The Catholic School Difference

Though Catholic schools are committed to academic excellence (and all the national statistics show we’re delivering in this area), our primary goal is to pass on the Catholic faith to our children. How well do we do that?

CARA (“Center of Applied Research in the Apostolate), a research arm of Georgetown University, reports the following (2012):

Of the “millennials” (those who reached adulthood around the year 2000 or beyond) who attended Catholic elementary schools, 34% attend weekly Mass.

Of the millennials who attended Catholic secondary schools, 39% attend weekly Mass.

I think those of us in Catholic education would have hoped those numbers were higher, and in fact, I think they suggest we should continue to look for ways to strengthen those bonds. But to contextualize them a bit, here’s the kicker:

Of the millennials who have never attended a Catholic elementary school or  high school, only 5% attend weekly Mass.

In other words, it’s almost 7 times more likely (34 to 5) millennials will attend weekly mass if they went to our elementary schools, and almost 8 times more likely (39 to 5) if they went to our high schools.

That’s a stunning difference. To be sure, one cannot say with certainty that our schools CAUSED the entirety of that difference, as the numbers may partly reflect the pre-existing faith commitments of the families who chose to send their kids to our schools. But it does give ample credence to the belief that the best chance of passing on the faith to young people is to enroll them in our schools and that our schools augment what the parents began.   Speaking as a person who has worked most of his life in Catholic high schools, I can personally attest to the fact that when young people see their adult teachers and coaches take their Catholic faith seriously and talk about it explicitly with them, it reassures them that practicing one’s faith is not “just for kids.” We emulate those whom we admire.

I recommend reading CARA’s fascinating work in this area in more detail. You can find it here: http://nineteensixty-four.blogspot.com/2014/06/do-catholic-schools-matter.html