Catholic "Prep"

A few years ago, we asked an advertising firm to conduct a series of small focus group sessions in the local churches, asking parishioners how they regarded our school as a first step in helping us sharpen our message. One comment from a participant in a local Catholic parish jumped out at me: “JPII needs to make up its mind: is it a prep school or a Catholic school?”

I understand the sentiment:  Traditionally, diocesan schools are broadly inclusive of a range of students both intellectually and socio-economically, whereas prep schools are typically exclusive: a function of costly tuitions and demanding admissions standards.  But we don’t believe it must be an “either-or.”  It’s been the on-going project of Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville, TN to create a “both-and” school since we opened in 2002.    

Is it truly possible for a diocesan high school to be both "Catholic" and "Prep"? I'd like to explain how we've tried to do that by  focusing on four lynchpin issues: access, tuitions, academic program and faith. 

I. Access

As a diocesan school, we are in service to the Church and its families. Regarding admission policies, then, we must accept a broader diversity of students than a traditional private school, recognizing, with James Joyce,  that the Catholic Church is the “here comes everybody” church.

But the responsibility to serve “everybody” doesn't fall exclusively on the high school. Long before formal schooling begins, it rests on the parents as “primary educators” to foster curiosity and a good disposition to learning.  It falls on Catholic elementary schools to help students acquire the requisite skill sets and habits of mind for more advanced work, holding students accountable and remediating where necessary. It falls on the broader Church, through generous subsidies, to support Catholic schools and to sustain the commitment of excellent teachers.

If a young man or woman applies to our school without these requisite attitudes or skill sets, we do not necessarily betray our mission if we conclude we cannot accept him or her. We are a "college preparatory school," we say, and that's more than a marketing pitch. The critical question is: Can the child be brought to a college preparatory level over the course of his or her four years within the scope of resources our school provides? I believe we should make that assessment generously, but sometimes the honest answer is "no" --a reflection of the brokenness of that child’s prior schooling or training.   

Some diocesan high schools assume the extraordinary task of fixing this “brokenness” by offering students a remedial track with lower student-teacher ratios, tutors and a separate curriculum. I applaud these schools, but don’t believe it is prudent to expect that all Catholic schools assume such a burden. The cost of getting these students to college readiness levels---especially when it’s likely the conditions that contributed to their existing state persist—require enormous resources beyond all but the wealthiest Catholic schools.  There’s a reason, after all, that schools which specialize in teaching kids with learning disabilities often charge thirty to forty thousand dollars a year!  If serving this minority forces the school to charge tuitions that stretch beyond the majority's ability to pay, we risk becoming a school that is only capable of serving the very wealthy.

Let’s move beyond abstractions to where the rubber meets the road: admissions cut-offs. JPII generally accepts students in the fortieth to sixtieth percentile or above as a matter of course, providing them with the option to pursue their studies in a “standard,” non-honors curriculum at one end, while offering an honors and A.P. curriculum at the top end.  Why 40-60? By definition, it’s dead average, and it’s hard for me to see how a school established by a diocese can exclude an “average” kid. 

But what about students who test below average? It’s a matter of degree, but generally what we look for in a “below average” applicant is an “above average” set of parents or an “above average” work ethic on the child’s part to compensate. We know that child will struggle, and without strong parents or an unusually strong work ethic, he or she will usually do poorly at JPII.  If we judge that the parents are truly able and willing to support their child at home and work as a team with teachers in the school, our experience is that a weaker student can succeed here, and we would readily accept that child. I admit those judgments are subjective, but that’s why we interview our applicants with their parents and also ask for report cards and teacher recommendations.

How far down the continuum might we go?  It matters if the student is Catholic or not.  As part of our primary mission, we stretch much further to include Catholic children. Still, there does come a point we cannot fix the brokenness that is evident in a child’s training and must deny acceptance. Over the years, we’ve certainly made the mistake of accepting kids who weren’t capable, a mistake which contributes to kids, parents and teachers becoming quite frustrated, and almost always, a mistake that ends with a sad parting. We may want to help every kid; in reality, we don’t have the program to do it.

II. Costs

Many “prep” schools use high tuitions as the gate through which they filter undesirable students and families, promoting an aura of exclusivity.  Most of those additional monies go into smaller class sizes of 14-15 students that the school then promotes in its literature as a justification of its high cost. The truth is there is no significant difference in educational outcomes in classrooms of fifteen students compared to classrooms of 20-22 students, so at JPII, we aim for an average of twenty. My own experience, confirmed by many veteran teachers, is that classroom dynamics don’t truly change until the 24-25 student mark, meaning there’s a large window to contain costs for Catholic schools interested in keeping tuitions lower, so as to widen access without diminishing the academic program.

But that logic can go too far. Many Catholic schools in this country are obscenely underpriced, a residual of the era in which nuns worked in our schools for virtually nothing. Veteran teachers in these schools have salaries in the high 20/low 30K range, whereas their advanced degrees and people skills would command starting salaries that are double or triple that in the corporate world.  While I am humbled by the vocational commitment of these heroic men and women,  I don’t believe underpaying our teachers is a template for long-term, sustained excellence. A great teacher may want to work for a Catholic school because he or she believes in our mission, but if the public or private school is paying ten or fifteen thousand dollars more per year, there are bills to pay and children to feed. The free market wins over time.

Being the lowest priced school in town is also problematic for this reason: Price drives perception of quality.  Would we feel better or worse if we found out that our surgeon charged half the cost of the other surgeons around town? By charging the least, we position ourselves as the “K-Mart” of educational options, undermining whatever monies or time we spend in marketing.

What then do I propose? Every market is different. But, since monies can be saved through adjusting class sizes without hurting outcomes, I believe diocesan Catholic schools that aim tuition at the middle of the market can provide a top tier program that competes head to head with the wealthier privates. Our tuition at JPII is about $12,000 for a Catholic family, which in Nashville, is a middle position between the most expensive private schools that charge 20-22K, and local private Christian schools that charge 6-8K. 

Even so, I am aware that $12K is well beyond the means of many middle class Catholic families. The median household income in the United States is $50K, and it’s only marginally better in my area, somewhere between 58-60K.  I believe it’s a poor strategic move on a school’s part to keep tuitions artificially low in an attempt to meet the needs of these families.  Doing so subsidizes families who could otherwise pay much more. Rather, we do better to amp up our financial aid program, providing select families with what they need while collecting full freight from everyone else. Colleges have been doing this for years; over 80% of college students in the United States receive some sort of financial assistance. Not only does that keep a college’s tuitions high, positioning itself strategically in the market, but the college can also use financial aid as a tool to entice the most desirable students to its school. We could learn a lot from them. 

 III. Academic Program

If the school has structured its admissions and tuitions as I have described, we believe it’s entirely possible for a diocesan Catholic school to offer an elite academic program for its brightest students, even while offering a solid, college preparatory program for everyone else.  

Though some educators will disagree with me, we believe this “two track” system is crucial if a Catholic diocesan school truly aspires to offer an “upper-end” option.  We’d like top students to take somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 or more Advanced Placement classes during their career, and we really want to push them to excel. We’d also like to encourage kids on the “cusp” of having A.P. level abilities to stretch themselves and take a few A.P. courses in their areas of strength, believing that good schools create a healthy amount of angst for all of its students, pushing them to go beyond themselves.

Even so, we recognize that Advanced Placement programs are beyond the capabilities of some students.  That fact often has more to do with prior training and skills than intelligence: a young man may have a high I.Q., but if he isn’t facile with Algebra I or II then he cannot be expected to have success in A.P. Calculus BC. If his writing skills are marginal, he cannot succeed in A.P. English.  

Some schools, spurred by egalitarian ideals, believe that “tracking” leads to inequities in access to the school’s best teachers. I’ve seen examples where that’s true, but it doesn’t have to be. We try to avoid it at JPII by asking our A.P. teachers to also teach classes in our standard program as part of their teaching load. That way, if our students score exceptionally well on the A.P. exams, parents of students in our standard program can be assured that the same teachers who spurred those top students to excellence are the ones teaching their children.  That’s important, especially if a school doesn’t want its reputation to drift toward “it’s only a good school for smart kids.” Such a reputation narrows the market for students, but even more importantly, it runs contrary to our diocesan mission to serve a broad range of students.

IV. Faith

Ultimately, the goal of all Catholic schools is to cooperate with God’s grace in the lives of their students to help them grow in faith, wisdom and charity. The acid test for a Catholic school is not the number of A.P. scholars or merit finalists, but the number of disciples it helps create over time. Even so, if a Catholic school is successful as an academic institution, it’s going to be a very attractive option for non-Catholic families who desire a first tier school for their children. At JPII, about  45% of our families are not Catholic. This presents a subtle temptation: should we downplay our Catholicity? Should we tailor our Catholic program toward the “least common denominator” between Catholics and our other Christian students in order to keep our “prep” image and appeal to the broadest market share?

No!

First, it would betray our Catholic mission. Our country is already awash in educational institutions that were originally founded with a religious charter that strayed from their roots and became secularized. If the “Catholic prep school” becomes just another “prep” school, it has lost its raison d'etre, not to mention its distinctiveness in the marketplace.

Second, our Catholic faith doesn’t require this false “either-or.” Ecumenism is a fundamental tenet of our self-understanding as Catholics, and the “outward-ness” that flows from our theology welcomes non-Catholics into our fold and values the contributions they make to our faith community. The surprising thing is that our non-Catholic parents often have less issues with our Catholicism than our Catholic parents! Non-Catholic parents expect the school to be Catholic, whereas the cleavages within our own faith are evident when “traditional” Catholics expect us to be more traditional and “progressive” Catholics expect us to be more progressive.  My response is that we aim to be neither “traditional” nor “progressive” but authentically Catholic, which means we want to expose students to the full scope of our tradition, from Marian devotions to social justice projects, from Gregorian chant to contemporary praise music.

So we are fundamentally Catholic in union with all of our students and families. Catholic theology classes are required of all students every year. We believe they should be intellectually rigorous if we don’t want the faith to become like “seed planted in shallow soil,” as often happens when religious training aims “more at sensation than sense,” to quote a former faculty member. We have a school-wide mass, including all teachers, students and staff, each Wednesday. We pray before school, before classes, before ball games, and before special events.  Occasionally we’ll have Eucharistic adoration, a reconciliation service or a Marian devotion in our gym. We have a Christian service requirement of all students, every year. Often the theme of my weekly addresses to students revolves around a biblical or a moral principle. We have divided our student body into six “houses” ala the British boarding school model, each named after an influential pope from our Church’s history. We have communion service as an option in our chapel before school begins each day. Our school is filled with Scripture quotes in hallways, gym and weight-room, as well as Christian imagery, statues and decorative displays—all for the purpose of reminding students who they are.  

As we see it, our mission as a Catholic high school is to be ourselves and welcome those who wish to join us. If we do that part well, there’s nothing wrong with also trying to be an outstanding “prep school”, too!