Catholic School Matters
January 14, 2018
What's Brewing in Milwaukee
Last month I was able to visit Seton Catholic Schools in Milwaukee. Their new Catholic school system is impressive on many levels—most importantly their laser-focus on improving teacher effectiveness and the instructional culture.
First, some background. Seton Catholic Schools was founded in 2016 and is in its second year of operation. The network opened with 9 former parish/inter-parish Catholic elementary schools serving approximately 2,000 students. This year, they are serving 12 schools and 3,000 students. The Archdiocese has identified 26 possible schools and the network has also suggested they might re-open previously closed schools or open entirely new schools in the future.
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s long-time superintendent, Dr. Kathleen Cepelka, was behind the move and serves on Seton’s Board of Directors. The idea was to give the schools flexibility, a new identity, and a clear mission. The schools have stopped acting like individual entities and can work together. Seton Catholic can recruit talented teachers and principals and place them where they are most needed. They have developed master and residency teaching programs to mentor young teachers.
In a city with school vouchers for poor students, Seton Catholic Schools was designed to embrace the flexibility of a charter school network. The network has captured cost savings through economies of scale (sharing art teachers, for example) and passed the savings on to the schools. The network has been able to raise additional funds through its mission focus. And the additional money has been spent on coaching for school leaders and teachers.
Principal job descriptions have changed. They are now primarily the instructional leaders of their buildings called to coach their teachers in order to improve instruction. They are challenged to be coached themselves in order to develop their own toolbox. The principals are no longer the coordinators of school fundraisers, the business manager, the personnel department, or the facility department. All of these functions have been absorbed by the central office of the network which puts effective instruction as its heart.
As the network scales up its innovative model, it will be interesting to measure its success: academic gains of the students, total enrollment across the network, not to mention the retention of teachers and leaders. Right now, however, the model is worth replicating. It is displaying the focus on innovative governance outlined by FADICA a few years ago.
Here is a sample of articles by and about Seton Catholic Schools:
· Dr. Bill Hughes (the Chief Academic Officer) published three Guest Ed Week blogs last fall “Transforming Catholic Education in Milwaukee” “Talent Wins at Seton Catholic Schools” “The Era of the Textbook is Over” and “Guiding Questions for Successful School Transformation”
· Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 2017 column “New Developments at 3 of Milwaukee’s More Interesting ‘Mini-districts’” and 2016 article “Seton Bolsters Catholic Voucher Schools”
· “The Catholic Schools Saved by Vouchers” in The Atlantic (Feb 2017)
· Listen to my podcast interview with Dr. Bill Hughes where he explains his educational philosophy
The Seton Catholic Schools network is but one example of an innovative model. These models are percolating across the country. Below I include thirteen other models (in alphabetical order) I could identify along with links and articles. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a list of these innovations in one place. Enjoy!
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Dr. Tim Uhl
What I'm Up To
The Church Documents podcast series continues this week with the twelfth podcast in the series covering the USCCB document from 2005: Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium. Bishop Robert Lynch, the retired bishop of St. Petersburg and former general secretary of the USCCB, is the guest. He provides a unique perspective on how this document was created. Dr. Terri Greene Henning of St. Anselm College provides a great guest blog this week.
Last week, Jack Peterson, the founder of Managing for Mission and the former president of Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, was the guest on the podcast last week as we discussed the Vatican document from 2002 "Consecrated Persons and Their Mission in Schools." Kevin Donohue from the Archdiocese of LA was a guest blogger, and Jack Peterson also wrote a fantastic blog.
You can find links to the Church documents as well as guest blogs, study questions, and more here. If you're interested in serving as a guest blogger, please contact me.
Another exciting thing is my friend Michael Zelenka, ACE faculty member at Notre Dame, and I are working on a principal formation project. We have developed a 1-minute survey. If you are a Catholic school principal, can you take this survey?
Here is the link to the podcast on iTunes. Here are videos showing you how to download and subscribe to a podcast on iTunes and how to download and subscribe a podcast on Android.
Here's what I'm working on this week:
- Monday: Livingston & Billings meetings; Podcast Episode 92: Renewing Our Commitment with Bishop Robert Lynch
- Tuesday: Office (Helena); Blog: Renewing Our Commitment
- Wednesday: Travel to Denver for superintendent meeting; Wed book blog: Traction (2012) by Gino Wickman.
- Thursday: Intermountain Superintendent Meeting (Denver)
- Friday: WCEA previsit @ St. Thomas (Albuquerque)
Miles this week: 515 driving miles; 2,534 air miles
Miles travelled in 2017-18: 15,649 road miles; 18,423 air miles
Catholic School Matters
Email: superintendent@montanacc.org
Website: www.montanacatholicschools.org
Location: PO Box 1708 Helena MT 59601
Phone: (406) 442-5761
Facebook: facebook.com/montanacatholicschools
Twitter: @mtcathschools
ACE Academies
Catholic Schools Center of Excellence
Cristo Rey
Drexel Schools
Faith in the Future
Healey Education Foundation
Independence Mission Schools
Jubilee Schools
Lumen Christi Schools
Nativity/Miguel Schools
Partnership Schools
Seton Education Partners
Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools
NCEA News
Events
- FACTS Day of Giving January 30th
- VIsions for Excellence Soul of Youth Sports Conference Feb 21-23
- Convention, April 3-5 Cincinnati
What I'm Reading
- Leadership on the Line Ronald Heifetz & Marty LInsky (1989) by Carl E. Larson & Frank M. J. LaFasto
- Building a Bridge (2017) by James Martin, SJ.
- Creativity, Inc. (2014) by Ed Catmull
- America's Original Sin (2017) by Rev. Jim Wallis
- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017) by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Click this link for a full list of my professional reading along with links to Wed Book Blogs
For Montana Administrators & Teachers
- Bishop Warfel's schedule of Masses for Catholic Schools Week
- Here is the slideshow from the Jan 9th Admin Virtual meetings at 9 am and 1 pm
Past Issues of Catholic School Matters
January 7, 2018 The 411 on 529's
December 17, 2017 Best of the Fall Issue
December 10, 2017 Serving Hispanic Catholics
December 3, 2017 Building Culture the ND Way
November 12, 2017 "How Are We Building Relationships?"
November 5, 2017 "Journal of Catholic Education"
October 29, 2017 Church Documents
October 22, 2017 Momentum Special Issue
October 15, 2017 "Anthem Protests"
October 8, 2017 Classroom Managment Special Issue
October 1, 2017 "The Un-Themed Issue"
September 24, 2017 "Joy of the Gospel"
September 17, 2017 "ESSA"
September 10, 2017 "On Leadership"
August 27, 2017 "American Catholic News"
August 20, 2017 Back to School Issue