the order. The study concludes with the evidence-based recommendations and a

reflection on the principles of leadership relevant to executing the recommended steps.

Keywords: Leadership, charter schools, urban Catholic schools, Catalyst Schools

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Dedication

This dissertation is dedicated to my wife and children who fill my life with love,

meaning, and joy – and to Jesus Christ – the second person of the Holy Trinity whose

life, death, and resurrection inspired St. Ignatius of Loyola and gave rise to the

establishment of the Society of Jesus and Creighton University.

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Acknowledgements

I want to extend my thanks to the following saints who are known for their

scholarship and to whom I prayed for intercession at the beginning of each session of

writing for this dissertation - St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, St. Thomas Aquinas,

and St. Ignatius of Loyola. I am certain their intercession carried me through many times

of uncertainty and ambiguity as progress was slowly made.

I am also grateful to my advisor Dr. Barbara Brock and the past ILD program

chair Dr. Isabelle Cherney for their prudent and exceptional guidance. It was such a

pleasure to get to know both of them. Additionally, I am grateful for the insights and

focused efforts of my Committee Chair, Dr. Leah Georges. She is an inspirational

professional and I am blessed to have had her guiding me through this process. Two other

members of my committee - Dr. Tim Cook and Fr. Thomas Simonds, S.J. have ably

assisted Dr. Georges. Thank you all for being my Dream Team!

I also want to acknowledge my supervisors at my day job who have both helped

and encouraged me over the past four years. I am so blessed to work with both of you –

Annette “Mickey” Lentz, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, and Gina

Kuntz Fleming, the Superintendent of Schools for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

Thank you both for your support and for your patience as I gave attention to this program

of studies.

My extraordinary colleagues at Roncalli High School are to be commended for

picking up the slack when multiple demands and responsibilities occasionally required us

to “bring the lefty out of the bullpen” in order to complete the essential tasks that keep

our school in the position of being one of the finest in the country. Special thanks go to

vi

Vice-President of Institutional Advancement Terese Carson, Vice-President for Finance

and Facilities Dave Gervasio, Vice President for Mission and Ministry Bob Tully,

Principal Chuck Weisenbach, and my extraordinary Executive Assistant Lora Mascari. It

gave me great peace of mind to know that during the occasional periods of focus on this

program, Roncalli was in the capable hands of such a wonderful team of leaders. I am so

blessed to work with each of you. Thank you all for your patience.

Additionally, I am blessed to have worked with Kim Striby who provided

proofreading and editing services in the final stages of writing this dissertation. Her

suggestions were always spot on and were offered in a way that allowed me to maintain

my self-confidence as a writer. I am grateful to have learned from you!

Finally, I am so grateful to our children and my beautiful wife for their ongoing

support. Our family is a great blessing to all of us but especially to me. It was good to be

a college kid again but now I am ready to get back to being a full time Dad and a full

time husband.

AMDG!

vii

Table of Contents

Page

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii

Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv

Acknowledgments................................................................................................................v

Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii

List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii

List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1

Introduction and Background ..............................................................................................1

Statement of the Problem .....................................................................................................4

Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................................6

Research Questions ..............................................................................................................6

Aim of the Study ..................................................................................................................7

Methodology Overview .......................................................................................................7

Definition of Relevant Terms ..............................................................................................8

Delimitations and Limitations ............................................................................................10

Leader’s Role and Responsibility in Relation to the Problem ...........................................10

Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................12

Summary ............................................................................................................................16

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................17

Introduction ........................................................................................................................17

Roots of the Educational Reform Movement ....................................................................17

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Competition In Education – New Options Emerge……………………………………...20 Vouchers and Charters Begin to Appear ...........................................................................20

Vouchers – The Courts Begin to Speak .............................................................................21

Rapid Expansion of the Charters School Option ...............................................................22

Charter School Research ....................................................................................................23

Analysis of Both Innovations Continues ...........................................................................26

Legal Questions Slowly Resolved .....................................................................................27

International School Choice ...............................................................................................31

Sweden………………………………………………………………………...…34 India……………………………………………………………………….…......35 New Zealand……………………………………………………………………..35 Australia……………………………………………………………………….…38 The Rise of Religious Charter Schools in the United States .............................................40

Conversion of Inner City Catholic Schools to Charter Schools ........................................42

Catholic Schools – The Fullest and Best Opportunity?....………………….....…45 Observable Benefits………………………………………………………...……48 Problems Arise With the Conversions………………………………………...…48 Catalyst Schools – A New Model ......................................................................................50

Summary ............................................................................................................................53

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................55

Introduction ........................................................................................................................55

Research Questions ............................................................................................................57

Research Design.................................................................................................................58

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Study Participants ..............................................................................................................58

Data Collection Tools ........................................................................................................61

Data Collection Procedures ................................................................................................62

Ethical Considerations .......................................................................................................64

Summary ............................................................................................................................65

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND THE EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTION ..............66

Introduction ........................................................................................................................66

Presentation of the Findings...............................................................................................67

Conceptual Development ...................................................................................................69

St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle…………..……………………………………….…69 Establishment of San Miguel Middle School……………………………….…...69 The CEO Comes for a Visit……………………………………..…………….…72 The Charter Proposition – Discussion and Discernment………………………………...74

The Midwest District……………….…………………………………..…….….74 Rationale for a Decision……………………………………………………....…………78 Brother Johnston’s Memorandum…………………………………………….…78 The Cardinal Objects But the Catalyst Movement Is Born…………….…….….83 Leadership Issues………………………………………………………………………...84

Paradigm Pioneers…………………………………………………………….…84 Leadership Is Proactive and Philanthropic………………………………………87 Overcoming Obstacles…………………………………………………………………...88

Board Clarity………………………..……………………………………………89 Union Resistance………………………………………………...………………90

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Regulatory Burden……………………………………………………………….90 Current Challenges for the Pioneers……………………………………………..91 The Catholic Ethos……………………………………………………………….………93

Faculty Hiring and Formation for Mission……………………………….…...…93 Values Curriculum…..……………………………………………...…….…...…95 A Faith-Based Community Partner……………………………………….…...…96 A Wraparound Spiritual Formation Program…………………………….…...…99 The Ideal Charter Granting Authority………….……………………………………….102 Analysis and Synthesis of Findings .................................................................................104

Summary ..........................................................................................................................107

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................109

Introduction ......................................................................................................................109

Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................110

Aim of the Study ..............................................................................................................110

Proposed Solution – For Charter-Granting Authorities ...................................................110

Proposed Solution – For Religious Organizations ...........................................................112

Step One – The Lasallian Platform ......................................................................112

Additional Evidence-based Recommendations ..................................................115

Support for the Solution ...................................................................................................119

Factors and Stakeholders Related to the Solution ............................................................126

Potential Barriers and Obstacles to Proposed Solution....................................................127

Financial Issues Related to Proposed Solution ................................................................128

The Leader’s Role In Implementing the Proposed Solution ............................................130

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External Implications for the Organization ......................................................................131

Evaluation and Timeline for Implementation and Assessment .......................................132

Change Theory .................................................................................................................133

Practical Implications.......................................................................................................135

Implications for Future Research .....................................................................................136

Implications for Leadership Theory and Practice ............................................................137

Final Observations About Leadership .............................................................................139

Summary of the Study .....................................................................................................140

References ........................................................................................................................142

Appendix A – Four Elements ..........................................................................................159

Appendix B – Interview Questions ..................................................................................165

Appendix C – IRB Approval Letter ................................................................................168

Appendix D – The Johnston Memorandum .....................................................................170

Appendix E – The Duncan Platform ................................................................................176

Appendix F – The Lasallian Platform ..............................................................................177

Appendix G – Letter From Sr. Immacula Wendt ............................................................179

Appendix H – Reflection on the Virtue of Humility for Lasallain Teachers ...................183

xii

List of Tables

Page

Table 1. International Survey of School Choice Programs ................................................33

Table 2. Frequency of Coded Themes ...............................................................................68

xiii

List of Figures

Page

Figure 1. Decline In Total Numbers of Catholic Schools by Decade ..................................1

Figure 2. Catholic School Enrollment for the Past 50 Years ...............................................2

Figure 3. Growth In Charter Schools Since Turn of the Century ......................................23

Figure 4. The Essential Ingredients for the Catholic Ethos .............................................101

Figure 5. Proposed Recommendations for Developing Faith-inspired Charter Schools. 119

Running head: COLLABORATION WITH A CHARTER AUTHORITY

1

Figure 1. Decline in the total number of Catholic schools by decade. Private school enrollment (2014).

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Introduction and Background

We live in a time of convergence of two intersecting trends. Over the past 50

years more than half of the Catholic schools around the country have closed as a result of

declining enrollment (McCloskey & Harris, 2013). Figure 1 demonstrates the seriousness

of this decline.

Even though these school closures have affected most demographic groups

around the country, they have most significantly impacted students and families from

center-city socioeconomic groups (McDonald & Schultz, 2009). Along with the decline

in the number of schools over the past 50 years, there has been a similarly proportional

decline in the number of students served by Catholic schools. As Figure 2 indicates on

the next page, Catholic schools have lost over 3,330,000 students since 1965.

1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015Schools 11,926 13,292 9,993 9,220 8,250 7,589 6,568

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

Num

ber

of C

atho

lic S

choo

ls

COLLABORATION WITH A CHARTER AUTHORITY

2

Figure 2. Catholic school enrollment for the past 60 years. Snyder, T. D. (1993).

In spite of efforts to turn the tide through marketing, new partnerships, and

revised governance structures, Catholic schools continue to close at an alarming rate

(Brinig & Garnett, 2014). Because of the increasing availability of mechanisms to form

charter schools, the second of the converging trends arises with the conversion of under-

resourced inner city Catholic schools to charter schools in order to stabilize the

enrollment declines and the subsequent financial problems these declines cause. This

phenomenon of the Catholic-to-charter conversion is expected to occur with increasing

frequency throughout the country (McShane & Kelly, 2014).

Hernandez (2009) notes that there is disagreement among leaders in the Catholic

community as to whether or not such conversions are a prudent way to fulfill the

Church’s mission to the poor. The most contentious issue is that, as charter schools, these

new schools can no longer offer mandatory religious instruction which many consider to

1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015Enrollment 4.27 5.27 3.41 2.82 2.70 2.40 1.94

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

Enr

ollm

ent (

Mill

ions

)


3

be the heart of the mission of Catholic schools (Ristau, 2009). Catholic leaders must give

appropriate time to discern the proper path in decisions of this sort. Good stewardship of

the investment made in Catholic education over the centuries requires that Catholic

leaders combine their best thinking and best efforts to propose a solution that serves these

urban communities in a way that best meets their needs.

While the phenomenon of the conversion of Catholic schools to charter schools

has not yet been widely implemented, the study of these schools is beginning to unfold

(Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Horning, 2013; McShane & Kelly, 2014; Smarick, 2010). As

predicted by Ristau (2009), emerging evidence indicates that these newly formed charter

schools lose the benefits of the shared religious mission and practices that are common in

most Catholic schools (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Smarick, 2010). According to these

researchers, the resulting charter schools have not been a satisfactory solution in the eyes

of Catholic leaders. However, recent research (Proehl, Starnes, and Everett, 2015)

indicates that a new sort of model has emerged as the result of the collaboration between

the Chicago Public School (CPS) system and the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian

Schools (Christian Brothers) religious order. Proehl et al. (2015) indicates that the

Catalyst Schools are successfully operating as “faith-inspired” charter schools that show

great promise as a model of collaboration between a public chartering authority and a

religious organization desiring to serve the poor in the secular setting of a public school

while at the same time maintaining fidelity to the founding religious charisms of the

organization.

This research study will build understanding of important issues surrounding the

dialogue and negotiations among the leadership teams of these two organizations – the


4

Chicago Public Schools and the Christian Brothers - as they sought to understand and

accommodate the other’s concerns. Through interviews of the leaders involved in these

negotiations and discernment, increased understanding of this collaboration will help

inform other diocesan and religious leaders around the country as well as leaders of

public chartering authorities as they seek to determine if the formation of faith-inspired

charter schools merits consideration in their unique locations.

Statement of the Problem

There is grave concern among Catholic school leaders regarding the rapid rate of

closure of Catholic schools that serve impoverished communities (McDonald & Schultz,

2009). Some metropolitan Catholic school systems have begun to employ a solution that

closes a center-city Catholic school and reopens that facility as a charter school. In 2008,

the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. used the available mechanism for forming

charter schools to avoid the outright closure of seven Catholic schools by converting

them to charter schools (Turque, 2008). Since that time, both the Archdiocese of Miami

and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis have employed similar strategies in attempts to

continue to serve students and families in the inner city. Unfortunately, the resulting

charter schools have not been a satisfactory solution in the eyes of Catholic leaders

(Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Smarick, 2010). For example, dealing with public school

bureaucracies as well as a heightened emphasis on standardized test preparation gave rise

to a definitive change in school climate that led to the resignation of many teachers from

the Catholic school who had been retained during the first years of the conversion to a

charter school (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014). Furthermore, Carr (2014) cites the lack of

shared times of prayer and the sense of community among faculty that results from that


5

prayer as an additional negative consequence of these conversions. Recently, as a result

of its dissatisfaction with the resulting product of the conversions, the Archdiocese of

Indianapolis ended its five-year experiment with these converted charter schools (Glavan,

2015).

Recent research (Proehl et al., 2015) indicates that a new model of collaboration

between a religious order and a public charter-granting authority has emerged which has

garnered strong approval from all stakeholders. In a unique partnership between the

Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (Christian Brothers) and the Chicago

Public School system (CPS), the Christian Brothers, after a six year period of

discernment and dialogue, eventually made a decision in 2005 to accept the offer of

partnership with CPS and open two “faith-inspired” charter schools called “Catalyst

Schools” in 2006. According to Proehl et al. (2015), parents, students, teachers, and

administrators all indicate a level of satisfaction with the Catalyst Schools that surpasses

the results of other such partnerships with religious organizations and charter-granting

authorities. Understanding the processes, rationale, and key elements of the

organizational discernment experienced by the Christian Bothers can inform leaders of

other religious organizations regarding critical elements for consideration by those

considering such a conversion. If optimal approaches to these conversions can be

identified, this new faith-inspired model of charter schools might be a viable option as

diocesan leaders and leaders of other religious communities evaluate the merit of

converting inner city Catholic schools to charter schools.


6

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this case study was to understand the process of conceptual

development, negotiation, reasoning, and discernment among organizational leaders that

led a large metropolitan school system and a religious order to collaborate on the

establishment of two publicly funded “faith-inspired” charter schools in impoverished

urban neighborhoods.

Research Questions

Both Carr (2014) and Smarick (2010) discovered the surfacing of significant

disappointments following the formation of a charter school after the closure of a

Catholic school. There is a perception of decline and loss held by school personnel who

had been with the schools both before and after they were converted to charter schools.

While veteran teachers, administrators, and staff initially had great hopes that the

distinguishing characteristics of the Catholic school - high standards, good discipline, and

a commitment to teaching virtue and character - could be retained after the conversion,

their lived experience left them deeply troubled by the climate and culture of the newly

formed charter school. Elements of a shared culture ingrained in the students through the

day-to-day operation of the Catholic schools that bound both the students and faculty in a

shared mission were not adequately replaced by the optional afterschool religious

education programs offered to the students (Smarick, 2010). However, recent research by

Proehl et al. (2015) indicates that a new model of charter school formation has emerged

that is showing previously unparalleled results in retaining what Proehl refers to as the

“Catholic ethos,” the retention of which is important to leaders of Catholic secondary and

elementary schools along with their superiors at the diocesan level.


7

The following research questions guided this case study:

Research question #1: How do leaders of a public school chartering authority and a

religious order describe the process of discussion, negotiation, and discernment that led to

the agreement to collaborate on the establishment of two “faith-inspired” charter schools

in impoverished urban neighborhoods managed by the religious order.

Research question #2: What have been the obstacles, successes, and future opportunities

presented since the establishment of these two schools?

Aim of the Study

The aim of this study was to create an evidence-based series of recommendations

that can be adopted by religious organizations and public charter granting authorities to

facilitate collaboration in the establishment of “faith-inspired” charter schools in

impoverished urban areas.

Methodology Overview

In order to understand the nuanced dialogue among participants, evaluate the

educational philosophy driving the decision-making of leaders, and to analyze the ideas

expressed in written communiqués among all parties, it was determined that a qualitative

approach was most appropriate for this research. The majority of the data was compiled

in the form of transcribed personal interviews with those leaders who were most

instrumental in the formation and adoption of this new approach to establishing “faith-

inspired” charter schools. In addition to the interviews of leaders, some of the participants

were able to provide archival documents that are pivotal to understanding the rationale

for the approach these leaders took in establishing this new genre of charter schools. The

participants were selected because of their familiarity with the decision-making processes


8

and deliberation that led to the formation of the Catalyst Schools. The interview data was

electronically recorded and subsequently transcribed by a professional. Additionally,

documents such as minutes of CPS Board meetings, internal memos, email messages

circulated among leaders, charter applications, and position papers written by the

Christian Brothers leaders provided an important complement to the data unearthed in the

interviews.

Definition of Relevant Terms

Charism: A charism is understood by Christian theologians to be a gift given by

the Holy Spirit to a person or group for a particular work in the world (Catechism of the

Catholic Church, 1994, n. 799).

Charter school: Charter schools are public schools that are given a charter by an

authorized public agency such as a public university, the office of an elected official such

as a mayor, or a state agency such as the state board of education. A charter is typically

granted for three to five years and gives the school permission to operate with more

flexibility than the traditional public school. Each charter school defines its own mission

and method of operation consistent with the philosophy of educating a student held by

those who form the school and apply for the charter. The charter application details the

mission, organizational goals, and learning plan for the school. Laws that allow for the

establishment of charter schools have been passed in 43 states and the District of

Columbia (Center for Education Reform, 2015).

Charter-granting authority: A charter-granting authority is the governing body or

agency, usually identified by charter legislation, that has the authority to evaluate an


9

application to open a charter school and subsequently grants or denies an applicant

permission to open a charter school.

Faith-inspired charter school – a phrase developed by Catalyst School founders

to designate that even though a particular faith is not part of the written curriculum, the

principles of instruction are based upon the instructional methods and proper attitudes

developed by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle who founded the De La Salle Christian Brothers

over 300 years ago. The primary focus of the order is the operation of schools. Today, the

order runs 560 schools in 80 countries serving approximately 900,000 students. The

Lasallian Christian Brothers teacher training and formation programs are centered on the

life and writings of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle along with reflections on social justice

proposed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Teachers in faith-inspired

charter schools are given the opportunity to be formed by this Lasallian training as well.

Religious order: For the purposes of this study, a religious order is a group of men

or women who live under religious vows. The three vows commonly taken are poverty,

obedience, and chastity. Religious orders are most commonly found in the Eastern

Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Franciscans, Jesuits, and the

Little Sisters of the Poor are all examples of religious orders active in the United States.

School choice: School choice refers to an assortment of options that expand the

number of choices that a student has in terms of the school they will attend. The

expansion of choice is most commonly attained through the offering of school vouchers,

education tax credits, educational savings accounts, and the opening of public charter

schools.


10

Delimitations and Limitations

There are other Catholic schools around the country that have been converted to

charter schools, but time and fiscal constraints preclude the study of all of the models of

religious charter schools that are evolving. A delimitation of this particular study is that it

will solely focus on the dialogue and decision making processes that took place between

CPS and the Christian Brothers from the period of 1999 and 2005. The study will also

consider the results of these decisions once it was determined that two Catalyst schools

would open in 2005.

A limitation of this study is that since the formation of the Catalyst Schools took

place over 10 years ago, those who were interviewed occasionally had some difficulty

recalling certain aspects, facts, and timelines related to the questions surrounding the

details of the establishment of the schools explored during the interviews. When such

uncertainty was expressed, comments by participants were triangulated and confirmed by

other sources provided.

Leader’s Role and Responsibility in Relation to the Problem

Lowney (2003) provides a reflection on "love-driven leadership" which he

describes as the ability of a leader to see each person’s gifts, talents, potential, and dignity

that are often accompanied by a commitment to unlock that potential. The encouragement

of Ignatius of Loyola to “refuse no talent or any man of quality” is the foundation of the

entrance of the Jesuits into the field of education – a work of leadership that continues

around the world today. This commitment to love-driven leadership lies at the heart of

the Jesuit’s efforts to educate the poor. Education is intended to awaken the student to his

or her own possibilities. It fosters the ability to communicate, learn, reason, critically


11

analyze, plan, and dream in ways that those who lack sufficient education are unable to

do. A thriving democracy depends upon well-educated citizenry willing to provide

leadership for the next generation. Finally, many scholars argue that the most successful

strategy for breaking the cycle of generational poverty is through providing more

opportunities for education of our impoverished brothers and sisters (Ladd, 2012; Ng &

Rury, 2006; Payne, DeVol, & Smith, 2006). By developing a practical solution to the

difficulties that Catholic leaders face in maintaining an educational presence in

impoverished urban areas, this Dissertation in Practice holds promise to assist and aid the

Church’s mission to develop more "people of quality" to bring about the flourishing

garden of life that can be the fruit of the work of educating the poor and marginalized.

Additionally, it is incumbent upon leaders to seek bold strategies and innovations

that chart new paths for others to follow. The analysis of the attitudes, behaviors, and

decisions the leaders of the Christian Brothers and CPS displayed in this case helps shed

light on the vital role that leadership can play in charting a new direction in the

relationships between religious orders and public school authorities. The work of

Christensen, Horn, and Johnson (2011) along with that of Rogers (2003) emphasizes the

critical role of leadership in the process of directing and implementing societal change

through innovation. Early adoption of new innovations is made easier for those reluctant

to embrace change when research sheds light on expected outcomes. The formation of

these faith-inspired charter schools is the result of the mutual collaboration of the

leadership of two organizations that required change and innovation on the part of both

parties in how they conducted their business. The documentation and results provided by

this study offer a source of reflection for school leaders everywhere.


12

Embracing the lessons generated from this innovative approach to charter schools

in Chicago can help leaders across the country ascertain how to better serve children in

impoverished communities who cannot afford to fully support a private education but

would benefit from the values, attitudes, and habits taught at a “faith-inspired” charter

school. The decisions to do the work necessary to apply for a charter, to fund a charter,

and to provide expertise by serving on governing boards of these schools are all tasks of

leadership – both at the public school level and among institutional leaders of religious

organizations. Adding to the body of knowledge related to these faith-inspired schools

will help inform leaders of the best practices that have emerged since the establishment of

the Catalyst Schools in 2005.

Significance of the Study

As Catholic diocesan school systems consider the option of converting some of

their inner city schools to charter schools, the debate surrounding this issue among

leaders of the Catholic community continues to unfold. There is often a perception that

the newly formed charter school will retain the discipline, high expectations, rigor, and

personal attention for which Catholic schools have become known (Trivitt & Wolf,

2011). However, evidence recently published indicates that these newly formed charter

schools evolve into schools that do not match this perception (Carr, 2014; Smarick,

2010). Carr’s study indicates that although there were enrollment increases at both newly

opened charter schools in Indianapolis and that the financial benefits gained by the

parishes and the archdiocese were substantial, the overwhelming demands of the public

school administrative bureaucracy led to a loss of strong organizational identity.

Diocesan administrators in Carr’s study acknowledged that while the new model did


13

allow the parish to offer a more financially sustainable option for the education of inner

city students, the optional religious education programs intended to retain and foster

Catholic culture within the school could not mitigate the “sense of loss” of Catholic

identity that faculty and school leaders felt once the conversion to a charter school had

been completed.

This current study is also informed by the researcher’s experience while

participating in a practicum at the Office of Catholic Education for the Archdiocese of

Indianapolis in the Fall of 2014 as a part of Creighton University’s Interdisciplinary

Leadership doctoral program. This experience confirmed the presence of dissatisfaction

with the results of the two charter conversions that had taken place in Indianapolis in

2010. One of the researcher's primary duties in the practicum was to work with the parish

community of St. Anthony Catholic Church after archdiocesan officials had decided it

would no longer host a charter school. Instead, the archdiocese withdrew its sponsorship

of Padua Academy (one of the charter schools opened in 2010 after closing St. Anthony

Catholic School) and reopened St. Anthony Catholic School in August of 2015. At the

same time, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis also announced its decision to withdraw its

role as the Charter Management Organization for Andrew Academy which was located

on the grounds of St. Andrew Catholic Church and to ask the City of Indianapolis (the

charter granting authority) to look for another Charter Management Organization to take

over the operation of the charter school that would remain on parish grounds. The

researcher’s conversations with archdiocesan leaders during the practicum revealed a

level of dissatisfaction with the Indianapolis charter school experiment that led to the

decision to withdraw its sponsorship of these two charter schools.


14

In spite of the disappointments encountered by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis,

the financial realities of inner city parishes around the country have not changed over the

past five years, and these parishes continue to face extraordinary economic stress. It is

anticipated that other diocesan leaders around the country are considering alleviating

these financial stresses by sanctioning similar charter school conversions to take place

under their auspices. Recent work by Brinig and Garnett (2014) make a compelling case

for the importance of Catholic schools in creating stability in impoverished

neighborhoods. Therefore, it is important to continue to learn more about the successes as

well as the shortcomings of the charter schools that result from these conversions of

Catholic schools. Additionally, it is important to understand the subsequent impact of

these conversions on their sponsoring parishes and dioceses.

The recently published research by Proehl et al. (2015) on the Catalyst Schools

demonstrates that a new and innovative model of collaboration between leaders of

religious schools and a public school chartering authority has emerged. According to

Proehl et al. (2015) parents, students, teachers, and administrators all indicate a level of

satisfaction that has been elusive in the Catholic-to-charter conversions that have been

attempted. Equally as important, the sponsoring religious organization, the Christian

Bothers, is deeply satisfied with the results of the Catalysts Schools and believes they are

maintaining fidelity to their founding charisms with the establishment of these schools

(Quinio, 2012). A new perspective of understanding and executing the mission of

Catholic education is being developed and refined in the Catalyst Schools. This

perspective and its underlying philosophy have deep meaning for all leaders in Catholic

education. The publication of the results of this study allows for:


15

1) understanding from the perspective of a potential sponsoring religious

organization of the ways in which a “faith-inspired” approach to the establishment

of a charter school can attain results that maintain fidelity to the purposes of their

organization

2) understanding from the perspective of the public-school chartering authority of

the best practices in collaborating with religious organizations to establish charter

schools that can successfully work with children from impoverished

neighborhoods

3) the development of a set of best practices that can help guide diocesan and

religious order leaders as they make decisions regarding the potential viability and

effectiveness of a newly formed charter school on their grounds

4) the development of a body of literature that helps identify issues related to this

new class of schools that merit additional study.

Inner city Catholic parishes often serve the poor, the immigrant, and the

marginalized. Martin (2010) is one of many authors who trace the history of the Jesuits

and their commitment to give such people the tools and education necessary to lift them

out of poverty. If optimal conditions can be identified in which the parishes hosting the

newly formed charter schools can offer a high quality values-based education, this new

faith-inspired model of charter schools might be considered a viable option as diocesan

leaders evaluate the merit of converting inner city Catholic schools to charter schools. It

is in the tradition of the Society of Jesus to foster study of all potential avenues to aid

those in need. Completion of this study on the conditions, dialogue, policies, and


16

discernment that led to the formation of the faith-inspired Catalyst Schools will, in some

small way, add to that tradition.

Summary

A solution to some of the fiscal challenges facing inner city Catholic parishes has

emerged in the form of converting some of their parish schools to publicly funded charter

schools. The hope of the diocesan leaders who sanction these conversions is that the

newly formed charter school will retain the positive characteristics of discipline, high

expectations, rigor, and personal attention that many perceive to be common in Catholic

schools. However, evidence has begun to emerge that indicates that these newly formed

charter schools have not lived up to this promise, and Catholic school leaders find this

result disappointing. However, a new model of a “faith-inspired” charter school has

emerged that offers promise. Qualitative data was gathered primarily through the process

of interviewing public school leaders, leaders of religious orders, Catalyst School

founders, and board leaders involved in the formation of the Catalyst Schools. The aim of

this study was to create an evidence-based series of recommendations that can be adopted

by public chartering authorities as well as religious organizations to facilitate

collaboration in the establishment of “faith-inspired” charter schools in impoverished

urban areas. This research is intended to provide a possible way forward in solving one of

the most intractable problems of our time - the education of those living in urban poverty.

It is a problem that has long drawn the attention of Jesuits. It is expected that the results

of this case study will add to that tradition of support for these impoverished

communities.


17

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

In order to understand the philosophical underpinnings and organizational

principles around which the Catalyst Schools are formed, it is necessary to review the

societal pressures and the surrounding culture that gave rise to the possibility of

establishing these schools. For over three decades now, government, business, and

educational leaders have collaborated to work aggressively to improve the quality of

schools in the United States. It is important to understand these pressures and the

responses to them in order to gain a full appreciation of the options for schooling that

have developed as a result. This “education reform” movement, as it is sometimes called

(Hart, 1990), has led to a dynamic environment that has been filled with innumerable

successes along with some colossal failures. The market tests these ideas and scholars

work diligently to study them. Today, the research on education is extensive. It is in that

environment that the following review of the literature is developed.

Roots of the Educational Reform Movement

The philosophical roots of the school choice movement are many-faceted but

there is no doubting that Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman’s classic essay “The

Role of Government in Education” (1955) belongs on any list evaluating the relative

importance of events, court cases, and foundational documents that have established the

current appetite for reform. Friedman drew a critical distinction between activities that it

was appropriate for the government to administer versus activities that it was appropriate

for government to finance. Friedman argued that parents would make better choices with

the funds for the education of their children than would the “monopoly” (p. 133)


18

represented by public school districts. Consequently, an idea was born that remains a

foundational tenet of education reform today.

Not long after Friedman’s essay was published, the idea of expanding options for

parents and students began to emerge in the speeches, writings, and platforms of political

candidates of both major parties. In 1968, 1972, and 1976, Democratic presidential

candidates Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter all proposed the

idea of tuition tax credits to offer support to families choosing private schools for their

children (Matus, 2015). In 1978, the underlying philosophy of these political proposals

was eloquently expressed in an essay written for Harpers by the Democrat senator from

New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Moynihan, a highly respected scholar and

statesman, wrote about a bill that he proudly noted had received bipartisan sponsorship

from half of the Senate (26 Republicans and 24 Democrats) to provide tax credits to help

pay the tuition costs of parents with children in nonpublic schools, colleges, and

universities. Moynihan (1978) made an impassioned argument that “government has got

to stop choking the life out of institutions that compete with it” (p. 28) and that private

education was “crucial to the vitality of the nation” (p.29). He called these nonpublic

schools an important resource for the nation that allowed for a source of innovation and

experimentation in educational advances that would benefit all. Additionally, Moynihan’s

essay articulated an attitude that was developing around the world. This attitude held that

it is in the diversity of educational systems and thought that a nation’s strength is built. I

will explore the global implications of this attitude in a section of this review that

follows. However, Moynihan’s legislation ultimately failed to pass because no


19

companion legislation was proposed in the House. Nevertheless, the proposal laid

significant political and philosophical groundwork for further reform.

A seminal moment in the reform of the American education system occurred with

the publication of “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform” (1983) by

the National Committee on Educational Excellence. With its famously dramatic phrasing,

the report noted, “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded

by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people”

(p.1). This clarion call to action awakened Americans to the crisis in our schools and the

poor performance of our students relative to previous generations of Americans and

relative to international benchmarks. Education historian Diane Ravitch deemed the

report as "the most important education reform document of the 20th century” (as cited in

Toppo, 2008). Recommendations were made for improving schools, including the return

to focus on a more basic curriculum with an emphasis on science, math, literature,

writing, and computer science. A longer school day and a longer school year (200-300

days) were also part of the recommendations. In order to procure and retain excellent

teachers, the committee advised developing higher standards for teacher-preparation

programs, setting teacher salaries that were professionally competitive and based on

performance, providing more incentives for drawing highly qualified applicants into the

profession of teaching, and creating mentoring programs for novice teachers. Goodlad

(2003) recounts the explosion of private foundation support for initiatives aimed at

implementing the recommendations the report. In many ways, A Nation at Risk served as

the catalyst for the launch of an education reform movement in the United States that is

now over 30 years in the making and seems to be growing in intensity.


20

Competition In Education – New Options Emerge

After A Nation at Risk was published, a conceptual framework embracing the

value of competition emerged using the ideas of Friedman as a template. This framework

guides much of the strategic thinking and practices that state and local government

leaders have employed with increasing frequency over the past few decades. The

introduction of “market forces” to the educational arena, along with the competition that

those forces bring, is seen by many in the United States and around the world as a way to

force schools to seek continual improvement or face closure (Boyd, 2007; Patrinos,

2000). Multiple avenues now exist to introduce these market forces by supporting a

broader set of options for the schooling of students than were available 20 years ago.

These alternative methods of funding education result from legislation that introduced

more choices for students and their families (Furtick, 2014). These options now include

public school choice, charter schools, magnet schools, educational savings accounts, tax

credit scholarships, individual tax credits for tuition, and school vouchers for use at

private schools (Burke, 2013).

Vouchers and Charters Begin to Appear

Though there are now multiple avenues being utilized in the United States to

expand school choice, two basic methods clearly stand out in terms of frequency of use:

1) the adoption of programs that distribute public funds to parents through school

vouchers and, 2) the establishment of publicly funded charter schools. While these two

solutions both offer new competition for traditional public schools, they differ

substantially. The voucher solution increases competition by a different mechanism than

charter schools in that a state or other local governmental agency gives the money to


21

parents who can then use those funds at the school of their choice - including private

religious schools whose missions are grounded in religious beliefs, practices, and

traditions. On the other hand, charter schools are still public schools funded by public

dollars, and they generally receive their charter as a result of an application process that

normally consists of defining a philosophy of teaching and learning along with a unique

mission around which the school will operate.

The debate over the value of school choice gained momentum in the early 1990s.

With the publication of Politics, Markets, and American Schools (1990), Moe and Chubb

proposed a new set of contemporary arguments for a solution to an old problem – how to

improve schools. Moe and Chubb traveled the country giving seminars, talks, symposia,

and presentations arguing that the public education establishment was incapable of

reforming itself. They argued that the powerful union system of tenure made the reform

of the basic units of education - the classroom - seem to be a hopeless cause in public

schools (Loveless, 2000). Other alternatives were needed. Not coincidentally, the same

year that Moe and Chubb’s book was published in 1990, the nation's first voucher

program was established in Milwaukee by Wisconsin's state legislature (Molnar, 1999).

In 1992, the nation’s first charter schools opened in Minnesota (Bailey & Cooper, 2009)

after that state’s legislature authorized such schools. A beachhead was now established

for both the voucher and charter school options to begin to transform the landscape of

education in the United States.

Vouchers - The Courts Begin to Speak

In 1998, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld Milwaukee’s new voucher

program determining that the program served a primarily secular purpose. Once the


22

constitutional questions were answered, the Milwaukee voucher program began to

flourish, and it now serves over 20,000 low-income students (Carpenter & Kafer, 2012).

The development, legislative approval, and implementation of voucher programs

has unfolded at a more deliberate pace than the charter school option, in part due to some

states’ concerns over Church and State separation issues prior to 2002 when the Zelman

v. Simmons-Harris (2002) decision was rendered. Zelman clarified that it was

constitutional for states to provide financial support for vouchers that parents could

choose to use at private and religious schools as long as the state’s constitution did not

prevent it. Once that precedent was established, states were free to develop a multitude of

school choice programs that impacted students from all schools, public and private.

According to the Friedman Foundation (2015), there are now 14 states that are offering

25 voucher programs and the number continues to grow with each passing year.

Rapid Expansion of the Charter School Option

Minnesota passed the nation’s first state legislation to allow for the establishment

of charter schools in 1991. California followed the next year. Since then, 40 other states

and the District of Columbia have passed laws that allow for the establishment of charter

schools. Today, there are over 6.4 million students in over 6,600 charter schools

nationwide (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014).

At times, the growth of charter schools has come at the expense of the closure of a

local public school (Fitzsimon, 2016). In a similar tale of decline of one type of schooling

as a result of the rise in availability of charter schools, Lackman (2012) found that 30%

of the students lost from Catholic schools in the New York City metropolitan area left

those schools in order to attend charter schools. In addition to the competition that charter


23

schools provide, other researchers have found that they operate at less expense to the

taxpayers than traditional public schools (Gronberg, Jansen, & Taylor, 2011). Figure 3

shows the steady growth of this increasingly popular option for schooling.

Figure 3. Growth in the number of charter schools since the turn of the century. Rebarger, T., & Zgainer, A. C. (2014).

Charter School Research

In spite of the popularity and rapid growth of charter school enrollment, a public

debate rages as to whether or not the charter school option leads to improvement in the

overall quality of schools in the United States. Since their arrival as an available option

for schooling, charter schools have been the subject of multiple studies, a sampling of

which will be detailed here. The results of these studies are both mixed and frequently

disputed. The disputes arise among both academics and political factions. Unfortunately,

some of the results of research intended to study the effectiveness of school choice as a

1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013Number of Schools 1,524 2,348 2,977 3,780 4,388 4,952 5,696 6,440

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24

means of reform appear to be prone to compromise based on the inherent biases of the

researchers. Effectiveness seems to be in the eye of the researcher. Ravitch (2011) notes

that often research sponsored by those agencies that have a vested interest in the

advancement of traditional public schools shows that charter schools and voucher

programs have little measurable success, while Henig (2008) found that research

sponsored by entities that have a vested interest in demonstrating the positive effects of

voucher programs generally produce favorable findings for these programs.

Charter school research asks two fundamental questions: 1) Do charter schools

help their students achieve at a higher level? 2) Does the competition that charter schools

generate lead to increased achievement for students in the surrounding traditional public

schools? Like much school choice research, the results of inquiries related to these two

questions are mixed. Contrary to the assertions of school reformers who argue for the

benefits that competition brings to all students, Bettinger (2005) found no increase in the

academic performance of surrounding public schools in Michigan. In a later study, Ni

(2009) determined that charter schools in Michigan actually had a negative impact in

terms of long-term academic performance of local public school students. Conversely,

Winters (2012) found a substantial positive effect of charter schools on achievement in

local public schools in New York City. This pattern of contradiction is representative of

much of the literature on charter schools.

The academic performance of students actually enrolled in the charter schools

also sees mixed results in the literature. Tuttle, Gleason, and Nechtel (2012) found

numerous academic benefits for students enrolled in the Knowledge Is Power Program

(KIPP) charter schools - one of the nation’s largest charter school providers. Others, such


25

as Xiang and Tarasawa (2015), analyzed test scores from multiple geographic regions to

ascertain that charter school students perform consistently better on standardized

achievement measures than their traditional public school peers. In other cases (Allen,

2013; Barr, 2006; Gray, 2014), no net positive effects of charter schools on student

achievement were found. These researchers all pointed to the difficulty of isolating

variables that would allow an accurate assessment of the value added by the charter

school environment.

An oft-cited comprehensive literature review and analysis of charter school

student achievement by Betts and Tang (2008) points to the mixed nature of the results as

possibly emanating from the multiple ways that students enter charter schools such as

self-selection, lotteries, and parental withdrawal from the local public school because of

perceived habitual underperformance of the student. Pointing to a possible source of

much of the conflicting data coming from charter school research, Betts and Tang

rejected many charter studies for their meta-analysis because they often did not “take into

account the relatively disadvantaged backgrounds of students who attend charter schools”

(p. 3). Therefore, they caution, many studies on students in charter schools may not be

representative of the charter school’s impact on academic achievement. As the number of

charter schools continues to expand and as more traditional public schools close as a

result of lost enrollment to competing charter schools, the debate will likely rage on

regarding the effectiveness of these schools. However, for now, many students and

families are voting with their feet as this popular form of schooling expands throughout

the country.


26

Analysis of Both Innovations Continues

The impact of these two fundamental methods of introducing competition into the

education market - charter schools and school vouchers - has been profound. In the years

that have passed since the establishment of the voucher program in Milwaukee,

researchers have attempted to identify and authenticate whether or not the voucher

programs raised the level of performance on the part of individual students, schools, and

the local public school systems that now had increased competition. Witte, Wolf, Cowan,

Carlson, and Fleming (2014) found the nation’s original voucher program to be

successful in fostering substantial academic growth in high stakes testing. While by no

means the last word, a peer-reviewed meta-analysis of charter, private, and religious

school research by Jeynes (2012) points to a significant academic advantage, narrower

achievement gaps by race, ethnicity, and income, along with better student behavioral

outcomes for students in faith-based schools compared to those in traditional and charter

schools. Jeynes concludes by lobbying for the support of faith-based schools as an

effective means of school reform.

Clearly, the ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of voucher programs and

the establishment of charter schools in improving achievement of students is not settled

in the literature. Nor does it seem to be a debate that will be settled in the near future. The

reality is that education is a long-term process generally requiring 12 years to complete

the elementary and secondary years. Though growing rapidly now, the number of

voucher programs and charter schools that have existed long enough to analyze

longitudinally is limited. Additionally, the differences in achievement may be subtle if

not imperceptible – even after 12 years. Given the small number of longitudinal studies,


27

more research is needed. Further complications arise because the motivations of

researchers can impact the results of the studies (Blazer, 2010; Henig, 2008; Ravitch,

2011). Work remains to be done that focuses on objectively analyzing the degree of

student learning and achievement in these various means of school reform. But for now,

the public appetite for school choice seems to have been validated by the research of

Belfield and Levin (2002) who found, “Increased competition and higher educational

quality are positively correlated” (p.297).

Legal Questions Slowly Being Resolved

There are a host of legal questions that surround the issue of funding educational

options for students who attend private schools. The issue at the heart of the legal

arguments is whether or not vouchers pose a threat to the wall of separation of Church

and State. A closely related question is whether or not any type of support of religious

schooling violates the establishment clause of the U. S. Constitution. These and many

other questions along with their infinitely variable and unique micro-issues have been

working their way through local, state, and federal courts for decades (Alexander, 2008;

Hillman, 2008). Clarity has been gained through the establishment of key legal

precedents, but legal challenges remain a part of the unfolding dynamics of school choice

programs.

The roots of disagreement on the practice of using government funds for religious

purposes are deep and can be traced to the founding of the country by many who escaped

various forms of religious persecution. For the purposes of the review of today’s legal

environment, it seems appropriate to begin after the tumult of the Civil War. In 1878,

based on the previous efforts of President Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. House Speaker James


28

Blaine proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting states from funding religious

schools. Blaine’s proposed amendment fell four votes short of passage in the Senate. The

Senate’s rejection of Blaine’s proposed constitutional amendment prompted all but 11

states to add similar amendments to their state constitutions. Today, 37 of these state

constitutional provisions remain in place and are known collectively as Blaine

Amendments (Duncan, 2003). However, each is written with subtle differences and

applies only to the laws of the individual state and are not applicable nationwide. It is

worthy to note that there has yet to be a federal court that has found that a Blaine

Amendment violates the U. S. Constitution. With this state-to-state disparity of the legal

foundation for public support of religious schools, the issue is ripe for frequent appeals to

the U. S. Supreme Court (Duncan, 2003).

Several noteworthy Supreme Court cases illustrate the evolution of the legal

precedents related to the broader issue of school choice. The first of these cases is Pierce

v. The Society of Sisters (1925). The state of Oregon passed a law requiring all students to

attend a public school. The Society of Sisters had been operating a private school in the

state since the 1880s. The Sisters took Oregon to court challenging a state law that was

passed requiring that all students must attend a public school and only a public school.

The Supreme Court found in favor of the Sisters, thereby establishing the precedent that

parents have the right to decide what sort of school they want their children to attend and

essentially guaranteeing the right of all private schools to exist as a legitimate option to

meet the educational needs of students (Woodhouse, 1992). Parental rights had found a

legal foothold.


29

The next landmark decision was a case involving a New Jersey statute that

allowed reimbursement to parents of fees charged to bus their students to both public and

private schools. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947) a 5-4 majority held that the

New Jersey bus subsidies did not violate the Establishment Clause because the subsidies

primarily benefited the parents and schoolchildren, not the religious schools. The

majority opinion articulated what came to be known as the “child benefit theory”, that the

beneficiaries were individuals and not religious institutions (Lupu, Masci, Merriam, and

Tuttle, 2009). It is this precedent and legal theory established in Everson that formed the

foundation of later decisions that upheld the constitutionality of providing funds in the

form of tuition vouchers for parents to use a school of their choice – religious or not.

Though a few minor cases related to funding of programs in religious schools

made their way to the Supreme Court over the next two decades, it was not until 1971

that the famous Lemon Test was developed by the Court. The case involved two similar

but separate programs in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island that indirectly aided religious

schools by paying part of the salaries of teachers who taught secular subjects. In Lemon v.

Kurtzman (1971) the court developed a three-pronged test to determine if a program

provides excessive entanglement of government funding of religious programs. In

applying the Lemon Test, the courts analyzes whether the government program or policy

1) serves a secular purpose, 2) advances or inhibits a religious cause, and 3) creates an

excessive entanglement of the government with religion (Carr & Decker, 2015).

Applying the newly developed Lemon Test led the Court to decide that the two state

programs in question did indeed violate the Establishment Clause.


30

Mueller v. Allen (1983) took the Court one step further away from the strict wall

of separation of Church and State. Based on the “child benefit theory” of Everson, the

Court reviewed a Minnesota statute that allowed parents to deduct from their state

income taxes money spent on tuition, textbooks, or transportation for their children

attending public and private schools. The program was ruled constitutional because the

benefit did not go directly to the schools but to the families and children. According to

the court, the families were making a private choice. Additionally, this program did not

represent excessive entanglement when analyzed by the Lemon Test (Lupu et al., 2009).

As a result, legal precedent was now set for rulings on programs that involved

substantially greater amounts of public funding.

The final landmark case that merits review is Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002).

Its ramifications have literally transformed and solidified the options available to leaders

involved in the education reform movement. The Zelman case involved a program that

gave various types of aid to students in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of this aid came in the

form of vouchers for low-income students to use at any eligible and accredited private

school - the majority of which were Catholic. However, the aid also supported those

seeking aid to attend public magnet schools and charter schools that far outnumbered the

Catholic schools that students could have chosen. In a 5-4 decision, the majority formed

it arguments under the principle of “private choice” that the court had articulated in

Mueller. In Zelman, the court found that a government program that funds religion

indirectly is constitutional if the funding goes to individuals who have true “private

choice” in deciding whether to use the funding for religious purposes (Hicks & Barnett,

2005). Since the vouchers could be used at a wide range of schools, both public and


31

private, they were not considered to be directly supporting religious instruction. At the

time the Zelman decision was rendered, only Cleveland, Milwaukee, and the state of

Florida had voucher programs that allowed students to choose religious schools (Athens,

2002). Following the clear precedent established by Zelman, the way was paved for more

states to consider school voucher programs, and the battle shifted away from the court

room to the legislative arena in states from coast to coast.

It is in this legal environment that schools and education reformers still operate

today. The Zelman ruling removed boundaries that were in place a little more than a

decade ago. This new-found freedom to consider creative options for funding schools has

given rise to the many methods previously listed that allow parents and students to

choose schools in a way that was rarely experienced in the United States 15 years ago.

While school leaders of all stripes learned to adjust to the rapidly changing legal posture

toward public funding of students in private schools in the United States, developments

around the world shaped and provided impetus for the reform of education in American

schools.

International School Choice

Since public funding of school voucher programs in the United States is a

relatively new concept only enacted 25 years ago, many people in America tend to think

of it as a new and innovative idea at the cutting edge of education reform. The reality is

that the United States is far behind many nations in the implementation of this program

that allows parents to choose the school that their children attend. As early as the mid-

1990s a study by West (1997) identified 20 countries around the world that offered

school vouchers. The group of countries reported by West included many that, at that


32

time, were not considered to be industrialized nations, including Bangladesh, Belize,

Lesoto, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. West also concluded that many of the potential

negative effects that had been projected - destruction of the public school system,

discrimination against the poor, and the utter decay of all inner city school systems that

serve the impoverished - were not to be found in any of the countries that he studied.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

surveyed its 34 member countries and partner countries for its annual Education at a

Glance (2013) report. The OECD’s report shows that, of the 53 survey participants, 25

countries’ governments provide vouchers and/or tuition tax credits for students to attend

private schools. As evidence of the scope of the global adoption of these two types of

programs, Estonia, Germany, Spain, and Thailand (along with the United States) report to

the OECD as having both vouchers and tuition tax credits available for students and their

families. A sampling of the same report lists Belgium, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Israel,

Lithuania, Macao-China, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Qatar, and Turkey among those

countries that offer vouchers for their students to attend private schools. Clearly, the

United States is not piloting this style of supporting education in a vacuum but does so

with an eye toward similar developments around the world. As nations learn from each

other and as the results of these school choice programs are studied, one would expect

these programs to continue to be on the rise as long as positive results are demonstrated.

Table 1 on the next page is compiled from the data reported in that survey. The PISA

ranking indicates the country’s performance on the Program for International Student

Assessment which is administered every three years.


33

Table 1. International survey of school choice programs. How does school choice work in other countries? (2015).

International Survey of School Choice Programs

Table 1

Country Vouchers Tuition Tax Credits 2012 PISA Ranking

Singapore Public Only No 1 Korea No Yes 4 Chinese Taipei Yes No 6 Estonia Yes Yes 8 Macao-China Yes No 10 Poland Yes No 12 Germany Yes Yes 16 Australia No No 18 Belgium Yes No 19 New Zealand Yes No 20 Scotland No Yes 21 France Yes No 24 Norway Yes No 27 Unites States Yes Yes 29 Italy Public Only Yes 30 Luxembourg No Yes 30 Spain Yes Yes 32 Portugal No Yes 33 Lithuania Yes No 36 Israel Yes No 40 Slovak Republic Yes No 41 Turkey Yes No 43 Serbia No No 44 Cyprus No No 45 Romania No No 47 Bulgaria Public Only No 48 Thailand Yes Yes 49 Chile Yes No 50 Montenegro Public Only No 54 Brazil No Yes 57 Argentina Public Only No 59 Indonesia Public Only No 63 Qatar Yes No 64


34

In addition to the OECD survey, a review of the literature also reveals that

policies supporting school choice are sweeping the globe. In countries on every continent,

governments have decided that giving parents options for the education of their children

is an appropriate response to the perceived problems in education. After compiling

studies from eight separate researchers in Chile, New Zealand, England, Sweden,

Australia, South Africa, China, and post-communist Central Europe, Plank and Sykes

(2003) note that “in virtually no country is there a serious effort to expand the role of the

state in educational provision or to restrict the educational choices of parents” (p. 9). The

parallels to the reasoning used to establish these international school choice programs

when compared to those proposed the Unites States are instructive.

Sweden

Duan (2003) goes straight to the heart of the competition argument made by

Friedman in 1955, noting that until Sweden freed itself from the restrictions and

impediments set up to protect the security and workload of teachers, there was little

chance of improving the schools in that country. However, Duan also points to decades of

sluggish economic performance as the critical motivating factor for the

uncharacteristically rapid changing of educational policy in that country that began in the

1980s in spite of the entrenched forces of the labor movement and ruling Socialist

Democratic party. Not only was a program of school choice instituted throughout the

country, but decision making was decentralized, moving from the national parliament

level to local municipalities. Duan notes that after eight years of implementing school

choice programs, the number of students in Swedish private schools had tripled.


35

India

Forsey, Davies, and Walford (2008) compiled school choice research from around

the world as well. School choice programs in countries such as Israel, Canada, Argentina,

Singapore, China, Tanzania, India, and Japan were analyzed, and the history of the

development of these choice programs was traced. Perhaps the most instructive of these

was the research done in India by Srivastava (2008) on disadvantaged groups and “low-

fee private schools” for the poor in that country. Srivastava conducted extensive research

on the factors influencing the choice of schools by disadvantaged populations in India.

These “low fee private schools” were developed with a particular goal of targeting

students from lower income families that had traditionally low rates of participation in

formal schooling. Srivastava found that even though females are generally not given

priority when determining a family’s allocation of resources for education in India,

within the population that she studied, both male and female children were allowed equal

access to the low-fee private school education. Her work challenged popular notions in

existing literature about the schooling decisions of poor parents in developing countries.

She demonstrated that when females are given an opportunity to participate in affordable

options for their education, they will take advantage of it.

New Zealand

The student mobility described by Srivastava’s work stands in mild contrast to the

result of choice programs in New Zealand studied by Fiske and Ladd (2003). These

researchers found that the program of school choice implemented in New Zealand was

effective in making the options of all forms of schooling more available. However, their

research found that in populations that were determined to be from “lower-decile”


36

schools (a New Zealand method of measuring schools by the number of disadvantaged

clientele the schools served) there was a lower probability that these students would

select the “higher-decile” (well-funded upper class) schools when given the chance. This

finding is notable because one of the fundamental arguments of those who lobby for

expanding choice in schools is that such choice provides a way for families to escape the

cycle of poverty that extends from one generation to the next. Many times, these lower

performing schools are in the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Opportunities to attend better schools lead to a better foundation for students to attain the

next level of their education. However, Fiske and Ladd (2003) found that even though the

opportunity to attend a higher performing school was made available in New Zealand, a

higher number than expected declined to take advantage of it.

Furthermore, Fiske and Ladd (2003) found that the choice programs in New

Zealand ultimately led to a system that served to polarize enrollments along ethnic and

socio-economic backgrounds. These results support the arguments of others who note

that school choice is not a panacea that solves all of the problems associated with

educational opportunity and attainment (Bracey, 1994; Henig, 1994; Smith and Meier,

1995). Fisk and Ladd (2003) argue that the design of the choice program in New Zealand,

which led to further segregation of populations, was flawed in that it gave individual

schools and their boards control over the enrollment policies of the school that they

governed. This allowed the governing boards of these schools to establish policies that

eliminated the likelihood of less desirable “hard to educate” students being admitted.

They concluded that any market-based system is likely to create “losers” unless the


37

government takes explicit action to improve teaching and learning in lower performing

schools.

The findings of Fiske and Ladd (2003) raise several questions such as what sort of

barriers are present in New Zealand that kept the more disadvantaged students from

taking advantage of selecting the better schools. Another reasonable question is whether

or not disadvantaged students did not select the better schools because of the enrollment

policies, or were there barriers related to transportation, education level of the parents,

perceived priority of the importance of education by individual families, or some other

factor. Finally, Fiske and Ladd wondered whether or not more government intervention

was the best answer in a system that attempts to lessen government control.

Some answers to these questions are provided by Pearce and Gordon (2005).

Their research focused on how school systems in New Zealand attempted to deal with the

increasing popularity of private religious schools that led to an oversubscription of

students desiring admission to schools with limited capacity. Such research is important

because the growing popularity of school vouchers in westernized democracies dictates

that unless equitable systems of awarding highly coveted spaces are developed, support

for these programs will wane due to the perception of inequity. Pearce and Gordon

(2005) indicate that, when left to themselves, schools will seek to maximize their middle-

class composition in a process they define as “cream-skimming" (p. 153) that denies

admission to lower performing students. Indeed, the researchers conclude that one of the

reasons that there is pressure to move away from the “free market position" in New

Zealand is that “there were demonstrable market injustices in the free market system”


38

(p. 154). In spite of these problems at the time of the study, the school choice program is

thriving in New Zealand today. Stubbs and Strathdee (2012) analyzed data that show that

periods of greatest instability in enrollments occurred around the time of change in

regulations to make the schools more market driven. Analysis by Thomson (2010)

indicated that 46% of parents sampled in Christchurch, New Zealand did not send their

child to the school they were zoned for, indicating a willingness of many parents to

exercise choice in selecting the school best suited for their children’s needs. The

perceived lack of availability of quality charter schools for all populations and the

potential for racial segregation remain issues, not only in New Zealand, but frequently

surface as allegations made by charter school opponents in the U. S. as well (Miron,

Urschel, Mathis, and Tornquist, 2010). This seems destined to remain a hotly contested

issue among charter proponents and detractors.

Australia

Many of the school choice programs that have evolved around the world provide

government support for private religious schools. Many countries, unencumbered by

submission to the principle of separation of Church and State which seems to be in our

civic DNA in the United States, have been more free to develop choice programs that

support all schools whether they be public, private, or religious. And these countries have

been free to do so for many decades. One country that has developed its structure along

western democratic principles provides an example. State funding of private schools has

been a fact of life in Australia since the 1970s (Angus, 2003). The founding and political

history of Australia is vastly different from that of the United States. However, lessons


39

from this English-speaking democracy may provide clues as to what might be possible in

the United States.

Furtado (2009) has traced the political history and key legislative components of

the development of the school choice movement in Australia. Furtado constructs a

narrative of the key cultural contexts, political philosophies, religious leaders, and

political actors in the legislature to fashion a detailed picture of the roots of the

development of Australian educational policy today. That policy now provides for the

near total funding of Catholic schools in Australia that educate nearly 30% of the students

in that country (Furtado, 2009).

While Furtado’s research focuses exclusively on the history of policy

development that allowed for government funding of Catholic schools, Symes and

Gulson (2008) offer insights into the political forces and personalities that were at play in

Australia in the early 1970s. Those forces became a powerful partner for the Catholic

leadership lobbying for government support of private schools. These researchers trace

the rise of a pedagogy championed by "New Christian Schooling" leaders, who were

motivated by the belief that there must be a strong counteraction to the rise of a

competing pedagogy in Australia “in the guise of so-called secular humanism that

threatened the Christian foundations of Australian society" (p. 235). It is instructive to

consider that, like proponents of school choice in the United States today, Symes and

Gulson (2008) note that in Australia, parents are viewed as having the inherent right of

being free to select whichever type of school they desire for their children. The argument

for school choice is positioned in terms of the rights of parents to educate their children

as they see fit - just as was argued in Mueller v. Allen here in the United States.


40

Another parallel to popular arguments for school choice made in the United States

today emerges when Symes and Gulson (2008) point out that in Australia, “state teachers

are painted as the captives of political correctness and state schools are places of ‘little

learning’ and ‘dangerous knowledge’” while government schools are “derided as values-

neutral while at the same time ignoring traditional values” (pp. 237-238). Indeed, this

impression of state teachers is currently used today in simplistic caricatures that frame the

debate over school choice in the United States. This phrasing dredges up recollections of

an iconic image of teacher ineffectiveness and public school waste in the United States

regarding the existence of “rubber rooms” in New York City that house over 700 tenured

public school teachers daily who simply went to the rooms, sat all day, and were paid as a

result of perceived incompetency or insubordination (Matthews, 2009). This image of

public waste is frequently used to galvanize action in the United States to enact school

reform measures.

Finally, Symes and Gulson (2008) concern is that the issue of state funding for

these “New Christian” schools is a crucial issue in the ongoing contest over Australia's

social and educational future. Symes and Gulson lament that the nature of the values

taught in the New Christian schools stand at odds with their own philosophical position

as secular humanists. Such commentary stands as a reminder that schools will always be

a place where community values are forged and opinions toward others and society begin

to take shape.

The Rise of Religious Charter Schools in the United States

The research by Fiske and Ladd (2003) offers confirmation that the issue of

oversubscription and the lack of availability of seats in schools that are perceived to be of


41

good quality need attention if school choice programs are to thrive and transform any

society. The proposed benefits of market-based increases in competition will not emerge

if there are policies in place that 1) discourage the development of more seats in the better

schools or 2) discourage the development of more schools of good quality. The important

role that charter schools can play in providing these additional seats may prove to be

critical for the overall improvement of educational options for students around the world.

To that end, pressure continues to build to expand options in the United States (Gintis,

2004; Scott, 2009).

A recent development born in the wake of the charter school movement and the

drive by governmental entities to provide more viable options for students and families is

the rise of the religious charter school (Horning, 2013). These schools are often formed

by groups of parents and others who share a common vision of education as a way to

transmit values shared by a culture where religion is central to their identity. An example

of such a school is Ben Gamla Charter School South in Plantation, Florida (Mulvey,

Cooper & Maloney, 2010) which promotes itself as the first Hebrew-English charter

school in the United States that teaches not only the Hebrew language but Israeli culture,

traditions, and history as well. It is impossible to explore Israeli culture and history

without delving into the roots of the religious beliefs of the Jewish people. Their history

is embedded in the sacred writings that appear in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible. This

school and others like it have had their share of court battles as a consequence of

tiptoeing near or over the lines of separation of Church and State and the conflicts are not

yet clearly resolved (Carr & Decker, 2015; Weinberg, 2014).


42

A subset of charter schools that seem related to the religious charter schools, the

ethnocentric niche charter school, has been studied and described in the literature as well

(Fox & Buchanan, 2014). Gulosino (2014) conducted a case study of the Hellenic

Classical Charter School that explores one such ethnocentric charter school established

on the site of a former Greek Orthodox school founded by a team of first generation

Greek-Americans. The case study describes a successful academic environment where

students focus on classics from Greek literature written in the original language with an

emphasis on how these classics reflect important elements of Greek culture. Since so

many ethnic cultures are imbued with a sense of religious history and traditions, the

existence of these ethnocentric schools contributes to the blurred lines mentioned by

Mulvey et al. (2010) where religion and culture are so intertwined that the study of

culture in such charter schools overlaps in ways that probe the constitutional limits of

separation of Church and State. The gradually expanding continuum of charter schools

that test the limits of the boundaries of Church and State seems destined to become more

densely packed as more charter schools open around the country.

Conversion of Center-City Catholic Schools to Charter Schools

There is another hybrid of the religious charter school that has evolved in the last

10 years or so. The issues that face the leadership of a modern Catholic diocese are many.

The challenges of an increasingly secular culture have resulted in a gradual decline in the

rate of regular Mass attendance (Weddell, 2012). Most diocesan vocation offices report

that the number of new seminarians discerning a call to the priesthood is not of sufficient

numbers to replace retiring priests (Lipka, 2014). Furthermore, many Catholic diocesan

treasuries have been depleted by numerous eight-figure settlements related to sexual


43

abuse charges (Harris, 2015). The pressures that diocesan leaders face as they attempt to

continue to support educational ministries in impoverished urban areas by providing

financial subsidies further strain resources that are already stretched to the breaking point.

Consequently, finding a new model for education that provides some relief of these

financial pressures is imperative. These conditions have led to the emerging phenomenon

of the closure of inner city Catholic schools followed by an immediate conversion of the

closed school facility - usually on parish grounds - to a charter school.

This phenomenon comes at a time when Catholic school enrollments have

dropped by over 50% of the level they were at during their peak in 1965 (Ziegler, 2011).

The National Catholic Education Association reports that the number of Catholic high

schools in the nation has declined from over 2,500 in 1965 to 1,213 today (McDonald

and Schultz, 2013). It is in this environment that some Catholic diocesan leaders find

themselves considering the conversion of some of these Catholic schools in cash-strapped

parishes to publicly funded charter schools (McShane & Kelly, 2014). The literature

reveals this phenomenon has begun to be studied but it is also clear that more study is

needed.

The aforementioned closures of Catholic schools have affected most demographic

groups around the country, but they have most significantly impacted students and

families from inner city socioeconomic groups (McDonald & Schultz, 2009). In spite of

efforts to turn the tide through marketing, new partnerships, and governance structures,

Catholic schools continue to close at an alarming rate (Goldschmidt & Walsh, 2013)

much to the detriment of the communities they once served. Coleman (1990) was one of

the first researchers to identify the presence of what he termed “social capital” as one of


44

the primary strengths of these values-oriented Catholic schools. Recent work by Brinig

and Garnett (2014) make a compelling case for the important role of Catholic schools in

impoverished neighborhoods because of the social capital they provide. These

researchers note the value that these schools bring to the social and behavioral network of

these fragile urban communities. When the Catholic schools close in center-city

neighborhoods, discernible negative effects follow and the neighborhoods along with the

people in them suffer.

The aforementioned financial pressures continue to push Catholic educational

leaders toward appropriate ways to configure their schools to adopt new governance

models and practices resembling that of charter schools. Indeed, some diocesan offices

have already ceded control of their inner-city schools to those who have a deep well of

experience in the charter school world. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, commenting on the

decline of Catholic schools in his Archdiocese of New York, famously commented that

Catholic leaders could no longer continue adopting a “hospice mentality” as they waited

for their local Catholic school system in the United States to wither and die (Dolan,

2010). Cardinal Dolan advocated that new methods were needed to meet current

challenges in New York and around the country. In response to Cardinal Dolan’s

impassioned plea for new ideas and leadership, the Partnership for Inner-City Education

was formed to take responsibility for six Catholic schools in Harlem and the South

Bronx. The Partnership, whose chairman is Russ Carson, a specialist in equity capital

who helped build KIPP charter schools in New York, assumes responsibility for the

management of the six schools (Zinsmeister, 2015). The Partnership operates

independently from the diocesan office. It hired its own superintendent and principal, and


45

reserves the right to change academic programming as it deems necessary. The group

studied the best practices of the most successful charter school operators with experience

in managing inner city schools (Smarick & Robson, 2015). After overcoming initial

concerns that Dolan had about turning over responsibility for the schools to an outside

agent, the Partnership raised and then invested $9 million for the improvement of

buildings, the purchase of classroom materials, and the training of teachers - a move that

gave Dolan and other diocesan leaders confidence in the possibilities for success

(Smarick and Robson, 2015). The model is now providing new lessons for other Catholic

leaders faced with the challenge of declining enrollments in their urban schools.

Driven by both the financial challenges of sustaining Catholic schools in areas of

impoverishment, the conversion of under-resourced inner city Catholic schools to charter

schools is a phenomenon that is expected to become more commonplace (McShane &

Kelly, 2014). In 1997, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. formed the Center-

City Consortium and used the available mechanism for forming charter schools to avoid

the outright closure of these Catholic schools by converting them to charter schools

(Smarick, 2010). Since that time, both the Archdiocese of Miami and the Archdiocese of

Indianapolis have employed similar strategies in attempts to continue to serve students

and families in the inner city.

Catholic Schools – The Fullest and Best Opportunity?

Hernandez (2009) notes that there is disagreement among leaders in the Catholic

community as to whether or not these Catholic-to-charter conversions are an advisable

way to fulfill the Church’s mission to the poor while adhering to the Church’s broader

commission from Jesus to “go therefore and teach all nations” (Matt 28:19). The most


46

contentious issue is that, as charter schools, these new schools can no longer offer

mandatory religious instruction, something many consider to be the heart of the mission

of Catholic schools (Brinson, 2010; Ristau, 2009). In 1990, the United States Conference

of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a pastoral letter Renewing Our Commitment to

Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools (USCCB, 2005) that reiterated a clear

position from previous pastoral letters that “Catholic elementary and secondary schools

are of great value to our Church and our nation” (p.1). More significantly, the letter went

on to state:

These Catholic schools afford the fullest and best opportunity to realize the

fourfold purpose of Christian education, namely to provide an atmosphere in

which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced,

service to our sisters and brothers is the norm, and thanksgiving and worship of

our God is cultivated. (p.1)

After decades of hearing the “fullest and best opportunity” mantra from the

Bishops and other diocesan leaders regarding Catholic schools, it is easy to understand

why many school leaders would not embrace the possibility of charter schools fulfilling

this mission as declared by the USCCB. Given the secular orientation of charter schools,

it is difficult to imagine how three elements of the “fourfold purpose” - spreading the

Gospel, developing community in Christ, and the worship of God - would be

accomplished in a charter school. Leaders understandably question whether or not the

remaining purpose of Christian education proposed by the Bishops - service to our

brothers and sisters – is a sufficient reason to put forth the enormous effort required to

run a school system.


47

This question about the mission and purpose of Catholic schools lies at the center

of the disquiet Catholic leaders feel regarding these charter conversions. Prothero (2014)

notes that one such leader is Sr. Carol Cimino, Superintendent of the Diocese of Buffalo,

who offered the following comments on Catholic-to-charter conversions:

It's not good news for the Catholic schools. Charter schools try to be Catholic

school-like: uniforms, local control, a lot of parental involvement, a little more

rigor in their curriculum. They take the veneer of a Catholic education: What's

lost is the ability to tell a child to respect others because we're all created by God.

(para. 10)

Clearly, the perceived loss of the ability to evangelize and catechize students with a

specific mention of God is at the heart of the problem Catholic leaders face.

In addition to the concerns over the loss of the professed mission of Catholic

education as expressed by the Bishops, many Catholic school leaders consider charter

schools to be one of the main sources of their enrollment problem, often draining students

and funds from Catholic schools. Indeed, there is much evidence that validates this

perception (Buddin, 2012; Chakrabarti & Roy, 2010; Toma, Zimmer & Jones, 2006).

Chakrabarti and Roy (2010), for instance, found that in Michigan, 13 percent of charter

students were drawn from private schools and that the most negative effects were on

Catholic school enrollments. In a similar study on charter schools in Michigan, Toma et

al. (2006) estimated 17 percent of charter students were drawn from private schools.

Unquestionably, Catholic leaders are rightly concerned about charter schools being one

of the factors contributing to loss of enrollment.


48

Observable Benefits

Although the conversion of Catholic schools to charter schools has not yet been

widely implemented, the study of these schools is nevertheless beginning to unfold

(Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Horning, 2013; McShane & Kelly, 2014; Smarick, 2010).

Initial research has shown that there are positive benefits that result from such

conversions. One of the consistently demonstrated benefits is that the newly formed

charter schools, which do not charge any tuition, show an increase in student enrollment

that has the effect of stabilizing the school (Carr, 2014, McShane & Kelly, 2014). A

benefit related to this enrollment growth is that the Catholic parish that hosted the former

Catholic school leases the school building to the charter management organization in

exchange for compensation that can amount to $80,000 or more each year (Carr, 2014).

Both Brinson (2010) and Smarick (2010) found that this new revenue stream for the

parish allows long-delayed facility repairs to be addressed in a way that would not have

been possible prior to the conversion of the parish school to a charter school. Another

anticipated benefit that was realized was that these new funds allowed some parishes in

Miami to pay off staggering long-term debt that would have led to parish closure

(Brinson, 2010). Finally, the new charter schools no longer need sustaining subsidies

from the parish to service debt, which thereby has the effect of stabilizing other

archdiocesan parishes and schools in the surrounding areas (Smarick, 2010).

Problems Arise With the Conversions

In spite of these benefits, researchers have also documented problems with these

conversions. As predicted by Ristau (2009), evidence has begun to emerge that indicates

that the newly formed charter schools sometimes lose the benefits of the shared religious


49

mission and practices that are common in most Catholic schools (Carr, 2014). For

example, researchers note that dealing with public school bureaucracies as well as a

heightened emphasis on standardized test preparation gave rise to a definitive change in

school climate that led to the resignation of many teachers from the Catholic school who

has been retained during the first years of the conversion to a charter school (Brinson,

2010; Carr, 2014). Furthermore, researchers cite the lack of shared prayer as an additional

negative consequence of these conversions. Additionally, former teachers and principals

of the Catholic schools who were retained by the new charter school, frequently cite the

increased regulatory burden and accountability protocols that require accompanying

documentation as detracting from their satisfaction with the environment of the new

charter school (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Smarick, 2010).

Clearly, the charter schools resulting from these conversions have not been a

satisfactory solution in the eyes of many Catholic leaders who have been directly

involved. Recently, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis ended its five-year experiment with

these converted charter schools as a result of its dissatisfaction with the resulting product

of the conversion (Glavan, 2015). After the Indiana legislature expanded the school

voucher program, the Archdiocese decided to convert one of the charter schools back into

a Catholic school believing it to be once again viable. The other charter school closed

after the Archdiocese decided not to seek renewal of the charter following its initial five-

year commitment. The parish and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis have once again

assumed full responsibility for the empty school building and the financial burdens

associated with it.


50

Catalyst Schools - A New Model

Recently published research by Proehl et al. (2015) on the Catalyst Schools in

Chicago demonstrates that a new model of collaboration between leaders of religious

organizations and public school chartering authorities has emerged. The Catalyst Schools

have been successful in operating as “faith-inspired” charter schools that show great

promise as a model of collaboration between a public chartering authority and a religious

organization committed to serving the poor. Perhaps owing to the fact that the schools

were established as charter schools from the beginning, Proehl et al. (2015) reports that

parents, students, teachers, and administrators all indicate a level of satisfaction that has

been elusive in the Catholic-to-charter conversions.

Equally as important, the sponsoring religious organization, the Christian Bothers,

appears to be deeply satisfied with the results of the Catalysts Schools. There is clear

evidence that the leaders of the Christian Brothers feel as if they are retaining fidelity to

their founding charisms with the establishment of these schools (Quinio, 2012). First

reported by Meyer (2011) in the popular literature as a public charter school based on the

philosophy of educating in the Lasallian tradition, the Catalyst Schools show promise as a

model that takes advantage of both the faith-inspired orientation of its teaching as well as

the funding administered by the local public school system.

The Catalyst Schools were founded after multiple inquiries from two former

CEOs of CPS who both asked the Christian Brothers to consider establishing charter

schools to serve the same populations. Both CEOs, Paul Vallas in 1997 and Arne Duncan

in 1999, were familiar with the establishment and operation by the Christian Brothers of

two tuition-free Catholic schools - the San Miguel Schools - that were serving in high-


51

crime high-poverty neighborhoods in Chicago (McLaughlin, 2005). The Christian

Brothers told Vallas “no” because the charter schools would compromise the authenticity

and integrity of their mission (Quinio, 2012). However, with the passage of time and the

growing pressures of raising every dollar used to operate the San Miguel schools every

year, new CEO Duncan resumed the conversation with leaders of the Christian Brothers

and gradually found a willingness by the Brothers to continue these discussions over a

period of six years. Finally, in 2005 the Christian Brothers agreed, in cooperation with

CPS, to establish two K-8 charter schools - Catalyst Howland and Catalyst Circle Rock -

that would be operated as “faith-inspired” schools (Goldschmidt & Walsh, 2013).

Howland opened in 2006 and Circle Rock in 2007. In the years that followed, a third

Catalyst School - Catalyst Maria - was opened in 2012. Now in its fourth year of

operation as a K-12 charter school, Catalyst Maria - a Catholic-to charter conversion -

has over 900 students today and is thriving. As a result of multiple challenges to be

mentioned later, a decision by the Catalyst board to close Catalyst Howland was made in

2015. The school was closed in May of that same year. Consequently, ten years after

opening the original charter schools, two Catalyst Schools still operate on firm footing

today.

After ten years of operation, the remaining Catalyst Schools have experienced

significant success. Proehl et al. (2015) reports that the Catalyst Schools use a longer

school day and a longer school year than the typical public school in Chicago to attain

exemplary academic results when compared to other schools of similar socio-economic

composition. In addition to exceeding local standardized testing results for the Northwest

Evaluation (NWEA) assessments, Catalyst leaders report a graduation rate of 99% from


52

the two K-8 schools operating in 2013. This compares extraordinarily well to the 63%

graduation rate for all CPS students (Proehl et al., 2015). Though the first two Catalyst

Schools were started from scratch as opposed to being born from a conversion of a

Catholic school, it seemed reasonable to look for comparative academic results. In

reviewing the literature on these schools, a Catholic-to-charter conversion could not be

found with such strong academic results.

Another unique feature of the Catalyst Schools is the approach to faculty

formation. Proehl et al. (2015) reports that the life, philosophy, and writings of St. Jean-

Baptiste de La Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers and long-considered the patron

saint of Catholic school teachers, formed the basis of reflection for teachers at the

Catalyst Schools. Teachers are given the opportunity to participate in a summer institute

lasting at least two weeks that is offered every August. Rooting the formation of charter

school teachers in the writings of a Catholic saint is unreported elsewhere in the literature

and may provide the underpinning of the presence of the “Catholic ethos” that Proehl

concludes pervades the school.

Conversely, like other researchers studying Catholic-to-charter conversions,

Proehl et al. (2015) discovered that many teachers and leaders felt that the operation of

the Catalyst Schools as charter schools brought its own set of sustained headaches. Proehl

found the ongoing pressure of high-stakes testing, meeting compliance requirements of

accrediting agencies, and the perceived negative impact of the CPS culture on the

Catalyst culture as negative experiences impacting the work of teachers in the Catalyst

Schools. This sentiment was so strong that Proehl offered a series of recommendations to


53

avoid the institutional pressure on the Catalyst Schools to grow into simply another

bureaucratic actor in the CPS structure.

Summary

Problems in the American education system have led to the emergence of a

philosophy that challenges schools to improve their performance by competing for

students in a market-driven system. In response to this desire for more competition in

education, legislators have developed two primary methods, school vouchers and charter

schools, which are vehicles that allow schools to compete with traditional public schools

for educational dollars by attracting more students. Over the same time period that these

two options have evolved, Catholic schools have seen extraordinary declines in

enrollment in the United States. These declines have been particularly staggering in inner

city parish schools.

As the United States court system has gradually provided more accessibility for

public funding of religious schools and for their students and families, religious leaders

have begun to weigh the merits of opening religious charter schools. Three Catholic

diocesan systems in Indianapolis, Miami, and Washington D.C. have all closed Catholic

schools and immediately reopened charter schools in the buildings on their parish

grounds. While providing some financial benefits to the parishes and diocesan office

involved, there has been a level of dissatisfaction in the degree to which these new

charter schools are able to meet the written mission of Catholic schools as communicated

by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Recent research by Proehl et al. (2015) has documented a new model of “faith-

inspired” charter schools that is not only yielding excellent academic results but has also


54

shown promise in meeting the religious and evangelizing purposes for which Catholic

schools are operated. To date, Proehl is the only researcher to have published in a peer-

reviewed format. Given the extraordinarily positive results of the Catalyst model and the

stark financial challenges facing Catholic leaders around the country who are trying to

serve impoverished neighborhoods, this Catalyst model is ripe for further study and

analysis. The results of this case study will build understanding of important leadership

issues and decision-making processes surrounding the operation of faith-inspired charter

schools. Increased understanding will help inform other diocesan leaders and Catholic

school systems as they seek to learn the best practices of forming charter schools in their

unique locations.


55

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

Introduction

As described in the literature review, there has only been one peer-reviewed study

of the Catalyst Schools (Proehl et al., 2015). Given that there are no other charter schools

operating under the same principles, it was determined that a qualitative case study fit the

situation best. Such a case study will serve as a springboard for identifying issues for

further analysis of this groundbreaking innovation.

One of the most compelling and interesting aspects of the operation of the

Catalyst Schools is the degree to which the traditions and charisms of 300 years of

Lasallian education in Catholic schools have been incorporated into many of the schools’

programs. In previous studies on Catholic-to-charter conversions (Brinson, 2010; Carr,

2014; Smarick, 2010) there were indications that the operators of these schools had every

intention of seeing that the schools and their programs had no hint of religious affiliation

or instruction. Upon personally visiting the Catalyst Schools, it was apparent to me that

the situation was ripe for a case study because of the unique approach to faculty training,

motivation, and formation that seemed to be yielding exceptional results. Strake (1995)

notes that a case study should be considered based on what it is that is likely to be learned

that will lead to a more profound understanding of a broader phenomenon. The scarcity

of previous research along with the profoundly different approach to charter school

education represented by the “faith-inspired” foundation of the Catalyst Schools makes a

qualitative case study a logical choice.

My participation in a practicum as a part of the Interdisciplinary Leadership

doctoral program at Creighton University led me to work in a previously established


56

Catholic-to-charter conversion in Indianapolis. As a long time Catholic educator who

knew many of the people involved in this particular Catholic-to-charter conversion, I was

surprised by the slavish adherence to issues of separation of Church and State imposed on

these school leaders by the charter granting authority of the Mayor’s office in

Indianapolis. These were Catholic leaders of honor who were simply working in

accordance with the direction that had been given to them by the Mayor’s office and

leaders of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in what was essentially a pilot program for

both parties involved. The question immediately occurred to me, “Were there other

fundamentally important elements of Catholic education that could make a difference for

the students in this charter school?” Furthermore, “Could not the boundaries of what is

and is not legally permissible be probed to a greater degree to take full advantage of faith-

based elements essential to effective teaching and learning?” The research by Proehl et al.

(2015) provides the answer to that question and the answer is yes.

That answer, however, immediately begs another question which is how were the

founders of the Catalyst Schools able to integrate so many more elements of traditional

Catholic education and faculty formation into their charter school than in the Catholic-to-

charter schools previously reported in the literature. The answer to that question is

critically important to many Catholic leaders and is at the heart of this study.

Therefore, the purpose of this case study was to understand the process of

conceptual development, negotiation, and discernment among organizational leaders that





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Research Questions

Following an initial period of optimism and hope about the possibilities of

Catholic-to-charter conversions, disappointments emerged in newly formed charter

schools that have been opened following the closure of a Catholic school (Brinson, 2010;

Carr, 2014; Smarick, 2010). While veteran teachers, administrators, and staff initially had

great hopes that the distinguishing characteristics of a Catholic school - high standards,

good discipline, and a commitment to teaching virtue and character - could be retained

after the conversion to a charter school, their lived experience left them deeply

disappointed. The day-to-day operation of the Catholic school that bound both the

students and faculty in a shared mission was not adequately replaced by the optional

afterschool religious education programs offered to the students (Carr, 2014; Smarick,

2010). However, recent research by Proehl et al. (2015) indicates that a new model of

charter school formation has emerged that has shown unparalleled results in retaining

what Proehl refers to as the “Catholic ethos”, the retention of which is critically important

to leaders of Catholic secondary and elementary schools along with their superiors at the

diocesan level.

The following research questions guided this case study:




in impoverished urban neighborhoods managed by the religious order?




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Research Design

This qualitative case study explored the interactions among leaders involved in

two organizations that collaborated to form two faith-inspired charter schools. Qualitative

data obtained from interviews with leaders of the charter granting authority and leaders of

a religious order helped clarify the dialogue, negotiations, and discernment that took

place over a six-year period of collaborative conversation. Additionally, the documents

gathered from the minutes, letters, emails, and other means of communication between

these collaborating leaders helped shed light on the process of decision-making and

discernment in the formation of the Catalyst Schools.

The rationale for conducting the case study of these particular schools was based

on the fact that little research on these schools has been reported. Consequently,

researchers have not yet begun to identify the particular questions and issues that need to

be explored in these schools. Therefore, a case study was well suited as an approach that

empowered the leaders who formed these schools to share their stories while at the same

time laying the groundwork for further inquiry (Creswell, 2011). While the void in the

literature related to these unique faith-inspired charter schools indicates more

understanding is needed, this study provides new insights regarding the critical elements

of their establishment.

Study Participants

A phone conversation with Dr. Rebecca Proehl in July of 2015, the author of the

only peer-reviewed research article that has been published on the Catalyst Schools, led

me into direct contact that same month with the founders of the Catalyst Schools, Ed

Siderewicz and Gordon Hannon, who had also collaborated to found the original San


59

Miguel schools in 1995. The San Miguel schools had attracted the attention of CPS

leaders originally and led to the initial proposal of partnership from CPS to the Christian

Brothers. Since this is a study of dialogue and discernment at the leadership level of an

organization, their participation was critical.

As a result of an initial conversation with these founders, along with a subsequent

visit to Chicago and discussion with other leaders of the Catalyst Schools, I was assured

of the willingness of the leaders of the Christian Brothers to participate in the study.

Additionally, our original conversations led to identifying key volunteer lay leaders, each

of whom played a critical role in the process of establishing these schools. Because of

these leaders’ participation in the conversations that took place on multiple levels of the

organizations, interview participants were sought who were thought to have a recollection

of the discussions related to the origin of the schools. Since the inspiration for the

Catalyst Schools was the tuition-free San Miguel Catholic schools founded by the

Christian Brothers in 1995, and since many of the discussions about the Christian

Brothers possibly working with CPS took place at San Miguel board meetings, it was

important to look for participants who had the experience of seeing how the San Miguel

schools evolved into faith-inspired charter schools as well as the experience of

participating in the discussions that led to this decision. A document was developed

expressing the key elements of the proposed study and was sent by Siderewicz to each

participant in advance of me contacting them requesting their participation. This “key

elements” document can be found in Appendix A.


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There were multiple attempts to gain direct access to the leaders of the Chicago

Public School system who were involved in the initial proposition of the partnership to

establish the Catalyst Schools. At the beginning of the study, the person from CPS

identified as most critical to the success of establishing the charters, former CPS CEO

Arne Duncan, was nearing the end of a seven year term of serving as the Secretary of

Education for the United States. As the study progressed, Duncan announced his

resignation, which took place on January 1, 2016. His subsequent return to Chicago

allowed contact to be established and he agreed to be interviewed for the study. Duncan’s

participation, along with that of Ron Huberman, the CEO whose term followed Duncan’s

in Chicago, add breadth to the study by providing a balance of perspective offered by the

charter granting authority.

The demographic breakdown of the interview participants is as follows:

• two founders of both the San Miguel schools and the Catalyst Schools (Gordon

Hannon and Ed Siderewicz)

• one current Christian Brother who was serving as provincial leader of the

Midwest Province of the Christian Brothers at the time the Catalyst Schools were

formed (Br. Frank Carr)

• one current Catalyst board member who had previously served on the San Miguel

board (Terry Toth)

• three former Catalyst board members who previously served on the San Miguel

board (Lou Ebling, Pat Wier, and Gary Wood)

• two current Catalyst teachers who had previously served at the San Miguel

schools (Kathy Donahue and Sharon Morgan)


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• one current Assistant Archdiocesan Superintendent who was in the same position

at the time the Catalyst Schools were formed (Sr. Margaret Farley)

• one current Christian Brother who has documented the formation of the Catalyst

Schools and is currently completing a book to publish his findings (Br. Michael

Fehrenbach)

• one current principal of a Catalyst School (Dawn Sandoval)

• one former principal of a Catalyst School and current Catalyst network leader

(Michael Kasang)

• one former Superior General of the Sisters of St. Casimir (Sr. Immacula Wendt)

and one additional member of the order (Sr. Margaret Zalot)

• one wraparound spiritual formation program leader (Amy Eckhouse)

• two former CPS CEOs (Arne Duncan and Ron Huberman).

These participants represent all aspects of the decision making process at the

leadership level - founders of the schools, religious order leaders, archdiocesan leaders,

board members, and CPS leaders who were present for the discussions and discernment

under analysis. The sample size was also deemed sufficient based on the common

understanding among qualitative researchers conducting interviews that sufficiency is

reached when the researcher begins to hear the same information reported and is no

longer learning anything new that could justify exploring different dimensions of the

issue being studied (Seidman, 2013).

Data Collection Tools

Collection of data began with conducting personal interviews at a site of the

interviewee’s choosing. The interview questions are detailed in Appendix B and the


62

questions were generally asked in the sequence listed. Occasionally, it was necessary to

ask follow-up questions for the purpose of gaining further clarity regarding some of the

answers. Sharing the stories of people in their own words and making thematic

connections among their experiences is a fruitful way of conducting and reporting

research in many of the social sciences (Seidman, 2013). Thus, the personal interview

was selected as the primary means of collecting data for the study.

However, additional data was collected from other sources. Yin (2014) notes that

it is possible to collect six different types of data for qualitative studies. These types of

data include:

• Documentation such as letters, memoranda, emails, and other personal documents

• Archival records such as organizational records, budgets, and minutes of meetings

• Interviews

• Direct observations

• Participant observation

• Physical artifacts.

In this particular case study, all of these types of data were gathered except for physical

artifacts.

Data Collection Procedures

Each participant, with the exception of the founders, was introduced to me

through an email recommendation from one of the founders requesting participation in

the case study. All 18 of the individuals invited to participate agreed to do so without

hesitation. With the exception of three interviews by phone, the personal interviews were

face-to-face and took place in the metropolitan area of Chicago from November 2015


63

through March 2016. Each interview lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. With the

permission of each participant, the personal interview data was electronically recorded

and subsequently transcribed by a transcription professional. The data was properly

secured on a home computer.

In addition to the interviews, a sampling of the other types of data gathered in

each of the categories described by Yin (2014) includes:

Documentation – a memorandum from the former Superior General of the Christian

Brothers across the world, a letter from the Midwest Provincial of the Christian Brothers

giving the rationale for his suggestion to move forward in partnering with CPS, agendas

and notes from presentations given to other dioceses around the country regarding the

possible formation of Catalyst Schools in other states, a booklet regarding the mission

and philosophy of education and discipline prepared for potential Catalyst School

teaching candidates, and Catalyst School promotional materials designed to inform

prospective students and their families. Additionally, I was given the most recent draft of

a book that traces the history of the formation of the Catalyst Schools. Publication of the

book is scheduled for April 2016.

Archival Records – a copy of the first charter application submitted to CPS highlighting

the planned mission and objective of the schools if granted a charter, minutes of the CPS

Board of Education meeting when the first Catalyst charter was granted, and yearly

budgets for Catalyst School operations.

Direct observations – I was granted the opportunity to observe classes in action and to

observe teachers interacting with students in non-classroom settings. I was invited to

observe a “Leadership Summit” of Catalyst School leaders in August of 2015 which


64

gathered approximately 30 teachers, administrators, and board members for the purpose

of reflecting on the mission of the schools as a means of serving students in high crime,

high poverty settings. Additionally, in August of 2015, I was granted an opportunity to

shadow one of the founders for a wall-to-wall day of meetings with other administrators,

foundation leaders with an interest in spreading the Catalyst model around the country,

and a few random visits from current and former board members.

This entire collection of data was gathered over the course of multiple email

exchanges along with five separate visits that took place from August 2015 through

March 2016. These visits were also used to conduct the interviews and to tour each

campus where I was allowed to speak informally to many of the teachers, administrators,

and staff.

The multiple sources and types of data served to provide general assurance of the

validity of the findings of the study. Data source triangulation (Strake, 1995) represents

the most obvious path toward this assurance in a case study such as this one. Therefore,

the method of triangulation was used repeatedly throughout the evaluation of the data and

the interpretations that were made.

Ethical Considerations

All research participants were informed of the nature of the study through the

presentation of the “Four Elements” document in Appendix A. I then followed up the

introduction by contacting each participant with a personal phone call and email. It was

determined by the Institutional Review Board of Creighton University that participants

would not be required to sign an Informed Consent document. The IRB Approval Letter

can be found in Appendix C. Finally, my dissertation committee helped determine that


65

the public profile of each participant and the nature of the subject matter did not require

anonymity according to appropriate ethical standards of Creighton University.

Summary

The strength of a qualitative case study methodology is that many sources of

evidence can be used and multiple sources did indeed become available. Given the lack

of peer-reviewed studies on the Catalyst Schools, it was also determined that this

qualitative case study will provide an opportunity for the discovery of new dimensions of

the Catalyst Schools to be explored by future researchers. Interviews with leaders

responsible for the discernment, dialogue, and decisions to form the Catalyst Schools

comprise the bulk of the data but the ability to ascertain the validity of the data through

triangulation results from an ample supply of other types of data from a variety of

sources. Approval of the research was obtained from the Institutional Review Board and

all ethical standards expected of Creighton University doctoral researchers were

followed.


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CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND THE EVIDENCE-BASED SOLUTION

Introduction

In an effort to address financial pressures posed by inner city Catholic parishes

serving impoverished areas, some Catholic leaders have opted to alleviate some of these

pressures by closing Catholic schools in these parishes and immediately opening a charter

school on the parish grounds. Evidence has begun to emerge that indicates that the newly

formed charter schools lose the benefits of the shared religious mission and practices that

are common in most Catholic schools (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014). Proehl et al. (2015)

indicates that a new sort of model has emerged as the result of the collaboration between

the Chicago Public School (CPS) system and the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian

Schools (Christian Brothers) religious order. Proehl’s research shows the Catalyst

Schools have been successful in operating as “faith-inspired” charter schools that show


religious organization striving to maintain fidelity to the founding charisms of the

organization - a result that previously established Catholic-to-charter conversions have

not fully attained.

The purpose of this case study is to understand the process of conceptual




urban neighborhoods. The aim of this Dissertation in Practice study was to develop a

series of recommendations that can aid and inform leaders of other religious orders and

diocesan education offices as they consider the possibility of opening charter schools in


67

impoverished areas that are experiencing a severe decline in enrollment and possible

closure as a result of the financial pressures associated with these declines.

Presentation of the Findings

The following research questions guided this qualitative case study:







Preliminary conversations were held with the two founders of the Catalyst

Schools to identify a pool of possible participants who had witnessed the evolution of the

Catalyst Schools concept from an historical perspective. Sixteen other participants were

identified, and every one of them agreed to participate. The interviews were conducted

from November 2015 through March 2016. The interviews yielded 183 pages of

transcribed text.

Dedoose qualitative analytic software was used to review the interview text and to

begin to understand themes that evolved as participants discussed their perspectives and

recollection of events as they unfolded. Significant passages were excerpted and given

appropriate codes based on content relative to the issues identified by the research

questions. Table 2 shows the identified themes and their frequency of occurrence, based

on the number of coded excerpts that emerged from the transcribed interviews.


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Frequency of Coded Themes

Table 2

Theme Passages Coded

Community Partners 7 Conceptual Development 41 CPS Relations 21 Discussion and Discernment 51 Future Opportunities 50 Inspiration 23 Leadership 55 Mission 11 Obstacles 30 Rationale 25 Successes 8 Values Curriculum 12

Chapter Four presents the results obtained from the analysis of the 18 interviews,

the researcher’s observations during the five site visits, and review of multiple sources

including documents, minutes, letters, email messages, memoranda, and manuscripts. A

review of the 600-plus pages of documents gathered, along with review of the field notes

taken from my observations and shadowing experiences, informed the synthesis of all of

the data into seven major themes which are presented in this chapter along with examples

of evidence for each major theme.

The seven sub-headings based upon these major themes are:

• Conceptual Development

• The Charter Proposition – Discussion and Discernment

• Rationale for a Decision

• Leadership Issues

• Overcoming Obstacles


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• The Catholic Ethos

• The Ideal Charter Granting Authority

Conceptual Development

It is instructive to learn the background from which the concept of the Catalyst

Schools developed. The founders of the school recognize the establishment of the

Catalyst Schools represents a radical departure in normative thinking about education

offered by religious organizations in the United States. Appreciating the organizational

culture from which this idea emerged is essential to fully understanding the energy that

drives it forward today.

St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle. It is impossible to understand the particular case

of the establishment of the Catalyst Schools without an understanding of the life and

work of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle who founded the Institute of the Brothers of the

Christian Schools and dedicated his life to educating the poor and abandoned children of

France. Founded in 1680, the Christian Brothers now run 560 schools for 850,000

students in over 80 countries based on the principles De La Salle laid out in “The

Conduct of the Christian Schools”, which was published posthumously in 1720. In 1950,

Pope Pius XII declared him to be the Special Patron of all Christian Educators. Today

there are over 5,000 brothers actively engaged in the operation of schools and other

education centers around the world (see LaSalle.org, 2016).

Establishment of San Miguel Middle School. Chicago is a hub of operations for

the Christian Brothers. In addition to Lewis University, the Midwest Province of the

Christian Brothers operate nearly a dozen high schools, elementary schools, retreat

centers and camps to serve the youth of the metropolitan area. It was in this setting in


70

1994 that Brother Edmond Siderewicz returned to the United States after eight years of

working to establish schools for impoverished Mayan Indians in Guatemala. In a

conversation over lunch with Brother Michael Fehrenbach, Siderewicz was encouraged

to listen to what the Spirit was saying as he contemplated the next phase of his ministry.

It is from that exercise of listening and contemplation that Brother Ed collaborated with

Brother Gordon Hannon to establish the San Miguel School in honor of St. Miguel

Febres Cordero, a Christian Brother who served the people of Ecuador and was

canonized in 1984. The San Miguel School, which is still open today, is one of a handful

of tuition-free Catholic schools in the country. San Miguel students come from inner city

Chicago neighborhoods. Through small class sizes, an extended school day and year, and

a low student-to-teacher ratio, the San Miguel School has attained remarkable success in

terms of the academic performance and graduation rates of its students. It is truly a labor

of love and a passion for not only the Christian Brothers but also for the active group of

benefactors and board members who provide governance and leadership for the school.

The San Miguel School thrives as result of an energetic team of volunteer board

members who commit time and energy to informing others about the mission of the

school, inviting others to participate by sharing their skills and expertise in areas needed

to run a school, and soliciting financial support for the school. The tradition of

extraordinary volunteer leadership goes back to the school’s founding and has been

maintained over the past 20 years. One of the interviews I conducted took place the

morning after the annual Stewardship Dinner celebrating the generosity extended by

benefactors over the past year. This particular person, who had been on the board for the

past 20 years, was enthusiastic about the successes of the school and hopeful about its


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prospects for the future. The Annual Report she brought to the interview boasted of San

Miguel’s first student who was a child of a graduate of the school. Incredibly, a positive

tradition is beginning to take root in an area mainly known for its crime and poverty.

Over the years, the enthusiasm for the work that the San Miguel School does has

grown among the Chicago community. This enthusiasm is best exemplified by the

establishment of a second San Miguel campus through a gift from Gary Comer, a wealthy

philanthropist who founded Lands End clothing company out of his garage in Chicago.

Whereas the original San Miguel campus serves a population consisting primarily of

Latino students, the new campus would serve a predominantly African-American

population. The establishment of the new campus brought both new challenges and new

opportunities, but the schools continued to gain a reputation of getting results where no

other schools could. The Catholic schools that had once existed in the surrounding

neighborhoods had all closed because the families in the neighborhood could no longer

afford tuition. The public schools in the neighborhoods served by the two San Miguel

campuses had abysmal academic performance records (McLaughlin, 2005).

Consequently, the San Miguel schools quickly emerged as the preferred option for many

families.

However, the constant pressure of raising funds to support San Miguel is an

enormous challenge even in a city with as much wealth and as many people as Chicago.

Donor fatigue has taken its toll. Every current and former San Miguel board member that

I interviewed mentioned the enormity of this fundraising challenge. It was frequently

indicated that board members felt that a limit had been reached in terms of the number of

students that could be served by San Miguel. As one participant explained, “Part of it was


72

San Miguel couldn’t grow. It’s tuition free...We were raising $3 million a year just to

keep the schools going. It was a great mission model but a bad business model.” This

growing sense of limitation that developed was key to establishing a context for what was

to happen next. (G. Wood, personal communication, December 9, 2015)

The CEO comes for a visit. Gary Comer, as mentioned previously, an influential

supporter and benefactor of San Miguel, brought then-CEO of CPS, Arne Duncan, to see

the good work that the school and its teachers were doing. Duncan was so impressed by

what he saw and the results of the school’s performance on standardized tests that he

asked Hannon and Siderewicz to consider a proposition. As Siderewicz recalls, “Arne sat

right there and looks at me. ‘Brother if you can get your Brothers behind this I’ll get my

team behind it. I’ll make sure it works. Could you guys bring what you’re doing into the

public sector?’” This was not the first time that the question had been posed to the

Brothers. Previous CPS CEO, Paul Vallas, had asked the same question of Siderewicz

back in 1999. Siderewicz recalls that his first response was, “No way that could be done.

We are a Catholic school.” However, Duncan’s inquiry came nearly 5 years after Vallas

had first presented the idea. By this time, after years of allowing the idea to marinate

among the members of the order, the Brothers were ready to consider the CPS request in

earnest as a result of Duncan’s enthusiastic and repeated encouragement.

Duncan’s enthusiasm could have been in no small part due to the launching of the

Renaissance 2010 project by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in 2004. The primary

emphasis of Renaissance 2010 was that Chicago schools would be renewed through the

creation of at least 100 new charter schools by the year 2010. The new charter schools

were to be aimed primarily at serving Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods. Duncan was


73

not only charged with steering the implementation of the Mayor’s plan, he was an ardent

supporter of school reform and had been personally involved in establishing charter

schools before becoming CEO of CPS in Chicago.

Before making the proposal to Siderewicz and Hannon, Duncan had visited the

Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Francis George, to inquire about the Cardinal’s interest

and willingness to partner with CPS to establish a number of charter schools throughout

the City of Chicago. As Duncan relates,

They were closing Catholic schools, as you know, due to underenrollment and for

me when the school closes the parish often closes. It’s just another loss to

decimated communities. So, I pushed the Archdiocese very very hard to have

their schools with declining enrollment to become charters. We could fund them

publicly and give them the income they desperately needed. Our per pupil was

more than what they were charging so it would be a huge increase in their revenue

and they could use that to serve more kids. We had a couple meetings and

candidly I failed. (A. Duncan, personal communication, March 9, 2016)

The Cardinal was concerned about not being able to teach religion in the schools and

according to Duncan, “I could never get the Archdiocese to buy into that as planned.”

On the other hand, Duncan found a more receptive ear with Siderewicz. In

Duncan’s words,

Ed was just much more flexible. He said what do you do about teaching religion?

And I said we can teach it as a voluntary thing from 8 o’clock to 9 o’clock in the

morning, start school at 9 and do it before school…. Basically, rather than finding

a way to say no he found a way to say yes. And it really was his leadership,


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courage, creativity, and ingenuity that led to it. (A. Duncan, personal

communication, March 9, 2016)

The question was now officially on the table for the Brothers to consider and

Duncan’s persistent inquiries would not be ignored. Siderewicz recalls his continued

encouragement by Duncan to give his proposition serious consideration. Siderewicz

could only promise him that he would take it to the Brothers for it to receive a full

exploration by the leaders of the Midwest Province.

The Charter Proposition - Discussion and Discernment

Both Hannon and Siderewicz recall that their immediate response to the idea of

starting a charter school to try to replicate the San Miguel schools was negative in nature.

Both men were products of a lifetime of Catholic education in the Lasallian tradition.

Their paradigm of Catholic schooling had been formed both in their role as Catholic

school students and then as Catholic school teachers. It is no surprise then, that once the

idea was broached with the leadership of the Midwest Province of the Christian Brothers,

it was also met with a good deal of skepticism.

The Midwest District. As mentioned previously, the De La Salle Christian

Brothers are a religious order that spans the globe and is present in 80 countries. In order

to more effectively manage the order, the Christian Brothers separate themselves

according to geographic location around the world. The Midwest District is one of four

districts that encompass all of North America. The Midwest District is comprised of eight

states and includes three universities, 14 high schools, three middle schools, one

elementary school, four retreat centers, two publishing houses, and one provincial office.

The provincial office is located in Burr Ridge, Illinois which is a suburb of Chicago.


75

Within the District, there are currently 148 brothers and hundreds of lay partners who

work together to fulfill the mission of the Brothers (see Lasalle.org, 2016).

There was uncertainty between Siderewicz and Hannon as to what the proper

venue was for discussion of the opening of a charter school as proposed by Duncan. One

of the obvious places for formal discussion was the San Miguel School board. As co-

founders of the schools, both men had close relations and regular reporting

responsibilities to the board. Since the concept was merely in the idea phase, there was no

preconceived governance structure that would serve in a trusteeship role for any newly

formed charter school. Hannon recalls the tenor of the first discussions. “For Ed and I it

was like for good or bad, yeah, why not?” The board chair (an influential member of the

Chicago real estate community) couldn’t quite integrate the idea. He replied, “That’s not

possible. We are a Catholic school.” Though no formal vote was taken at the time, it was

clear that many members of the San Miguel School board had similar reservations.

However, as Hannon recalls, “The question was just in the air and Ed really drove the

question to the Board and to the Brothers and said well why not? Isn’t there some way

we can do this? Why can’t you do it?” This fundamental question would not go away.

Another concern was legal in nature. One former San Miguel board member who

later went on to serve on the Catalyst board noted, “I thought they were going to come

after us with tremendous fervor to take us down” referring to leaders of the teachers’

union. “But they ended up not doing that because they were fighting their own issues on

multiple fronts.”

The San Miguel board could come to no definitive resolution right away. In fact,

the members were not even sure that it was the appropriate body to approve such a move.


76

They thought that it seemed to be a matter more appropriately handled by the

administrative leadership of the Christian Brothers.

Given the proximate location of the provincial office to the proposed location of

the new charter schools, there was immediate access to the leaders of the Midwest

District. Since the San Miguel board could not come to a definitive resolution,

Siderewicz and Hannon brought the matter before the Provincial Council. The Visitor (a

formal Christian Brother title for the head of the Midwest District – also frequently

referred to as “the Provincial” in many religious orders) had immediate concerns. Brother

Frank Carr held the position at that time. He told me,

We were sort of open to it, but we had to maintain good relationships with the

Archdiocese and the Cardinal. There were times when we had to tip toe because

we didn’t want his wrath coming down on the five of our schools in the

Archdiocese at that time. (F. Carr, personal communication, December 4, 2015)

Similar to the concerns expressed by San Miguel Board members, reservations were also

expressed about the legalities and constitutional challenges that may come to the Brothers

if they were to be associated with such a school. In light of this concern, there was a

hesitancy to “own” the establishment of the schools through a directive emanating from

the Provincial Council.

Since neither governing body would make a definitive decision either approving

the establishment of a charter school or declining to do so, both bodies continued to

discuss the issue with no clear resolution. In fact, the scope of the community

conversation grew to include many others. A former teacher on the San Miguel faculty

recalls,


77

We had a three-day think tank meeting with all the community people of San

Miguel. There were 60 of us at DePaul, and we discussed what it would be like to

have a charter school. Basically, all of the stakeholders were invited. I was a

teacher. Board members were there along with parents. (S. Morgan, personal

communication, November 19, 2015)

Another former teacher recalled, “It was like a think tank or strategic planning session.

Can we co-exist together? Can we do an umbrella organization that runs 2 different

networks? It was a lot of conversation.”

As the months passed and the discussion intensified, both Siderewicz and Hannon

began to believe that the charter proposal from Duncan should be taken up. Siderewicz

described the process like this,

The San Miguel Board was looking at it and one day they would say, yeah, you

should consider this, and then the next day they’d say no we can’t do that, and we

just kept kind of going around in a circle. We went around that circle for 6 years.

We kept saying “No”, but it ended up being a “No, not yet.” But we didn’t know

that at the time. It just kind of kept working on our minds and hearts, and I think

after going around that circle long enough I think a couple of us just came to the

conclusion we are going to keep going around this circle till we try it. Then we

know. Either it’s going to work or it’s not going to work. (E. Siderewicz, personal


Siderewicz had similar discussions with the Brothers. He explains,

We said, “What’s there to lose?” If it works it’s a breakthrough. It’s a

breakthrough for our order; it’s a breakthrough for society to say, hey, it doesn’t


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have to be this either/or kind of thinking - it’s this or that. It’s about kids. It’s

about bringing the gifts and traditions and legacies to the table in a way that

works and yet I just keep thinking the Holy Spirit could walk through walls and

barriers. Isn’t that what we are called to with our lives? (E. Siderewicz, personal


Indeed, a barrier was about to be breached in the form of a thoughtful leader who was

coming back home.

Rationale for a Decision

As the discussion and discernment continued within the community and among

the Christian Brothers, opinions began to become solidified. Again Siderewicz recalls,

I know there were Brothers that were opposed to it. Leaders, I can’t say for

certain. I’m sure there were because people just fell on all sides of this since it

was new and they never knew this experience in this country. I’m sure there were

some that saw possibilities right out of the gate and really encouraged it. But we

were swimming upstream in general. (E. Siderewicz, personal communication,

November 19, 2015)

Brother Johnston’s memorandum. In the midst of this confusion and indecision

came the return of Brother John Johnston to Chicago and the Midwest District. Brother

Johnston was no ordinary brother. He had an unmatched depth of international leadership

experience having served 10 years in Rome as the Vicar General for the Christian

Brothers (second in charge throughout the world) and another 14 years in Rome as the

order’s Superior General (the top position in the world within the hierarchy of the order).

Twenty-four years in Rome seeing the Christian Brothers from a global perspective gave


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Brother Johnston the lens needed to see this charter proposal in light of what was

happening around the world. At the first District Council meeting Johnston attended after

his return, discussion turned immediately to the charter proposal Arne Duncan had made

to the brothers. According to Siderewicz, Brother Johnston left no doubts about his

thoughts on the matter. Johnston clearly felt that accepting Duncan’s proposal was within

the scope of the worldwide mission of the Christian Brothers. He offered many examples

of Brothers collaborating with local and national governments for the funding of schools

that were operated by the Christian Brothers.

Brother Johnston gave a previously unparalleled measure of clarity of thought on

the matter. It was determined that he would put his thoughts in writing so that they could

be accurately distributed to others who had been involved in the charter discussion but

were unable to be present for the meeting of the District Council and his expression of

support for the charter proposal. On February 9, 2005 (the day the Catholic Church

celebrates the Feast of San Miguel Febres Cordero), Brother Johnston distributed a

memorandum. The memorandum was prepared as a summary of positions that Brother

Johnston had presented orally at a previous meeting of the Council. The entire

memorandum represents a unique synthesis of the experiences of the Christian Brothers

over the past Century. Any serious student on the matter should read it. The

memorandum is included in its entirety in Appendix D.

Brother Johnston expressed his thinking on the matter by making the following points:

I spoke to the proposal out of my international experience, 10 years as Vicar

General, 14 years as Superior General. Through the lens of that experience, I said


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that I see no important reasons why we should say no to the proposal and that I

see important reasons why we should say yes. (Johnston, 2015)

After acknowledging that there may well be legal challenges that would work their way

through the court system, Johnston writes:

As far as I know, neither Church law nor Church practice discourages

collaboration with governments. On the contrary, the Church frequently and

consistently argues that governments are obliged to fund education for everyone -

including those in schools with religious orientations. (Johnston, 2005)

Explaining what he has seen from a global perspective, Johnston wrote:

Internationally, the Institute of the De La Salle Christian Brothers has

collaborated for many years with governments and continues to collaborate today

in numerous countries… relationships with governments are of three kinds: 1)

those imposed by law or edict that effectively exclude the Institute from

involvement in educating youth through schools; 2) those imposed by law or edict

that permit the Institute to function only within certain parameters; 3) those that

the Institute enters into freely, accepting both the advantages and disadvantages of

the arrangement. (Johnston, 2005)

Johnston goes on to give examples of the three types of arrangements with

governments around the world. He notes that, “Today the Brothers are effectively

excluded from educating youth in schools in Cuba, Vietnam, and Myanmar.” Similarly,

“until the collapse of communism in Central Europe, the same was true in Poland,

Romania, and Czechoslovakia. In Slovakia today, we have a school in which the teachers

are paid at least partially by the State.”


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Johnston continues,

Our schools in Sri Lanka were nationalized some 40 years ago and no school

could any longer charge tuition. The Brothers and former students decided to find

financial support for a few schools and passed the other schools to the

government. Some 45 years ago, France enacted laws that enabled the Institute to

conduct its own network of schools and receive government support for salaries

(lay and brothers) as well as other operating expenses. A similar arrangement

exists in Belgium. In both countries, the teaching of religion is permitted.

The Socialist government in Austria began paying teachers salaries in all

schools some 20 years ago. At approximately the same time, the two districts in

Great Britain took advantage of the opportunity to enter the government system

and receive financial assistance the teaching of religion is an integral part of the

curriculum.

When the Socialist party won national elections in Spain some 20 years

ago, the government soon offered to provide funds for all schools K-10 where the

teaching of religion and pastoral activities would be permitted.

In India, we run schools for the poor in which the government pays the

salaries of most of the teachers, including the Brothers.

In Argentina, students in our schools are categorized according to family

income and receive tuition assistance accordingly.

In other countries, such as Thailand, we cannot teach the Catholic religion

in the school building to the very small number of Christians. We teach religion,

however, in the Brothers’ residence.


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About 25 years ago, our Institute in France made the decision to withdraw

the brothers from Turkey. When the Vatican heard that we intended to end a

presence we had maintained since 1841, Reaction was decisive and swift. The

Vatican pleaded with us to maintain our presence. There was no expectation that

we would “proselytize” and try to convert Muslims to Catholicism. Not at all. The

hope was that we would continue to make Christ’s loving and saving presence a

visible and effective reality through well-run, highly regarded educational

institutions, while respecting totally the religion of others. The Institute reversed

its decision and continues to serve Turkish youth, nearly all Muslims, today.

(Johnston, 2005)

Many other salient points are made in this persuasive and authoritative document.

It closes with an introspective one sentence summary which declares, “I suppose the

bottom line question is whether or not God, in the words of St. De La Salle, is confiding

such children to our care… or not.”

This was the question before the Brothers in Chicago in 2005, and, after Brother

Johnston expressed his thoughts on the matter, resolution was not long in coming.

Reflecting on that pivotal meeting of the District Council, Siderewicz offers:

The conversation was a fascinating moment. It’s kind of like again, here’s

something new. It’s not a Catholic school, we don’t know this experience,

but then John spoke up at that meeting. He’s the first word after our

presentation and he said this is not a radical proposal, we do this in this

country and that country and ticking them off and it’s true. (E. Siderewicz,

personal communication, November 19, 2015)


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Siderewicz continues, “Another brother spoke up after that and said, ‘This is where

religious communities have been historically - on the margins.’ Essentially, it’s out there

but we’ve always been out there. That’s what we are created to be.”

Brother Frank Carr, the Provincial, basically said, “go for it” according to

Siderewicz. None of those interviewed recalls a vote being taken. There was some sense

that one of the reasons that no vote was taken was because the legal implications were

unclear. Constitutional issues of church-state separation were still unclear. The actual

makeup and constitution of the school’s governance structure were also unclear. None of

the brothers really knew the exact details of what it was to which they were agreeing.

They simply moved forward with a spirit of faith at Brother Johnston’s urging, because

that is what the order had always done since its founding by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.

Siderewicz recalls that, “This would not be a sponsored school of the Brothers where

there’s a direct legal entity and that’s how we did that. I’m convinced we did that because

there was a healthy dose of fear along the journey.”

The Cardinal objects but the Catalyst movement is born. Brother Carr did

make one request of Siderewicz. “Make sure Cardinal George is aware of it and others at

the Archdiocese.” Siderewicz recalls traveling with Brother Mike Fehrenbach to Cardinal

George’s residence on a cold January morning. The Cardinal was adamantly opposed to

the proposition and wrote a letter to Frank Carr the following week expressing his

disappointment. The last line of the Cardinal’s letter read, “I regret this endeavor.” In

spite of the Cardinal’s disapproval, the Brothers determined to move forward. Indicating

the blurred lines of accountability that sometimes exist between religious communities


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and the local bishop, one of the interview participants commented, “It is one of the

blessings of being a religious order.”

Six years after a suggestion had been made by CPS CEO Paul Vallas to Brother

Ed Siderewicz, it was determined that members of the Christian Brothers would be

working with CPS to establish a charter school.

Leadership Issues

This case study looked at the formation of the Catalyst Schools through the eyes

of the leaders who made the decision to move forward with this new paradigm of a faith-

inspired charter school. The participants chosen were all in leadership positions of the

various organizations involved - the Christian Brothers, Chicago Public Schools, the San

Miguel board, the Archdiocese of Chicago, the current Catalyst board, the founders of the

school, and the current Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Schools. Given the research

questions and the perspective of the participants, it is only natural that leadership issues

would emerge as a team of their comments during the interviews.

Paradigm Pioneers. In the 1990s, a concept emerged that was popularized by

leadership writer and speaker Joel Barker identifying the role of what came to be called

the “paradigm pioneers” - people who were going into territory previously unknown

(Barker, 1993). Since the paradigm pioneers were leading organizations that were

attempting to go into previously unchartered terrain, it could be expected that there will

be an enormous amount of energy consumed based on the “trial and error” nature of the

path they were attempting to forge. Decisions are made based on the best understanding

of the information that is currently available but it is expected that, like the pioneers of

the past, a number of wrong turns may be taken until the best path forward is clearly


85

identified. Others that follow reap the fruits of the time-consuming, energy-sapping,

stress-filled efforts of the paradigm pioneers. The “settlers” who followed the pioneers

owe a debt of gratitude to those who found their way through the new territory.

In reviewing the data, it became immediately obvious that the path the leaders

were trying to discern was indeed unclear. No one had ever taken it before, and they

would walk down many blind alleys of thought and practice before they were to define

that clear way forward. Some examples of the comments from research participants

demonstrate this sense of uncertainty.

These leaders knew from the beginning where they wanted to go. As one

participant said, “We wanted to provide a gratuitous education for kids most in need and

we relied on Divine Providence to do it. We said that’s what we are going to do which

didn’t make any sense. Not in today’s world.” This was the initial idea from the San

Miguel model. It was not being done anywhere else in the country in 1995. As

Siderewicz noted, “all this was kind of coming together in what seemed like a not so

orderly fashion.” However, during the course of my research, I became aware of the

NativityMiquel Coalition that now represents the combined efforts of the Christian

Brothers and the Jesuits to provide services in 44 Schools across 18 states, Canada, and

the District of Columbia (see NativityMiguel Coalition, 2014). The settlers are now

finding a home in the path blazed by these pioneers who did not fully understand how

they were going to get to where they wanted to go.

Once the Brothers arrived at the decision to allow Siderewicz and Hannon to go

forth and partner with CPS, similar uncertainty filled the days and early years that

followed. Discouragement was not unusual in the early stages of the process. Siderewicz


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reflected this sentiment: “If we are deeply discouraged, then maybe the work of God is

getting done. That has given me deep comfort over the years because you do get

discouraged.” He likened the process of developing the Catalyst concept to giving birth.

“It’s kind of that birthing experience that we will never know as males, as hard and

difficult painful as that is, yet in some ways, I feel we do know that experience.” Further

explaining the experience he notes: “That birthing experience brings incredible pain and

doubt and many other things, but it also brings incredible joy when the life is brought into

the world. That’s the way I feel about things.”

Gordon Hannon spoke in similar terms. “Others who are looking at this kind of

thing - you have to be willing to live with ambiguity. It does test you and you question

yourself over and over.” He offers a further observation on this issue of the uncertain

nature of the enterprise, “You are going to be living with ambiguity for quite a while.”

Thinking about this further he offers, “I always took it personally. How come I can’t

figure this out? I was able to figure it out in other areas of my life much more quickly

than this is coming to me.”

Frank Carr expressed the same sort of feelings of ambiguity as he recalled the

early days. “We just weren’t sure how to proceed. We just knew we wanted to exercise

caution.” Brother Mike Fehrenbach spoke in similar terms. “Arne Duncan told us you

don’t have to lose your identity. We can push the envelope. Be who you are.” While

Duncan’s assurance gave the Brothers some initial confidence, Fehrenbach recalls, “Does

anyone know if this will work? Is anybody else doing it? No, nobody else is doing it. Do

it! Find out!” With this spirit of going forth into uncharted waters, combined with the


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strong sentiment that the San Miguel Schools could not grow further because of the

fundraising challenges, the Brothers launched their partnership with CPS.

Leadership is proactive and philanthropic. When considering the data in its

entirety, there are repeated instances of leaders who took proactive steps. In no particular

order these steps include:

• Jean-Baptiste de La Salle deciding to commit his life to the education of the poor

• Ed Siderewicz learning to educate the poor in the highlands of Guatemala

• Gordon Hannon recognizing his call to serve the poor

• Arne Duncan not accepting the status quo as to what a charter school might look

like in Chicago

• Pat Wier turning her attention from running the North American operations of the

Encyclopedia Britannica to share her business expertise with the Brothers

• Gary Comer inviting Arne Duncan to see the good work of San Miguel

• Lou Ebling and Terry Toth bringing their extraordinary volunteer energies to help

provide better opportunities for the education of children living in poverty

• Brother John Johnston bringing his global perspective of Lasallian education to

bear on local issues facing the Christian Brothers in Chicago.

These are all leaders with an exceptional level of commitment who took proactive

steps to meet an apparent need that was in front of them. Additionally, they took these

steps with a great spirit of generosity in terms of the sharing of their time, their

prodigious talents, and their expertise. These leaders gave of themselves over an extended

period of years and, for many of them, decades. Never was there any indication in

speaking with them that there were any regrets for having extended themselves in this


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fashion. Nonprofit organizations thrive on this type of leadership, and the birth of the

Catalyst Schools is no exception.

Overcoming Obstacles

Another theme that emerged from the interviews was the consistent presentation

of obstacles that arose in the development of the Catalyst Schools concept. Gordon

Hannon recalled that there were obstacles even from the beginning years of San Miguel.

This new school would be taking students who had previously been in public schools and

could not afford the tuition at a Catholic school. Reducing the number of students in the

public school, no matter how small as in the case of San Miguel, was perceived to be a

threat by the teachers’ union. Fewer students meant fewer dollars. Furthermore, even

though the fire department had already given the green light for the San Miguel School to

open in a building that had previously served as a convent he noted, “the fire department

came a couple days before school began and said you can’t use the convent because it’s

not up to code.” Hannon perceived this as political harassment stemming from the

teachers’ union objection to the new school, but nevertheless the founders soldiered on.

“We started school on a Thursday and had our first half day in the gym. The second day

was a field trip. That weekend, we still didn’t know where we were teaching classes on

Monday.” Hannon was not to be deterred. “I remember sitting in the convent with Jean (a

volunteer). We pulled two big nun tables together in the dining room and said here’s our

classroom. So we taught in that dining room for the entire first year – 18 kids.” This was

the beginning of a long tradition of overcoming obstacles.

Board clarity. Once the decision had been made by the Christian Brothers to give

Hannon and Siderewicz the freedom to move forward with establishing a charter school


89

in partnership with CPS, there was immediate uncertainty as to what form a governing

body should take. There was already a clear indication from the Provincial that he did not

want the Christian Brothers to bear responsibility for the operations of the school because

of legal concerns that he and others shared. Hannon and Siderewicz were given the

freedom to work with CPS, but it was up to them and others to determine how that

partnership would look and what sort of governance structure would be developed.

Several Catalyst teachers expressed the uncertainty surrounding this governance

issue in the early days. One noted, “San Miguel is like our sister school. We thought we

were all going to keep the same Board.” But, as another Catalyst teacher added, “It just

didn’t work out with the boards. It was a very amicable divorce.” Another participant

brought a humorous perspective to this development: “San Miguel got the logo and

Catalyst got the money.”

A key player in the final decision to move to two separate boards appears to be

Sister Margaret Farley, who is an Associate Superintendent with the Archdiocese of

Chicago and also a charter member of the board that provided governance for the San

Miguel schools. She still serves on the San Miguel board today. Siderewicz noted that Sr.

Farley had “done some research and brought a position paper on it.” Sister Farley’s

research gave the impetus to separate the governance of the San Miguel schools from the

governance of the Catalyst schools. This sort of collaboration and influence from officials

at the Archdiocese of Chicago demonstrates that, in spite of Cardinal George’s original

misgivings about the formation of the Catalyst Schools, there was still a willingness to

provide strategic support as these leaders worked through issues as they arose.


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Union resistance. The earlier story of perceived resistance by the teachers’ union

related by Gordon Hannon was one of several shared regarding union resistance. A

current Catalyst faculty member reflected on the early efforts to recruit students for the

first Catalyst School: “Charter schools are normally put into areas of need where people

need choices. But the teachers’ union goes in and tries to convince the neighborhoods

that bringing in the charter school is wrong because charter schools are for making more

money.” Another issue related to the resistance of unions that was spoken to by a number

of participants was that of gentrification. There was some feeling among Catalyst faculty

members I spoke to that this was a concern that was promoted by the teachers’ union. A

teacher now on the Catalyst faculty who was originally a teacher at San Miguel spoke to

this idea of gentrification most clearly. She told me, “The argument goes that they want

to bring in charter schools so there can be better schools for the white people who will

move back into the neighborhood.” Participants also told me that this was a general

strategy of rebuttal against Mayor Daley’s plans launched in the context of the

Renaissance 2010 initiative. This obstacle seems to have been overcome over the past

decade because there has been no noticeable change in the racial composition of the

neighborhoods that these schools serve. One teacher told me, “We have been here for 10

years and there hasn’t been an influx of white persons yet.”

Regulatory burden. Previous research (Brinig, 2010; Carr, 2014) noted that

teachers who had previously taught in Catholic schools that were then converted to

charter schools found the pressures of dealing with the public school bureaucracy to be

overwhelming when compared to their previous experience of working in a Catholic

school. Confirming the research by Proehl et al. (2015) who referred to the phenomenon


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as “the specter of CPS”, current Catalyst teachers who started in the San Miguel Schools

had the same experience. Hannon recalls, “The administration of the charter schools is

radically different than the administration of a private Catholic entity.” Hannon goes on

to expound upon other problems in dealing with a public school authority: “They don’t

understand the values. The system doesn’t understand what we know about human

growth and formation. Human growth and formation has to lead to a more just and

peaceful world.” This does not seem to be the focus of CPS. At least, CPS does not put it

into these terms. When asked about his impressions of what CPS does care about Hannon

replied, “They care about show me the growth on your math score - which is also

important.”

Other participants expressed similar concerns. A long time board member related,

“There is a huge administrative burden. You have lots of reports, and they are constantly

changing. Some of it is questionable as to whether it’s charter law or something the

district wants.”

Current Catalyst teachers expressed concerns along these lines as well. One of

them told me, “It’s not for the faint of heart.” She noted that the original charter

application required nearly 500 pages of documentation. Additionally, Siderewicz has

noticed a change in the relationship with CPS over the years. “Arne’s administration was

the most friendly. They have gone between less friendly to antagonistic.”

Current challenge for the Pioneers. Finally, the data also reveals an obstacle in

the form of an unresolved challenge that lies ahead for the Christian Brothers and the

Catalyst Schools. At the time of the founding of the Catalyst Schools, both Gordon

Hannon and Ed Siderewicz were Christian Brothers. Therefore, even though the Christian


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Brothers were not formally in a position of ownership or governance over the Catalyst

Schools, there was always the presence of one of the brothers in the operation of the

schools. This presence served as an active linkage to the Lasallian charisms that inspired

these men in the operation of the school and the training of its teachers. Gordon Hannon

articulated this ongoing concern by stating, “If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I don’t know

if the board or leadership would necessarily pick it up (referring to the espousing of

Lasallian tradition and charisms). There’s nothing compelling them other than integrity

to stay faithful to founding purpose.” Hannon stated, “Somehow it needs to be

institutionalized.” He has been pushing for a memo of understanding or some other kind

of covenant between the Catalyst Board and the District Council of the Christian

Brothers. Without such a documented guarantee of affiliation and relationship with the

Christian Brothers, Hannon feels like the faith-inspired nature of the school could be at

risk. He warns, “It has to get at the governance level not at the administrative level

because one of us could be gone tomorrow.”

Siderewicz expounded on this same issue. He defines the problem by stating;

“This is our work for today. How do we develop that linkage?” He did note that the

entire Provincial Chapter meets every four years and that the Chapter last met in 2014.

“What came out of the last Chapter is a mandate to do exactly that - to really find a way

to develop linkages with the charter schools that are popping up.” This is obviously a

critical issue if the Catalyst Schools are to retain a guarantee of their linkage to the

Lasallian traditions that seem to be such a positive influence on the administration,

faculty, and staff. This is a task properly addressed at the leadership level of both the


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current Catalyst Board and the Christian Brothers. For the long-term viability of the

Catalyst Schools as faith-inspired schools, this issue needs to be resolved.

The Catholic Ethos

Another recurring theme emerged though it was not ostensibly a part of the

original research questions. Proehl’s research, combined with comments from the

participants in this study, made it obvious that its emergence should have been

anticipated. A question could rightly be asked regarding how is it that these schools come

so close to replicating the results often seen in Catholic schools in terms of the level of

satisfaction that the sponsoring entity experiences. How are the non-academic, but

critically important, values transmitted from one generation to another? Many charter

schools and other types of public schools have adopted various forms of character and

value education programs. The Catholic-to-charter conversions in Washington D.C.,

Miami, and Indianapolis all adopted such curricula. However, only the peer-reviewed

research by Proehl et al. (2015) has identified any Catholic-to-charter conversion as

possessing a “Catholic ethos” when reporting on the research conducted. One reason for

this appears obvious - the commitment to having teachers and administrators participate

in professional development seminars, workshops, and retreats that focus on the writings

of Catholic saints, thinkers, and other religious leaders as a part of the professional

development exercises. To my knowledge, this is unprecedented in the world of charter

schools.

Faculty hiring and formation for mission. Before hiring prospective teachers,

candidates are given materials that clarify some expectations that are unique among

charter schools. These materials propose that, “mission is central and of absolute


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importance” and that, “mission is the foundation of Catalyst culture.” According to

Siderewicz, this understanding of the importance of mission must be taken into

consideration when interviewing and selecting faculty. The materials also focus on virtue

as well as teachings about social justice from the United States Conference of Catholic

Bishops. Once teachers are hired, they have the opportunity to participate in formation

activities previously only used to form teachers at Lasallian schools.

One of the primary subjects of teacher formation at the Catalyst Schools is a focus

on the life, writings, and teachings of Saint Jean-Baptiste LaSalle. The roots of this

practice go back to the traditional formation of teachers in the hundreds of Lasallian

schools operating around the world. Locally, Catalyst teachers are provided with an

opportunity to attend the Huether Lasallian Conference held in Chicago, which is an

annual multi-day gathering of Lasallian educators in the Midwest. Nationally, the most

established of these formation opportunities in the United States is the Buttimer Institute

of Lasallian Studies. The Buttimer Institute is an intensive Lasallian education and

formation program that studies the life and work of St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, the

origins of the Lasallian educational mission, and the charisms typically affiliated with

this mission (see Buttimer, 2016). Hannon attested to the commitment and value of these

Lasallian formation programs. “You need to be an active participant in district formation

programs - which we are. In many ways we are doing more than many Lasallian schools

are doing with having people involved in the Buttimer.” Hannon anticipated that at least

three of his teachers would be attending the Buttimer Institute in the summer of 2016 and

another 13 teachers are expected to attend the Huether Conference. Considering that

these Catalyst teachers will be networking and studying with hundreds of Lasallian


95

educators, there is little wonder that the Catalyst Schools have such an evident similarity

to Catholic schools.

When asked about his level of satisfaction with the way the charisms of the

Brothers have been retained at the new charter schools, former Provincial Frank Carr

recalled, “Mike Fehrenbach was instrumental in maintaining our charism at the Catalyst

Schools in a very non-threatening and even non-denominational way, but still making

sure that what the Brothers stood for was under-pinning what they are doing.” Carr went

on to cite Fehrenbach for the key role that he continues to play in the formation of

teachers stating, “There was a stroke of brilliance in some of his writings done in the

formation pieces to help people understand the tradition and the background. Some of

those are expertly done.” This level of satisfaction expressed by a leader who had

expressed serious initial concerns over the formation of the faith-inspired charter schools

is unprecedented in the literature regarding Catholic-to-charter conversions. It points to

the fact that there are lessons to be learned on the matter, and the Christian Brothers are

pointing the way when it comes to teacher formation.

Values curriculum. The current level of satisfaction with Catalyst’s fidelity to

the Lasallian mission does not mean that there were not original concerns regarding how

the Catalyst Schools would imbue a spiritually formative experience into its program for

students. Former board member Pat Wier recalls, “It was a great concern to the Brothers

that you couldn’t hang a crucifix in the school. My position is the importance of the

Catholic school is not having those icons hanging in the hallways. It’s the values we

teach the kids.” Later she added, “We can teach those values in whatever building we are


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in. They are not religious values. They are human values - honesty, integrity, ambition -

these kids need to learn.

Having never heard mention of the value “ambition” in a character-based

curriculum, I asked her if she could expound upon that further. Her reply follows:

I think that’s important and I feel that you can teach kids that they really can do

things. We will give you the means to get you there and, if you have the desire

and drive, which is what I think ambition is, to do it. There’s no reason you can’t

grow up to be a business executive…You can do it if you learn well in school and

learn more than reading, writing, history, social studies. You learn what the real

world is about. You learn how to understand what’s going on around you and

what it takes to make things happen - those kinds of things. I really think that’s

important. We’d bring in business people to talk to them about their jobs, college

people to talk to them about what they are doing in college and most of these kids

are not from college educated families. Most are not from high school educated

families. They don’t even know what it’s like to go to college. They don’t know

that they might want to go, and they have no clue. So, we try to teach them what

it’s like when you go away to college or you go to a local college. I believe you

have to teach the whole person. (P. Wier, personal communication, December 10,

2015)

I left our conversation with an appreciation of the value of ambition and convinced that it

was a worthy subject to be included within any values-oriented curriculum.

A faith-based community partner. In its collaboration with CPS, three Catalyst

Schools have been opened in Chicago: Catalyst Howland in 2006, Catalyst Circle Rock


97

in 2007, and Catalyst Maria in 2012. Two of those schools - Catalyst Circle Rock and

Catalyst Maria - are still open and thriving. Catalyst Howland closed in the spring of

2015. One glaring difference between the two schools that are thriving today and the one

that recently closed (Howland) is the degree to which the individual schools were

established with a linkage to a “community partner” from its earliest days.

Catalyst Circle Rock (Circle Rock) was established in partnership with Rock

Church and Circle Urban Ministries – an evangelical Christian organization that had

already been serving the neighborhood community for 30 years before the establishment

of Catalyst Circle Rock. Circle Rock is housed in a building that also houses Rock

Church and is owned by Circle Urban Ministries. Prior to the arrival of the Catalyst

organization, Circle Urban Ministries had been struggling to operate a private Christian

school in the same space. Just like in the Catholic parishes trying to serve impoverished

communities with a school, tuition-paying students were hard to come by. In the same

way that some Catholic parishes have closed their schools only to reopen a charter in the

same space months later, Circle Urban Ministries executed a similar conversion working

with Catalyst leaders and CPS to form Circle Rock. Today the school is filled.

In a similar partnership, Catalyst Maria (Maria) was founded in collaboration with

the Sisters of St. Casimir. The Sisters had operated Maria High School in Chicago for

over 100 years. At one time, the all-girls school served over 1,400 students. However,

recent years had seen the enrollment dip to just over 200 students and the Sisters were

losing approximately $2 million a year through the operation of the school. The Sisters

took the initiative to approach Catalyst leadership about a potential partnership because

they still wanted to serve the neighborhood in which they had been immersed for over


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100 years. Sister Immacula Wendt, General Superior of the Sisters of St. Casimir, sent a

letter to the Catalyst board expressing the dreams for a possible partnership. The entire

letter can be found in Appendix G. In the letter she wrote, “What a blessing this

partnership, Catalyst and Maria, could be for the students, the families, the community,

the city of Chicago! We greatly commend and value the mission, vision, and core

educational philosophy of the Catalyst Schools.” This new partnership reflected a new

hope for the Sisters. Sr. Immacula continued,

As Catalyst grows and integrates a total K-12 system, we see the building being

used to capacity for the children in our neighborhood. We have longed for the day

when Maria would once again be bursting at the seams, and we see this possibility

with Catalyst as an answer to our prayers, a gift to the surrounding community,

and a new way for us to continue to make a difference in the lives of young

people. (Wendt, 2011)

It is instructive to notice the openness of the Sisters to a “new way” of living out

their ministry. In much the same way as the Christian Brothers had been discussing a new

way of living out their charisms in 2005, the Sisters of St. Casimir, faced with declining

numbers of students and an enormous drain on the financial resources, had to be open to

new possibilities that would allow them to continue to serve a neighborhood in which

they had been immersed for over 100 years. Today, the school has over 1,100 students

and teams with the energy and enthusiasm for learning that the Sisters of St. Casimir

dreamed about in 2011.


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Regrettably, this sort of community partner was not a part of the formation of

Catalyst Howland and the school suffered as a result. Catalyst board member Lou Ebling

reflects,

Here’s the difference between Circle Rock and Howland. Circle Rock has a

community. There’s a church that’s been in the neighborhood for 30 years.

Doesn’t have to be Catholic but having an entity there that provides that sense of

community is critical...versus Howland, which was simply this big building with

no community. (L. Ebling, personal communication, December 11, 2015)

Many other participants perceived the lack of a partnership with a long-standing

community organization as a real barrier to Howland’s success and contributed to the

decision to close the school in the spring of 2015.

A wraparound spiritual formation program. What has come to be seen as a

critical ingredient of the Catholic ethos of the Catalyst Schools was suggested in

the letter that Sister Immacula sent to the Catalyst Board. In the letter, she

describes her vision of the possible use of the school’s chapel as a gathering space

for students similar to the Catholic-oriented Newman Centers found at

universities around the country. These Newman Centers serve as a home for faith-

based encouragement, reflection, and worship for students enrolled in public and

private universities that are not Catholic. Sister Immacula writes,

As we would partner with Catalyst, it would be our hope to establish a ‘Newman-

like’ Center in the former convent which is attached to the Maria school building.

This Center would provide religious instruction and formation for those who

would want to come. In time, it may also become a place for parent education, for


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Maria High School Alumnae support, and as a resource for peace and justice

service to the larger community. (Wendt, 2011)

The Maria Kaupas Center (MKC), named after the founder of the Sisters of St.

Casimir, now stands as a testimony to the power of Sister Immacula’s vision for a

successful way in which a religious order can best partner with a charter school. The

MKC mission is “a Catholic space where spirituality, community, and leadership merge,

creating opportunities for people of all faiths to grow and develop as effective agents of

God’s love.” Today, the MKC serves as a thriving after-school ministry, staffed by a

combination of sisters, professional staff, and volunteers. It provides the students with a

safe place to gather, recreate, and participate in a variety of programs such as sewing,

judo, bicycle racing, billiards, painting, open mike sessions, cooking, photography, choir,

service learning projects, and movie nights. Additionally, students are offered an

opportunity to gather for a non-denominational prayer circle on the altar of the former

chapel of Maria High School to reflect on their victories, struggles, and daily concerns.

The program is still evolving and the future includes plans to offer an overnight retreat

experience in the coming years.

Operation, funding, and strategic direction of the MKC is provided by a

governing board that consists of members of the Sisters of St. Casimir, the Christian

Brothers, and other key volunteers. As symbolized by the six-foot wooden cross at the

entrance to the center, those who enter are exposed to the living witness of the staff and

volunteers who serve there and are inspired by the motto of Mother Maria Kaupas,

“Always more, always better, always with love.”


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The operation of the MKC and other wraparound programs like it at religious

charter schools is a tool of evangelization that represents a form of new work in the

Church. Like many new movements, its potential is palpable. However, both experience

and additional research are needed to understand the best way to fulfill that potential in

partnership with a charter school.

Figure 4 demonstrates the critical combination of the elements of the operation of

the Catalyst Schools that give rise to the sense of Catholic Ethos so important to the

identified stakeholder satisfaction. Some of these elements have been present in the

Catholic-to-charter conversions studied previously. However, only the Catalyst Schools

have combined all five of these elements. The results have been exceptional.

Figure 4. The essential ingredients for the Catholic ethos that exudes from the Catalyst Schools provide these schools with a palpably different atmosphere than the previously studied Catholic-to-charter conversions.

The Catholic

EthosHiring for Mission

Lasallian Faculty

Formation

Optional Spiritual

Formation for Students Faith-Based

Community Partner

Values Curriculum


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The Ideal Charter Granting Authority

Finally, there is one other substantive element to a successful partnership that was

revealed in the study. The important role that Arne Duncan played in initiating the

conversation with the Christian Brothers cannot be overstated. Often, there is a since of

friction between local public school administrators and their private school counterparts.

Each student that chooses to go to a private school is one less student for whom public

funding is provided for the local public school system. Additionally, public perceptions

can fall into stereotypes that portray private schools as elitist and public schools as being

there for those who cannot afford a private education (Dynarski, 2014). Add to that the

natural tension that sometimes results from local neighborhood rivalries and an

environment that sometimes hinders collaboration results.

There was no such stereotype influencing Arne Duncan. One of the fundamental

research questions of this study is, “How do leaders of a public school chartering

authority and a religious order describe the process of discussion, negotiation, and

discernment that led to the agreement to collaborate on the establishment of two ‘faith-

inspired’ charter schools…?” When asked to describe his fundamental rationale for why

any public charter granting authority should consider approaching a private religious

school or organization in search of a partnership, Duncan had a cogent and organized

response that he gave without rehearsal,

I think again we have one common enemy and that is academic failure.

We have one common goal and that’s more academic success. Whoever can

create more high quality schools, whoever can create more high quality seats for


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kids, and again, let me go back, particularly focused on our most disadvantaged,

our highest poverty communities.

We need to be very very innovative, and creative and flexible and find

ways to get to yes rather than find ways to get to no. We are trying to reverse

decades of lack of education, and decades of intergenerational poverty and the

status quo of incremental change is woefully insufficient for the size of the

challenge and the urgency of the need.

So, again, on both sides, whether it’s traditional schools, bureaucracies, or

faith-based schools or whatever it is, if we truly are committed to kids and

community and service and education and opportunity, we have to find ways to

get better faster. Where there are new ideas or different ideas and innovative

approaches, we can’t be true to our mission if we aren’t willing to be more

flexible, more creative, and innovative.

So, for me it wasn’t hard work. It was a gift. It was an amazing gift that

Brother Ed and the team were willing to provide to more children on the west side

of Chicago. It would have been unconscionable for me not to try to help them

provide that opportunity. (A. Duncan, personal communication, March 9, 2016)

It seems logical to conclude that the Christian Brothers could not have found a more

willing partner, nor one better suited for the work of negotiation and refinement of

purpose required for two collaborating organizations that were sometimes perceived to

have competing interests.

Duncan also offered a brief reflection on the posture that is sometimes taken by

Catholic leaders who close Catholic schools as opposed to attempting to work with a


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charter school partnership. His words are worth consideration for all in such leadership

positions within the hierarchy of the Church:

The thing for me with the Archdiocese here, with the Cardinal, I totally got it

when he basically said we can’t divorce the teaching of religion from our

curriculum or whatever. I get that theoretically but I’m giving you a chance

to keep working with kids and keep working with communities who

desperately need your service and you are choosing to walk away. That was

dead honest for me. I got the dilemma, I got the complexity, I got the

difficulty. But the choice to walk away and literally just disappear from

communities rather than find a way to be a little more creative. I had a hard

time and still have a hard time understanding that. (A. Duncan, personal

communication, March 9, 2016)

Fortunately, at least for two neighborhoods, the Christian Brothers stood in the breach.

Analysis and Synthesis of Findings

Multiple visits to the Catalyst Schools convinced me that these were remarkable

places of learning staffed by passionate and competent educators. If these schools can be

replicated, they hold great promise for reviving urban education in the United States.

These findings will be particularly important to religious organizations that are searching

for an articulate philosophy and rationale as to why they should consider moving forward

aggressively in order to develop partnerships with public chartering authorities.

Of all of the data that was unearthed in this study, the extraordinary document

developed by Brother John Johnston has the most potential to transform the debate over

the potential for good in the development of faith-inspired charter schools. Its arguments


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deserve thorough study, contemplation, and prayerful reflection by those leaders who

have the power to make decisions about whether or not an agency affiliated with the

Catholic Church can rightfully expect a partnership with a public charting authority to

serve students in harmony with their mission. It is clear to me that this document

represents a breakthrough in thinking about the proper place of religious charter schools

in meeting the comprehensive goals of a universal vision for the role of the Church in

providing faith-based education for all who desire it – especially those living in poverty.

Another significant threshold that the Catalyst Schools have crossed is in the

development of the concept of faith-inspired training and formation of its teachers and

administrators. While this is the norm at many Catholic schools in the United States, it

represents a new advance in professional development in charter schools. Faculty

participation in the Lasallian Buttimer Institute as a tool of formation for teachers

represents an extraordinary departure from the normative secular opportunities that are

available to the typical charter school teacher. The same can be said of ongoing reflection

on De La Salle’s writings on education, the human person, discipline, and virtue. This

innovative approach to formation of all in the Catalyst Schools appears to make an

extraordinary difference in the daily life and culture of the schools.

Finally, the distinct Catholic nature of the MKC - the presence of a chapel, its

physical attachment to the school building, and its staffing by religious sisters - combine

with its nondenominational programming to provide a potential model of collaboration

for other Catholic religious orders who face declining numbers. In an interview with Sr.

Immacula Wendt, she reported that the median age of the 65 remaining Sisters of St.

Casimir is 82 years old. This decline led the Sisters to proactively seek out a partnership


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with the Christian Brothers and the Catalyst Schools to bring new life and a new future to

an order that had over 100 years of service to Chicago neighborhoods. Through the MKC

and Catalyst Maria, the sisters who remain now see a future full of promise to continue

the mission of the Sisters of St. Casimir for many years to come.

This pattern of the aging and decline in membership is prevalent for many

religious orders throughout the United States. The Center for Applied Research in the

Apostolate reports that in 1965, there were over 179,000 religious sisters actively

engaged in ministry in the United States (“Frequently requested”, 2015). Today, that

number is less than 49,000 (“Frequently requested”, 2015). This decline has left the

landscape scattered with empty convents, rectories, schools, and parishes throughout the

United States. It seems logical to conclude that the partnership between the Catalyst

Schools and the Sisters of St. Casimir could be replicated hundreds of times during the

next few decades. The ingredients are an empty school, a religious order in decline but

with active members looking to continue their ministry, and a religious organization such

as a diocese or a religious order with intent to establish a faith-inspired charter school.

The empty schools and declining religious orders are available in surplus. Currently, the

limiting agents are organizations that understand this opportunity is available and that it

can possibly fulfill their mission and help them live out their charisms.

These three innovations – the Brother Johnston rationale, the faith-inspired

training of Catalyst teachers, and the development of robust programming in the MKC -

will figure prominently in the recommendations for religious organizations that will

follow in Chapter Five.


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Summary

The aim of this Dissertation in Practice study was to create an evidence-based

series of recommendations that can be adopted by public chartering authorities as well as

religious organizations to facilitate collaboration in the establishment of “faith-inspired”

charter schools in impoverished urban areas. Eighteen key leaders participated in

interviews. These leaders represent a cross-section of the leadership team within the

Christian Brothers and Chicago Public Schools who worked together to form two faith-

inspired charter schools known as the Catalyst Schools. The interviews revealed key

aspects of the collaboration when viewed from the perspective of the leaders involved.

The researcher also made five personal visits to the schools, participated in a day-long

shadowing of one of the founders, gathered documents, memoranda, meeting minutes,

faculty training materials, publications, annual reports, budgets, and the original charter

applications. Analysis of the interviews was followed by verification of the conclusions

through triangulation of the findings with other data sources.

Seven major themes were identified in the data that will inform the development

of a series of evidence-based recommendations for other religious educational agencies,

religious orders, and public school chartering authorities who might wish to consider a

similar collaborative relationship. These themes were:

• Conceptual Development

• Discussion and Discernment

• Rationale for a Decision

• Leadership Issues

• Overcoming Obstacles


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• The Catholic Ethos

• The Ideal Charter Granting Authority

Using these seven themes that emerged from the data, recommendations will be

developed in Chapter Five to guide leaders of religious institutions and charter granting

authorities as they discern the best course to take in their efforts to serve the educational

needs of students and families living in poverty.


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FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

The declining number of students in Catholic schools - especially in impoverished

neighborhoods – coincides with national trends that show many areas across the country

are expanding opportunities for the formation of charter schools. The past 10 years have

seen the emergence of “religious charter schools” around the country. Included among

these religious charter schools are a small number of charter schools that have been

formed immediately following the closure of a Catholic school in the same location.

These Catholic-to-charter conversions have been disappointing to stakeholders in

Washington D.C., Miami, and Indianapolis; all of whom were hoping to maintain some

of the Catholic character of the original parish school once the new charter school

opened. The anticipated results never materialized.

However, a new version of this model has been pioneered in Chicago resulting

from the unique collaboration between the Christian Brothers and the Chicago Public

Schools. The literature on the Catalyst Schools is sparse, but research by Proehl et al.

(2015) indicated a deep level of satisfaction among all stakeholders. In particular, Proehl

noted the presence of what she termed a strong “Catholic ethos” that infused the schools.

Many communities like those served by the Catalyst Schools in Chicago are faced with

similar circumstances along with similar opportunities. The goal of this study is to inform

those communities that an opportunity may exist to establish a similar school and should

be explored by those religious organizations and religious orders that want to maintain

their presence and mission in urban neighborhoods.


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The purpose of this case study was to understand the process of conceptual





Aim of the Study

The aim of this study was to create an evidence-based series of recommendations

that can be adopted by religious organizations and public chartering authorities to



Proposed Solution – For Charter-Granting Authorities

The preponderance of participants in this study were involved, in one way or

another, with a religious organization. This was intentional. The biggest identified

limiting factor in the formation of faith-inspired charter schools are the misgivings that

leaders of religious organizations have about whether or not operating such a faith-

inspired charter school represents the fulfillment of their mission. In many cases this

mission has been understood for decades as including an articulation of Catholic beliefs

about God and how that belief is to be lived out. That sort of direct instruction about any

faith tradition is not thought to be consistent with what is currently allowed in charter

schools. It was important to get the perspective of the religious leaders so that

understanding could be developed regarding why Proehl et al. (2015) found that there

was such a high degree of satisfaction among the religious organizational stakeholders at


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the Catalyst Schools compared to those involved in the Catholic-to-charter conversions

studied in Washington, D.C, Miami, and Indianapolis.

However, before conclusions and recommendations are made for these religious

organizations, it is important to provide a brief analysis of what was learned from leaders

of the public chartering authority. As has already been discussed, the turning point for the

Christian Brothers was the rationale put forth by Brother John Johnston that essentially

put an end to the discussion as to whether or not the brothers should be involved with this

new form of collaboration with a local government agency. Johnston ended the debate

with a compelling statement involving the worldwide affiliation of the Christian Brothers

with local governing authorities around the globe. It turns out that Brother Johnston’s

concise statement of beliefs and experiences has a counterpart that was succinctly

expressed during the interview with Arne Duncan. The centerpiece for the proposed

solution for religious organizations is based upon the acceptance of the principles

expressed in an edited version of Brother Johnston’s appeal to the Christian Brothers. In

the same way, the centerpiece for the proposed solution for charter granting authorities is

based upon acceptance of the principles expressed by Duncan in his interview for this

study and embodied by the witness of his life’s work.

The Duncan Platform, as I have chosen to call the edited version of Duncan’s

philosophy that led to his collaboration with the Christian Brothers, can be found in

Appendix E. This platform is intended for use as a point of reflection for all charter-

granting authorities. The principles that it expresses are tied together with a logic that

grows from its appeal to our instincts to seek the best for all people regardless of color,

creed, or nationality. While Duncan may not have intended it, his rationale is also


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consistent with the tradition of Catholic social teaching that recommends that policies

should be developed with a consideration for the “preferential option for the poor” in

mind. Communities decimated by poverty lie at the heart of Duncan’s motivations for

working with any organization that gives hope to these impoverished communities. It is

reasonable to think that any group of public servants, including charter-granting

authorities, can find motivation and inspiration in these principles.

Proposed Solution – For Religious Organizations

The recommendations that follow are for individuals, religious orders, and

diocesan offices interested in establishing one or more “faith-inspired” charter schools.

The recommendations are based on the experiences of communities in Washington D.C.,

Miami, Indianapolis, and Chicago. Each of these communities has experienced both

success and failure in their efforts to provide such schools in their respective

communities. Each of these communities has been, in their own particular way, a

paradigm pioneer. It is my intent to suggest a path forward based on the lessons learned

from these paradigm pioneers.

Step One – The Lasallian Platform

The most fundamental step a religious organization can take in establishing a

faith-inspired charter school, whether it be sponsored by a religious order or a diocesan

office, is for that organization to understand, embrace, and internalize the mission of

educating students in a charter school in a way that respects the current understanding of

the boundaries between Church and State in charter schools. A lack of commitment to the

critical nature of this mission saps the vitality and animating purpose of such a venture.

Objections and uncertainty about this new form of meeting the mission of Catholic


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education abound. A firm foundation and philosophy is needed before any organization

can move forward with a sense of purpose and mission zeal necessary to meet the

extraordinary demands of establishing a successful charter school.

It is the conclusion of this case study that this foundation can be built upon the

principles espoused in the memorandum that Brother John Johnston sent on the Feast of

San Miguel Febres Cordero in 2005. The original memorandum is a seven-page

document written specifically for members of the Christian Brothers and is found in

Appendix D. However, its principles are readily applicable to all who engage in the

mission of Catholic education. In order to expand the potential audience for the adoption

of these principles, I have developed a two-page version of this document for use by all

who are giving consideration to establishing a faith-inspired charter school. Through an

editing process in which I have tried to preserve the original ideas expressed by Brother

Johnston and their implications, I have removed specific wording related only to the

Christian Brothers and replaced that language with references more appropriate to the

universal Church. Additional editing was required to compress the document into a

format that could succinctly identify the key points in a way that make them more likely

to be recalled. I have given the name of “The Lasallian Platform” to the edited version of

the memorandum. This Lasallian Platform can be found in Appendix F.

Early in the process of establishing a faith-inspired charter school, leaders of the

initiative may find it helpful to use the Lasallian Platform as a point of reflection. Indeed,

until there is consensus that these principles are worthy of adoption and integration into

the fabric of the charter school, a delay in the establishment of the school should be

considered. Without such consensus, it should be questioned whether or not there is a


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sufficient degree of a shared sense of mission to allow for the establishment of a

successful school. O’Malley (2008) notes the long-standing tradition of Jesuit educators

and institutions taking ample time to reflect on the nature of their mission as a religious

order. A full understanding of their mission as an order that embraces the work of

education animates the lives of the Jesuits. This understanding was discerned over

decades of reflection in the early years of the order. Tapping in to the same power of

shared mission would not necessarily require decades before starting a faith-inspired

charter school. However, some period of time should be given to discern whether or not

the religious organization considering the “faith-inspired” charter school option willingly

embraces the Lasallian Platform with the passion necessary to implement the steps

required. Internalizing this outlook on mission is essential for key stakeholders. If this

foundation is not embraced, there should be open communication among leaders

regarding the reason for rejecting these principles and what might bind the school

together in their absence.

Reflection on the Lasallian Platform is the fundamental step recommended to any

religious organization or religious order prior to the establishment of a faith-inspired

charter school. Once these principles are adopted, the results of this study indicate that

there are a sequence of steps that are beginning to be understood as ‘best practices” for

organizations desiring to move forward in the founding of a faith-inspired charter school.

Some of these recommendations flow from a general understanding of the successful

establishment and operation of all charter schools. Others are only applicable to faith-

inspired charter schools. The full body of these recommendations follows in the next

section.


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Additional Evidence-Based Recommendations

Once there is agreement that a faith-inspired charter school represents the best

possible path forward for serving a community, the additional evidence-based

recommendations are as follows:

1. Create a corporate or legal nonprofit entity. Such an entity will need to have a

board. In order to assure that the faith-inspired mission of the school is established, begin

the board formation and recruitment process. Appropriate consideration should be given

to the proper composition and function of the board.

2. Appoint the leadership team. Select a chief executive early in the process. This

is not normally the principal in charter schools. The tasks of financial management,

strategic planning, fundraising, facility management, and human resource services will

normally fall to the chief executive with some assistance from the board. The principal,

on the other hand, will take care of the day-to-day management of the school, its faculty,

students, curriculum, and programs. The selection of a principal should be made at least

six months in advance of the anticipated opening of the school. As in most elementary

and secondary schools, this is the key leadership position. This person will set the tone

and example for all faculty and staff to emulate and model. The challenges in an urban

school are daunting. A principal with no previous track record of success in leading a

school is a long shot to succeed in such an urban charter environment. Special

consideration should be given to those candidates who have had special leadership

training, successful charter school experience, and professional formation that allows the

acceptance of such a demanding assignment.


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3. Initiate a relationship with the local diocesan educational office with the hopes

of building understanding of the new school that could lead to potential support.

Diocesan offices can often be a source of ideas for an enterprise of this scope. They have

a broad understanding of not only Catholic organizations within the diocese but often

have interdenominational contacts and an expansive network of political contacts as well

that may be helpful in establishing a faith-inspired charter.

4. Using Sister Immacula Wendt’s letter (found in Appendix G) as a point of

reflection, take some time to consider whether or not there may be a community

organization or a religious order that might be in a position to be seeking a renewal of

purpose and a sense of mission in today’s world. A neighborhood Catholic school that

has diminished in enrollment or that has been closed could be a strong candidate for

partnership both in terms of an adequate facility and for providing wraparound spiritual

formation programming. Determination of the best possible location for the new charter

school should be made with an eye toward the desired capacity of the new school as well.

Having a community partner is critical to the success of a faith-inspired charter school. If

such a partner is not identified, consideration of a different location for the school is

advisable. Once a potential location and facility has been determined, the charter

application process can be launched.

5. Normally, if a governing entity has made provision for the establishment of

charter schools, that governing entity has designated a certain group (or groups) that have

the authority to grant or deny a charter to an organization. If there is more than one

charter granting authority, a decision will need to be made regarding which is the

preferable partner. Preliminary inquiries can be made by letter, phone, or email.


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However, a personal meeting is essential to understand the quality of the relationship that

can be anticipated from this potential partner. Preliminary conversations and personal

meetings are advised to gauge the level of interest and anticipated cooperation on the part

of the charter granting authority. The leadership of these charter granting authorities

changes over time. Likewise, the political inclinations and goals of these organizations

can change as well. If there is more than one option, understanding the anticipated level

of bureaucratic compliance of each charter granting authority may be helpful in selecting

the best one to work with.

6. Once it is determined that a charter application will be made, it is helpful to

begin to collaborate with the faith-based community partner in the development of the

charter application. This collaboration is not a legal requirement to obtain a charter.

However, collaboration at this point will allow for the necessary sense of trust and

partnership to develop that will lay the groundwork for a fruitful experience for the

students that the new charter school will be serving. Once completed, the application

should be submitted according to the guidelines and deadlines established by the charter

granting authority. Completing this application process is the responsibility of the chief

executive.

7. As budgets are being developed and potential resources are allocated, give

some thought to the resources that will be necessary to provide the wraparound spiritual

formation program. These resources cannot come from the funds available from the

governing agency that is funding the charter school. It is helpful to identify other possible

funding for ancillary programs that are critical to the fulfillment of the mission of the

school to the broader community.


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8. Begin to hire faculty with the intent to fulfill the mission of the school. Give

consideration to the types of formation experiences and teacher training opportunities that

will be made available to the faculty and administration. Faculty and other administrators

should begin to be interviewed and selected about 6 months in advance of the anticipated

opening. Materials related to the mission of the school, its philosophy of education, the

roots and charisms of the religious traditions of the sponsoring religious organization,

attitudes toward the dignity of the human person, and subsequent reflection on how that

attitude shapes the instructional and disciplinary program can be developed for

prospective teachers to read as they consider their desire to teach in such a school.

9. Develop a marketing plan and materials to recruit and retain students. A local

governing authority normally funds charter schools. The amount of funding is based upon

the number of students in the school. A new charter school will need to draw a sufficient

number of students from the geographic region in which it exists. Without a recruitment

and marketing program to educate the community on the mission of the school and its

anticipated benefits to students, it will be difficult for any charter school to open its doors

and operate a school that meets payroll and provides a strong learning program for its

students. There are ample resources available for educators to gain the competencies in

this entrepreneurial approach to attracting students. Kotler and Fox (1985) have authored

a classic in understanding the fundamentals of this marketing process and a way to best

adapt these processes to schools. Though the tools and media used in marketing programs

have evolved since its original publication 30 years ago, the principles of marketing

espoused in the language familiar to schools, educators, and prospective parents remain

fundamentally sound. Figure 5 provides a brief summary of these nine steps.


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Figure 5. Proposed recommendations for developing a faith-inspired charter school.

Support for the Solution

The rationale for each of the proposed steps flows from the data collected in this

study. Additionally, the work of other researchers (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Proehl et

al., 2015; Smarick, 2010) has contributed to the current understanding of pitfalls to avoid

and areas in which strengths can be leveraged to produce a charter school more likely to

experience success. This section goes through each recommended step and explores the

way the results of this study and others informs the proposed solution.

1. Create a legal entity and form a board based on the faith-inspired mission of the

school. As previously noted, one of the obstacles faced in the formation and

establishment of the Catalyst Schools frequently mentioned by participants in the study

was the ongoing lack of clarity in the early years as to who or what would serve as the

governing body. This confusion can be avoided by aligning the governance of the

organization to best practices in today’s nonprofit organizations. Carver (2006) has

1. Create a legal entity with a faith-inspired mission

2. Appoint leadership team

3. Dialogue with diocese

4. Search for Community Partner

to support faith-inspired mission

5. Select charter granting authority

6. Complete charter application

7. Budget for wraparound

spiritual enrichment program

8. Recruit and train faculty for mission

9. Develop and execute a marketing

plan for students


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written an acknowledged classic in the formation and operation of a nonprofit board. This

book is a great resource for leaders and organizations hoping to grow in understanding of

sound principles of governance for today’s nonprofit world.

2. Select a chief administrator. As in every organization, leadership is critical. It is

difficult to think of an organization to which this principle does not apply. The selection

of the chief administrator of a faith-inspired charter school is especially critical because

there are so few well-defined models to follow. It will be necessary for the chief

administrator to respond effectively to the multiple challenges that face all leaders of

charter schools. The chief administrator will have to coordinate the acquisition of an

appropriate facility, manage financial resources, interact and respond to board concerns

and initiatives, navigate the charter application process, and attend to the development

and execution of a marketing and student recruitment plan.

Following the selection of the chief administrator, the search for a principal who

is interested in leading a faith-inspired school should begin. In one of the artifacts

uncovered in this study, Fehrenbach (2015) describes the difficulties brought on by the

selection of the wrong principal at the first Catalyst school that was opened - Catalyst

Howland. It took several years for the school to stabilize as a result of going through

three different principals until some stability was attained with principal number four.

The school never fully recovered from the instability of these early years. This may have

been a factor that led to the ultimate closing of Catalyst Howland in 2015. Based on these

experiences, Fehrenbach and other Catalyst leaders recommend having a principal hired

at least six months before the planned opening of the school.


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3. Establish communication with local diocesan offices with the intent of

garnering support and collaboration. This case study uncovered two aspects in which the

Archdiocese of Chicago was involved in the establishment of the Catalyst Schools. The

Provincial of the Midwest District of the Christian Brothers, Brother Frank Carr,

indicated his concern that the good relations the Christian Brothers had with Cardinal

George could be jeopardized if there was not sufficient communication between the

Brothers and the Cardinal. Concern for the other Catholic schools that the Christian

Brothers operated in the archdiocese was at the forefront of Carr’s desire to see this

communication take place. Additionally, the involvement of the Assistant Superintendent

of Schools, Sister Margaret Farley, was essential to developing a proper understanding of

the role of the San Miguel board and its relation to the Catalyst Board. Taking advantage

of the resources that can be provided by the local Office of Catholic Schools - both in

terms of human resources and facilities - can only be maximized if there is a good

relationship between this Office and the organizational leaders of the entity establishing

the faith-inspired charter school.

4. Search for a religious order, parish, or other faith-based community partner that

is a likely candidate to embrace the opportunity of extending its mission in an urban

community. This case study found that the two Catalyst Schools that are successfully

operating today have a faith-based community partner whose work is integrated with that

of the charter school. Both Circle Urban Ministries and the Sisters of St. Casimir provide

vital connections for the charter school to the surrounding neighborhood. Catalyst

Howland, the school that closed in the spring of 2015 had no such community partner.


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Many of the participants in the study identified this lack of a community partner as one of

the factors that lead to closure of Howland.

5. Learn about the local charter granting authorities. If there is more than one

option, attempt to determine which authority might allow the most latitude in meeting the

many bureaucratic reporting requirements for charter schools. A charter granting

authority that willingly partners with a faith-based organization is preferred. Repeated

testimony from the participants in this study indicated that CPS CEO Arne Duncan

played a critical role in offering encouragement to the Christian Brothers to consider

operating a charter school. Duncan’s assurance that his office would see that the issues

would be worked out with CPS was an essential feature of the Brothers’ discernment.

Had there not been the ongoing encouragement from Duncan over a period of years, it is

doubtful that these faith-inspired charter schools would have opened. Carr (2014) found a

similar willingness on the part of the Mayor of Indianapolis to support the Archdiocese of

Indianapolis in its attempt at two Catholic-to-charter conversions. Showing its openness

to working with a religious organization, the Mayor’s Office in Indianapolis approved

these two charter schools to be governed by a board that included the Auxiliary Bishop of

Indianapolis, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese, and the Chief Financial Officer of the

Archdiocese. Such openness to collaboration on the part of the chartering authority is

important because there are aspects of the operation of faith-inspired charter schools

which have yet to be fully explored in a way that has yielded a standard set of operational

boundaries regarding Church and State separation issues.

6. Collaborate with a faith-based community partner in preparing and submitting

the charter application. In the case of both Catalyst Circle Rock and Catalyst Maria, not


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only did the community partner provide resources for the wraparound program of

spiritual formation, these community partners also became the primary provider of an

adequate facility in which to house the school. Without a preliminary discussion of the

possibilities and benefits of the partnership, these schools may have never found a home

for their operations. A review of the application by Catalyst Schools to CPS to open

Catalyst Maria reveals the integral involvement of the community partner, the Sisters of

St. Casimir, in the application and approval process.

7. Prepare a plan and budget for the operation of a wraparound program to

support the spiritual formation of students. The funding provided by the revenue

distributed to the Catalyst Schools through CPS includes only money for the operation of

the charter school. Expenses for the salaries, facilities, and materials for the spiritual

formation program must be covered by other means. In the case of the Maria Kaupas

Center, funds are raised through the support of foundations, private donations, and

fundraising events. These are standard fundraising practices in the world of private

schools. Rosso (2003) has penned an excellent resource for those new to the practice of

fundraising and institutional advancement. It is advised that part of the planning for a

faith-inspired charter school include a comprehensive plan to generate support according

to best practices among modern day fundraisers.

8. Recruit, train, and retain faculty with an eye toward the faith-inspired mission

of the school. Then plan for faculty formation and training experiences that support the

“faith-inspired” nature of the school. The first impression one gets when walking through

the halls of a Catalyst School for the first time is that of order, passion, and dedication on

the part of both the scholars and the teachers. The degree to which these characteristics


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are observed rivals any Catholic school that I have ever visited. According to Siderewicz,

this atmosphere arises from the Catalyst organization’s commitment to hiring teachers

who will be a good fit for the expressed mission of the school. The Catalyst organization

has produced a 36-page booklet used to inform potential teachers about the mission and

guiding principles of the Catalyst Schools. The booklet is titled “The Legacy of Lasallian

Education in the Catalyst Schools” and it contains writings from the United States

Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching

(“Seven themes”, 2005) along with writings by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle and those of

Brother John Johnston. A review of the titles of each section listed in the table of contents

is instructive. These titles include:

• The Spirit of Catalyst Schools

• Teaching Minds, Touching Hearts

• Awakening Our Deepest Call

• Principles of a Lasallian School

• Virtues of a Good Teacher

• Underlying Philosophy of Discipline

• Guiding Themes for a Just and Peaceful Society

• Loving Our Students (Legacy of Lasallian education, 2015).

With a faculty imbued with such training, it is easy to understand how Proehl et al.

(2015) found that the “Catholic ethos” was prevalent in the Catalyst Schools she studied.

Another extraordinary resource uncovered during this case study is a draft of a

book to be published in 2016. Public Schools in the Lasallian Tradition (Fehrenbach,

2016) details many aspects of the formation and operation of the Catalyst Schools over


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the past 10 years. In the book, Brother Michael Fehrenbach, a Christian Brother

associated with the Catalyst movement from the beginning, reflects on the role of virtue

in the character of a great teacher in the Catalyst Schools. These virtues include zeal,

wisdom, prudence, silence, and others. To understand and appreciate the depth of this

reflection on virtue that forms the Catalyst teacher, see Appendix H for an example of a

reflection on the importance of the virtue of humility in the life of a teacher.

One more piece of data informs this eighth recommendation. Siderewicz provided

a Catalyst document of unattributed authorship titled “Hiring for Mission”. In selecting

potential teachers for the Catalyst Schools the document proposes that, “mission is

central and of absolute importance” and that, “mission is the foundation of Catalyst

culture.” This understanding of the importance of mission must be taken into

consideration when interviewing and selecting faculty. This document goes on to express

that “any candidate must understand the connection of the school to its historic tradition”

along with “the depth of its mission and core values” in order to successfully contribute

to the advancement of the school.

Finally, both Hannon and Siderewicz emphasize that the ongoing formation of

leaders in the Lasallian tradition through participation in professional development

opportunities such as the Buttimer Institute is important. Professional development of this

type keeps the issue of mission at the forefront of the hearts and minds of faculty and

administrators alike. This intensive focus on the hiring and subsequent training for

mission seems to be an essential ingredient for the successful operation of any faith-

inspired charter school. It has worked well for the Catalyst Schools and there is no reason

to believe it would not be important for other schools like them.


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9. Both Siderewicz and Hannon tell of their early efforts at spreading the word

about the opening of the San Miguel school by walking through the neighborhood and

one by one talking to people about what they were planning to do at the new school. The

resulting enrollment was modest in those early years. Today, their student recruitment

strategies reflect a more sophisticated approach. A review of the current promotional

materials, website, videos, and printed student recruitment pieces demonstrate that a

sophisticated marketing effort is now implemented by the Catalyst Schools. As a result

both schools are currently at, or near, capacity.

Factors and Stakeholders Related to the Solution

The primary stakeholders who are impacted by the establishment of faith-inspired

charter schools are diocesan offices of education and religious orders that run Catholic

schools in high poverty areas - especially schools that are on the edge of sustainability

because of mounting debt as a result of negative cash flows from operations. Typically,

these negative cash flows and budget deficits are the result of two interwoven phenomena

- a declining enrollment along with a declining number of families who can pay full

tuition. The proposed solution presents a definite benefit to both of these stakeholders.

Establishment of a charter school on the property of a faith-based institution becomes a

source of immediate revenue (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014). Brinson noted that priests

often told researchers, “The charter school saved my parish” (p. 15). Additional

stakeholders include teachers who are fulfilling their vocation as educators in these

fragile school environments along with the students who attend these schools.

Metropolitan communities are stakeholders as well. In as much as the overall

quality of its schools affects a community’s ability to attract and retain residents, it is


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important for all communities to be vigilant in terms of current practices and strategies

that are achieving positive results in school improvement. This is the thinking that drives

much of the legislation and policymaking related to education. The Catalyst Schools

certainly give evidence of being one of those “strategies” that achieves positive results.

Public resources in the form of financial support have been made available to charter

schools for the purpose of providing mission-centered opportunities for the education of

young people. As these resources are found to be useful in fostering improved forms of

schooling, it is likely that even more resources will be directed to these successful

alternatives. Taxpayers are the ultimate stakeholders in all charter schools. Effective use

of taxpayer funds is an exercise in good stewardship. All communities should be in

search of ways to make the investment in education more productive.

Potential Barriers and Obstacles to Proposed Solution

Because collaboration with leaders of local diocesan officials and religious orders

is such a benefit to the proposed steps in the solution, the primary obstacle facing those

who desire to establish a faith-inspired charter school is represented by Catholic leaders

like Siderewicz himself who first told Arne Duncan, “No way that could be done. We are

a Catholic school.” More specifically, it is important to address the concern voiced by Sr.

Carol Cimino when commenting on Catholic-to charter conversions, “What's lost is the

ability to tell a child to respect others because we're all created by God." This commonly

held objection can be most successfully countered with a clear espousal of the proposed

Lasallian Platform which was developed with this purpose in mind. Until other leaders

embrace the thinking and the rationale this Platform proposes, getting the helpful

collaboration of local Catholic leaders is likely to be an uphill battle.


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Another anticipated obstacle is finding a suitable location for a faith-inspired

charter school. As mentioned previously, the landscape around the country is filling up

with charter schools. Charter school operators have now been searching for desirable

locations for the past 20 years. Most of the “low hanging fruit” has been harvested.

Attracting students to a newly formed charter school requires a properly positioned

marketing effort in a community ripe to receive it (Carpenter, 2006).

Finding a potential location with a nearby community partner makes the equation

more difficult to solve. Some metropolitan entities have adopted an aggressive posture

toward establishing charter schools. These entities often develop agencies that will assist

organizations in the task of finding a suitable location for a charter school. Such an

organization assisted the Christian Brothers in finding their first location in Chicago at

which they established Catalyst Howland. Once it was understood that having a viable

faith-based community partner was an important ingredient in establishing a faith-

inspired charter school, it became obvious that establishing a broader network of contacts

with religious organizations was the best method of finding a favorable location for the

next faith-inspired charter school. This necessity reaffirms the importance of establishing

a good relationship with the local diocesan authorities who may be able to assist in

finding an ideal location.

Financial Issues Related to Proposed Solution

Step number six in the series of recommendations involves completion of the

charter application. Every charter application process that was reviewed for this study

requires that a sustainable multi-year financial plan and budget be submitted as part of the

application materials. While many charter schools expend a considerable amount of


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money on facility rental, in the case of the Catalyst Schools, that expense has been

minimal. The same was true of the schools in Indianapolis and Miami (Brinson, 2010;

Carr, 2014). Finding a willing community partner has often yielded a facility that is being

used at far below its capacity. The church, parish, or religious order frequently welcomes

the opportunity to receive some revenue from renting their facility that helps defray

expenses in other aspects of their operations. The new charter school assumes upkeep of

the facility as a part of its operational budget, thereby removing this expense from the

budget of the community partner.

The biggest expense then becomes salaries for teachers, administrators, and staff.

Many charter schools pay salaries lower than the local public school scale (Yeh, 2007).

An interview with a current Catalyst School principal indicated that today, teacher

salaries at the Catalyst School are lower than the public school norm. It was the opinion

of the principal that these lower salaries do lead to a decline in the level of teacher

retention at the school. Properly balancing the demands of paying competitive teacher

salaries with the legal restrictions on overall funding of any charter school becomes a

challenge that varies in difficulty from one locality to another depending upon the

funding formula stipulated in the legislation that authorizes the establishment of charter

schools. The fact that this balancing act has been undertaken in over 6,000 charter

schools around the country gives confidence that this task can be achieved. However, to

complete this part of the charter application, it is advisable to gather a team of

individuals, possibly a subcommittee of the board, who bring a strong background of

financial management as a part of their skill set (“Legal and Financial”, 2006).


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The Leader’s Role in Implementing the Proposed Solution

Marshaling the resources, both human and capital, necessary for the establishment

of a charter school is an enormous project. Clearly, it is one that can be accomplished but

those who have done it testify to the enormity of the task (Lang, 2014). Persistence is a

must.

One of the ongoing obstacles to the operation of the Catalyst Schools identified in

this study is the stifling bureaucratic burden emanating from CPS policies and

procedures. This burden actually begins with the application process. Leaders who are

not persistent in dealing with the ongoing need to comply with the incessant demands for

paperwork and documentation may soon become discouraged. The encouraging news is

that there are many resources that have been developed to assist and support those who

choose to navigate the charter school application process. Extensive resources are

available from The Center for Education Reform, The National Charter Schools Institute,

and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The resources provided by these

organizations and others like them have been produced and refined as a result of over 20

years of experience in the charter school application process.

Another critical task of leadership is recruiting a team of individuals interested in

understanding and implementing school reform ideas. This might be the most important

task for any leader who accepts the challenge of establishing a faith-inspired charter

school. Though one person may be able to initiate the process, that person will never be

able to complete the task without an effective organization of people who share a

common goal of establishing the charter school. A sense of shared vision and purpose can

serve to motivate and inspire such a like-minded group of educators to persevere through


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the challenges to attain their goal. It is that power in possessing the shared mission of the

new school that lies at the heart of the original proposal by University of Massachusetts

professor Ray Budde in 1974 suggesting that charter schools be allowed to form (Bracey,

2000). A collaborative leader will embrace the power in a shared vision and take full

advantage of that power to drive the project to completion.

External Implications for the Organization

The implications for organizations who partner with faith-inspired charter schools

needs to be considered as well. These implications are nation-wide. At a minimum, over

5,500 Catholic elementary schools have closed in the past 50 years. Even if only 10% of

those schools could be resurrected in the form of faith-inspired charter schools and if

each of those schools matched the average size of a Catholic elementary school of 210

students, the implementation of the proposed solution could impact at least 115,000 new

students who are not currently in Catholic schools. Additionally, if each new faith-

inspired charter school paid an amount as small as $80,000 per year for rental of the

space occupied by the now-closed parish Catholic school, an amount identified by Carr

(2014), the implementation of the solution could generate as much as $44,000,000 of

revenue per year to support other ministries of inner city parishes. Over a ten-year period

that would amount to a $440,000,000 investment in our inner city parishes. Imagine how

many pastors across the country could echo the words quoted by Brinson (2010), “The

charter school saved my parish” (p. 15).

As important as this financial impact would be, it is instructive to reflect on the

work of Brinig and Garnett (2014) who showed that an analysis of crime statistics in

Chicago from 1999-2005 revealed the negative effects of the closure of Catholic schools


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in those neighborhoods that lost schools. Building on the work of Coleman (1990), who

was the first researcher to develop the idea of “social capital” as an advantageous

element of Catholic schools, Brinig and Garnett make a compelling case for the important

role that Catholic schools play in impoverished neighborhoods because of the social

capital they provide. These researchers tried to test for the same effect by analyzing the

impact of charter schools on neighborhoods but could not find a statistically significant

correlation. However, they were unable to study faith-inspired charter schools because

there were not such schools in existence at the time of their research. This begins to point

the way to potential areas of future research. Nonetheless, it seems reasonable to suggest

that if Catholic school closure negatively impacts a neighborhood, then how much more

would the closure of a Catholic parish bring about the same or even worse negative

effects for the neighborhood? It seems reasonable to conclude that keeping Catholic

parishes open in impoverished neighborhoods would be an extraordinarily positive result

of the implementation of the proposed solution.

Evaluation and Timeline for Implementation and Assessment

During this study, a document prepared by unidentified Catalyst leaders was

forwarded to me by one of the study participants. The document describes the anticipated

timeline for the successful establishment of a faith-inspired charter school for others who

might be taking this idea into consideration. The recommended timeline is based upon

what the Christian Brothers have found to be a reasonable expectation based on the

schools they have established in Chicago. The document proposes that the

implementation takes place in two stages. According to the experiences of the Brothers, it

is anticipated that the first stage should involve approximately 18 months that are needed


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for the visioning process and the planning for the charter application. At the end of that

stage, if the charter-granting authority awards a charter, another year will be required for

the implementation of the plan that culminates in the opening of the school. The opening

of the school is an obvious preliminary benchmark of success.

Once the faith-inspired charter school is open, there are many assessment tools

that measure the progress of the school and its students every year. Standardized testing

for the purpose of individual student and school-wide assessment has become the norm

for the operation of any accredited school. This testing normally takes place on a yearly

basis and will provide ongoing feedback to teachers and administrators who will monitor

progress. Institutional leaders, administrators, and teachers will need to carefully review

these results. The data that is contained in these results will drive the development and

adjustment of the curriculum in a way that seeks to improve student performance on the

standardized tests. The assimilation, reporting, and analysis of this new testing data

serves as a second fundamental benchmark of progress and it provides the baseline upon

which future improvement will be monitored and judged by the charter granting

authority.

Finally, the ultimate success of a charter school will be judged, on its ability to

attract students. Therefore, enrollment must always be carefully monitored. It is

recommended that recruitment strategies are developed and adjusted based upon the

principles outlined by Kotler and Fox (1985), McGrath (2014), or, alternately, by using

established charter support organizations with experience in the field.


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Change Theory

It is useful to analyze the results of this study through the lens of the “diffusion of

innovation” identified by Rogers (2003). The adoption of a successful innovation takes

place in stages that usually fall into predictable patterns. These innovations work their

way through a society (or diffuse) as the result of communication regarding their

effectiveness. The good experiences of the early adopters are key to this process if an

innovation is to spread. Clearly, the development of religious charter schools began the

innovation of straddling the wall between Church and State in a way not previously

attempted (Horning, 2013; Mulvey et al., 2010; Weinburg, 2014). The next refinement of

that innovation to attempt to “go over the wall” of Church-State separation was the ascent

of the Catholic-to-charter conversion. Rogers (2003) would classify the development of

this revised option as a “re-invention” (p.17) of the original innovation. The early

adopters of this re-invention in Miami and Washington, D.C., were soon followed by

other Catholic leaders in Indianapolis. However, neither of these innovations, religious

charter schools or Catholic-to-charter conversions, proved satisfactory to the founding

stakeholders of these schools. Nor were they satisfactory in terms of the improved

academic achievement of their students. But a new innovation had now been proposed in

urban schooling and the re-invention process was under way. It was up to a group in

Chicago to continue to fine-tune this innovation.

Shortly after the Miami and Washington, D.C. experiments began, the dialogue

between Arne Duncan and the Christian Brothers ensued. Duncan’s proposal represented

an attempt at innovation similar to that in Miami and Washington, D.C. However, it was

not until the Christian Brothers re-invented the innovation by adapting their centuries-


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long method of forming teachers to a charter school setting that another unique step

forward was taken in the efforts to add elements of faith to the public school

environment. In this respect, the Christian Brothers were truly paradigm pioneers. They

occasionally proceeded down the wrong path - particularly in the acknowledged missteps

during the formation and the early years of Catalyst Howland. However, once the value

and necessity of a faith-based community partner was properly understood, the Christian

Brothers have now become poised to export what they have learned to the broader

landscape of urban education throughout the country. In the language of Rogers (2003),

the story of the Catalyst Schools has become a part of the “communication channel” (p.

18) necessary for the innovation to begin to diffuse throughout the country.

New information the Christian Brothers continue to learn through the operation of

the Catalyst Schools, the research by Proehl et al. (2015), and the completion of this case

study, all indicate that the Catalyst School innovation is moving from the “knowledge”

step defined by Rogers (2003) to the next step which is the “persuasion” (p. 20). That

persuasion takes place over time and must be accompanied by the continued

accumulation of evidence that the innovation achieves positive results. There will likely

need to be more adopters who find success with this faith-inspired model in other

localities before it develops to its full potential to impact broad stretches of the country.

The experiences gained from the wrong paths these paradigm pioneers have taken over

the past 10 years are now poised to yield benefits in the form of a faith-inspired renewal

of education in urban communities.


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Practical Implications

The practical implications of this case study are that it has produced two

platforms – the Lasallian Platform and the Duncan Platform - that espouse a rationale for

cooperation between religious organizations and charter granting authorities. Embracing

the principles delineated in these platforms will allow leaders to engage in fruitful

dialogue that could pave the way for new partnerships to form that will allow for the

renewal of urban education. As this renewal is being accomplished, additional life will be

breathed into religious organizations that long to serve impoverished communities. The

synergistic relationship that grows from this proposed partnership will strengthen

communities and give a brighter future for the youth of those communities.

As an example of how these ideas will be made known to the broader community,

in March of 2016, the two platforms identified in the study were presented by Catalyst

founder Ed Siderewicz at an informal gathering of leaders looking at new ideas in

education at a prestigious mid-western university. It is anticipated that similar

opportunities for presentation of these findings to diocesan leaders, leaders of religious

communities, and to gatherings of charter school advocates will occur.

Implications for Future Research

Since the study of faith-inspired charter schools is only now unfolding, the field is

ripe for additional research. Many communities could benefit from a better understanding

of what takes place and what is possible in the wraparound spiritual formation programs.

A review of the literature, along with conversations with practitioners in the various

locales in which Catholic-to-charter conversions have taken place, reveals that these

programs have not been studied in any substantive way. There appears to be little


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knowledge of what is happening in these programs, the rates of attendance, budgeting

practices, and other basic operational facts. It seems likely that some common knowledge

related to these programs could provide the foundation for each parish and school to learn

from the efforts of one another and to begin to identify some best practices in the field.

While Catalyst marketing materials tell a compelling story of the dramatic

academic improvement of its students, this has yet to be substantiated in a quantitative

study published in a peer-reviewed journal. A longitudinal study is likely to show the best

results based on the anecdotal evidence presented on the Catalyst marketing materials

that I have seen. Included in this study could be an analysis of relative high school

graduation rates, college attendance rates, and student retention rates, along with the

comparative results on standardized tests that measure academic achievement. Such a

comprehensive study is necessary to validate the contribution these schools are making to

Chicago and to lay the foundation necessary to show this model is worthy of replication

around the country.

Implications for Leadership Theory and Practice

The findings of the study validate several important concepts about the classic

interplay of power and leadership and the role that each plays in organizational change.

Robbins and Judge (2012) differentiate and describe several classical styles of leadership

and a modern understanding of the types of power that are used to effect change within

the organizational setting. The now deceased Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Francis

George, a person for whom I had the deepest respect, exercised his “formal power” when

he refused to take up Arne Duncan’s offer to partner with CPS to establish a number of

charter schools throughout Chicago. Fearing some form of retribution against other


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Lasallian high schools in Chicago (which never came), Brother Frank Carr expressed

concerns about the possible use of “coercive power” when wisely requesting that an open

line of communication be established with the Cardinal’s office as the Christian Brothers

moved forward in establishing the charter schools. Arne Duncan was influenced by the

“expert power” that was demonstrated by the Christian Brothers as he toured the San

Miguel schools. Through the testimony of Gary Comer and based upon what he saw with

his own eyes, Duncan was convinced that Siderewicz and Hannon had completely

mastered the challenging task of educating youth from neighborhoods decimated by

poverty. They were experts in the field and, because of their expert power, Duncan

wanted to give them an opportunity to expand their influence. Finally, one can easily

argue that Brother John Johnston not only took advantage of his “legitimate power” that

came with having just served at 14 years as Superior General, but he masterfully

exercised the influence tactics of legitimacy, rational persuasion, and inspirational appeal,

to fashion a compelling argument for moving forward with this unique innovation.

It is impossible to discuss power without also taking a look at issues related to the

leadership styles of the key actors in this drama. Similarly, it is impossible to look at the

work done by Hannon and Siderewicz, talk to those who worked beside them through the

formative years of the Catalyst Schools and the San Miguel schools before that, and

watch them interact with those around them today, and not conclude that both men fit the

classical definition of a “charismatic leader” as described by Robbins and Judge (2012).

Certainly there are indications, given the life and careers of Cardinal Francis George,

Brother John Johnston, and Arne Duncan that these gentlemen were charismatic leaders

as well. Each of them was responsible for organizations that served hundreds of


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thousands of people on a daily basis. Each of them surely had their detractors to go along

with their extended resumes of success. The “visionary leadership” of Sister Immacula

Wendt is especially noteworthy. One can easily make the argument that the most

successful of the Catalyst Schools has been Catalyst Maria, which was launched as a

result of this octogenarian fireball’s initiative, foresight, and the desire to serve her

religious community along with the broader community of Chicago.

Coming to know and understand the passion, initiative, and skill with which each

of these leaders served their respective communities is a source of inspiration for me. It

has been a privilege to learn more of their story and their collaboration together. I hope

that in some way, telling their story will make it easier for the settlers to get the land.

These settlers are children and their families from impoverished communities around the

country - each of them desperately seeking their own chance to become leaders in the

way that God has made them to be.

Final Observation About Leadership

The doctoral program in Interdisciplinary Leadership at Creighton University

begins with a reflection on leadership from the perspective of the Society of Jesus that

points to the remarkable history of the Jesuits and their unique style of fulfilling the call

to leadership. One of the most interesting Jesuit leaders who is profiled by Lowney

(2003) is Matteo Ricci. According to the records we have, Ricci is the first Jesuit to have

been received and integrated into Chinese society. Others before him had been repelled

and sometimes shipped home in cages. Ricci was the first Jesuit who learned the

language of the Chinese and began to get a foothold into the intellectual community of


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Chinese society by penning a treatise on friendship – an experience common to all

humans regardless of language.

The work of the Christian Brothers in Chicago strikes me as being similar to that

of Ricci. The brothers are learning the language and culture of public school bureaucracy

and this allows them to enter into meaningful conversation with their students regarding

basic ideas and values most human beings innately understand – honor, trust, kindness,

scholarship, and perhaps even ambition. It seems reasonable to hope that just as Ricci’s

life and work was ultimately able to show the Chinese people a way of life they may

want to consider adopting, so will the work of the Christian Brothers bring a similar gift

to impoverished communities across the country.

Summary of the Study

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the process of

conceptual development, negotiation, reasoning, and discernment among organizational

leaders that led a metropolitan school system and a religious order to collaborate on the

establishment of two publicly funded “faith-inspired” charter schools. With the aim of

creating an evidence-based series of recommendations for religious organizations and

public chartering authorities that choose to collaborate in the establishment of such

schools, this study interviewed leaders from both organizations in order to understand the

rationale and motivation for working together to establish the Catalyst Schools. After

gathering qualitative data from observation of the both Catalyst Schools, observing a

summer leadership summit of Catalyst personnel, and conducting 18 interviews with

leaders of the Christian Brothers, Catalyst Schools, the Sisters of St. Casimir, and

Chicago Public Schools, the study revealed that executive leaders from both


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organizations articulated visionary statements of their rationale for entering into this

innovative partnership. Leaders from both organizations then acted on the principles in

these statements to create a new model of faith-inspired charter schools. Additionally, a

series of evidence-based recommendations were identified for any religious organization

considering entering into such a partnership.

Allowance for a two-and-a-half year timeline was recommended for the execution

of the proposed solution which begins with steps including recruiting a board, finding a

faith-based community partner, securing a facility, developing an application that is

successful in acquiring a charter, hiring and training teachers for mission, and concludes

with evaluation of the results of standardized testing at the end of the first year of

operation. The hiring and subsequent training of teachers according to principles,

teaching theories, and writings of Saint Jean-Baptiste de a Salle represent a new

innovation in the realm of charter schools in the United States. Even though similar

training has been used in the 560 Lasallian schools around the world for over 300 years,

translating these teacher formation techniques in a way that can be used in charter schools

in the United States has never been done until now.

It is expected that the results of the study will serve to inform leaders of Catholic

parishes and other religious organizations serving impoverished communities. The study

presents a process to establish a viable option that allows these organizations to better

serve their communities by providing faith-inspired charter schools.


142

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Appendix A

Four Elements of a Dissertation in Practice Proposal – Joe Hollowell

Problem Statement

We live in a time of convergence of two intersecting trends. Over the past 50

years more than half of the Catholic schools around the country have closed as a result of

declining enrollment (McCloskey & Harris, 2013). Even though these closures have

affected most demographic groups around the country, they have most significantly

impacted students and families from center-city socioeconomic groups (McDonald &

Schultz, 2009). In spite of efforts to turn the tide through marketing, new partnerships,

and governance structures, Catholic schools continue to close at an alarming rate. Driven

by both the financial challenges of sustaining Catholic schools in areas of

impoverishment along with the increasing availability of mechanisms to form charter

schools, the conversion of under-resourced center-city Catholic schools to charter schools

is an emerging phenomenon throughout the country that is expected to become more

commonplace (McShane & Kelly, 2014).

In 1997, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. formed the Center-City

Consortium and used the available mechanism for forming charter schools to avoid the

outright closure of these Catholic schools by converting them to charter schools. Since

that time, both the Archdiocese of Miami and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis have

employed similar strategies in attempts to continue to serve students and families in the

center-city. Hernandez (2009) notes that there is disagreement among leaders in the

Catholic community as to whether or not this is an advisable way to fulfill the Church’s

mission to the poor. The most contentious issue is that, as charter schools, these new


160

schools can no longer offer mandatory religious instruction which many consider to be

the heart of the mission of Catholic schools (Ristau, 2009).

While the phenomenon of the conversion of Catholic schools to charter schools

has not yet been widely implemented, the study of these schools is beginning to unfold

(Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Horning, 2013; McShane & Kelly, 2014; Smarick, 2010). As

predicted by Ristau (2009), evidence has begun to emerge that indicates that the newly

formed charter schools lose the benefits of the shared religious mission and practices that

are common in most Catholic schools (Brinson, 2010; Carr, 2014; Smarick, 2010). These

researchers note that dealing with public school bureaucracy and a heightened emphasis

on standardized test preparation give rise to a definitive change in school climate that

leads to the resignation of many former teachers from the Catholic school who were

retained during the first years of the conversion to a charter school. The resulting charter

schools have not been a satisfactory solution in the eyes of Catholic leaders. Recently, the

Archdiocese of Indianapolis ended its five-year experiment with these converted charter

schools (Glavan, 2015) as a result of its dissatisfaction with the resulting product of the

conversion.

However, recent research (Proehl et al., 2015) has indicated that a new sort of

model has emerged as the result of the collaboration between the Chicago Public School

(CPS) system and the Christian Brothers religious order. This model was the result of six

years of conversation, negotiation, and discernment after an original proposal by CPS to

the Christian Brothers was made and subsequently rejected in 1999. CPS had proposed

that the Christian Brothers establish a charter school based on the model of the successful

San Miguel Catholic schools in which the Christian Brothers were already serving


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impoverished neighborhoods in Chicago. In a six-year process of ongoing dialogue

between CPS and the Christian Brothers, the Christian Brothers eventually made a

decision to accept the offer of partnership with CPS and open two charter schools called

“Catalyst Schools”. The research by Proehl et al. (2015) indicates that the Catalyst

Schools have been successful in operating as “faith-inspired” charter schools that show


religious organization wanting to serve the poor while at the same time staying true to its

founding religious charisms. According to Proehl et al. (2015) parents, students, teachers,

and administrators all indicate a level of satisfaction that has been elusive in the other

attempts around the country to close Catholic schools and immediately re-open them as

charter schools.

The results of the proposed case study will build understanding of important

issues surrounding the dialogue and negotiations among leaders of these two

organizations as they sought to understand and accommodate the other’s concern.

Increased understanding of this collaboration will help inform other diocesan and

religious leaders around the country as well as public chartering authorities as they seek

to determine if the formation of faith-inspired charter schools merit consideration in their

unique locations.


The purpose of this case study will be to understand the process of conceptual

development, negotiation, and discernment among organizational leaders that led a large

metropolitan school system and a religious order to collaborate on the establishment of


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two publicly funded “faith-inspired” charter schools in impoverished urban

neighborhoods.

Research Question

The following research questions will guide this case study:







Aim of the Study

The aim of this study is to create an evidence-based series of recommendations

that can be adopted by public chartering authorities as well as religious organizations to



References

Brinson, D. (2010). Turning loss into renewal: Catholic schools, charter schools, and the

Miami experience (pp. 1-22, Rep.). New York: Seton Education Partners.

Carr, K. A. (2014). When Catholic schools close and become charter schools: A case

study of organizational narratives and legitimacy (Unpublished doctoral

dissertation). Indiana University.


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Glavan, J. (2015, January 22). Parents want answers as number of closed charter schools

grows. Retrieved from http://fox59.com/2015/01/22/parents-want-answers-as-

number-of-closed-charter-schools-grows/

Hernandez, J. (2009, March 8). Secular education, Catholic values. New York Times, p.

A17.

Horning, C. N. (2013). The intersection of religious charter schools and urban Catholic

education: A literature review. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and

Practice, 16(2), 364-387.

McCloskey, P. J., & Harris, J. C. (2013, January 6). Catholic education, in need of

salvation [Editorial]. New York Times, p. 19.

McDonald, D., & Schultz, M. M. (2009). United States Catholic elementary and

secondary schools, 2008-2009: The annual statistical report on schools,

enrollment and staffing. Washington, DC: National Catholic Educational

Association.

McShane, M. Q., & Kelly, A. P. (2014). Sector switchers: Why Catholic schools convert

to charters and what happens next. Indianapolis, IN: The Friedman Foundation

for Educational Choice.

Proehl, R., Starnes, H., & Everett, S. (2015). Catalyst Schools: The Catholic Ethos and

Public Charter Schools. Journal of Catholic Education, 18(2), 125-158.

doi:10.15365/joce.1802072015

Ristau, K. M. (2009, September). Can charter schools be Catholic? Here's why the

answer is "no". NCEA Notes, 43, 1.


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Smarick, A. (2010). Catholic schools become charter schools: Lessons from the

Washington experience (pp. 1-26, Rep.). New York: Seton Education Partners.


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Appendix B

Interview Script and Questions

Script for Introduction

Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this case study interview to

investigate to the formation and ongoing operation of the Catalyst Schools in Chicago.

Through my doctoral studies in the Interdisciplinary Leadership program at Creighton

University I have become keenly aware of the critical role of leadership in bringing about

change within a system and within a culture. It is the intent of my research to explore the

interaction and decision-making dynamics that led to the eventual choice by the Christian

Brothers and Chicago Public Schools to cooperate in the establishment of the Catalyst

Schools. In order make an accurate record of our time here today. I would like to record

this interview for transcription at a later time. Do I have your permission to do so?

Questions

• Can you give me a bit of background regarding your involvement with Catholic

education prior to the establishment of the Catalysts schools?

• Can you describe your reaction when the idea of opening a faith-inspired charter

school was first proposed to you?

• Who first proposed this idea to you?

• Who do you recall being involved in the subsequent conversation? Who were

these leaders and what was their position within the organization?

• Do you recall the leaders who were opposed to the idea within your organization?

• Can you summarize your recollections of the primary objections of those who

may have been against this idea in the beginning?


166

• Do you recall any leaders who were advocates for the original proposal from the

beginning of the discussions? Can you describe the method by which they chose

to advocate? Can you describe the nature of their argument for the establishment

of this partnership?

• Was there a key event in your mind that led to the continuation of dialogue and

discernment? If not, what led to the dialogue to be extended for six years?

• How often was this proposal discussed within your organization? In what sort of

format did that discussion take place?

• Can you paraphrase what happened over this six-year period to cause

organizational leaders to finally decide to move forward with the adoption of this

partnership?

• Who made the final decision to move forward in your organization? How was the

decision communicated?

• Can you describe the results you have seen from this mutual collaboration?

• Are there any downsides to this partnership?

• In retrospect, are there things you wish you had done differently?

• Is there unanimous consent in your organization that the partnership is a success

or do some members remain skeptical?

• What steps would you suggest other religious leaders or public school authorities

take who want to consider similar partnerships for faith-inspired charter schools?

• How critical do you think it is to have effective optional religious education

programs offered to students at these new charter schools?

• What, if any, steps have been taken to enhance the quality of these programs?


167

• What is your perception of the effectiveness of the optional religious education

programs currently offered?

• Do the schools measure this effectiveness themselves? If so, how?

• Who is in charge of selecting these religious educational instructors?

• Are these religious instructors paid? If so, who pays them?

• Is there a budget for religious education classroom expenses and supplies?

• Is there a minimum threshold of training or education that a religious education

teacher must have? If so, what it the threshold?

• How often are the religious education classes offered?

• What sort of funds or other resources are allotted to supporting these religious

education programs?

• Are there any plans underway to replicate this model of collaboration anywhere in

the country?

• Have there been any legal challenges to the operation of the Catalyst Schools?

• Who might be best able to give the Chicago Public Schools perspective of the

early dialogues?

• How often do you have occasion to interact with CPS? Can you please describe

those interactions?


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Appendix C

IRB Letter

Social Behavioral Institutional Review Board

2500 California Plaza • Omaha, Nebraska 68178 phone: 402.280.2 402.280.4766 • email: [email protected]

DATE:

TO: FROM:

PROJECT TITLE: SUBMISSION TYPE:

ACTION: DECISION DATE:

REVIEW CATEGORY:

October 19, 2015

Joseph Hollowell C reighton U niversity IR B-02 Social Behavioral

[821863-1] Collaboration of a Religious Order and a Public School Chartering Authority - A Case Study

New Project

DETERMINATION OF EXEMPT STATUS October 19, 2015

Exemption category # 4

Thank you for your submission of New Project materials for this project. The following items were reviewed in this submission:

• ApplicationForm-ApplicationforDeterminationofExemptStatus(per45CFR46.101(b)2/3): Observation, Survey, Interview (UPDATED: 10/16/2015)

• Creighton-IRBApplicationForm-Creighton-


169

IRBApplicationForm(UPDATED:10/15/2015) • Proposal-DissertationinPracticeProposal(UPDATED:10/19/2015)

This project has been determined to be exempt from Federal Policy for Protection of Human Subjects as per 45CFR46.101 (b) 4.

All protocol amendments and changes are to be submitted to the IRB and may not be implemented until approved by the IRB. Please use the modification form when submitting changes.

If you have any questions, please contact Christine Scheuring at 402-280-3364 or [email protected]. Please include your project title and reference number in all correspondence with this committee.

This letter has been electronically signed in accordance with all applicable regulations, and a copy is retained within Creighton University IRB-02 Social Behavioral's records.

- 1 - Generated on IRBNet


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Appendix D

The Johnston Memorandum

MEMORANDUM

To: Brother Michael Fehrenbach and all From: Brother John Johnston, FSC Date: 9 February 2005, Feast of San Miguel Febres Cordero RE: Proposed Collaboration with Public School System N.B.

Because of the possibility of factual errors in this quickly prepared memorandum, I ask that it be circulated with discretion and always with this comment. I intend the memorandum - written at your request – to help those involved in discussions on the proposed collaboration to situate the proposal within the global Lasallian context.

During the District Council discussion of the possibility of replicating the San Miguel School model as a charter or contract school in Chicago, I spoke to the proposal out of my international experience – ten years as Vicar General, fourteen years as Superior General. Through the lens of that experience, I said that I see no important reasons why we should say no to the proposal and that I see important reasons why we should say yes. I added that I was speaking on the level of principal and acknowledged that those more knowledgeable than I might be aware of pragmatic reasons for questioning the wisdom of the proposal, reasons that would have to be examined carefully. I add now that it would seem to me that should a definitive decision to proceed be made, legal challenges from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and from some Jewish organizations committed to the same cause are inevitable.


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I comment first on my remark that I see no important reasons for saying no. Brother Frank Carr, Visitor, introduced the discussion as an opportunity to discuss whether or not the Midwest District of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) should become involved with the public school system in the running of a charter or contract school. The question is understandable and reasonable, given that throughout our history in the United States, the “state” (at various levels) and the Institute have collaborated only in limited ways: institutions for court-referred youth on the East Coast, special programs on the high school and elementary levels across the country, various but limited ways of assistance on the university level, assistance to San Miguel Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island... The reason collaboration has been limited is, of course, prevailing interpretations of the separation of Church and State clause in the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ”

As far as I know, neither Church law nor Church practice forbids or even discourages collaboration with governments. On the contrary the Church frequently and consistently argues that governments are obliged to fund education for everyone – including those in schools with religious orientations. The concern of the Church is that governments not prohibit or impede “free exercise.” Internationally the Institute of the De La Salle Christian Brothers has collaborated for many years with governments and continues to collaborate today in numerous countries. I am NOT prepared to give a precise explanation of the many and varied relationships that exist. I can speak only in very general terms. I apologize for any errors in the following description. If there are errors, I don’t think they call into question the point I am attempting to make. Every situation is different. In no way am I suggesting that any of these examples parallels precisely the kind of arrangement under discussion in the Midwest District. Relationships with governments are of three kinds: 1) those imposed by law or edict that effectively exclude the Institute from involvement


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in educating youth through schools; 2) those imposed by law or edict that permit the Institute to function only within certain parameters; 3) those that the Institute enters into freely, accepting both the advantages and the disadvantages of the arrangement. Today the Brothers are effectively excluded from educating youth in schools in Cuba, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Burma). Until the collapse of communism in Central Europe, the same was true in Poland, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia (now divided into two countries). In Slovakia today we have a school in which the teachers are paid, at least partially, by the State. In Cuba Fidel Castro nationalized the schools and seriously harassed the Brothers who had well-developed pastoral ministries among youth. The Brothers left the country en masse, fully expecting to return in a short time. Today our policy in the face of nationalization is to encourage the Brothers to remain and find ministries that are acceptable – unless they are in personal danger of imprisonment or worse. More than thirty years later, and after ten years of negotiation, we succeeded in reestablishing in Cuba two communities of Brothers that serve youth through the teaching of religion in Churches, various pastoral ministries, theological programs, language teaching, and sports activities. The Vatican has fully supported our efforts. Our schools in Sri Lanka were nationalized some forty years ago and no school could any longer charge tuition. The Brothers and former students decided to find financial support for a few schools and passed the other schools to the government. They maintained a presence, however, in these schools. Some forty-five years ago France enacted laws that enabled the Institute to conduct its own network of schools and receive government support for salaries (lay and Brothers), as well as other operating expenses. There are no funds provided for capital expenditures. A similar arrangement exists in Belgium. In both countries the teaching of religion is permitted. The socialist government in Austria began paying teachers’ salaries in all schools some twenty years ago. At approximately the same time, the then two Districts (Provinces) in Great Britain took


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advantage of the opportunity to enter the government system and receive financial assistance. All schools in the District of England and all but three in the District of London became Catholic schools in the government system. The teaching of religion is an integral part of the curriculum. When the Socialist party won national elections in Spain some twenty years ago, the government soon offered to provide funds for all schools K-10. The teaching of religion and pastoral activities would be permitted. Our Institute and other teaching institutes went through a long, serious, and difficult discernment, examining carefully the pros and cons. They decided to take advantage of the opportunity. I think that only one school in Spain today remains privately funded. As far as I know, Lasallians are satisfied with the arrangement, pleased that students are not deterred from enrolling for lack of sufficient financial resources. In India we run schools for the poor in which the government pays the salaries of most of the teachers, including the Brothers. In Argentina students in our schools are categorized according to family income and receive tuition assistance accordingly. In other countries, such as Thailand, we cannot teach the Catholic religion in the school building to the very small number of Christians. We teach religion, however, in the Brothers’ residence. John Paul II, in the document he wrote following the synod on the teaching of religion, declared, and I paraphrase, “we do what we can in the situations in which we find ourselves.” Those examples come to mind. The bottom line is that through my international lens – and on the level of principal – I see no reason why we should not endorse the proposal. I offer a few remarks now to explain my assertion that I see significant reasons why we should look favorably on the proposal. The Catholic Church, which has as its mission to make the loving and saving presence of Christ a visible and effective reality, wants to be present to peoples everywhere. “Everywhere” includes a presence in locations and in cultures where the possibilities of “conversions” are minimal. The Church has urged Institutes such as our own to intensify


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our presence among persons of other religions throughout the world, particularly in Asia. About 25 years ago our Institute in France made the decision to withdraw the Brothers from Turkey. Reasons were the aging and declining numbers of French missionary Brothers and the fact that few of the students in our three schools were Christian. When the Vatican heard that we intended to end a presence we had maintained since 1841, reaction was decisive and swift. Brother Pablo, Superior General, was called to discuss the situation. The Vatican pleaded with us to maintain our presence. There was no expectation that we would “proselytize” and try to convert Muslims to Catholicism. Not at all. The hope was that we would continue to make Christ’s loving and saving presence a visible and effective reality through well-run, highly regarded educational institutions, while respecting totally the religion of others. The Institute reversed its decision and continues to serve Turkish youth, nearly all Muslims, today. In Malaysia, an Islamic state, a country where we have been a dominant force in education since 1852, the schools for which the Institute is responsible outnumber the Brothers. Following the nationalization of Catholic schools many years ago, we are not allowed to teach religion in the school buildings but must provide space for the teaching of Islam. We do what we can in the reality in which we find ourselves. We have been in Pakistan only since 1959, and face a similar situation. In the pastoral visits I made throughout the world for twenty-four years, I very frequently was asked why the Institute is at the service of so many Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Confucianists, Shintoists, persons of traditional religions, Christians who are not Catholic My answer was and is that as the largest teaching Institute in the Catholic Church, we have the obligation of making Christ’s loving and saving presence a vivid and effective reality throughout the world and among peoples of all religious faiths and among those of no religious faith. Since the Jubilee Year of 2000, Memphis Bishop Terry Steib, SVD, and Dr. Mary McDonald, Secretary of Education, with the help of anonymous donors, have reopened eight inner-city Catholic


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elementary schools. We are responsible, in collaboration with the diocese, for two of them. The number of Catholics in these schools is small. Both the Bishop and Dr. McDonald frequently insist, “We teach not because the pupils are Catholic, but because we are Catholic.” The “we” here means the sponsoring body. Not all the teachers in these schools are Catholic. Under consideration is a new San Miguel model school operating as a charter or contract school. Under consideration, therefore, is the possibility of placing Catholic education in the Lasallian tradition at the service of young people who would not otherwise have that chance. Under consideration is making the loving and saving presence of Christ a vivid and effective reality among such children. I suppose the bottom-line question is whether or not God, in the words of St. De La Salle, is confiding such children to our care or not. cc. Brothers Frank Carr, Armand Alcazar, Joseph Saurbier


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Appendix E

The Duncan Platform We have one common enemy and that is academic failure. We have one common goal and that is more academic success. Whoever can create more high quality schools, whoever can create more high quality seats for children - particularly focused on our most disadvantaged - those providers need to be our partners. We need to be innovative, creative, and flexible and find ways to get to yes rather than find ways to get to no. We are trying to reverse decades of lack of education and decades of intergenerational poverty. The status quo of incremental change is woefully insufficient for the size of the challenge and the urgency of the need. For traditional schools, bureaucracies, and faith-based schools, if we are truly committed to kids, community, and opportunity, we have to find ways to get better faster. We cannot be true to our mission if we are not willing to be more flexible, more creative, and innovative. It is unconscionable to not attempt to provide new opportunities for students – especially those in poverty. Through the establishment of these faith-inspired charters, the Church has a chance to keep working with kids and communities who desperately need its service. The Church cannot walk away and disappear from communities rather than find a way to be a little more creative. Edited version of comments by former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recorded during an interview for doctoral dissertation research at Creighton University by Joe Hollowell on March 9, 2016.


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Appendix F

The Lasallian Platform

Preamble

Catholic leaders are discussing the possibility of replicating its successful schools as charter schools in the United States. The Catholic Church is operating schools across the world in a multitude of political and legal systems and draws upon those experiences when considering the possibility of collaboration with public chartering authorities in the United States. Through the lens of that global experience, there are no important reasons why we should say “no” to this collaboration and there are important reasons why we should say “yes.” Rationale

• Neither Church law nor Church practice forbids or even discourages collaboration with governments.

• The Church frequently and consistently argues that governments are obliged to

fund education for everyone – including those in schools with religious orientations.

• Internationally, the Church has collaborated for many years with governments

in numerous countries. Some examples follow: Argentina - students in Catholic schools are categorized according to family income and receive tuition assistance accordingly. Austria - The socialist government in began paying teachers’ salaries in all schools some 30 years ago. France and Belgium – over 50 years ago laws were enacted that enabled Church agencies to conduct a network of schools and receive government support for salaries (lay and religious), as well as other operating expenses. In both countries the teaching of religion is permitted. Great Britain - Catholic schools took advantage of the opportunity to enter the government system and receive financial assistance. The vast majority became Catholic schools in the government system. The teaching of religion is an integral part of the curriculum. India - the Church runs schools for the poor in which the government pays the salaries of most of the teachers, including the members of religious orders. Spain - 30 years ago, the newly elected Socialist government provided funds for all schools K-10. The teaching of religion and pastoral activities is permitted.


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Sri Lanka - Catholic schools were nationalized 50 years ago and no school could any longer charge tuition. The religious orders who staffed these schools decided to pass most of the schools to the government. However, they maintained a presence in these schools. Thailand - the Catholic religion cannot be taught in a school building to the very small number of Christians there. Religion is taught, nonetheless, in the residences of local religious.

• Brother John Johnston, former Superior General of the De La Salle Christian Brothers summarizes the apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae as follows: “We do what we can in the situations in which we find ourselves.”

• Memphis Bishop Terry Steib, SVD, who reopened eight inner-city Catholic

elementary schools that serve very few Catholics frequently insists, “We teach not because the pupils are Catholic, but because we are Catholic.

• Catholic leaders are frequently asked why they are at the service of so many

Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, none of whom are Catholic. Their answer is consistent. These leaders know there is an obligation of making Christ’s loving and saving presence a vivid reality throughout the world and among peoples of all religious faiths.

• Through this international lens – and on the level of principal – there is no

reason why we should not embrace the opportunity to work with American legal authorities who are willing to fund charter schools formed by those who have a religious call to educate.

Conclusion Under consideration now is the question of a Catholic organization operating a charter school. Under consideration, therefore, is the possibility of placing an education based upon Catholic principles at the service of young people who would not otherwise have that chance. Under consideration is making the loving and saving presence of Christ a vivid and effective reality among such children. The bottom-line question is whether or not God is confiding such children to our care … or not. We believe that both God and the Church are both calling us to care for these children. Edited version of a memorandum from Brother John Johnston to members of the Midwest District Council of the Lasallian Christian Brothers dated February 9, 2005. Presented as a part of a draft reporting dissertation research at Creighton University by Joe Hollowell on March 14, 2016.


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Appendix G

June 30, 2011 Terry Toth, Board Chair And the Catalyst Board The Catalyst Schools 5608 West Washington Blvd Chicago, IL 60644 Dear Mr. Toth, Board Chair and the Catalyst Board,

The Sisters of St. Casimir have ministered to the people of Chicago since 1911. Over the years we have carried out our mission of teaching and evangelizing, caring for the sick, the aging, and sharing Christ’s special love for the poor through our ministries in education, health care and community development. Through our ministry of education at St. Casimir Academy/Maria High School for the past 100 years, we have provided an excellent educational experience for the young people of our neighborhood and nurtured the faith life of our diverse learning community through prayer, worship and service.

The Sisters of St. Casimir are willing to engage in an exciting partnership with

Catalyst Charter Schools at the site of the present Maria High School (6727 S California Avenue, Chicago IL 60629). It is our hope that Catalyst Schools would pursue the steps needed to establish a K-12 educational program, beginning with K-8, something they have already excelled in, and following up with 9-12 in the next school year, something we have been engaged in for all these years at Maria High School with an expertise and commitment to young people that we would be happy to share. This partnership provides a wonderful opportunity for building a seamless continuum of education at this site for the hundreds of students who need our faithful and caring commitment to meet the needs of children and teens in the Maria neighborhood. At the same time, this enables us to continue the legacy of the Mission of Maria High School and the Mission of the Sisters of St. Casimir in Chicago Lawn in a new way.

Over the course of the school’s 100 year history, Maria High School (and St. Casimir Academy before it) has educated over 14,000 young women, providing


180

them with academic excellence, strong moral values, preparing them to be leaders in their families, their neighborhoods, the city, the world. Maria Women can be found everywhere. Notable alumnae span the decades and credit Maria High School with preparing them for life. Some of these include:

Carmen Velasquez ‘ 57 – founder and executive director, Alivio Center Joanne DeCoste Velasquez ‘ 58 – founder of Azteca Foods Honorable Anne McGlone Burke ’62 – Illinois Supreme Court Judge Gail Dorcak Ward ’67 – founding principal, Walter Peyton High School Anita Alvarez ’78 -- Cook County State’s Attorney Amy Howatt Fahey ’80 -- President of Midwest Middle Market Banking,

Chase. Tamara Marshall, M.D. ’80, pediatrician, University of Illinois Patricia Saldana Natke ’82, architect and founder of Urban Works, Ltd Elba Aranda-Suh ’89 – Executive Director, National Latino Education

Initiative Kila Weaver ’90 – Vice President, Marketing & Business Development FIS

Group

The Sisters of St. Casimir have over 100 years of leadership in serving the needs of those who have come to our door, our Maria High School, our emergency room at Holy Cross Hospital, seeking education, health care, support, a helping hand. We are seen by many as the bedrock of our community and embrace our role of serving all, especially the vulnerable and those in need. It is one of our priorities to see that quality education is provided to the students, an opportunity to develop their talents and realize their dreams – leaving no child behind.

What a blessing this partnership, Catalyst and Maria, could be for the

students, the families, the community, the city of Chicago! We greatly commend and value the mission, vision, and core educational philosophy of the Catalyst Schools. We can envision how the excellence you foster in education, the opportunities you provide for each child, and your commitment to nurturing ‘the whole person’ academically, socially and emotionally, mirror the mission and values that we have always espoused at Maria High School. The Sisters of St. Casimir and lay leaders of Maria High School are deeply committed to the Mission of Maria. All have worked diligently to assure that Maria’s Mission continues. This same support and commitment by Maria’s leaders and faculty would continue in a new Catalyst High School that espouses the same quality of education, faith-based values and diversity. The resources of Maria personnel, expertise, years of experience, talent and knowledge of providing an excellent High School program offered in a caring, respectful environment which inspires students to discover their gifts and cultivate life-long relationships would be available to Catalyst as the foundation of a new high school program.

How exciting it would be to have Catalyst bring their expertise and

leadership in establishing a K-8 Catalyst School at Maria High School beginning with the 2012-2013 school year and then joining the 100 years of High School leadership,


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skills and experience from the Sisters of St. Casimir and Maria High School leadership transition the high school experience into a Charter Catalyst K-12 for the 2013-2014 school year.

Working with Catalyst to introduce a K–8 education on the Maria campus actively positions us to continue our 100 year legacy of providing education to the young people in this community. Students would be well prepared to continue their education on the high school level on-site through the strong value-based education provided by Catalyst. Catalyst, in turn, will be able to work with Maria leadership, to develop their curriculum into a K-12 educational system that would truly provide the best outcome for the young people attending the school. This would be a blessing for the community, as any of our current partners and supporters of our mission would attest to.

In 2002 Maria was recognized as both a Prairie State and National Service

Learning Leader School. We value and are proud of our continued connections and efforts within the community. We have worked with key community leaders from the Southwest Organizing Project (a community organizing group composed of 27 member institutions), Holy Cross Hospital, Healthy Chicago Lawn, and Greater Southwest Development Corporation on numerous issues facing the quality of life of our community.

The Maria High School building and campus, with a capacity for about 1000 students, offers a marvelous array of possibilities for learning: classroom spaces, an 1100 seat auditorium with full stage and orchestra pit, a full service kitchen and cafeteria, library, science labs, art rooms, orchestra and choral rooms, videoconferencing room, computer labs, computer access in all classrooms, TV studio connected to each classroom, a double gym with gym lockers, an on-campus softball field, easy access to Marquette Park and its tennis courts, softball fields, soccer fields, golf course, and track. This well-kept facility not only provides opportunities for student learning and development, but also opportunities for the surrounding community. Maria was the site of ESL and citizenship classes for over 300 people and has hosted meetings, conferences for various groups, and graduation ceremonies of several public schools in the area. (There is an elevator which provides handicapped-accessibility to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors and a ramp entrance for the lower level.)

Currently the school building is underutilized. There were 236 Maria students during the 2010-2011 school year. There would be ample room for classrooms and office spaces to accommodate the daily needs of a Catalyst School at this location. As Catalyst grows and integrates a total K-12 system, we see the building being used to capacity for the children in our neighborhood. We have longed for the day when Maria would once again be bursting at the seams, and we see this possibility with Catalyst as an answer to our prayers, a gift to the surrounding community, and a new way for us to continue to make a difference in the lives of young people.


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Even though we, the Sisters of St. Casimir, are the sponsors of Maria High School, we work collaboratively with the Archdiocese of Chicago. As we would partner with Catalyst, it would be our hope to establish a “Newman-like” Center in the former convent which is attached to the Maria school building. This Center would provide religious instruction and formation for those who would want to come. In time, it may also become a place for parent education, for Maria High School Alumnae support, and as a resource for peace and justice service to the larger community. We thank you for allowing ‘something new’ to happen at Maria High School! Most sincerely,

Sister M. Immacula Wendt General Superior Sisters of St. Casimir


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Appendix H Public Schools In the Lasallian Tradition Michael Fehrenbach FSC Humility – Originally written circa 1780 by Brother Agathon – Superior General Humility is a virtue that inspires us with low sentiments of ourselves; it attributes to us our just due. This is the way some people view humility. But there are other perspectives about what it means to be humble. For example, without feeling degraded or made low, we must also ask ourselves “what do we have that we have not received”? If it has been a gift, how then do we “pretend” that the gift is something we created on our own? Humility comes from the word humus which means the rotted earth, the rich soil out of which great and valuable things can grow. To be humble, to develop the virtue of humility is simply to be deeply in touch with the fact that all we have and all we are is a gift that has been given to us and that this gift multiplies in our own rich fertile soil so it can grow into something special for others. Humility directly opposes pride which gives us an unjustly exalted notion of our own excellence. Only a person with the virtue of humility can stand in genuine relationship with others. A person with pride stands above everyone else and so stands alone. This vice does not indicate any real solid good in us for it is only a swelling that puffs us up and makes us appear in our judgment, greater than we really are. The teacher must have the virtue of humility or he/she cannot stand in relation to the children. Students will call us to humility and if we can only be prideful teaching will ultimately break us. What are the true characteristics of the Humility appropriate for teachers, considering it as the function of teaching? 1) The Humility of the good teacher must arise from a genuine spirit of love and connection to others. All who are in positions of responsibility and authority must develop this virtue deeply. There is no leadership without being connected and in relationship. Teaching is first of all about relationship. A good teacher, responsible for many lives, will be humble in mind, knowing full well his or her own insufficiencies; he or she will be humble in heart, embracing and loving even those inadequate dimensions of his or her own personality; he or she will be humble in action, behaving humbly in all that is done – never puffed up or acting superior to others. No doubt the good teacher will never lose sight of the excellence and nobility of the end for which he or she was created; but at the same time, he or she will always keep in view the inadequacies that fill even his or her own life and the powerlessness he or she has over so much of life. This is the deep awareness that no matter our best effort, we cannot always accomplish, in every instance, what we hope to. We do our best, with passion, and trust that the goodness of life will make the most of our inadequate attempts.


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What we hope to accomplish, we cannot attain alone but only in concert and harmony with others – community. We provide for each other the corrective action that helps us not stray too far from the path we need to be on. With trust and love, we need not stumble too hard. 2) Humility is accompanied by modesty. Thus a teacher who possesses this virtue considers himself / herself highly honored to labor for the ultimate good of children, following the examples of wisdom that have preceded us. If the teacher is talented, he or she does not make a display of it; does not show conceit, pride, or overbearing manners; avoids attitudes and gestures, airs and ways of acting that might make him/her conspicuous in the eyes of others or might draw unnecessary attention to the qualities he/she thinks he or she possesses. The good teacher takes no pleasure in his or her wit or knowledge he/she thinks he/she has acquired and never looks down upon his/her colleagues or what they do. The good teacher does not seek applause or praise for accomplishments that he/she could not have achieved without the support of the entire community. Good teachers live an examined life, always ask how to do better, seek help from others, and willingly share their talents and gifts. 3) Humility excludes all vainglory as a motive of acting. Nothing, in fact, is sillier than to desire human esteem; it is, says Pierre de Blois, “a burning wind that dries up the rivulets of goodness.” Such a desire is, moreover, incompatible with what we know builds up community and relationship that is essential to true freedom, decorum and civility. 4) Humility is without ambition. Since a truly humble teacher knows his/her own limitations and inadequacies intimately, there is no desire to have power over others. Even those in positions of authority know their role is one of service. When we all embrace a life of service, everyone is served. Everyone has what they need and the entire community is built up and success assured. 5) Humility eliminates jealousy. A humble teacher, far from feeling chagrin over the achievements and successes of others, will be pleased to see them. The humble teacher wants all to succeed. In a community embracing humility, one’s success is everyone’s success. Thus, humble teachers never put themselves forward as having more merit than others, nor allow themselves to display coldness toward others, nor nourish any bitterness toward anyone. 6) Humility is not overconfident about its own views. Humility calls us to have an open attitude that allows us to be life-long learners. We need not insist on our own way of doing things because there will always be another way that can teach us and help us become better. Humility calls us to community and does not cause the separation that pride does. The humble teacher also thinks of how he/she might be useful to his/her colleagues and so is willing to sometimes bend to the will of the educational community instead of forcing his/her own point of view to the fore. The point is always how to do what is good for children rather than how the teacher might shine as the brightest star in


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the universe. Since the humble teacher is not rash, he/she seeks advice from the wisdom and expertise of others; he/she consults them willingly in everything that might help him/her be better. 7) Humility causes a teacher to be happy to share his/her knowledge with others, especially the least experienced. This teacher does not protect his/her own knowledge because he/she thinks that if he/she shares it then someone else might look better. Fear that someone else may look better than I do is not good for children, not good for the community, and ultimately not good at all for me. 8) The humble teacher is courageous and does not turn away from even what might be considered “lowly” tasks or things that might be uninviting in the school or students. He/she welcomes these things with kindness and mildness; without showing distaste the humble teacher is able to accept another’s defects: rudeness, ineptitude, flaws in character. The humble teacher is able to bear with indocility, impoliteness, ingratitude, opposition and even insult without yielding to resentment, rage, or revenge. Still, he/she does not forget that he/she must always repress whatever might weaken his/her authority and give rise to disorder, insolence, lack of application, or other forms of misconduct on the part of the students. Humility does not mean that we fail to correct, reprimand, reprove. It simply calls us to do these things for the right reasons. 9) Humility calls us to treat everyone, no matter who it might be, with esteem, cordiality, friendliness and kindness. 10) Humility makes a good teacher endure, without chagrin, the confusion that his/her mistakes, blunders, and lack of success may draw down on him/her. The students will be edified by the example of one who can learn from his/her own error. They will be led to imitate this behavior. 11) The Humility of a good teacher makes him/her charitable, affable, obliging, and easy to approach, especially by the poor and those whom he/she might find less interesting to deal with. Never does he/she assume an arrogant, disdainful, or scornful attitude when addressing students. 12) Finally, besides the defects of which we have been speaking, Humility also condemns in general these that follow: lack of tact, indifference toward others, self-importance, affected and pretentious ways of acting toward colleagues or students, egotism that leads the teacher to concern himself / herself only with his or her own person and that is nothing but false humility. This self-absorption is especially to be condemned when the teacher, fearing to fail, refrains from making all the effort that the good that he/she might be able to accomplish is frustrated by lack of action. The good teacher avoids the spirit of independence that makes him/her follow none but his/her own ideas. The humble teacher never fails in politeness or courtesy and is always willing to exalt others for what successes they have experienced. An old proverb says, “A person’s pride will bring humiliation but one who is lowly in


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spirit will obtain honor.” For reflection How do I treat my colleagues and students? Do I allow others gifts and talents to shine or am I threatened by their success? Am I receptive to others’ ideas or am I overly committed to my own point of view? If this virtue were something we all adopted, how might our school be different

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COLLABORATION OF A RELIGIOUS ORDER AND A PUBLIC SCHOOL