United States Catholic schools: challenges and controversies about statistical intelligence

Abstract

While reliable, relevant and current data are needed to inform scholarship, practice and public policy initiatives that impact Catholic schools in the USA, obtaining such data on a national scale is problematic. Demographic data are collected annually on all schools by the National Catholic Educational Association. On a national scale, databases on student performance outcomes are almost non-existent. Most Catholic schools do administer nationally norm-referenced tests and collect results data and use them to impact the teaching and learning processes. However, such data are most often considered proprietary and are not shared beyond the individual school's teachers, diocesan superintendents’ offices and, to a more limited degree, with parents. There are a variety of reasons for not sharing data, rooted in the historical dimensions of Catholic schooling in the USA and the particular mission and culture of the schools and dioceses. In a national climate that is focused on education reform, US Catholic schools must place greater value on data-driven analysis to inform the teaching and learning process and to influence public policy.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.